Here we are at the trading deadline, and GM Wayne Krivsky is dealing. First, he dealt RHP Justin Germano to Philadelphia for 39 year old left-handed reliever Rheal Cormier:

Cincinnati Reds general manager Wayne Krivsky today announced the acquistion of LHP Rheal Cormier from the Philadelphia Phillies in exchange for minor league RHP Justin Germano.

Krivsky also announced that the Reds and Cormier agreed to a 1-year contract extension through the 2007 season, with a club option for 2008….

Cormier, 38, is 2-2 with a 1.59 ERA in 43 appearances this season and is holding opponents to a .225 batting average. His 1.59 ERA is the lowest among all National League relievers (minimum 25 apps).

Outfielder Brandon Watson was sent back to AAA to make room for Cormier on the roster.

In a second move, Krivsky’s former-Twin obsession reaches magnificent heights with the acquisition of Kyle Lohse:

The Reds also have acquired right-hander Kyle Lohse (and his Joe Mays-esque ERA) from the Twins for minor league right-hander Zach Ward.

Considering Lohse (who’s making $3.95 million this year) already has been demoted to the minors for three weeks and then shunted off to the bullpen upon returning to the majors, I don’t know that he’s the ideal solution here. But you can’t consider it a surprise, in the wake of the Joe Mays experiment.

Okay, I’m going to let these sink in before I pass judgment (I know, that’s a nice change of pace, isn’t it? ). But at first blush, I’m very puzzled about both of these transactions. Once again, Krivsky appears to have overpaid very significantly, at least for Lohse. Ward is a good prospect.

The Cormier trade, I can live with. I don’t love it, but I’m not going to rail against it.

What do you guys and gals think?

UPDATE: In other news, our old friend Sean Casey was traded to the Tigers.

UPDATE 2: Does anyone think there is any reason to believe that Lohse would be a better fifth starter or relief pitcher than Germano? Plus, he’s more expensive. Puzzling.

UPDATE 3: According to Marc, Lohse will be staying in the bullpen. For now. But I’m worried about what happens later.

For those of you who hold out hope that Krivsky will be able to obtain a decent starter before the trading deadline, there is some indication that he doesn’t consider Lohse to fit that bill. So maybe he’s still working the phones….

UPDATE 4: We’re past the trading deadline. Looks like there won’t be any more pitching coming our way.

I’m wavering on the Lohse acquisition, by the way. More to come….

AAA

Toledo 6, Louisville 1

The Bats only managed 3 hits in the game and their lone run came on a sacrifice fly in the 8th. Steven Kelly dropped to 2-5 on the year with Louisville, going 5.2 innings, allowing 3 runs on 8 hits, 3 walks, and struck out 3. His ERA is now at 4.23.

AA

Chattanooga 4, Huntsville 0

Chris Dickerson went 2-5 with a solo homer and 2 runs batted in on the day. Dickerson’s stats are unimpressive at .227/.332/.368 in 277 ABs. He’s also struck out a whopping 91 times over those ABs.

Edward Valdez was the star of the game, going 7 shutout innings, allowing just 4 hits and a walk while striking out 5. Valdez is now 7-5 on the season with a 3.41 ERA in 108.1 innings pitched.

High A

Sarasota DNP

Low A

Dayton 8, Peoria 6

Jay Bruce went 1-5 on the night including a 3 run homer in the 3rd inning. The homerun was Bruce’s 14th of the season. He added anothe rbi to have 4 on the night. Habelito Hernandez also had a nice game. Hernandez went 3-5 at the plate with a double, rbi, and run scored. Bobby Mosby was perfect on the evening, going 1-1 with a solo, pinch-hit homerun in the 8th.

Rookie Leagues

Helena 3, Billings 1

Daniel Dorn went 3-3 with a double and an rbi on the evening for the Mustangs. Dorn is now hitting .347/.417/.505 on the season in 95 at-bats.

The GCL Reds DNP

Hey, Jerry Narron: Free Edwin Encarnacion!

Aaron Harang vs. Ben Sheets in today’s rubber match of the three game set with the Brewers. A win today gives the Reds a 4-2 road trip, and that ain’t bad.

Discuss the game here!

At least, according to this story:

There was only one place Reds general manager Wayne Krivsky could be this weekend.

Krivsky, who has yet to take any road trips during his first season with the club, often scouts the organization’s farm system instead.

Not this time. He was back at his office and hunkered down at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati. The Major League non-waiver trade deadline is at 4 p.m. ET on Monday.

“I don’t know how busy I’m going to be,” Krivsky said. “I’m here if somebody wants to do anything. I’m just trying to make the team better. I wouldn’t be doing my job if I wasn’t here and near a phone the next few days.” …

A report out of Baltimore said Cincinnati was looking at Orioles first baseman Jeff Conine. Making $1.75 million this season, Conine was closing in on 450 plate appearances and that would automatically trigger a $2 million option for 2007. As a 40-year-old, that could be a drawback.

Another published report said the Reds might have interest in Phillies starters Cory Lidle or Jon Lieber. Lidle, a former Red, is a free agent after the season. Lieber is signed through 2007 and will make $7.5 million next season. Krivsky’s former club, the Twins, have been looking all summer to deal deposed starter Kyle Lohse as well.

We’re really just in wait-and-see mode right now. I must say, however, the names mentioned above don’t excite me.

AAA

Toledo 5, Louisville 4

Ray Olmedo went 2-4 for the Bats, including a double and a triple. Ray also scored 2 runs and drew a walk. Ray is now hitting .289/.349/.395 on the season. Norris Hopper also went 2-4 for the game and scored a run. Hopper is now

Huntsville 5, Chattanooga 4

Huntsville was the home team and scored 3 runs in the bottom of the 4th to overcome a 4-2 deficit and hold on to the 1-run win. Noochie Varner went 2-3 for the Lookouts with a walk, double, and a run scored.

Josh Hall was roughed up in 7 innings of work. He gave up 5 runs on 7 hits, walked 4, and struck out 2.

High A

Palm Beach 3, Sarasota 0

Palm Beach scored runs in the bottom of the 4th, 7th, and 8th innings to chip away and defeat the Reds. The Reds only managed to scatter 4 hits with Chris Kroski recording the only extra base hit for Sarasota.

Johnny Cueto pitched well, but got the loss. Cueto went 6, gave up 1 run on 5 hits, 1 walk, and struck out 3. One negative thus far for Cueto is that he’s already walked 15 guys with Sarasota. He walked 15 during his entire stay with Dayton earlier this year.

Low A

Dayton 11, Peoria 2

Dayton scored early and often, including 7 runs in the first two innings, to blow out Peoria. The leading offensive star on the night had to be Adam Rosales. Rosales went 3-4 with 4 runs scored, 2 homeruns, and 4 runs batted in. B.J. Szymanski went 2-5 on the night with a triple and 3 rbis of his own.

Rookie Leagues

Billings 6, Missoula 1

Logan Parker went 2-4 with a triple, run scored, and 3 runs batted in to help lead the Mustangs to an easy victory. In 118 at-bats this season, Parker is hittin .331/.427/.466.

GCL Pirates 3, GCL Reds 0

Not much happening offensively for the Reds. Juan Francisco did manage to have a multi-hit night, going 2-4.

Marc Lancaster reports that Justin Germano has already been sent back to AAA after a decent outing tonight. That was unexpected.

Lancaster speculates that a trade is in the works, and I have to admit, that’s at the top of the list of logical explanations. Barry Zito, perhaps? (File that under the “Wishful Thinking” category.)

Any thoughts?

No Joe Mays tonight! Woo-hoo!

Reds and Brew Crew battle again, as the Reds try to clinch a series victory behind the arm of Justin Germano. Think he’s a little nervous?

Discuss the game here!

UPDATE: Free Edwin Encarnacion!

Believe it or not:

Reds slugger Adam Dunn figured his consecutive hits streak would end in Milwaukee anyway, so he wasn’t afraid to talk about it before Friday’s game.

“I haven’t had a hit up here since ‘Nam,” joked Dunn while playing cards at a clubhouse table with Ken Griffey Jr. and coaches Billy Hatcher and Chris Chambliss. “Let’s get the jinx going.”

Dunn hit a routine pop-out to first base in his first at-bat. He came into the series with a .211 career average at Miller Park, with eight homers and 19 RBIs in 44 games.

Then again, the left fielder was a .186 hitter at Minute Maid Park before the just-completed series at Houston. Dunn left town on Thursday night having collected hits in seven straight at-bats and reached base in nine consecutive plate appearances. After he went 4-for-4 on Wednesday, he went 3-for-3 with a home run and two walks on Thursday. The two-run homer was a booming shot to left field that had a conservatively estimated distance of 450 feet.

Getting most of his at-bats lately in the lineup’s No. 2 spot, Dunn has been the Reds’ hottest hitter. He entered Friday’s game batting .417 (20-for-48) since the All-Star break and in 27 games since June 25, was hitting .358 with eight homers and 25 RBIs. Overall, the 26-year-old leads the club with 31 homers and 71 RBIs while batting .261.

At the time his hitting tear began, Dunn was batting just .221….

Dunn drew heat during this season’s first half because of his low average and lack of RBIs in big situations. But it’s hard to find fault with this number — he’s 10-for-his-last-20 (.500) with runners in scoring position.

“People got down on Dunner earlier in the year, but you can look at the end of the year, every year, and his numbers are going to be almost the same,” Reds manager Jerry Narron said. “He’s probably on a better pace this year, RBI-wise, than he has been. Everybody says he can’t drive in runs.”

Dunn, who produced 100-RBI and 100-run seasons in 2004-05, wasn’t concerned about silencing his critics.

“That’s not my goal. I couldn’t care less to be honest with you,” Dunn said. “I just knew that I wasn’t playing good, period. That’s all it was. My goal in the second half was to try and help the team a lot more to stay where we were.”

Boy, those media-types love batting average, don’t they?

I’m just glad to see Dunn getting some positive attention in the media. Seems like he’s the whipping boy all the time, which is unfair since he’s clearly the most productive Red.

AAA

Buffalo 2, Louisville 1

Earl Snyder went 2 for 3 on the night and had the lone Bats RBI. Snyder on the evening had a single and a double. Also having 2 hits, including doubles, were Norris Hopper and Brandon Watson. Watson scored the lone run for Louisville.

AA

Chattanooga 3, West Tennessee 2

Luis Bolivar belted a 3 run homer in the 4th inning to give the Lookouts all of the offense they would need. For Bolivar, it was only his 2nd homerun of the season with the Lookouts. Luis is now hitting .269/.319/.345 on the season.

Camilo Vazquez had an outstanding night on the mound. Vazquez struck out 10 in 7 innings, while allowing just 1 run on 4 hits and 1 walk.

High A

Sarasota 8, Palm Beach 5

Sarasota scored 5 times in the top of the 8th inning to overcome an early 4-0 deficit to capture the victory. Trevor Lawhorn led the charge with 3 hits, all singles, in a 3-5 night that saw Trevor score 2 runs. Jay Garthwaite, Jeremiah Piepkorn, and Tonys Gutierrez each had 2 hits. For Gutierrez, his two hits were both doubles, and he added 3 rbis.

Low A

Peoria 4, Dayton 3

A Jay Bruce update from Dayton. Bruce went 0-2 on the night, but did record 2 walks and score a run for the Dragons. Bruce is now batting .315/.387/.553 on the season in 371 at-bats. He has 13 homeruns, 64 RBIs, 18 stolen bases, and has struck out 83 times compared to 41 walks.

Rookie Leagues

Missoula 9, Billings 4

Staying on the former OF first round pick trend, Drew Stubbs had an outstanding game last night for the Mustangs. Stubbs went 3 for 4 with a double, solo homerun, 2 rbis, and 2 runs scored. He also walked once on the night.

The Gulf Coast League game between the GCL Reds and GCL Red Sox was suspended in the bottom of the first with the Reds trailing 2-0.

The good news from the Joe Mays DFA continues to roll in. Taking Mays’ place in the rotation will be Justin Germano. The good news? Dewayne Wise has been sent back to AAA, where he can stink it up away from the television cameras.

Of course, the fact that Mays remains in the Cincinnati organization isn’t good news, but I’ll take what I can get.

The Brewers again? Doesn’t it seem like we play Milwaukee 60 times a season?

At least the Brew Crew won’t have Carlos Lee on the roster, as he was just traded to Texas…which is nice. Unfortunately, Tomo Ohka will be pitching in a rematch of last weekend’s tilt against Eric Milton, and Ohka was simply brilliant in that contest.

Discuss the game here. Question: does anyone else feel like we’ve got a little rivalry brewing with Milwaukee? Seems like we’ve had some wild series’ against them over the last couple of years. If the Reds and Brewers continue to improve, this rivalry could get heated.

Special game thread award goes to the first person to make a joke about Brewers reliever Derrick Turnbow.

Marc Lancaster is reporting that Mays has accepted an assignment to Louisville.

Why would the Reds allow him to take up a roster spot in AAA?

Former Red Deion Sanders was on my flight from Dallas to San Diego the other night.  He was in first class; I was not. 

The bizarre thing is that his picture (in a Cowboys uniform) was hanging above my booth in the airport restaurant I was in no less than 20 seconds before boarding the plane.

Let’s use this space to dicuss trade rumors and reality.

In the division:

- The Brewers have thrown in the towel, trading Carlos Lee to the Rangers.  They’re also giving up OF prospect Nelson Cruz, and getting relief pitcher Francisco Cordero and outfielders Kevin Mench and Laynce Nix.  I don’t follow the AL closely enough to weigh in on the deal, but it looks like the Brewers are adding depth for a 2007 run.

- Will Carroll reports that the Astros are (still?) in the running for Miguel Tejada.  Current discussions have Adam Everett, Morgan Ensberg, and Fernando Nieve heading to Baltimore.  IIRC, Tejada still has 3 years (and about $30M) left on his deal.  I’m not really worried about the Astros making a run this year, but I’m also not excited about seeing him in the division for the forseeable future.

 - Carroll’s updated with news that Massux has turned down deals to the Mets and Braves (not sure what sort of no-trade clause he has).  Phoenix and the Dodgers are reported front-runners.  I heard similar news someplace else today.