On Friday John Sickels did a review of his preseason Cincinnati Reds Top 20 prospects. He still thinks they are a middle-of-the-pack farm system, though he also hasn’t gotten into the research for the system either and when he does I think it will change his opinion. A good example of that would be that he didn’t mention Sal Romano at all in the post-review wrap up where he discussed guys that weren’t in the Top 20 coming into the year.
Baseball Prospectus has up their first article that is Reds related in the post Jason Parks era. Unfortunately it’s not a good one as it’s about Robert Stephenson being one of the most disappointing prospects of the year. With high expectations come disappointments I guess. There were some legit concerns, but I see things a little differently than Ethan Purser does on quite a few things with Stephenson moving forward that give me a better feeling about his future.
In the last few days the Cincinnati Reds have made two changes to their Arizona Fall League roster contributions. Infielder Ryan Wright has been removed from the roster and infielder Juan Perez has been added in his place. Left handed reliever Ryan Dennick has also been added to the roster for the final spot.
Perez spent his entire season in Bakersfield where he hit .267/.307/.427 in 483 plate appearances. He spent a majority of his time at second base but also played 26 games at shortstop, four games at third and one game in left field. Perez is on the “taxi squad” portion of the roster and will only be eligible to play on Wednesdays.
Dennick is currently pitching with the Reds after spending nearly all of his season with Louisville (he threw 0.1 innings with Pensacola). He threw 50.0 innings on the season with a 2.34 ERA, 18 walks and 40 strikeouts. He didn’t allow a home run in the minors all season but he has allowed two in the big leagues over three appearances out of the bullpen.