It seems like an awfully long winter, especially given Walt Jocketty’s hot-stove-style: keep things quiet, and get things done quick. He also seems to have a lot of actions that come to fruition quickly – with multiple deals coming soon after the winter meetings, both this year and last.

Don’t get me wrong, I can’t complain about what’s getting done, but there’s not a lot of news to report on the Reds. The team may sign Latos and/or Bailey to long term deals this winter.  The Ludwick contract is super backloaded. Shin-Soo Oppa will keep his number from Cleveland: 17. I’m doing a bunch of research on international scouting!

Meh.

Thankfully, the World Baseball Classic is this year. Even if you’re one of those terrible, awful people, who are against awesomeness, and hate the World Baseball Classic, it pushes up spring training a bit this year, which is nice. So this is our schedule:

• Pitchers and Catchers report on February 11 – 38 days away
• Position players report on February 15 – 42 days away
• First spring training game (vs. Indians) on February 22 – days away
• Opening day (vs. Angels) on April 1 – 87 days away

…Siiiiiiggggggh.