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    Reds Minor League Notebook: The Byrd is Flying

    Doug Gray 8

    While I am sitting back here in Cincinnati cleaning up my house after flooding on Monday, some of the Reds media members are out in Goodyear covering the goings on in minor league camp. If you missed the invite list, there are 174 players out there right now. You can see the entire list here, but remember that players on the 40-man roster are locked out even if they’ve never been in the big leagues. While full minor league camp is just getting started, some of the players have been there for weeks and some games have already begun.

    On Monday afternoon Mark Sheldon of Reds.com was watching a game between the Reds and Guardians minor leaguers and relayed the information that Jay Allen, the 30th overall pick in last years draft, had a 2-run triple and that Robbie Tenerowicz homered later in the inning.

    Tenerowicz, nicknamed Byrd, had a good 2021 season with Double-A Chattanooga. But if you look a little deeper, his season was a tale of two halves. In the first 36 games of the season he hit .228/.308/.281 with 7 walks and 40 strikeouts. In the remaining 57 games of the season he hit .286/.377/.587 with 20 walks and 49 strikeouts. The difference was night and day.

    The home run also means I get to share this, which took place after the home crowd was hounding him (the Lookouts were on the road) and he unloaded on a 467-foot home run.

    Dayton Dragons preview

    Over at the Dayton Dragons official website, broadcaster Tom Nichols has begun his yearly preview series where he’ll take a look at the potential Dragons players. So far he’s written about the catchers (Mat Nelson, Eric Yang, Daniel Vellojin, James Free) and the first basemen (Alex McGarry, Garrett Wolforth, Leonardo Seminati).

    The Dragons season begins in exactly one month. They will open up Friday April 8th at home against the Fort Wayne TinCaps. The minor league season itself will get started a few days earlier as Triple-A gets started on Tuesday April 5th thanks to a slightly longer season than the other leagues.

    Louisville Bats Podcast

    The Louisville Bats franchise turns 40 this season. With that will come plenty of celebration by the Reds Triple-A affiliate. Nick Curran, the Bats broadcaster, will also be doing a podcast this season looking back on the history of the franchise. The first episode is now live, though it’s titled Episode 0. It’s just an introduction and layout of what the podcast hopes to be.

    Doug Gray
    Doug Gray is the owner and operator of this website and has been running it since 2006 in one variation or another.

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    8 Responses

    2. I think Jay Allen will be a top 50 prospect in baseball 12 months from now. Seems like he is off to a good start.

    3. I think Tenerowicz had a shot at being taken in the Rule 5 draft, had it been held. Based solely on his 2nd half production. If (and I think in all fairness, when) the Rule 5 gets cancelled this year, I look forward to watching him in Louisville. I know he’s already 27, but he could round out into a nice bench piece in late 22 or 23.

      1. Reds signed him as a Minor League Free Agent last winter so can’t imagine his prospect status improved that much with a .264/.351/.823 line in AA. He was available for the price of his minor league contract last year and did not require a 40-man spot. Why now a year later pay the Rule V price and a roster spot and possibly releasing another player.

        1. He probably wouldn’t go to a club that’s already set in players. But a club like Pittsburgh, for instance, could take a chance on a guy that totally remade his swing, had the results to show for it after he adjusted to it in real game situations. He can also play first, second, and third. Showed some power and the ability to get on base. I think he’s exactly the type of guy that would have been selected in a normal year and evaluated during spring training.

    4. MLB is on the verge of creating a mess with AAA with this lockout. The mess will come if the minor league season starts and MLB spring training is going on.

      If that happens will the 27-40 players lose money because they were not in AAA at the start of the year like they normally would have been. Also will they lose development time or maybe fall behind others that start the year playing in AAA.

      Also what happens with NRI do they just leave AAA teams to go the MLB spring training also could these guys get a leg up on the 40 man guys to make teams.
      Example a guy like Knapp may have an advantage over Kozloszvary for the back up catcher.

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