Hi.  Today's Five Mo' Things and other blogging silliness didn't happen due to yucky family stuff.  I'm sure you forged ahead with your day nonetheless.

Some quick programming notess....

I'm on ESPN1530 today at 3:04.  Then, I'm taking off the next three days to see the Reds in Chicago.  Meat from WEBN will be filling in.  Friday, Lance and I are on from the Holy Grail Banks.  Here's the flyer....

Friday, we'll be doing a two-hour morning megachat, starting at 8:30am. 

Now, for today's show....

-Obviously, we'll be heavy on the Reds and Cardinals.  It's not that the Reds are a bad team, they're not.  In fact, they are a very good team that has a good chance to accomplish big things.  It's just that they're in a pennant race against a team that will make you pay for your mistakes.

Against the Cardinals, you can't bunt into double plays.  You can't run into outs at third base, especially to end an inning.  You can't blow chances to take the lead when you get the leadoff man on, and when you have runners on first and second with one out. 

And the bullpen has to do its job.

We can beat up on Dusty for a lot of things, we can bang on him for not keeping Chapman in the game in the tenth.  But ultimately, a series of things, plays, performances, and decisions led to a sixth loss against St. Louis in nine games.

I'm interested in your reaction to what was the first highly anticipated series of the season.

Plus, what do you do with this bullpen?

-Also, Pacman Jones is in trouble and Chad Johnson is headed to jail. I'd like to learn more about the Jones situation, and we are obtaining the security tape.  The Johnson jail sentence seems somehow fitting.  The class clown act was tiresome a while ago, even more so when you're dealing with a real-life, serious situation.

Chris Buckley, the Reds' Senior Director of Amateur Scouting will talk draft with us at 3:33 today.  The fun starts at 3:04 on ESPN1530.

"You know, Frostee Rucker was a lot nicer...but these are much better seats."

-submitted by Nathan from Norwood.  Nathan wins two tickets to the Quaker State 400 race at Kentucky Speedway, and a $25 gift card to Skyline Chili. Our next caption contest will be in two weeks.

The 2010 Reds/Cardinals fight was the tipping point in what's become one of baseball's great rivalries. If you recall, MLB.com pulled footage of the fight hours after that night's game, leaving us with this bobblehead re-enactment that my friend Rich Walburg and I produced to capture the carnage.

With the Cardinals in town for the first time this season, I thought we'd remember the fight, and our accurate depiction of it.

A Charlie Coles book about both basketball and life would have been an incredible read.  Since he retired, I've been holding out hope that someone would approach him with that project and that he'd cooperate.

Sadly, that will never happen.

My colleague Lance McAlister often says that his idea of an awesome afternoon would be sitting on the porch, drinking lemonade, listening to Charlie tell stories. 

I concur.

I'd had Coach Coles on our show a few times, and he was always great with a line or a story.  My favorite Charlie Coles experience came after last year's Coach's vs. Cancer breakfast at the Hyatt downtown, which he attended despite no longer being the head coach at Miami.  He approached me and talked about the Reds for about five minutes. 

It was awesome, an experience I'll never forget.

Charlie Coles was a man that no one who follows sports in this area will never forget.

Rest in peace, Coach.

One of Charlie Coles' best press conferences came after a narrow loss to UK during the 2009-'10 season. Enjoy....

(Blog Note: This week's caption contest goes on until 4:00.  The winner will be posted in this space shortly thereafter.  Winning caption nets you two tickets to the Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway and a $25 Skyline Chili gift card)

1) Reds v. Cardinals in the biggest series ever. OK, maybe it's not that important.  No champagne will be poured after any of the games this weekend, but it does move the meter a little more than your average June three-gamer against the Padres.  And it'd be nice to starting piling up wins against the division-leading chief rival.

A series during the first weekend of June isn't worth making it bigger than it actually is, but there is some urgency here.  Lose two of three, and your four back, hardly an insurmountable deficit, but still a significant one.  And a Cardinals' sweep?  Let's just say that this page would start to be very, very, um, entertaining.

Even is the division isn't riding on this weekend's outcomes, the atmosphere at GABP this weekend is going to be incredible...packed houses, great weather, high(er) stakes, and a great rivalry.  This is going to be fun. 

A lot more so if the home team wins at least a couple.

2)  More on Reds/Cardinals from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch...

nothing the Cardinals have accomplished this season equates to what looms this weekend — a road series on the northern bank of the Ohio against a dominant home team, which also happens to be their most serious rival.

Nothing is solved in early June but much can be suggested.

When the Cardinals enter Great American Ball Park tonight, they will face a Cincinnati Reds team that has won the last two division titles and this season constructed a 21-9 home record.

Yes, it is only June. But when two of the league’s three best records collide in an extension of some overheated recent history, it’s natural to infer.

The Cardinals bring the better record but both teams still carry a burden of proof.

The Cardinals lead the National League in run differential, batting and earned-run average. The Reds outkicked them by nine and six games the last two seasons before flaming out in October. The Cardinals, of course, have converted a wild card entry into a World Series title and a narrow miss in the National League Championship Series.

The Reds won 97 games last season. As recently as this home stand two rival scouts proclaimed the Cardinals the league’s most fundamentally sound and deepest team. Some thought the Reds that team entering the season....

....Let’s dispense with political niceties here. While the Cardinals market the Chicago Cubs as their traditional rival, the Reds are the team with bite, the enemy with edge, the team that offers the most legitimate challenge within an improved division.

The Cubs are a drinking game. The Reds are nine innings in the octagon.

This is a triple-tiered rivalry. It engages front offices, managers and players. As recently as April, the Reds’ Hall of Fame announcer, Marty Brennaman, took issue on air with Cardinal Nation’s reputation as “the best fans in baseball.....”

....Even when the teams haven’t exchanged shoves and kicks, friction has been unmistakable.

John Smoltz suggested in 2009 and Chris Carpenter in 2010 that the Reds’ clubhouse staff intentionally failed to rub up game balls, a claim investigated by the commissioner’s office. Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips publicly accused the Cardinals of whining a day before exchanging harsh words with Molina at home plate. A scrum and Cueto’s infamous kick of LaRue ensued. With La Russa away from the team with shingles, then-pitching coach Dave Duncan screamed from the dugout at closer Francisco Cordero when Cordero celebrated a May 2011 save at Great American. Cordero answered and gestured.

Of course, all of this occurred after a widening in-house rupture led to the abrupt October 2007 dismissal of Walt Jocketty as Cardinals general manager. Jocketty ascended to Reds GM in April 2008.

Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt maintains his primary residence in Cincinnati.

Reds owner Bob Castellini previously was a minority owner with the Cardinals.

“There was some history,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said Thursday. “I think now it’s just teams that respect that the other one is a pretty good club and is going to go out and play hard-nosed baseball.”

“It’s still early. But we’ve played enough to have an idea that both teams are going to be there at the end,” Holliday said. “That’s the way it looks. There’s been enough time to see both as elite clubs in the National League.”

There’s been more than enough time for these two teams to see one another as more than opponents. They are well-rounded teams that possess an edge. The rub resumes tonight.

3)  The Spurs scored more points, but the real winner was basketball.  San Antonio won game one, getting a big fourth quarter from Tony Parker, which included this...

Parker's line was good 20/6, but what was most impressive is that in 40 minutes, against a team that likes to put pressure on the ball, he had zero turnovers.

Meanwhile, Miami made five field goals in the fourth, forgetting that the best player in the game is on their roster, all but refusing to run their offense through LeBron James.  It wasn't that he wasn't scoring, it wasn't even that he passed up shots in favor of teammates, it's that there were possessions where the Heat seemed determined to not have him touch the ball at all.

You had the sense at halftime that San Antonio was hanging around a little too closely.  Miami got what they wanted offensively in the first half, controlling the pace, getting and making good shots, with Wade and Bosh adding to what LeBron was doing. At halftime, the ABC crew was talking about how in the first half, the Heat looked like the team that won 27 in a row at one point....

And they led by a whopping three points.

This despite Duncan getting off to a slow start.

Miami has a problem, and it's not that they're down 0-1.  Their recent history of losing game one and winning the series by decisive margins is well-documented.  It's that they have no answer for Tony Parker defensively.  While LeBron can check him late, they're asking him to do too much elsewhere for him to spend large stretches of time guarding Parker, especially with how San Antonio uses him.

The real story last night was just the game.  These playoffs haven't been great....a ton of stars have been injured, many of the series have been downright ugly, officiating has been awful, and the quality of play just hasn't been that good.

Last night was the antithesis of all of that.  The officials got out of the way (though I didn't like the foul call on LeBron against Duncan late in the game), both teams are reasonably healthy (again, "reasonably), both are good fundamentally, both can play different speeds, can run offense, and have stars at their absolute apex. If we get six more of those - regardless of who wins - I'll be very, very happy.

And the NBA will finally have a classic Finals that might obscure what's been a pretty tough-to-watch postseason.

4) The Baseball draft is happening.  You can learn about the guy the Reds took with the 27th overall pick by going here.  There's a movement to abolish the draft.  From Joe Sheehan, whose baseball newsletter is a must-read....

The ability to use a massive revenue stream internationally hasn't been a huge advantage for the Yankees or any large-market team over the long term, so why would we expect it to be so domestically? Miguel Cabrera signed with the Marlins. Felix Hernandez signed with the Mariners, as did Shin-Soo Choo. The Reds nabbed Johnny Cueto and Aroldis Chapman. The Twins have Miguel Sano. The Pirates have Luis Heredia.

Frankly, giving high-revenue teams more opportunities to make big mistakes seems like a good way to enhance competitive balance. Take a look at the top of some recent drafts and you'll find that being among the very best amateur players is no guarantee of success. Yes, maybe a Stephen Strasburg -- who has yet to qualify for an ERA crown, by the way -- or a Bryce Harper ends up with a large-market team more often. So will Dustin Ackley and Donovan Tate and Bubba Starling and Cristian Colon. Just being able to buy the highest-rated amateurs will be no guarantee of success. Making the right choices among those amateurs remains a skill. Player development remains a skill. Eliminating the draft will certainly allow for greater variety in player acquisition strategies, with teams shifting money from year to year from major-league budgets to amateur budgets as needs change. Teams could make big splashes in one year and then go cheap in the next.

Grantland.com continues the theme....

But as beneficial as abolishing the draft would be for players, it would have benefits for teams as well. In a draftless system, every team would at least theoretically have a crack at signing every player. Right now, if there's a specific player that your organization is absolutely in love with, you might not even get a chance to talk to him because you have the 13th pick in the draft and the team that drafts 11th fancies him too. Abolish the draft, and suddenly every player in the pool becomes accessible, so long as you're willing to accept the consequences of having less money to sign everyone else.

Furthermore, making amateur talent a free-for-all allows teams to try radically different strategies that aren't feasible today. Your research department thinks you'll get a better rate of return by signing 20 guys for $400,000 each than by blowing half your budget on a single player? That's something you can do if the draft is abolished. Conversely, if there's one elite prospect who your organization is certain will be a star? In the current system, if you don't hold a top draft pick, you've got no shot. But eliminate the draft, and if you're willing to blow your entire budget on a single player, you just might.

In a system where every player is a free agent and every team is free to sign him, there's no need for the draft shenanigans that happen every year. Never again will Scott Boras need to manipulate the draft to allow his client to sign with the team that will give him the most money — now he's free to negotiate with all 30 teams at once. You claim your client is a special, once-in-a-generation talent? Let the market decide.

And in a system where every team has access to every player, luck becomes subordinate to competence. Right now, if there are three consensus franchise talents and you're drafting fourth, you're out of luck. In a draft-free system, you make your own luck. Smart teams will find new inefficiencies to exploit. The A's have found three since you started reading this.

I like these ideas, especially since MLB has one way of selecting American-born players, then another of granting free agency to international players.  But what would happen if other leagues were to follow suit?  What if the NFL got rid of its draft?  What would our springs be like with no mock drafts?  No Kiper and McShay yelling at each other about who should be drafted first?

I like the idea of the equalizer between the high and small revenue teams being the sheer idiocy of the people running the bigger clubs.  That's turned out to be the great equalizer when it comes to free agency and trades, why not allow it to be when it comes to adding amateur players?

5) No, PEDs really aren't a problem in baseball.  I really liked this column by Will Leitch....

Do you think baseball has a PED problem? I ask in all seriousness.

I am not asking if you think some baseball players use performance enhancing drugs. Obviously some do, particularly if you let the definition of PEDs include "legal" enhancers like cortisone shots, Creatine, Red Bull, backrubs. And I am not asking if you think that players who use or have used PEDs are horrible people who hate children and puppies the way writers have been telling me they are for the last 20 years.

That's right.  MLB Draft coverage.  Here.  At least the first guy they drafted.  If you think I'm doing this for their next 328 or so rounds, then you've obviously confused me for someone with no life...

Phil Ervin, from Samford.  He's an outfielder. Here's what people who've actually heard of him have to say...

Baseball America says that Ervin was one of the best three pure hitters in the draft.

They also said this when they had the Reds taking Ervin in their mock draft...
If Ervin actually lasts this long, and he might, he’d be a steal for Cincinnati. The Reds would have interest in Harvey, Tim and Chris Anderson, Ciuffo and Jagielo, all of whom we project to be gone. Green, McKinney and Oklahoma high school catcher Jon Denney are other alternatives.

Baseball America also had him as the 21st best prospect. What that tells me is nothing, but there you go.

SBNation....
As a hitter, Ervin has insanely good bat speed generating plus power. He also has the kind of eye you love in a hitter, having drawn 29 walks against 22 K's as a Senior so far. Below is a clip of him hitting a Grand Slam in the Cape Cod League last summer. He does one thing I absolutely love in a hitter and I think is the source of his good plate discipline. Watch his left foot, he has just the tiniest of toe taps as a timing mechanism. This very quiet swing allows him to wait on offspeed pitches better than someone with a high leg kick or exagerrated bat movement.

College Baseball Daily...
As a freshman, Ervin appeared in 57 games, 55 of which he started. He posted a batting average of .371 on the season with 41 RBI and 15 doubles. His success earned him several honors including being a first-team All-SoCon selection as well as a Freshman All-American.

His success continued into his sophomore year as he started in all 64 games in centerfield. He batted .327 on the season along with 52 RBI, 18 doubles and 10 home runs. During the summer of 2012, Ervin played for the Harwich Mariners of the prestigious Cape Cod League. After a successful summer where he batted .331 with 29 runs and 31 RBI, Ervin was named MVP of the Cape League.

From a scouting perspective, Ervin is fantastic at the plate. He adjusts well and quickly and as is evident by his success in Cape Cod over the summer, he has fantastic power with a wood bat. Ervin is also solid on the base paths and extremely athletic. His red-hot summer put him on the radar of scouts and college baseball enthusiasts across the country, and the momentum he brings into the 2013 season makes him one of the top players in the country to watch for.

The Reds sent out a release when they picked him.  It included stats....

Ervin, 20, recently completed his junior year at Samford, where he hit .337 with 11 HR, 40 RBI and 21 stolen bases and received all-conference honors. The sociology major was a pre-season All-American and the pre-season Southern Conference Player of the Year.

He is the first baseball player to be drafted in the first round out of Samford and the highest draft pick in the school's history in any sport. While playing just 3 seasons for the Bulldogs, Ervin ranks in the school's Top 10 in career hits (230), hitting (.344), runs scored (157) and doubles (47).

In 2012 Ervin started all 64 games in centerfield for the Bulldogs and was selected first-team All-Southern Conference. He led the team with 18 doubles and finished third on the team in average (.327), HR (10) and RBI (52). Following that 2012 collegiate season, he was the Most Valuable Player of the Cape Cod League. Ervin attended Leroy High School in Leroy, Alabama.

 Here's a Tweet from Peter Gammons...

Love scouts comps: Chris Anderson/Curt Schilling Phil Ervin/Marlon Byrd

— Peter Gammons (@pgammo) June 7, 2013

 

And here's some video of the guy.

Missed the show today? No problem. We have you covered.

The opening monologue...

For the rest of today's show, go here.

Mo talks with John Fay of The Cincinnati Enquirer about Johnny Cueto, the draft, and bullpen issues.

Mo talks with Joe Strauss from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Mo talks with Aaron Boone about the Reds, the Cardinals, and baseball stuff

Mo finds out what we need to know about the draft with with JJ Cooper from Baseball America.

The other night, new Bengals linebacker James Harrison attended the Reds/Rockies game with what one writer to as his "lady friend."

She looks smitten.  He looks ummm, focused.

What's the caption?

Enter one below via Facebook.  The winning caption takes home two tickets to the Quaker State 400 Sprint Cup race at the Kentucky Speedway, AND a $25 Skyline Chili gift card.

We will announce the winner at 4:00 tomorrow.

(For the scoop on the picture, go to Hawk and Fish's blog.)