This time, it’s Gookie Dawkins.

Remember when the Reds tried to sell us on the potential of a Gookie-Pokey middle infield?

From this Am’s Enquirer.

… by the Marlins. Thank goodness.

I meant to mention this earlier: former Red Joe Randa has signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Randa was a class act who played much better for the Reds than I anticipated he would (I’ll never forget this game), and then he brought the Reds a couple of decent arms upon his departure. I’ll remember him fondly, even though I was glad to see him traded.

John Sickels asks this question about the Reds’ struggling young reliever.

Playing “Pass the Trash,” evidently.

This sounds like a bizarre story.

Over at Baseball Analysts (maybe the best baseball blog out there, by the way), I see that Bryan is looking back on the trade that brought Paul Konerko and Dennys Reyes from LA to Cincinnati, in exchange for Jeff Shaw.

I remember where I was when I found out about that trade, as strange as that may sound. I was in an Applebee’s restaurant in Florence, Kentucky.

I can barely remember my wife’s birthday, but I can’t get useless nonsense like that out of my brain. It’s disturbing.

Fresh off being named a finalist for Best Sports Blog in the 2005 Weblog Awards, it appears that Redleg Nation has been nominated for “Best MLB Blog” in the brand-spanking-new Sports Blog Awards.

Go vote for Redleg Nation!

The Sports Blog Awards are the brainchild of our buddy JD Arney over at Red Reporter. JD does a great job over there, and I encourage all of you to visit Red Reporter every day.

From the AP:

Jason LaRue agreed to a two-year, $9.1 million contract Tuesday with the Cincinnati Reds, solidifying his role as the starting catcher.

The Reds also added a left-hander to their bullpen by agreeing to a one-year, $800,000 deal with Chris Hammond.

LaRue will get $3.9 million next season and $5.2 million in 2007. If he’s traded after Oct. 15, his 2007 salary will automatically increase to $5.45 million.

Seems like a lot of money to me for LaRue, especially in ‘07. I think this says a lot about how far away the Reds think any of their minor league catching talent is from being ML ready and how much confidence they have in Valentin being able to reproduce his ‘05 numbers.

They allowed starter Ramon Ortiz and reliever Joe Valentine to become free agents, declining to offer them contracts for 2006.

No surprise here on Ortiz. A little bit of a surprise on Valentine.

From the Enquirer:

The Reds signed the veteran reliever to a one-year, $800,000 contract, with a $2 million mutual option for 2007. The Reds also have negotiated an escalating buyout provision based upon the number of appearances Hammond makes next year, general manager Dan O’Brien said.

Can someone explain the “escalating buyout provision”, when one sentence earlier it says there is “a $2M mutual option for ‘07″?

All in all, seems like a good signing for the Reds. Hammond’s been pretty good since coming back in ‘02, though he did seem to have a propensity for giving up homers last year. He did hold lefties to a .490 OPS and his ground/fly ratio the last two years has been above 1.0.

UPDATE (from Chad): I’m not sure the buyout stuff is going to matter, according to this tidbit from Marc Lancaster:

Hammond seemed genuinely excited to be back in Cincinnati. His wife’s from here and her family still lives here. He did say he plans on retiring after this season, but he’ll keep an open mind to returning if he pitches well and his kids want him to keep playing.

It appears (Enquirer, Post) that former Reds pitcher Danny Graves has signed a minor league contract with the Cleveland Indians. Good luck to him; I’m just glad he isn’t a Red anymore.

Here are the stories from the Post and the Enquirer about the Ryan Freel contract. An interesting note from John Fay’s article in the Enquirer:

Also arbitration eligible: Adam Dunn, Aaron Harang, Austin Kearns, Jason Larue, Felipe Lopez, Ramon Ortiz, Wily Mo Peña and Javier Valentin. The Reds have to tender those players contracts by midnight tonight or they become free agents. Ortiz almost will assuredly not be offered a contract.

I’m disappointed that the Reds haven’t been able to come to terms on a multi-year contract with Adam Dunn. If Dunn were willing to sign, it makes all the sense in the world to get him locked up through his most productive years, i.e., the next five. I hope GM Dan O’Brien realizes that that should be a priority.

I forgot to mention earlier that Redleg Nation favorite Aaron Holbert has been invited to Spring Training by the Reds next year. I wouldn’t mind seeing him on the roster as the 25th man.

(I know, it’s not the best picture, but it’s the only one I’ve taken of Holbert.)

The deadline is midnight for Rich Aurilia to let the Reds know whether he’ll accept their offer of arbitration, and I haven’t heard anything yet. As of earlier this evening, neither had Marc Lancaster.

Here’s hoping that Aurilia declines arbitration. That would mean that the Reds would get a draft pick if and when someone else signs him.

UPDATE: Never mind. Aurilia declined arbitration, as had been widely speculated:

Free agent infielder Rich Aurilia declined the Reds’ offer of arbitration near Monday night’s deadline, but his agent said talks about a new contract would continue with the club.

“The offer and decline of arbitration was pretty much pre-ordained to continue the process,” agent Barry Axelrod said. “We just wanted to give ourselves more time [to negotiate].”

If Cincinnati can’t reach an agreement on a deal before the Jan. 8 deadline, it can’t sign Aurilia again until May 1 — which would effectively end any chance of retaining him.

I hope he goes elsewhere, frankly.