Last night I joined Chad Dotson on Redleg Nation Radio to talk about the Cincinnati Reds draft. We spent nearly an hour talking about Hunter Greene, Jeter Downs, Stuart Fairchild and a handful of other names that the Reds took in the 2017 Major League Baseball draft. Go give it a listen. Download it for later. Subscribe to the Redleg Nation Radio podcast for all kinds of Reds talk. Do all of the things.
Speaking of the draft, Keith Law of ESPN unveiled his draft recap for the National League today for ESPN Insiders. Here’s the first line from the writeup:
This was an important draft for the Reds, and I think they hit it out of the park.
He seems very high on the Reds first two picks and had some good things to say about the next four guys they took as well.
Luis Castillo & Shed Long make the Hot Sheet
Cincinnati Reds prospects Luis Castillo and Shed Long show up on the Baseball America Prospect Hot Sheet this week for their performances. Castillo shows up at #4 on the list for his 13 strikeout, 1-walk performance in eight shutout innings this week for the Pensacola Blue Wahoos. The start lowered his ERA to 2.68 on the year in 74.0 innings. That comes along with 12 walks and 76 strikeouts.
Shed Long checks in at #15 on the list after hitting .412 on the week with a .706 slugging percentage. It was a short week as the Daytona Tortugas kept getting rained out. For the year, Long is now hitting .316/.378/.543 with 15 doubles, a triple and 12 home runs – ranking among the league leaders in more than a few offensive categories.
Draft Signings are coming soon
Players began arriving in Arizona today for their physicals after the draft. We should start seeing guys being officially signed soon and some guys have already taken to social media to post photos of their Reds jerseys in the locker room in Arizona. The Billings Mustangs season begins on Monday, so there’s no waiting around to get some of these guys signed and into the fold. The Arizona Rookie League also begins next week, with games scheduled to begin on Saturday.