MLBdirt.com has up an interview with Donald Lutz. Here was my favorite part from the interview:
Who were your favorite team and player growing up and why?: It’s pretty funny because I didn’t get into baseball until I was 15, so I grew up without the sport. I played ice hockey and European handball for 8 years, so I didn’t have any favorite teams or players.
By the time I started I still hadn’t really seen any big leaguers because they don’t show baseball here in Germany on TV’s. All I did was go on mlb.com and watch the highlights every day. After a while I liked Big Papi because he was a big power hitting lefty and I liked his swing.
It really is just so different in Europe than other parts of the world when it comes to baseball. While Lutz is a bit older, this is why I don’t put as much into it as with other guys…. he didn’t grow up playing at all.
John Sickels is now done with his Top 20 (or more) prospects for each team. He is still in the process of adjusting some grades, so I won’t come out with the full post until he is done adjusting all of the grades. Last year I made a similar post to the one I will be doing this year and it lines out how the totals were figured out. Right now, the Reds farm system is ranked 22nd out of 30. Before they made all of their trades, they were inside of the Top 10. Where depends on what he rates Grandal and Alonso as, as for right now he listed them as “borderline A-/B+” players, though it would have been between 7-9. I think the depth probably puts them closer to the middle tier instead of the bottom tier, but I won’t argue much with it either. I will have more detailed data once John finalizes his grades later this week.
The Reds reportedly agreed to sign Ryan Madson last night. One year deal is being reported. As Joel Luckhaupt said on twitter, “there are no bad one-year deals for good players”. As most of you know, I am not a fan of paying closers simply because they have “saves”. I believe most guys can close games out. I don’t believe it takes a certain mentality that most don’t have, but that it takes a certain mentality NOT to be able to handle closing and that not many guys fit that group. But, since the Reds seem bent on acquiring a proven closer, Ryan Madson is a good option. What is your take?