Now that the Super Bowl is over, and after every team but the Saints shed their teams on the shoulders of incredibly hot women, the fans can turn their attention to the next real sport: baseball (NBA, you’re just fooling yourself).

And now we have t-minus eight days until spring training starts… which means we have t-minus too many days until Opening Day. After the Reds signed Orlando Cabrera, there are exactly two starting positions up for grabs: fifth starter and left field. Not too worried about the fifth guy, because we’ve got some quality arms. I’m definitely worried about left field.

The Reds have exactly seven players in the mix for the starting job, and that doesn’t even include Johnny Gomes, but he just saw his shadow and ran back into his hole, so I don’t know what’s up with him.

Seven. I mean, really.

Seven.

It’s not something manageable like, oh, I don’t know, 3 or 4 guys vying for one spot. Seven players competing for one spot tells the fans, “Um, yeah, we have no idea how this is going to play out, and, um, make sure you renew your season tickets!”

Here is the list of the illustrious seven: Chris Dickerson, Chris Heisey, Wladimir Balentien (actual first name), Juan Francisco, Laynce (once again, actual spelling) Nix, Aaron Miles, and Todd Frazier.

Impressive, no?

Oh, and there have been some vicious rumors about Johnny Damon (not gnomes, I mean, Gomes) might become a Red. I say “vicious” because, really, that rumor is fairly laughable. I mean, he turned down the Yankees’ offer, and we’re going to outbid the Yankees? As of this morning, the talking heads say he’s considering the Braves, who aren’t the Reds (believe it or not), and now this vicious rumor should end.

I could spend some time and go over the stats for each guy, but I don’t want to bore you with that stuff. I mean, what more can you learn from, “Well, this guy isn’t all that great” vs. “THIS guy isn’t much better.”

Realistically, most people say it’ll be Dickerson (who hit .275 with an OBP of .370… okay, I’m giving some numbers), who is a decent player and can give you decent at-bats with steady defense. The guys that I would like to see, however, would be either Heisey or Frazier, two of our most important prospects. Frazier was rated our best prospect. He can sure hit the ball (.302 in AAA), but he’s only played 16 games above AA level, and left field is not his natural position.

Nevertheless, I say we play Frazier. Here’s my reasoning:

Even though I think we can be more competitive this year, I don’t think we’re going to be a World Series team just yet. In other words, if Frazier can show he can hit big league pitchers, why not put him in, let him make his mistakes in left field, deal with it, and let him develop. We can use all the hitters that we can get, and I can live with any mistakes he may make in left field. He can’t be any worse than Adam Dunn.

I mean, Frazier’s original position was shortstop, which means he should have decent hand-eye coordination, so left field shouldn’t be too difficult to adjust to, just a different mentality.

Of course, seasoning your top prospects in the minors wouldn’t hurt Frazier, but it’s not helping the club immediately, either. Like I said, if Frazier’s knocking the ball around in spring training, I say we put him in. The Reds are a young team overall, and he would fit right in.

Follow David Jacob on Twitter @HoldenCarraway