Over the past week or so I’ve exchanged e-mails with Hal McCoy of the Dayton Daily News about his adapting to the blogosphere. As many of you know, Hal is legally blind from a stroke of the optic nerve and he’s thought several times about retiring. Aaron Boone talked him out of it a couple of years ago and the paper has been incredibly supportive of Hal continuing to cover the Reds. There’s a widespread belief in the industry that once Hal retires DDN will no longer staff Reds road games. That would be criminal. Readers should revolt. There’s a baseball legacy at DDN that no other paper of its size can match—three writers in the Baseball Hall of Fame . . . . Si Burick, Ritter Collett and Hal McCoy.

Hal, who works with a specially magnified computer screen and has only about 50 percent of his vision, has been energized by the potential and interactivity of the blog because the size of newspapers is shrinking. Those of you who read the print editions see the evidence—smaller papers, smaller stories, more nuts, bolts and charts . . . junk and more junk for the smaller attention span. I’m told the DDN sports section is averaging around 24-28 columns a day, which translates to only 4-4 1/2 pages. Here’s another reason print editions will die someday—less is not more.

So Hal sees the Internet as a way to give fans more, more and more than he’s ever been able to give them in print while also delivering his insight and experience over a 24-hour news cycle. He’s writing web-exclusive content, longer pieces for online, and best of all he’s been developing his blog “voice” since spring training. He’s posting throughout the day and night, offering more analysis and overview, and yet he’s still being vintage McCoy with his snappy remarks and fluffy one-liners. He’s also building a web following and having a lot of fun. No talks of retirement for now. Except. . . .

Hal has been ambushed twice in the past week by idiotic fans attacking him online for typos and mistakes in his copy. For one thing, the paper's sports desk has been doing a horrendous job of covering Hal's back the past few years. Too many typos are getting into the print editions. Hal's disability is his eyesight, not his mindset, and the editors and ham-handed deskers who are breezing through his copy ought to be embarrassed for him. It's their jobs to catch these things.

For online copy, Hal readily admits his mistakes because he will sometimes post at hours when he doesn’t have an editor available to back-read his copy. The DDN blog template is also very difficult for him to see his own typed words. But Hal figures the expediency and core information should be the focus of the fans, not his mistakes. He's right. There's a general sense of informality about blogs, especially on deadline. For the most part, the readers care about the information, the message and storyline of the post, not clean copy in a hurried environment, as proven by the overwhelming support Hal has received on his blog. The best? "I look forward to reading every piece of information that comes out of tht (sic) steel trap of a brain of yours!!" J.R. wrote.

But the bigger picture Hal and I have discussed through e-mails recently is the generational negativity and reactionary knee-jerk attitudes of so many Reds fans. “Drives me nuts,” Hal said. Now, the blogosphere gives these particular fans a platform and it has become a very huge problem. The Cincinnati Enquirer is at loggerheads about what to do about these bitter bloggers. All of the paper’s sports blogs are corrupt with these people who do nothing but insult, attack, whine, complain and spew about every little thing. It’s not an issue of expressing opinion; it’s an issue with explosive hostility toward players, coaches and owners. No Cincinnati athlete or team is exempted. Neither is any other blogger. It’s mean, nasty, personal vitriol. Yet, the Enquirer’s sports blogs command the overwhelming majority of the paper’s online traffic, thus advertising potential. Call it Catch-44 for the Enquirer.

All of this oddly coincides with a terrific episode of the current HBO show "Costas Now" that is must-see TV (on repeats this week) for any sports fan who blogs or calls in to a sportstalk radio show. The Costas show addresses the impact of the internet and bloggers, athletes and media, and the changing roles of sports media. It is fascinating.

Meanwhile, the sports editors and their writers for the Cincinnati-area papers are flummoxed because they really want to give readers more content. They see the benefits of pushing extra value-added material to the web and having readers respond. For years editors and writers paid lip service to allowing readers direct access to them. Now that readers can post on a writer's blog? There's no boundary. Attack the subject, attack the writer, attack the poster, attack dogs, bowlers and even themselves. How often do we see a post that begins, "I know I'm going to get blasted for saying this, but . . . ." Talk about defensive offense. Sheesh. Worse is when it's speculative and personal, and somehow becomes fact, as we saw with some of the Josh Hamilton falling-off-the-wagon postings last year.

This is why the newspaper blogs want to stop the mindless babysitting they’re forced to do throughout each day by moderating blog posts. The Enquirer’s decision—which is the right one for now—to filter all sports blogs ruins the spontaneity and interactivity, especially during live events. Enquirer Reds writer John Fay, who by all accounts is a super nice guy, has changed the posting rules on his blog about half a dozen times already this season. Nothing has worked other than hand-picking the comments that are cleared. That’s ridiculous.

Meanwhile, as Reds fans have more news, insight, information and interactivity than ever before, they abuse and neglect the platform and the people who bring it to them. Picky stuff. Angry stuff. Stupid stuff. It wasn’t so long ago when sports editors put their sections on a gigantic pedestal and carried the attitude, “Fans only know what we tell them.” Given that the newspapers were the only daily source, the editors were probably right.

Today newspapers are almost the last resource for information—tomorrow morning’s editions tout day-old news. Fans are more informed than ever. An argument can be made fans are more informed than the mainstream media. By the time the morning paper hits the doorstep fans have seen the game or highlights on TV or online, read the box score, caught up on the latest team buzz via blogs, and it’s not even midnight! There’s not many sports editors nationally who fully understand they need to produce two different sections a day—web and print. For Reds fans, a lot of really good fan blogs offer intelligent and worthwhile perspectives that newspapers simply don’t have the time or manpower to conduct. Like McCoy, I find some of these statistical acronyms and mumble-jumble equations dizzying—it’s still a game of see the ball, hit the ball—but that doesn’t mean we don’t appreciate the fan blogs’ effort and perceptions.

As for the acid behavior of so many Reds fans? At the beginning of the day when you are enjoying a fresh, hot doughnut or at the end of the day, when you are kissing your loved ones goodnight, how is it possible the outcome of a game or the performance of one player can cause so many people such anxiety? You realize this intensity has nothing to do with years of losing or typos and mistakes; it has to do with the bitter blogger who, somehow, has no other life to live.

As Uncle Walt Jocketty starts his second week as the newest Reds general manager, fans are wondering what he’s going to do to improve the 2008 team. There’s a multitude of roster adjustments and batting order switches we can all recommend, but armchair GMs everywhere should agree that the team’s most pressing issue is finding a long-term solution in the leadoff spot.

So the question before you is: Who should the Reds pursue?

The ground rules are simple: It cannot be anyone on the current roster because, obviously, the perfect, long-term solution does not exist. Secondly, Jay Bruce is not an option. He’s a future middle-of-the-order hitter. Besides, if you want to know why he’s still in Louisville look at his strikeouts, walks, and pitches per at-bat. Fairly telling. He’s not ready.

And finally, the player you recommend with your anointed GM powers has to be a realistic option—from his current team’s standpoint to his contract to his defensive position to whether the Reds have the parts that match up with his team for a deal. Let the inner Krivsky in you dig deep and find the perfect guy for the Reds to put at leadoff and not have to worry about the slot until the next decade. In other words, Ichiro is not an option.

What say you . . . ?

Deep down we’ve known all along Bronson Arroyo really wasn’t a No. 2 starting pitcher. He fooled us (and the NL) for a while with his smoke-and-mirrors act, and he’s actually pitched pretty well for most of his three seasons with the Reds. The guy takes the ball and guts out quality starts. But you always had a creeping feeling the true side of Arroyo’s repertoire would surface—the side that lends itself to monthlong beatings we’re seeing more and more this season.

Off to shaky start and taxing the bullpen like the IRS, Arroyo’s performance tonight against the Astros is huge. He has started off with four consecutive underwhelming outings, failing to survive the sixth inning and allowing 35 baserunners in just 21.1 innings. He’s thrown a whopping 413 pitches. He's also 0-2 with a 5.48 ERA.

If Arroyo has another bad start tonight there is justifiable reason for rotation changes. For one, the Reds finally have some pitching depth in their system so they are not obligated to keep Arroyo at No. 2 any longer. For another, Johnny Cueto and Voltron are simply better pitchers. No. 3, Arroyo deeper in the rotation gives the Reds a better chance at wins.

The No. 2 slot in the rotation is extremely important because off-days, injuries and rotation changes pushes the No. 2 into an opponent’s top starter enough for the No. 2 to be considered starter No. 1-A. But the No. 2 also gets pushed against an opponent’s Nos. 3-4 starters about 12 games a season—enough to create a pitching advantage that can decide playoff berths.

What we’re seeing of Arroyo this year is more unsettling than usual. For most of 2006 and much of 2007, he was victim of awful run support. The Reds lost his first five starts last year by giving him only 11 runs. And there’s little question that Jerry Narron permitting a mindless 129-pitch outing against San Diego May 16 sent Arroyo on a tailspin in which he allowed at least six runs in five of his following six starts.

When Arroyo righted himself and was pitching well around the trade deadline, the suggestion here was the Reds should deal him. Trade high! Arroyo was signed long term, he would be better suited at the back of a rotation for a playoff team, and the Reds could get a couple of key parts in return. Atlanta was desperate and had catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia as a centerpiece the Reds could have used. The vastness of Turner Field was perfect for Arroyo.

Many Reds fans huffed. You don’t trade starting pitching. Arroyo is an asset. The argument here was: this was not a playoff team and wasn’t going to be a playoff team without considerably bigger roster changes. Arroyo could actually accelerate the process toward a winning franchise again.

Nevermind.

Now, with the Reds’ farm system and the trade for Voltron last winter beginning to pay dividends, Arroyo is gradually pitching himself deeper into the rotation. Great, you might say, that gives the Reds more depth at the back. But there’s one really, really big issue many people are forgetting:

Arroyo is about to step into a monster contract extension. He’s in the last of a three-year deal he signed with the Red Sox, making $3.95 million this year. But with the two-year extension he received last year, he’s due $9.5 mil in 2009 and $11 mil for 2010. There’s an $11 mil option for 2011 with a $2 mil buyout.

That’s enormous money for a guy pitching more and more like the player the Pirates released and the Red Sox had relegated to swing duties. That’s No. 1 and No. 2 starter money, and as we all see now, with a fastball barely touching 90 and breaking balls magnetically attached to the heart of the plate, Arroyo is no longer a top-of-the-rotation pitcher for the Reds.

--30--

You love Marty Brennaman, you really do. Admit it. I will. I've known Marty 30 years and he's exactly what he appears on the air . . . genuine, articulate, opinionated, assertive, funny and knowledgeable with a razor-sharp memory and style that rightly earned him plaques in the broadcasters and baseball halls of fame. He's also the best damn basketball play-by-play you'll ever hear—not that you get to hear him that much any more—and when he retires from the Reds the hope here is that he resumes his basketball announcing career. Anyway, Reds fans have heard Marty spouting Martyisms for 34 years, and yesterday he had a classic—he ripped Cubs fans for being, well, Cubs fans. Marty gives 'em the whole gamut . . . being stupid, clueless, accusatory goat-worshipping finger-pointers, among a few others. You gotta check it out, courtesy a link from Coach Chris Wilson at RedlegNation.com.

For all those Reds fans in the greater Washington, D.C., area and the Virginia commonwealth of hyper taxation and pompous governance, the Louisville Bats will have a four-game series at Richmond, Va., May 1-4. That's Thursday-Sunday with the first three games starting at 7 p.m. and the Sunday game at 2 p.m. That should be a great chance for you to see Bruce, Bailey, Pelland, Janish, Rosales and the other future players of the Reds. Who knows? Maybe Roenicke and Thompson will be at Louisville by that time, too.

Also: It might be your last chance to see the Bats in this area again for a while. The Braves are moving their AAA team to Georgia next year and Richmond could be without an International League team for some time.

I'm thinking of going for a game or two and scoping out the prospects. Maybe do some live blogging. More as the games get closer. Meanwhile, you can buy advance tickets at www.rbraves.com/tickets.