T-Minus: 1 week

One week from today, I will have touched down in Phoenix, popped into the Reds complex in Goodyear and likely grabbed my first In-N-Out Burger of 2013. On Tuesday, Feb. 12, pitchers and catchers will get to work — officially. Many have already headed west, like Sam LeCure:

#5things -February, baseball time-75 degrees-the house finally feeling like home today-working hard with nobody watching-support

— Sam LeCure (@mrLeCure) February 2, 2013

Or are about to. Like J.J. Hoover…

Last day at home. Off to az tomorrow.

— JJ Hoover (@JJ_Hoover) February 4, 2013

Later this week, I will have a preview of Reds Spring Training up on Reds.com/MLB.com. There will be few roster spots open for battle but the camp has plenty of intriguing storylines going in. And you never know what might happen once everyone is there (remember the Ryan Madson injury?)

The truck of Reds equipment was scheduled to leave today from Great American Ball Park for an 1,800 mile journey to Arizona. I was there for the load up on Friday and you can read the story by clicking here.

More links:

Winter ball is wrapping up this week with the Caribbean Series. Here is the coverage on MLB.com.

MLB.com Angels beat writer Alden Gonzalez crushed it with this feature on Mike Trout. Watch the video as well as read the story. Is this the kind of video pieces you’d like to see on Reds players? If the right one comes along, I’d be up for doing that.

Last week on her blog, Alyson Footer wrote a humorous comparison between media access at Super Bowl week and the World Series.

I’m sure you watched the Super Bowl last night. So did Sports Illustrated media critic Richard Deitsch, who wrote a pretty good summary of the CBS coverage. It definitely wasn’t the best telecast I’ve seen and I’ve always thought CBS does the NFL the best on TV. And while I’m in the minority of generally liking Phil Simms as an analyst overall, he was terrible on Sunday.