Sebastian Elizalde has gotten out to one heck of a start in the Mexican Winter League. The Cincinnati Reds first base/outfield prospect has played in seven games (the seventh is actually happening as I type this). He’s racked up at least one hit in each game. On Tuesday night, in a game that didn’t start until 11:45pm on the east coast, and lasted 4 hours and 22 minutes after that, Elizalde went 2-4 with two walks, two doubles, an RBI and two runs scored. He continued that last night by homering in his first at-bat of the game. It was his second of the season. It’s 11:30 and the game is still in the 3rd inning, so at the time I type this he’s hitting .458/.551/.875 with five walks, four doubles, two home runs and three strikeouts.
Here’s video of the home run, courtesy of the official Culiacan twitter account
¡HOMERUN! @S_Elizalde24 la manda a volar y nos vamos al frente.
Tras media entrada:? #Tomateros 1?
? @AguilasDeMxli 0?#VamosXel11 ?? pic.twitter.com/Fgxa6UaPrS— Tomateros Culiacán (@clubtomateros) October 19, 2017
On the same note, it started out as a good evening for Blake Trahan. Getting the start at shortstop for Scottsdale he’s 2-3 with two steals and a run scored as the game enters the bottom of the 5th. He’s hitting .333 in the early parts of the Arizona Fall League.
Jose Peraza made his Venezuelan Winter League debut on Tuesday night. He went 2-4 with a triple, steal, run scored and an RBI. Mark Sheldon of Reds.com had an article up talking about the debut and had some quotes from the end of the regular season from Peraza about his plans for the winter. This quote is what stuck out for me from the article, though:
I’m preparing myself. I’m going to play shortstop there because I want to be ready for next year,” Peraza said. “I don’t think it’s one thing I have to work on. But playing down there and playing shortstop every day will give me a better idea of how to play here in the big leagues for next year.
With Zack Cozart’s impending free agency, Jose Peraza is the most likely option to fill the shortstop role for the Reds. In 2017 he split time between second and short, with 55 games coming at shortstop. Through two games in Venezuela, though, Jose Peraza hasn’t played shortstop. He has started both games at second. Instead, Humberto Arteaga has started at shortstop for Magallanes. He’s a 23-year-old prospect in the Royals system with a career minor league OPS of .588. Of course, he’s not playing shortstop because of his bat. In 2010-2012 he was named as the best defensive infielder in the Kansas City organization. It’s weird that as soon as he stopped hitting he stopped being rated so highly defensively.
Perhaps it’s just a short term thing, but it would be good for the Reds, and for Jose Peraza, if he could get some action at shortstop this winter. Thus far, it hasn’t happened, but the season is only a week old. On Wednesday night he did find success at the plate, going 2-4 with a walk, RBI and two runs scored.
Who hates the Reds?
In a “That’s really weird” scenario, apparently the Cincinnati Reds are the most hated team in the states of Montana, Missouri, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. At least according to this tweet, with this image:
Most hated MLB teams by each state pic.twitter.com/hR7tU2fCFK
— Real McCoy Baseball (@REALMcCOYMINORS) October 18, 2017
There was no link to where the information came from, but I was able to eventually find out. The data is based on a reddit user poll. That’s not exactly scientific, but it’s not exactly nothing either. It’s rather interesting that the Reds would be the most hated team in Montana of all places. I don’t know who the favorite team in the state would be, but I can’t figure out how that would relate to hating the Reds. There are four minor league teams in that state and the Reds have one and it’s been affiliated with them since the mid-70’s. Missouri makes some sense because of the Cardinals, though I would have guessed the Cubs there. Though perhaps there are Cubs fans in the state who also hate the Reds? Pennsylvania because of the Pirates makes some sense. West Virginia is tough to figure out, though I guess there’s probably plenty of Pirates fans in the state.
It seems that Canada hates the Yankees and Red Sox. And for some weird reason the Padres and White Sox. I guess Detroit never forgave Reggie Jackson and the Athletics for Reggie Reggie Oxen Free hitting the transformer in the 1971 All-Star game.