freel off the dl, no one shipped out yet

[Wally Mo Pena]

CINCINNATI -- Utilityman Ryan Freel was reinstated from the 15-day disabled list Wednesday.
Freel, who hasn't played for the Reds since the June 18 game against the Braves, has been out with an inflamed second toe on his left foot. He made five rehab appearances with Double-A Chattanooga in the past week, batting .176 (3-for-17).

A corresponding roster move will be announced before Wednesday's game against the Cubs.

In Freel's absence, Rich Aurilia has been the everyday man at second base. Manager Jerry Narron said earlier this week that he expects Freel to see time at second, third and in the outfield upon his return.

Freel is batting .287 with two homers, nine RBIs and 21 stolen bases for the Reds this season.

[Cincy]

Please Be Merchado!

[Wally Mo Pena]

i'm sure we'll hear soon, if it's Reiner, it's a damn shame. DanO's got no idea what this game is about if he thinks it's okay to send Olmedo down just to keep his pet. That's not having the reds best interest in mind.

machado had never hit at any level when the reds brought him up last year. He fluked a .260 average for a few weeks and obrien fell in love. Not cool. Ray has worked hard and proved to me and a lot of others that he is a major league calibur player. Maybe a utility man, sure, i think he could start but i wouldn't start him over freel right now, but major league in any case. and he's been a great pinch hitter so far.

[Geki Ace]

It'll probably be Olmedo. I'd prefer Kelly or Machado, but it'll be Olmedo.

[Wally Mo Pena]

from marc lancaster (interesting):

Thinking about the impending roster move for an hour or so, I keep coming back to a gut feeling, which I admit is based in part on some flimsy circumstantial evidence from after last night's game. The gut feeling is that Jacob Cruz might be the guy getting whacked.

He was summoned to Jerry Narron's office after the game, which isn't all that unusual -- Jerry does that with players all the time if he wants to make one final point about something that happened in a game. But Cruz didn't really do anything yesterday except draw a walk. That got me wondering if something might be up, but I didn't see Jacob afterward to ask him about it.

You can't possibly mount an argument that keeping someone like Machado at Cruz's expense makes this a better team, but I don't think that's the point anymore. If it was, Kearns would already be back here.

If Machado is indeed deemed untouchable, and the Reds don't want to lose face by sending Olmedo back since he clearly doesn't deserve to go, and they don't want to risk losing Kenny Kelly through waivers (a far more realistic possibility than losing Machado, I'd think), that brings us back to Cruz.

Again, I'm just guessing here and could be completely off base, but I just thought I'd throw it out there.

[Geki Ace]

That's just the kind of retarded move Dan O would make. Cruz has done very well pinch-hitting for us, and there's no reason to send him down.

[Sea Ray]

Looks like it was Kelly and Machado getting whacked. I don't see what the need was to expose Kelly at this point. You just lost a major league asset with no compensation. Not good on O'Brien's part.