JD at Red Reporter (a superb Reds blogger, by the way) has this interesting take on Tony Blanco, the former Reds farmhand who was taken by our old friend Jimmy Bowden in the Rule V draft.

I agree with JD: I hope we get Blanco back at some point, and given the regulations regarding Rule V draftees, I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened.

From the Enquirer:

At 9:30 a.m. today, from a spot inside the Reds’ spring training clubhouse, Johnny Bench stood in full uniform and tingled many a spine.

The Hall of Fame catcher gave a rare and rousing motivational speech to a large gathering of Reds players, the coaching staff and other team officials.

You won’t be surprised to discover that Johnny Bench is one of my favorites. Well, more specifically, he’s my favorite Reds player ever, which might not be surprising since we all seem to lean toward our childhood favorites.

Welcome to Redleg Nation!

In my travels around the baseball blogosphere, I’ve been amazed by the level of analysis and dedication of fans from various Major League Baseball teams. There are some great writers and obsessed fans of every team out there, and it’s impressive.

Something else I’ve noticed is the relative dearth of blogs focused on the Cincinnati Reds. I’m talking quantity here, not quality; there are several excellent Reds blogs out there (they’re in my Redleg Nation Blogs blogroll to the right), and they’re all daily reads for me. However, where there are a dozen or more blogs devoted to a lot of teams, there are currently only a handful of Reds blogs.

Enter Redleg Nation. We’re going to be different than the other Reds blogs; as far as I can tell, this is the first group blog devoted to the oldest professional baseball club. Since we will have several contributors, expect the blog to be updated frequently.

You should know up front that we’re obsessed with the Cincinnati Reds, and we’re proud of it. Most of all, we would like this to become a place where Reds fans can gather (feel free to comment liberally!) to discuss the best team baseball has to offer — and be obsessed together.

So thanks for dropping by, and I hope you’ll return often. My name is Chad, by the way, and you’ll be meeting the fellow Redleg Nation bloggers over the next day or so. We look forward to getting to meet you — for you are the heart of Redleg Nation.

Hopefully, together we can follow the Reds right back to the World Series — where they belong.