This and that

• CBSSports.com's Larry Dobrow took a look at the Reds with his Save This Franchise piece. What stood out for me:

1) He definitely sees the glass as half full
2) He mentions Bill Bray along with Volquez and Cueto among young pitching assets (agreed)
3) He points out that it's pretty impressive to have four of five rotation slots inked at this point (and suggests taking a flyer on a Mark Mulder)
4) He harps on the fact that they gave Cordero too much money
5) He likes EE at third
6) He suggests finding a "big honkin' righty bat" to play left field and mentions Magglio Ordonez, Alex Rios and Jermaine Dye as three candidates, pointing out that the Tigers, Jays and White Sox could all use young pitching
7) He insists the Reds would be making a huge mistake if they got rid of Homer Bailey, unless the price is right (he likes Bailey a lot)
8) He's also a Keppinger fan

Anyway, it's worth reading ... it's a pretty decent assessment, though I'll warn you it's extremely optimistic.

• The Lot D's C. Trent has a good piece about what a disappointing season it's been for Ben Utecht.

• Turfshowtimes.com has a mock draft that has the Bengals taking Mizzou wide receiver Jeremy Maclin with the third pick. That's a head-scratcher. I'm pretty sure the consensus is they need linemen. They have Andre Smith going fourth to Oakland. I think they should probably switch those.

• I was hoping to see a story about UC's 2002 visit to Hawaii, and Bill Koch came through. What a debacle that was.