In case you missed the update about the website yesterday, please, go read it. Starting tomorrow the website is going to begin charging for some of it’s content.
Jesse Winker sat out of the Dayton Dragons game yesterday. He may miss a few more depending on how his calf is feeling after straining it on Tuesday.
Sal Romano, who left with an injury in the same game after being hit by a grounder in the leg (he did finish out the inning) was still walking around gingerly yesterday before the game.
I can’t speak for other organizations because I just don’t follow any of them with enough depth to say how they go about things, but the Reds are one of the teams that every now and again draft a reliever and then convert him to a starting pitcher. It hasn’t always worked and sometimes it has seemed to work early on but didn’t last (a nice example is Sean Watson: 13 starts in Dayton, 1.88 ERA, 13 walks and 85 strikeouts in 71.2 innings. Then he really struggled upon promotion to High-A and after that season never started again as he battled control issues the rest of his career). Chad Rogers is a different case in which he was a starter in college, but the Reds pitched him in relief his first season (which was the next year, not the same year of the draft) and he was pretty strong out of the Dayton bullpen. In 2012 though Rogers was moved to the starting role and put up some good numbers between Bakersfield and a four week call up to Pensacola. This season is another four weeks in for Chad Rogers in Pensacola where he now has 11 starts at the Double-A level with a 1.73 ERA in 62.1 innings to go along with 14 walks and 49 strikeouts. The jury is still out on whether or not he can make it as a starter, but his numbers are awfully hard to argue with at this point in the transition.
Rogers battery mate in Pensacola is off to a much better start in 2013 than he finished with the Blue Wahoos in 2012. Tucker Barnhart hit just .200/.262/.292 last season with 11 walks and 21 strikeouts in 41 games to end the year. This season though he is off to a much better start in Double-A with a .271/.371/.407 line to go along with 10 walks and 7 strikeouts.