Chicago Cubs vs. Cincinnati Reds Preview, Tuesday 9/6, 7:05 CT: Welcome, Reinforcements!

I noticed on Monday that the Reds had seven September additions to their roster -- and plan to recall two more players in a couple more days. There are spare infielders, catchers, outfielders and pitchers.

Now, to be honest, I think having nine extra players on your roster for the month of September is too many. There isn't enough playing time for all of them and I've heard that between salaries, travel expenses and per diems, it can cost up to $75,000 per player. In an era of multimillion dollar deals, that might not seem like much, but it does add up.

Up to today, the Cubs have had just two players added -- Bryan LaHair, who's played, and Andrew Cashner, who was activated yesterday and might appear as soon as tonight in relief. Today, three more players will be recalled from Iowa. Two of them, you have seen here before: DJ LeMahieu and Lou Montanez. One more will make his MLB debut with his first appearance: LHP John Gaub. Gaub, as you may remember, was part of the Mark DeRosa deal with Cleveland two years ago. After being very good in 2009, he was, um, less good (actually, pretty bad) in 2010, but better this season. He is 26, so not very prospect-ish, but I suppose being lefthanded, he's got a shot at making the 2012 roster. Here are Gaub's minor league numbers.

I would like to see LeMahieu get some playing time. Montanez, not so much. And I still wonder why the Cubs can't find a third catcher -- any third catcher, to give themselves some flexibility this month; for example, they could then have pinch-run for Geovany Soto yesterday. (Probably should have done it anyway, even with "just" one backup catcher.)

Cubs lineup:

Castro SS, Barney 2B, Ramirez 3B, Peña 1B, Soriano LF, Byrd CF, Colvin RF, Soto C, Lopez P

Reds lineup:

Phillips 2b, Sappelt cf, Votto 1b, Bruce rf, Mesoraco c, Cairo 3b, Frazier lf, Valaika ss, Leake p

Today's Starting Pitchers

Rodrigo Lopez Cubs vs. Mike Leake Reds 4-6 W-L 11-9 4.94 ERA 4.12 40 SO 110 22 BB 36 14 HR 22 vs. Cin -- vs. Cubs

Hey, look! Here's a team Rodrigo Lopez has actually pitched well against. He has not faced the Reds this year, but last year had a 3.00 ERA and no walks against them in two starts covering 12 innings. The last one, on September 16, 2010, was particularly good. Current Reds are hitting .247 (22-for-89) against him with just one home run (Jay Bruce).

Mike Leake has a career 3.21 ERA against the Cubs in five starts over 2010 and 2011, covering 43.2 innings. However, in those innings he has allowed a fairly large number of home runs -- 11. Four of those have been hit by Tyler Colvin. Perhaps Colvin can break out tonight and hit one (or more).

Today's game is on CSN Chicago and FSN Ohio. Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

SB Nation game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Reds site Red Reporter.

Today's first pitch thread will be up at 7:05 p.m. CDT and the overflow threads will post at 8 pm, 9 pm and 9:45 pm CDT. If you need more overflows due to extra innings or rain delays, post them in the fanshot section.

Discuss amongst yourselves.