Going off of yesterdays question about Jordan Smith making the transition to the bullpen, C Trent has an answer for us today. It does appear that Smith will be moving to the bullpen this season after starting for his career since being drafted. Smith has a sinker that works 88-92, but has hit 95 in the past. He also has an above average slider. With these two pitches he could be a very good reliever in the near future, even though he was roughed up yesterday.
Alex Eisenberg is well into his way covering the Reds at his site Baseball-Intellect.com. There are articles up on Travis Wood, the group of Alonso, Frazier, Francisco and Heisey and the first part of his Top 15 Prospects in the last day. The site does need a subscription to see most of the articles, but it come flush with full scouting reports and some video.
Speaking of video, I updated the video page yesterday with some new links from videos from spring training. I also made the new additions bold, to make them easier to find.
Also on the video front, Corey Brinn has up some video from the minor league intrasquad game yesterday at his site. Go check it out.
Hal McCoy has some stuff up on the youngsters in his most recent article. This quote stuck out to me most though, about Juan Francisco:
“He still has work to do because he is extremely aggressive,” said Baker. “He has a problem with pitch selection, so pitchers start to go out of the zone on him, knowing he’ll chase ‘em. I’m confident he’ll make the adjustment. Those other teams read what you do.”
It’s good to see that the Reds know about the issue. I have seen Francisco make adjustments in small doses in the past. Lets hope Dusty is correct in his faith of Francisco being ab;e to adjust.
Here is how the prospects performed in Mondays game:
- Yonder Alonso went 0-2.
- Chris Heisey went 0-2.
- Juan Francisco went 1-3 with a run.
- Devin Mesoraco went 1-1.
- Travis Wood allowed a run on 1 hit and 3 walks in 3 innings with 4 strikeouts.
- Mike Leake struck out 4 and allowed a hit in 2 innings.
Don’t forget to sign up for the Tournament Pick ’em at Yahoo to compete with other readers of the site. If you want to join, the information is below:
- Where – Yahoo Fantasy Sports
- Group ID #92969
- Password – jaybruce
And if you haven’t signed up for the message board, you should. If you aren’t following me on twitter, you should be.