Paul Janish News

After four strong seasons in the Cincinnati Reds' organization, Hart High graduate Chris Valaika was added to the 40-man roster on Friday, according the Reds' official Web site.

While the 2009 Cincinnati Reds did not land any players among the final vote-getters in the National League Rookie of the Year voting, the club certainly had a more-than-respectable pipeline of young players that contributed throughout the season.

This is the fifth report card I have given out to the starting players for the Cincinnati Reds.

Free agency opens for business at 12:01 a.m. ET on Friday, and that means it will be buying season for all 30 clubs.

Wow. Just as I thought the Reds had given up on any hope they had for Ramon Hernandez, he slides in the back door.

A couple of days ago the Cincinnati Reds dumped $8.5 million by not picking up the option year of catcher Ramon Martinez.A Now let's say that the Reds don't go all nutters and start trading like a stockbroker on crack.

Marco Scutaro and Orlando Cabrera are two shortstop possibilities for the Reds on the free agent market this off-season. As Walt Jocketty spends his time in Chicago, cozying up to the other GMs for a long Winter's nap season of dealing, he appears to have two priorities on his mind : shortstop and catcher.

We're about a month into the offseason already and almost six weeks since the last installment of the Reds Inbox.

I got week's worth of questions in a couple of hours after the previous post. They were popping in while I read a two-month-old People in a doctor's waiting room.

With the organizational meetings completed last week in Arizona, the Reds front office has maintained a low profile but kept busy.

For good or bad, Paul Janish inherited the position of shortstop after Alex Gonzalez was sent to Boston.

When it comes to his earning the regular job next season, it appears that the jury is still out on Reds shortstop Paul Janish.

Homer Bailey pitched six scoreless innings and Brandon Phillips notched three RBIs in the Reds' 6-0 win over the Pirates in Sunday's season finale at Great American Ball Park.

Andy LaRoche . He went 2-3 and drove in two runs. Key Plays Other Notes On both of his hits, Andy LaRoche was thrown out trying to stretch his single into a double.

's bat and glove to break into the win column. McCutchen pitched into the seventh inning for his first major league victory and Milledge homered and turned in a key defensive play, leading the Pittsburgh Pirates past the Cincinnati Reds 3-1 Friday night.

Cincinnati 10, Houston 4 Cincinnati Top 9th - - Juan Francisco struck out swinging to end the inning.

Has Chris Dickerson lost his job to Drew Stubbs? The numbers suggest Dickerson has been and will be a better hitter than Stubbs and I think their defensive chops are about equal.

The suddenly-hot Reds tacked another skin on the wall Friday night, defeating the Astros, 10-4, before a crowd of 37,710 at an open-air Minute Maid Park.

Pirates manager John Russell said Tuesday night that although the constant losing isn't fun, he doesn't see it starting to wear on his players.

Joey Votto notched four hits, and Homer Bailey had six well-pitched innings during the Reds' 12-2 win over the Pirates on Wednesday.