Todd Frazier and Brandon Waring are both slated to begin their 2008 seasons with the Dayton Dragons. One of them makes perfect sense and the other one leaves me confused.
Brandon Waring is a perfect candidate to start in Dayton. He is a good prospect, but needs to tune his swing in a little bit as he is a bit of a free swinger (who self notedly swings for the fences at times). Dayton is a fine place for a guy who is a little rough around the edges to work on things. Top it off that Juan Francisco is also a 3rd baseman and should be in Sarasota this year and everything comes together.
Todd Frazier to Dayton leaves me confused. A first round pick (supplemental) out of college with lots of polish has no reason to start in Dayton. Frazier hit .319/.405/.538 last year with only 6 more strikeouts than walks in over 200 plate appearances. He is going to be playing shortstop, so the question to ask would be, who is slated to play shortstop in Sarasota next year? Last years shortstops in Dayton were Chris Valaika (who was moved off of SS in the Hawaiian Winter League by the Reds), Justin Tordi and Zach Cozart. Cozart is the best defensive shortstop in the system, so he is going to be playing the position somewhere. There is no way the Reds are sending him to Sarasota and keeping Frazier in Dayton, are they? Frazier is far and away the more advanced of the two players. Cozart may have a glove made of gold, and his bat is better than he showed last year, but it still needs plenty of work. While I don’t know the plan for Cozart is, there seems to be evidence supporting the idea that he will begin in Sarasota playing SS over Frazier.
When the full season rosters come out, I will be very surprised if Frazier isn’t the only top 2 round college position player in Low A baseball despite the fact he is one of the most polished guys from the draft.
Vote in the new poll if you want, I would like to see if I am alone in my thinking.