The Reds were off Wednesday, so there is no game rundown for today. The Reds are not off again until the day before the regular season begins.
Tom Nichols has up the most recent preview of the 2012 Dragons roster at DaytonDragons.com, this time looking at third base. The favorite for the position is Junior Arias according to Nichols.
Arias advanced to Billings of the Pioneer League in 2011, moved to third base, and got off to a rough start. At the midpoint of the PL season, he was hitting just .206 with two home runs. However, he had a much better second half, and the Reds hope the Arias of the second half of 2011 will carry over to 2012. Still with Billings in the second half, he batted .287 with six HR in 33 games, posting a fine slugging percentage of .541.
Hopefully Arias can carry over some of his success he found in the second half. While his numbers were better, they were boosted by a big power output. He still struggled with strikeouts, 30% in both the first and second halves of the season, though his walk rate was a solid 9% in the second half. The Dragons hitters almost all showed much better plate discipline in the second half of the season in 2011, if Arias can make similar strides in 2012, he could be a very quick riser in prospect rankings as his bat could explode with better plate discipline.
As a side note, Sean Buckley is also mentioned in the article, but is expected to be seen at first base this season. He will be a late addition to the roster though, as he had an appendectomy earlier this spring and hasn’t been able to practice yet.
Dusty Baker says that he is not worried about the slow start of Devin Mesoraco at Reds.com. Mesoraco is hitting under .200 this spring for the Reds, but has just two strikeouts all spring.
“He’s been concentrating so much on catching,” Baker said. “Mes has always hit. If he never hit, it’d be, ‘What can we expect?’ If he has always hit, sooner or later, if he can maintain confidence, he’s going to hit again.”
I am not worried about his offense either. His swing just isn’t where it needs to be just yet. He has been getting under the ball a little bit this spring so far. Soon enough those are going to be line drives and deep fly balls.
That is all of the baseball news I have for the day. It was a slow Wednesday for news with no game. So as a side track, who are you taking in the NCAA basketball games tonight? My picks are in bold below.
Wisconsin vs Syracuse
Louisville vs Michigan State
Cincinnati vs Ohio State
Florida vs Marquette