There was quite a bit of praise over the weekend of Devin Mesoraco as some of the local writers all had articles up on him. John Fay had this on Mesoraco:
But has Mesoraco gotten to the point that he’s ready to help at the big league level if Hernandez or Hanigan are injured?
“He might be,” Dusty Baker said.
“He could be very good.”
Hal McCoy began his article with this:
When Devin Mesoraco played for the Dayton Dragons in 2008, there were people – some of whom should know better – who said, “Why did the Cincinnati Reds draft this guy No. 1?”
And he is absolutely right. I heard about it often, even from people who, as McCoy says, should know better. He had some work to do, but I can’t remember how many arguments I recall having where I had to keep telling people that he had the tools to be very good, but he needed time to turn them into skills.
Mark Sheldon also chimed in with this:
Baker said. “He’s doing great. He’s going to hit and he’s getting better catching. He still has some work to do but he’s really, really improved. He’s worked hard, he takes charge, he’s quiet, he listens and he wants to play. He comes to play.”
“We were playing on this field the other day. The left fielder just lost a ball,” Doran said. “Billy took off. We were all like, ‘what’s he doing?’ He caught the ball over his shoulder, about 10 feet from warning track.”
Doran is also high Ronald Torreyes, the 18-year-old who hit .370 last year.
“He squares the ball as consistently as anyone we have,” Doran said.
I am assuming that Billy Hamilton caught a ball on the foul line warning track instead of the outfield wall warning track, because that simply would be impossible, even for someone as fast as him. The ball simply isn’t staying in the air that long. As for Ronald Torreyes, the kid just gets praise after praise from whoever gets asked about him. I would expect him to be in extended spring training still when the season starts, but would be surprised if he doesn’t find himself back in Dayton at some point in 2011.
I asked this question on twitter over the weekend, but thought it would be worth asking here….
How can the Reds tell Dave Sappelt he has to go back to the minor leagues? After this weekends games, he is hitting .531/.543/.875 in 32 at bats with just 2 strikeouts (and 2 walks). His biggest weakness is his baserunning, but if you just tell him to not steal and shorten his lead by a step, problem solved. Given that he isn’t on the 40 man roster, I am sure he heads to the minor leagues to start the year, but how is that conversation going to go?