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This left-handed fireballer will be joining the Reds come Spring...

There was some good sports news in Cincinnati this weekend. It surely was not the Bengals who got throttled by the New York Jets for the second week in a row. This loss ended the Bengals best season in a dogs age. No, the good news came from another Cincinnati franchise that has not won anything in what feels like forever, the baseball playing Reds.

Baseball does not have the revenue parity of the NFL so the Reds have a much more uphill climb than the Brown family's Bengals. The Bengals legendary stinginess has hurt them over the years, but is different than the Reds who simply don't have the revenue to compete for the biggest names, which is why this weekend's news came as such a surprise.

Word is that small-market Cincinnati stunned the rest of baseball yesterday by agreeing to a five-year, $30 million deal with Aroldis Chapman, the Cuban left-hander, whose fastball has been clocked near 100 mph. The Reds swooped past amongst others the Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays for the unproven Cuban fireballer.

There is hope on the Ohio River, even in the middle of this bitterly cold winter. Pitchers and catchers report in less than two months.

Labels: baseball, sports, Sports Economics