John Sickels is scheduled to release his Top 100 prospects today, around 11am. When the list goes live, I will put a link up if I am still awake (I will try to stay up, but I am usually in bed by 10am during the week). Either way though, the initial link takes you to his site and his list should be the most recent post on the site once it is published.
Dusty Baker says that Zack Cozart is likely to hit second, or at least be given the chance to do so unless he proves otherwise according to John Fay. Baker had this to say, among other things:
“Skill, ability, aptitude, unselfishness. That’s where your most unselfish player hits, one of your smartest players in the lineup hits.”
While I certainly heard and saw plenty of “the shortstop bats second, dude” comments, and I certainly understand exactly where they are coming from with Baker and his history of essentially batting shortstops second unless they were truly terrible hitters, I think if I were filling out a line up based on what we know right now that I too would put Cozart in that spot. He has a solid skillset for the “ideal” role you want your second hitter to fill. He makes a good amount of contact, he has a little bit of speed (he is an above-average runner), solid plate discipline and good, but not above-average power (it is above-average for his position, but probably just average overall) that would be wasted in the second spot in the line up. Toss in that he is also a strong base runner and it just makes sense assuming he can hit like he is expected to.
MLB.com youth correspondent Meggie Zahneis has an article up on Devin Mesoraco. There isn’t much new in the article, but I am going to link the article and support a young writer chasing a dream. You should too, so go read it. Here is the part that jumped out to me, not that the quote itself is surprising, but hopefully he can follow the lead that was set:
“I really enjoy spending time with those guys, just seeing how they approach every day,” Mesoraco said. “Joey (Votto) is one of the hardest-working guys in baseball, and to just see what he does to prepare himself for the game is very valuable for me.”
Chris Valaika says that his knee is feeling great. He tore his ACL late last season, but had surgery and has been rehabbing hard to be ready to go. As someone who has had multiple knee surgeries and still isn’t near 100% in my right knee, this is very impressive.
Bud Selig has once again said that he wants a world wide draft, but this time he also noted that he can see it being inevitable. While I too would like to see a world wide draft, I also think that with the new international spending limits being limited based on your record the previous year, a world wide draft may not make as much of a difference once it is implemented as it would have say, three years ago. That already attempts to even out the playing field rather than just letting teams like the Texas Rangers spend 4-6 times what some other teams are spending on the international market. If there ever is a world wide draft, I see it happening at least 10-15 years down the road. Major League Baseball is going to need to negotiate with different governments and organizations to get this thing going and that is going to take a ton of time.
Single game tickets go on sale tomorrow at 9am, though that doesn’t include Opening Day tickets. You can buy them online at Reds.com or on the phone (513) 381-7337 or (877) 647-7337, as well as at the Great American Ballpark ticket office.