The guys over at BullpenBanter.com ranked Billy Hamilton as the #55 prospect in baseball over the weekend. That is easily the lowest that he has been ranked this year, but I suggest going over and reading what was said by the writers.
The Reds optioned five players over the weekend to the minors. Donald Lutz was optioned to Pensacola, while Henry Rodriguez, Neftali Soto, Curtis Partch and Pedro Villarreal were all optioned to Louisville. While these moves aren’t required to play these guys at their assigned level, I think it is where all of these guys will wind up when the season rolls around unless there is an injury that opens up a spot.
Tom Nichols posted his shortstop and third base previews over at DaytonDragons.com. At shortstop, he expects Zach Vincej to be the starter after a good season for the Billings Mustangs in 2012. Over at the hot corner he expects to see Seth Mejias-Brean after an outstanding season in Billings last year.
Everyone likes filling out a bracket. I set up a bracket challenge at ESPN. If you wanted to fill it out and compete against other users, head over to this link. The password is cincinnati. The winner (or if I win, the runner up) will get a free PDF copy of the 2013 Prospect Guide.
Last night I co-hosted Redleg Nation Radio with Chad Dotson from RedlegNation.com. We once again had to talk about the Aroldis Chapman situation and how it is basically being played out in the media between Dusty, Chapman, Walt and even Bryan Price. We also talked about Mike Leake and what his role may wind up being. I also talked a little bit about some prospects at the end of the show. You can listen below, though there is about a minute of unfortunate dead air as I experienced some technical difficulties. You can also subscribe and listen through iTunes.