Notes: Reds' Devin Mesoraco likely to require surgery

A few notes while we wait for the game to start:

-P- Reds catcher Devin Mesoraco will likely need hip surgery that will cost him most of the rest of the season. Along with Johnny Cueto and Todd Frazier, Mesoraco was one of the Reds' most productive players last year, so this is a significant blow to one of the Pirates' NL Central opponents. At least this will allow the Reds to finally open a roster spot, though. He hadn't played a game at catcher for them since the first week of the season, but he's been on the active roster the entire time. Reporters' attempts to figure out what was going on with Mesoraco were, of course, the impetus for Bryan Price's amazing profanity-laden rant a couple weeks back. We can speculate if we want about how Andrew McCutchen's injury might be affecting his play (EDIT: or at least his hitting), but it's just speculation, and he is playing. If the Pirates kept a key player on their active roster for almost a month without starting him, we'd be killing them right now.

-P- David Todd notes that Francisco Cervelli currently rates as MLB's top pitch-framer.

-P- The Indians have outrighted Jerry Sands, who transitioned from a prospect to an itinerant AAAA type after a bad year in the Pirates system following the Joel Hanrahan trade.

-P- The Braves designated old friend Donnie Veal for assignment. I didn't realize Veal had even appeared in the majors this year. The Bucs' 2008 Rule 5 pick is now 30 and is still trying to stick in the big leagues.

-P- This past weekend, I wrote a long post for MLB Trade Rumors about problems with the waiver system. (And if you haven't read Brian MacPherson's article about Alex Hassan, you should.)