Reds 5 at 5: 2015 ASG is Official, BP on Chapman, More

Time for the reading which will provide you with some conversation pieces for your Wednesday evening. Well, other than the cold that has a grip on the Cincinnati area.

1. It’s official! The Cincinnati Reds will host the 2015 All-Star Game!

For the fifth time its storied history, the Cincinnati Reds will play host for the Midsummer Classic. The Reds have held this honor on four other occasions: 1938 and 1953 at Crosley Field and in 1970 and 1988 at Riverfront Stadium.

Here’s MLB Commish Bud Selig on selecting Cincinnati as the host team for 2015.

"“The history of Major League Baseball cannot be told without the story of Cincinnati and all of those who have been part of this great Reds tradition,” Selig said. “From the sport’s beginning in 1869, to the Big Red Machine, to Barry Larkin, Ken Griffey Jr. and to the Reds of today, Brandon Phillips and Jay Bruce and Joey Votto, I believe that the 2015 All-Star Game will be a really profound way to celebrate Major League Baseball and our sport’s eldest franchise.”MLB Commissioner Bud Selig on MLB.com"

This season, Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets will host the event while the Minnesota Twins home of Target Field receives the honor for 2014.

2. Reds ’76 infield best in MLB history

ESPN’s Buster Olney has been doing some rankings as of late. Today, it was the top 10 infields in the history of the game. Of no surprise to Reds fans, the 1976 infield for the Big Red Machine has nabbed top honors. If you wish to view his entire top 10, you can head here, but it does fall under the ESPN Insider portion of the site, so no subscription, no read.

Think about that infield: Tony Perez, Joe Morgan, Dave Concepcion and Pete Rose. Two are in the Hall of Fame and the other two should be.

For Concepcion, he won 5 Gold Gloves, a pair of Silver Sluggers, made 9 All-Star teams, and won an All-Star Game MVP (1982). The only Reds player to win more Gold Gloves as a Red was Johnny Bench (10). Morgan matched the 5 Davey owns. Concepcion even won more Gold Gloves than Barry Larkin. Think about that for a minute.

And the story of Pete has been told an endless number of times.

Sep 25, 2012; Cincinnati, OH, USA; Phillips congratulates Chapman at the end of the game against the Milwaukee Brewers at Great American Ball Park. The Reds defeated the Brewers 4-2. (Frank Victores-USA TODAY Sports)

3. BP: Chapman should close “right now”

Brandon Phillips says he is “Team Chapman”. He also says that right now, he would keep Aroldis Chapman in the closer’s role. Those are the “biggest words” in an interview on SiriusXM Sports, but BP also notes that he is interested to see what the Cuban Missile can do as a starter.

Within the same 2 minutes (actually, 1:53), the Reds second baseman also offers his take on the Shin-Soo Choo trade. If you scroll down the linked page a bit, you can also hear BP talk about playing for Team USA and manager Joe Torre

Highly suggested listening for both.

4. Reds sign LHP Constante

A few days ago, Jacob Constante pitched in the International Prospect League all-star game. Shortly there after, the Reds signed the lefty for $730k reports Ben Badler of Baseball America. After Constante’s performance in the game, Badler had this…

"Constante, who is from Santo Domingo and is training with former Rays Latin American director Rudy Santin, has a big, durable body at 6-foot-3, 215 pounds and solid mechanics for his age. He worked at 92-94 mph today and plus life, to the point where the catcher had difficulty receiving the ball cleanly. While that may have been because he was pitching to a Venezuelan catcher who had never caught him before, some who have seen Constante say other catchers have trouble handling his fastball as well. His velocity has increased over the last several months, as he was more in the 90-91 mph range and touching 92 last summer."

Upside is Constante also owns a slider of 80-83 and scouts believe it could be an above-average pitch for the 18 year old Dominican. Most agree he will need to develop his changeup. He’ll be 19 in March.

Maybe even a bigger upside? Constante has not had any issues concerning his age or with his identity.

5. Griffey, Jr. to be inducted into Mariners HoF

Maybe the biggest no-brainer ever for the M’s to put Ken Griffey, Jr. in their HoF.

Junior will be the second M’s player with Reds ties to become a member of the M’s HoF. The other was inducted just last year: Dan Wilson. Wilson was involved in the deal with the Mariners that brought Bret Boone to Cincy.