The Reds were shut out in the game yesterday. Here is how the prospects performed in the game:
- Zack Cozart went 0-1 with a walk.
- Donald Lutz went 0-2.
- Denis Phipps went 0-2.
- Daryl Jones went 0-1.
- Kristopher Negron went 0-1.
- Devin Mesoraco went 0-2.
- Brian Esposito went 0-2.
- Tucker Barnhart went 0-1.
Not a good day for the Reds, who managed just three total hits.
Bernie Pleskoff has an article on on Reds.com that takes a look at the Reds future, focusing on the prospects. He looks at Didi Gregorius, Devin Mesoraco, Denis Phipps, Neftali Soto and Daniel Corcino. Pleskoff is a former MLB scout and here is what he had to say about Daniel Corcino.
At 5-feet-11, Corcino gets the most out of his lower body in his delivery. He works hard on the mound, almost to the point of being violent. If he cleans up his mechanics by slowing down the moving parts and repeating a smoother delivery, Corcino will be very special. He has to be careful not to exhaust himself with his delivery. For now, however, the “stuff” is developing and he’s learning how to pitch.
Go check out the entire article, there is some good scouting tidbits for each guy in there.
Fangraphs has been doing its positional rankings going into the season and shortstop came up yesterday. The Reds came in at #20, led by Zack Cozart getting most of the playing time.
Cozart is both the prospect and the starter — which is, y’know, a little terrifying usually. Wilson Valdez is out of options, so he wins the bench job by default. Don’t expect a whole lot of offense from this region, but it should be noted that Cozart was a capable hitter in the minors and Marcel predicts a .330 wOBA, which is his most optimistic projection.
I like Cozart to outperform his projection shown there, which I think likely places too much weight on his 2010 season.I figure him to be in the .750 OPS range rather than the .700 range. His cut in strikeouts and improvement in his hit tool is what I liked the most about his 2011 season and I believe it was a true step forward over what he had done previously.