The Cincinnati Reds will be allowing scouts at their alternate training site in Louisville this year for both workouts and for games according to Eric Longenhagen of Fangraphs. The team will also be allowing scouts at the facility in Goodyear for minor league spring training.
Last year some teams didn’t opt into data and video sharing among teams at their alternate sites. Ten teams opted to not share video from their sites, but Cincinnati was one of the twenty teams that did opt into the sharing model.
Along with the Reds, the Red Sox, Cubs, Rockies, Tigers, Astros, Royals, Marlins, Brewers, Twins, Yankees, Mets, Athletics, Padres, Rays, and Rangers are also allowing scouts access to both workouts and games at both the spring training and alternate sites. Some teams are allowing game access at one or both, some just game access at one or the other, with the Braves, White Sox, Mariners, and Cardinals allowing no access to scouts anywhere.
Jonathan India’s last year
Last summer Jonathan India was the talk of the alternate site at Prasco Park. He was performing well at the plate and he was making good progress at second base on the defensive side of things. While there weren’t many people that I could talk to about what was happening at the alternate site, nearly everyone I did talk to brought up India – whether I was asking about him specifically or not, because he was catching the attention of everyone.
When spring training began, India was in “early minor league camp” and not an official invite to big league spring training. Things in 2021 are a little bit different than in past spring trainings, so that designation isn’t quite like being in minor league camp in past years. Still, it did signify that he probably wasn’t getting a real look at a spot on the club. Things started changing quickly, though, as he started performing well and turning heads once again.
The Reds brass took notice and officially “promoted” him with an official invitation to big league camp in the middle of March. Around that same time the team announced that they would be trying out Eugenio Suárez at shortstop, sliding Mike Moustakas to third base, and inserting India at second base. With only a few days remaining in the spring, that plan is still holding strong. And Jonathan India is still hitting well, too. Entering the game on Friday afternoon he’s hitting .333/.458/.590 with four doubles, two homers, five walks and eight strikeouts in 48 plate appearances.
While nothing is official yet, ever since Suárez slid to shortstop, it’s been India at second base most days. The team hasn’t really been giving anyone else a look at the spot. General Manager Nick Krall has said that the plan is to put the best team on the field on Opening Day. We’ll have to wait and see if that happens, and we’ll really know if they hold to that if we see Suárez at shortstop and India at second base. If Suárez is deemed incapable of playing shortstop, that pushes him to third and Mike Moustakas back to second, that then means you could have India back to the alternate site and or Triple-A. But if second base is open and India isn’t the guy there, then we can question whether they are going with the best lineup they could. With the news this afternoon that the Reds released Dee Strange-Gordon, it looks more and more likely that India’s getting the nod.
Daytona Tortugas announce coaching staff
The Daytona Tortugas are about a month behind everyone else in announcing their coaching staff, but they have finally released their coaching staff details for the 2021 season.
Gookie Dawkins will be the manager. In 2020 he was slated to manage the Dayton Dragons, but with the cancelled minor league season that never happened. With the levels switching for Dayton and Daytona, Dawkins will still be slated to manage the Low-A affiliate this year – it just happens that now that is going to be in Daytona. He last managed for the now defunct Greeneville Reds in 2018 and 2019.
Forrest Herrmann will be making his organizational coaching debut. He came on prior to the 2020 season and was going to be the pitching coach for the Billings Mustangs, but with that team no longer in affiliated baseball (or with the Reds), he’s moving on up the chain and taking over as the pitching coach for the Tortugas.
Darryl Brinkley will be the Daytona hitting coach. He’s in his 6th season with the organization. He last served as the hitting coach in 2019 with the Billings Mustangs. Last year he was supposed to be the hitting coach for Dayton.
Dick Schofield will be one of the Tortugas Development Coach. Schofield managed Triple-A Louisville in 2018 (he originally was their bench coach, but took over as manager in mid-April when then manager Pat Kelly was promoted to the Major League coaching staff) and was their bench coach in 2019.
Reggie Williams will be the other Tortugas Development Coach. He’s in his 4th year with the organization. In 2020 he was supposed to be the bench coach with the Greeneville Reds. Prior to that he had served in the role the previous two seasons with Greeneville.