I just posted a photo of the famous Phil Vassar bobblehead on my Twitter page. You can follow me at @ChrisLangLNA.

Now on to baseball, as Kinston and the Hillcats open a three-game set at City Stadium. I’ll only be here for tonight’s game. Colleague Chris Humphreys will pick up the slack this weekend and I’ll be back for all four games of the Myrtle Beach set, which begins Monday.

There’s plenty of transaction news to go over, so let’s get right to it. The Hillcats look a lot different than they did when the left town last Wednesday.

—Last Friday, RHP Lance Janke went on the disabled list with what was called “right shoulder impingement syndrome.“

—Last Saturday, the Reds promoted RHP Blair Carson to Lynchburg from Low-A Dayton. Carson has already made one start and won it. He allowed five hits and two earned runs in five innings in his High-A debut, walked two, struck out three and hit a batter.

—Monday, RHP Pedro Villarreal came up from Dayton. He began the year in Dayton as a starter before moving to the bullpen in late June after 14 starts. In 26 appearances, he was 4-7 with two saves and a 3.84 ERA. In 96 innings, he walked 29 and struck out 77. He made his Lynchburg debut Tuesday in Potomac, and it didn’t go so smoothly. In 1 2/3 innings, Potomac tagged him for four hits and two earned runs.

—Tuesday, OF Justin Reed was moved from the restricted list to the temporarily inactive list. Reed was serving a 50-day MILB drug suspension. Reed was activated Thursday and then sent down to Dayton.

—Also Thursday, the Reds promoted Lynchburg RHP Nick Christiani and OF Denis Phipps to Double-A Carolina. I hope Christiani got to Zebulon in time to watch last night’s new episode of Jersey Shore. Christiani had struggled since coming off the disabled list. Phipps had no such issue. He absolutely pummeled Carolina League pitching, blasting eight home runs in less than a month in town. With former Hillcat Dave Sappelt moving up to Triple-A Louisville, a spot opened up in the Carolina outfield for Phipps. It’ll be interesting to see if his newfound confidence translates at Double-A, where he was hitting less than .250 before coming down to High-A.

—The Cats in return got RHP Josh Ravin, who will start tonight, and OF Andrew Means. Ravin was Dayton’s opening-day starter and went 2-6 with a 4.79 ERA before going down with an injury. Ravin missed six weeks and made two starts with the AZL Reds in Goodyear, Ariz. Ravin was a fifth-round pick out of high school in the 2006 draft and hasn’t pitched any higher than Low-A. His career record is ugly, at 9-29. Means has an interesting back story. He was once a NFL prospect at wide receiver at Indiana, went out for the combine and declared for the draft. He was never selected and returned to play baseball. He’s missed some time this year with a broken finger.

—The Hillcats have now made 82 transactions this season, and 49 different players have appeared in uniform. Ravin and Means will make it 51.

—Kinston’s Bo Greenwell is the son of former Boston Red Sox OF Mike Greenwell.

Today’s lineups:

KINSTON (21-24)

Bo Greenwell cf (.320-0-8-7)

Karexon Sanchez 2b (.258-4-10-7)

Jeremie Tice 1b (.291-2-16-0)

Kyle Bellows 3b (.265-8-50-2)

Abner Abreu rf (.238-3-44-08)

Juan Diaz ss (.254-0-12-0)

Alex Castillo c (.236-0-6-1)

Donnie Webb lf (.242-4-24-7)

Ronald Rivas dh (.250-2-26-0)

LHP T.J. McFarland (10-3, 2.81 ERA, 20 G, 15 GS, 109 IP, 105 H, 34 ER, 31 BB, 74 K)

LYNCHBURG (19-25)

Andrew Means cf (.000-0-0-0)

Cody Puckett 2b (.266-12-39-16)

Neftali Soto dh (.255-17-58-0)

Chris Richburg 1b (.348-4-16-0)

Kyle Day rf (.285-6-40-5)

Brodie Greene ss (.259-1-14-4)

Josh Fellhauer lf (.247-6-35-7)

Kevin Coddington c (.253-0-10-0)

Shane Carlson 3b (.282-1-11-1)

RHP Josh Ravin (First appearance with Lynchburg)

AROUND THE ORGANIZATION

Thursday’s scores

MLB—The Reds were off and host Florida tonight.
Reds’ record: 64-51, 2nd NL Central, 1 GB; 3rd in NL Wild Card, 1 1/2 GB

AAA—Louisville (Reds) 10, Toledo (Tigers) 4
The Bats stayed smoking hot. And I mean SMOKING. They’re 19-1 in their last 20 games and 24-3 since the All-Star break. Chris Valaika and Wladimir Balentin each had four hits Thursday.
Bats’ record: 68-51, 1st in IL West, 1/2 game ahead of Columbus.

AA—Jacksonville (Marlins) 8, Carolina (Reds) 5
Denis Phipps homered in his first game back in Double-A, and Nick Christiani allowed two hits and a run in his Carolina debut.
Mudcats’ record: 21-26, 5th in SL North, 9 1/2 GB

HiA—Lynchburg (Reds) at Potomac (Nationals), ppd., rain
The game will not be made up unless it affects the playoff races.
Hillcats’ record: 19-25, 4th in CL North, 6 GB

LoA—Lansing (Blue Jays) 10, Dayton (Reds) 3
I am not making this up. The Dragons are 1-23 at home in the second half of the season. ONE AND TWENTY-THREE.
Dragons’ record: 10-35, 8th in ML East, 22 1/2 GB

Rookie—Billings (Reds) 14, Great Falls (White Sox) 2
Devin Lohman homered and drove in five runs for the Mustangs.
Mustangs’ record: 5-6, 3rd in Pioneer North, 1 1/2 GB

Rookie—Dodgers 8, Reds 4
Kurtis Muller had three hits for the Reds.
AZL Reds’ record: 22-21, 3rd in AZL Central, 5 1/2 GB; 3rd in AZL Wild Card, 1 1/2 GB