June 2012 - Cincinnati Reds Wiretap

Major League rosters will expand next month, but the Reds are not expected to promote Billy Hamilton.

Hamilton has 154 stolen bases between Class A Bakersfield and Double-A Pensacola. Cincinnati's 40-man roster is full, meaning they'd have to make a move in order to add him.

Walt Jocketty said "probably not" when asked about calling up Hamilton, but he admitted that a final decision had not been made.

Hamilton recently broke Vince Coleman's 29-year-old record for the most steals in a minor-league season (145).

Reds prospect Billy Hamilton stole four bases in the first game of a doubleheader on Tuesday.

Hamilton has 147 stolen bases this season. He stole 104 in the first half of the season with Class A Bakersfield, then was promoted to the Southern League.

Hamilton broke the record for steals by minor league teams affiliated with big league organizations set by Vince Coleman in 1983 with 145 for Macon in the Class A South Atlantic League.

A day after he finally made his Major League debut, the Reds demoted pitcher Todd Redmond to Triple-A Louisville on Sunday.

On Saturday against the Cubs, Redmond lasted 3 1/3 innings and got the decision in Cincinnati's 9-7 loss.

The Reds haven't spoken to Dusty Baker about a potential contract extension and the manager doesn't expect the topic to be discussed anytime soon.

"The last time we talked about it was spring training," Baker said. "I've got work to do."

Reds owner Bob Castellini said at baseball's owners meetings in Denver that he hoped Baker would remain with the franchise for a long time.

Reds prospect Billy Hamilton has stolen 139 bases for the Bakersfield Blaze and Pensacola Blue Wahoos this season. The 21-year-old shortstop needs just seven more to break the minor league record of 145 held by Vince Coleman of the South Atlantic League (1983). "He's going to inspire guys within his organization and around baseball who are fast or have the knack for stealing bases," Toronto outfielder Anthony Gose said. "It's amazing. I hope he does something crazy and steals like 160." Gose stole 70 or more bases twice in the minor leagues.

The Reds won't get Joey Votto back for another seven to 10 days because of a minor knee procedure. After the first baseman complained of soreness following sliding drills on Wednesday, another MRI was taken on Friday and it revealed a loose piece of cartilage "floating" in his left knee. "He was having some pain and we sent him back to get a new MRI and get re-examined," athletic trainer Paul Lessard said. "They found basically a little chunk of cartilage floating in his knee, so [Dr. Kremchek] went in and removed it. The whole procedure only took about six minutes, so he's going to stay back in Cincinnati with the physical therapists until we get back home." Votto originally hurt the knee on June 29 while sliding into third base in San Francisco, tearing the medial meniscus in his left knee.

Dusty Baker is giving slumping Jay Bruce a couple days off, according to an ESPN.com report. Bruce hit .213 in July and is batting .200 in August. He's hitless in his last 12 at-bats with seven strikeouts.

The Reds will honor Barry Larkin on Aug. 25 by retiring his No. 11 jersey. The honor comes about a month after Larkin was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Cincinnati will host "11 Days of Larkin," a series of celebrations beginning Aug. 16 at Great American Ball Park.

The Opsera is a statistic RealGM Executive Editor Chris Reina created in order to objectively rank teams by how well they hit (OPS) and pitch (ERA). In order to determine the Opsera rating for each, we take their OPS, multiply that number by 10 to move the decimal point over one place to the right and then subtract their ERA from that number. Below are the rankings through the Thursday, August 2nd games: The rankings from last week are in parenthesizes. 1. (1) New York Yankees - 4.19 2. (4) Cincinnati Reds - 4.07 3. (3) Washington Nationals - 4.05 4. (5) St. Louis Cardinals - 3.98 5. (2) Texas Rangers - 3.94 6. (12) Arizona Diamondbacks - 3.72 7. (6) Los Angeles Angels - 3.70 8. (8) Pittsburgh Pirates - 3.53 9. (14) Atlanta Braves - 3.52 10. (9) Detroit Tigers - 3.51 11. (15) Oakland Athletics - 3.43 T12. (11) Los Angeles Dodgers - 3.41 -- (13) Chicago White Sox - 3.41 14. (10) San Francisco Giants - 3.37 15. (17) Tampa Bay Rays - 3.36 16. (7) Boston Red Sox - 3.29 17. (18) Milwaukee Brewers - 3.21 18. (16) New York Mets - 3.15 19. (19) Philadelphia Phillies - 3.03 20. (20) Toronto Blue Jays - 2.93 21. (21) Baltimore Orioles - 2.90 T22. (22) San Diego Padres - 2.84 -- (26) Seattle Mariners - 2.84 24. (23) Kansas City Royals - 2.77 25. (24) Miami Marlins - 2.74 26. (25) Cleveland Indians - 2.55 27. (27) Chicago Cubs - 2.54 28. (29) Minnesota Twins - 2.49 29. (28) Colorado Rockies - 2.34 30. (30) Houston Astros - 2.06

Joey Votto is making progress in his recovery from knee surgery, but will not play for the Reds this weekend. "Oh, hell no," manager Dusty Baker said. "What weekend? You've still got to run. He just started playing a little first base." Votto, who has not played since July 15 and had arthroscopic surgery to repair torn meniscus cartilage in his left knee July 17, was on the field in shorts Thursday morning taking ground balls.