The Reds have released Tyler Cline and Daniel Guerrero, along with several others that were noted earlier this week.
Tom Nichols has up the DaytonDragons.com preview of the 2011 Third Basemen. The favorite seems to be David Vidal at this point, which likely puts Ronald Torreyes back in extended spring training and Billings.
After signing with the Reds, Vidal spent most of the summer of 2010 with the Arizona League Reds in Goodyear. He had a good year, but he enjoyed one particular game for the ages. On July 16th against the Dodgers AZL affiliate, Vidal belted three home runs and drove in eight runs. When you consider that the league leader in home runs for the entire season hit seven, connecting on three in one game was noteworthy enough to make headlines throughout Minor League Baseball.
The article also discusses Frank Pfister, Oliver Santos and Devin Lohman as potential options at third base.
The Reds have Juan Francisco playing right field today in a minor league game in the hopes that he could help out the Reds bench. It seems like a bad idea to me, as his bat simply needs to be seeing pitches every day in the minor leagues. His power would be nice off of the bench, but the rest of his game is still so in need of tuning that it would be pretty detrimental to his development to put him on the bench, even if he was worked into the line up three times a week in the Majors.
Mark Sheldon has an article up on Reds.com about Aroldis Chapman and his outlook on the 2011 season.
“I think the little experience I had last year and what has happened so far here has got me more experience,” Aroldis Chapman said through his interpreter, Tomas Vera. “I definitely feel more confident. I’ve been able to work better on the field. Since Spring Training started, I’ve been feeling better and better every day. … Yes, I feel ready. Like everybody else, we are ready to start the season now.”
In the article there are some concerns expressed about his control and some notes on his ESPN the Magazine cover. Go give it a read.
Here is how the Reds prospects performed in yesterdays loss to the Rangers:
- Chris Valaika went 0-4.
- Mike Costanzo went 0-2.
- Juan Francisco went 3-5 with an RBI, 2 doubles and 2 runs.
- Dave Sappelt went 2-3 with a HR (3) and 2 RBI. He is hitting .553 through yesterdays games.
- Devin Mesoraco went 2-3 with a double. He is now hitting .484 on the spring.
- Jose Castro went 0-2 with a walk and a run.
- Michael Griffin went 0-1.
- Joseph Krebs allowed 3 runs in 0.2 innings of work.