John Fay has up some video from a “B” game on his blog at Cincinnati.com. The video features clips from Yonder Alonso, Juan Francisco, Matt Klinker and Dave Sappelt. The interesting thing about the video is that the video is from a side angle and someone pointed out that Sappelt has again changed his swing from last season. I made a post earlier this offseason showing the changes that he made from 2009 to 2010, but he has again made a few changes. Sappelt has his hands pre-set to where he was dropping them to in 2010, and his stance is more spread out and incorporates a much shorter stride than he had in 2010. Ultimately it seems that he is at the same point during contact as he was in 2010, but there are fewer moving parts than in 2010.
Tom Nichols, the voice of the Dayton Dragons has up Part 2 of his Season Preview, this time looking at potential first base options for the Dragons. The main players that he looks at are Jaren Matthews, Dominic D’Anna and Robert Maddox. Nichols also notes that Jonathan Kaskow has indicated to the Reds that he plans to retire instead of continuing to play. Last season Kaskow hit .224/.370/.345 in Billings and .079/.167/.158 in two weeks for the Dragons. He also notes that Donald Lutz is likely to be looked at in the outfield rather than first base.
The Yankees are pretty upset about not landing Aroldis Chapman and are reportedly suing his agents. The Yankees reportedly made an offer to Chapman worth $54M. He agreed to the Reds offer that paid him just $30.25M, but it could be much more than that when he reaches arbitration if he performs.
Jonathan Mayo published his Reds Top 10 yesterday on Reds.com, but over on his blog he has his OMG (One More Guy): Cincinnati Reds post up and he looks at Donnie Joseph. Go check it out.
Here is how the Reds prospects performed in the win over the Royals on Tuesday afternoon:
- Felix Perez went 1-2 with an RBI.
- Neftali Soto went 0-1.
- Devin Mesoraco went 0-1 with a walk.
- Chris Valaika went 1-2 with a walk and a run.
- Ronald Torreyes went 1-1 with a double (what looks like a hanging change up on GameDay) and a run.
- Andrew Means went 0-2.
- Sam LeCure threw 2 shutout innings with no walk and 4 strikeouts.