No Friday Chat today guys, sorry. A lot of stuff to get done today and I am waiting for some furniture to be delivered and with a nice 5 hour window who knows when they will show up.
C Trent has been getting it done out in Arizona. Here is a nice little run down of what he has been posting the last 24 hours or so.
Video of Aroldis Chapman against the Brewers where he struck out 5 in 3 innings of work. CNati.com also busted out the “Chapmania” shirt that makes me want to just rip it off of myself and listen to the crowd roar (if you don’t get the reference after looking at the shirt, I am sure someone will explain it to you).
Then there is an article on Todd Frazier and looking at where he could fit in and how he views the different positions that he has played and could play. I will be honest, I can’t remember any teams top prospect, or one of their top prospects not having even the slightest clue of a home by this age or level in the minors. Of course none of that is Frazier’s fault nor is it an issue of him being unable to play defense. Its just strange at this point.
Last but not least is this quote from Barry Larkin from his morning article on Thursday about Miguel Rojas, who left him very impressed.
Chatted for a second with Barry Larkin. He said he’s been having a blast working with the minor leaguers.
He mentioned, in particular, shortstop Miguel Rojas, “he’s special,” Larkin said.
The Reds also made some roster moves today, optioning and assigning these players to the minors: Alonso, Bray, Smith, Mesoraco, Valiquette, Adkins, Del Rosario, Valaika, Lecure and Viola.
The Reds also received back Ben Jukich from the Cardinals after they couldn’t make a trade work. Jukich was then sent to the minors by the Reds.
Mark Sheldon has up an article over on Reds.com about Juan Francisco. This really stood out to me from the article, and its been what people have been saying for two years now about Francisco:
Francisco still has work to do because he frustrates the club because he swings at pitches out of the zone. What makes matters worse, Baker said, is that the slugger can hit those wild pitches — and hit them hard.
There are guys who can indeed hit “bad” pitches, but there aren’t many guys who can do it consistently well. Francisco isn’t one of those guys and you can see it by looking at his strikeout rates. The only guy I can think of in the majors right now who can be that guy and hit the pitches out of the zone with authority is Pablo Sandoval. Vlad used to be able to, but his power is about gone at this point. Do yourself a favor though and avoid reading the comments on the article at Reds.com. The most recent one makes me want to rip my brain out and stomp on it. Here is the quote:
Fransisco is alot like Price Fielder of the Brewers
Sure, if by a lot like Prince Fielder you mean they both play baseball for a living and in organizations in the National League central. After the power, any and all comparisons stop. Prince Fielder walked 110 times last season. Juan Francisco has 75 walks as a professional in 4 season in the United States. Where do people come up with these comparisons?
The Reds also played a game yesterday, here is how the prospects performed:
- Zack Cozart went 1-3.
- Danny Dorn went 0-1.
- Eric Eymann went 0-1.
- Michael Griffin went 0-1.
- Denis Phipps went 1-2.
- Alex Buchholz went 0-2.
- Chris Valaika went 0-2.
- Devin Mesoraco went 1-1 with a triple that was really a single played into a triple on a terrible route by the center fielder. Hit all the way, but Devin got two more bases out of it than he would on the exact same hit 20 more times.
- Enerio Del Rosario allowed a run on 2 hits (monster HR by Hafner) in 1.1 innings.
- Pedro Viola pitched a shutout inning of work with a strikeout.
- Sam Lecure allowed 3 runs in 1 inning on 4 hits and a walk.