The Reds played a set of split squad games yesterday, winning one and losing one. The game vs the Angels was on MLB Network, while the game vs Oakland was not televised. Here is how the prospects performed in the game against the Angels:
- Dave Sappelt went 1-2 with a run.
- Jefry Sierra went 0-2.
- Neftali Soto went 0-2.
- Danny Dorn went 0-2.
- Juan Duran went 0-1 with a walk.
- Juan Francisco went 1-2.
- David Vidal went 0-2.
- Kyle Waldrop had a walk in his plate appearance.
- Yasmani Grandal went 0-1.
- Billy Hamilton walked in his only plate appearance.
- Scott Carroll threw 2 hitless innings with a walk and 2 strikeouts.
- Jerry Gil struck out 1 in a scoreless inning of work.
Billy Hamilton made an outstanding play defensively on a liner up the middle in which he dove to knock it down, and while he couldn’t throw out the runner at first, he quickly grabbed the ball and fired to third to get the runner trying to advance. Juan Duran clearly missed a ball that he still hit about 390 feet to dead center. Unfortunately, it is 420 feet to dead center.This was the first time I had a chance to see Kyle Waldrop swing the bat, and you could see where the power potential lies within his swing.
Here is how the prospects performed in the game against the Athletics:
- Felix Perez went 1-2 with an RBI.
- Zack Cozart went 0-2.
- Michael Griffin went 0-2.
- Junior Arias went 0-3 with 3 strikeouts.
- Ryan LaMarre went 0-1 with a run.
- Yonder Alonso went 1-2 with a HR and 2 RBI.
- Todd Frazier went 1-2 with a run.
- Alex Buchholz went 0-1.
- Miguel Rojas went 1-1.
- Devin Mesoraco went 2-2 with 2 RBI
- Jeremy Horst struck out 2 in 2 scoreless innings.
- Matt Klinker allowed 3 runs in 2 innings of work.
- Donnie Joseph allowed 2 unearned runs with a walk and 2 strikeouts in an inning of work.
Seems like Mesoraco and Alonso had nice games on the offensive side of things. Surprised that some of the really young guys, like Junior Arias/Juan Duran/Jefry Sierra were able to get into these games. Jeremy Horst had a good showing early on with two strong innings.
Mark Sheldon has up an brief article on Dave Sappelt and how he is turning heads early on in spring training. Here is a quote from Dusty Baker on Sappelt:
“He can hit,” Reds manager Dusty Baker said. “He doesn’t overswing. He’s very under control and real short to the ball. His swing is similarly short to like Bill Madlock and he has power like Larvell “Sugarbear” Blanks. He looks like him and acts like him.”
I continue to think that Dave Sappelt could really find himself playing his way onto the Reds roster. Not only can he play defense, but he fits exactly what the Reds want from a lead off hitter outside of good base stealing abilities. Despite Dusty saying that Gomes wasn’t going to be platooned and he deserves to play, I am hopeful that talent can prevail in the long run.
Now that things are “in season”, All Questions Answered days are just going to randomly be inserted every two weeks or so instead of every week when I just had space to fill, so to speak. We actually have more things to discuss now that games are underway.