The Louisville Bats projected roster will be pushed back until tomorrow.
The Reds sent Billy Hamilton and Drew Hayes to the minor leagues from camp yesterday. Billy Hamilton really struggled this spring, hitting just .174/.240/.348 with 9 strikeouts and 2 walks in 25 plate appearances. Drew Hayes threw 4.2 innings with 3 walks, 3 strikeouts and a 3.86 ERA. Neither move is a surprise as neither guy was really competing for a job. Hamilton has long been talked about by the front office to be heading to Louisville. Hayes on the other hand could reasonably be expected in either Louisville or in Pensacola. While his ERA was a strong 3.41 with the Blue Wahoos last year, his walk rate was also 5.4/9ip last season. Ashley Marshall has a little bit more on Hamilton from Milb.com.
Speaking of Billy Hamilton, C. Trent Rosecrans had this up on Cincinnati.com yesterday from a scout on Hamilton:
Talked to one scout last night who raved about Billy Hamilton in center field. This one scout said he’s going to be the team’s CF for years and years to come. Said he was “special.” The scout said the one thing he liked best about Hamilton (other than, you know, the ridiculous speed) was his fearlessness. He loved how Hamilton made people get him out and didn’t make it easy on the other team.
Andrew Ball has an article up at Beyond the Box Score about an automated prospect list that was presented at the Sloan Conference by The Hardball Times writer Adam Guttridge. . The automation is more about trying to rank prospects based on stats (normalized for age, playing environments and adding the writers own “pedigree and defensive values” to help the rankings). As anyone who has read this site long enough, you will know that I love using stats. With that said, I simply can’t get behind a system that doesn’t heavily utilize scouting. A perfect example would be a young, but very toolsy player. Our own Jonathan Reynoso is a fine example. Statistically speaking, he was not good at all in 2011 at age 18 (which isn’t young for the Dominican Summer League). Despite that, the Reds saw the tools in action and brought him to the US to play against a much higher level of competition and he wound up going from unknown, below-average performer to well known and above-average performer who was viewed as a strong prospect.