The Reds played their first spring training game yesterday. To a tie. Doesn’t matter though, these are glorified practices. With that said, here is how the prospects did:
- Zack Cozart went 0-2.
- Neftali Soto went 1-2 with a home run.
- Donald Lutz went 1-2 with a double.
- Denis Phipps went 0-2.
- Devin Mesoraco went 1-2 with an RBI.
- Tucker Barnhart went 0-1.
- Todd Frazier went 1-2 with a home run.
Not a bad day for the prospects. John Fay has a little bit of a a recap up on his blog. Go check it out.
Mark Sheldon has up an article on Devin Mesoraco and how he says defense comes first. Here is what Dusty Baker had to say about Mesoraco:
“You hope he realizes what his position is and not his age,” Baker said. “I talked to him about it. The one thing that I liked is that when he came up, he was more concerned about the ERA when he’s catching and the score of the game than his own offense, which has probably been his strong point.”
To be honest, I have to say that he should stop worrying about the ERA when he is catching because it isn’t all that much in his control. I do like that he cares about his defense, but I always think to myself with things like this, “what is he gong to say to a question about that?” I am not suggesting he isn’t a good defender, just always find it funny how people point out things like that when there is no reason to believe someone would say “no, I don’t care about defense.” Go check out the entire article though, there is a good chunk of information in there.
Zack Cozart says that he is ready to go. Here is what Dusty had to say about his injury and coming back from it:
“He’s getting more natural, I’ve noticed,” Reds manager Dusty Baker said. “He was more guarded in the beginning, which is natural. The further you get away from the injury, the more natural you become. You can you’re not thinking about it. I don’t care who you are, it’s on your mind some.”
I think he is right. The more you get away from the injury, the less you tend to think about it. Time will help Cozart.