There is this little basketball tournament coming up this week that you may or may not have heard of before, but I decided it would be fun to have a “pick ’em” contest for the site. I decided to use Yahoo because I have used them for 10 years now. Its an open league. If you want to join, the information is below:
- Where – Yahoo Fantasy Sports
- Group ID #92969
- Password – jaybruce
No prizes, just for bragging rights.
Corey Brinn has up some cool stuff at his site right now. He posted some video of JC Sulbaran, Travis Webb, Sean Watson, Jordan Hotchkiss, Daniel Corcino and Mike Henry. Just some bullpen and live batting practice stuff, but its the first video I have seen of the minor leaguers this year so its exciting.
John Fay has some stuff up on his blog on Yonder Alonso and the 5th starter spot. It sounds like if Yonder Alonso is going to get game time at a position that isn’t first, its going to be with the minor league guys. Baker also notes that they may try to get more “B” games in order to get everyone in the running equal chances.
The Reds played a game on Sunday and here are the prospect results from the game:
- Todd Frazier went 0-1 with a walk and a run.
- Juan Francisco went 0-1 – but did hit a HR in the “B” game.
- Chris Valaika went 0-1.
- Matt Maloney allowed 3 hits and 2 walks in 3 shutout innings with 2 strikeouts. He also picked off 2 runners. It wasn’t pretty, but he got the job done.
- Sam Lecure struck out 2 in 2 shutout innings.
- Jordan Smith got roughed up as he allowed 4 runs on 4 hits in the 9th.
C Trent has some coverage on Maloney’s start, but I think the most interesting part is at the bottom of the article about Jordan Smith, with this quote from Baker:
“If you’re going to learn to be a closer, (Smith) learned a valuable lesson there,” Baker said. “When you’ve got a big lead and walk that guy in the ninth and he had another guy 0-2 and came inside on him, you’ve got to make him go the other way and make him hit the ball out of here to tie the game up. There’s some lessons to be learned out here. This young man doesn’t like getting hit. We know he has the stuff. That was a valuable lesson for him.”
I wonder if this is just one of those Dusty being Dusty moments and talking without knowing fully what he is saying, or if Jordan Smith is going to be moved to the bullpen this season in the minors. I am not against the idea at all. His stuff would play up very well in the bullpen I think.