Monday news and notes

While I actually wrote about it two weeks ago, the Reds will not have Shin-Soo Choo returning after he signed a 7-year, $130M deal with the Texas Rangers. That puts the Reds in the position where they will be moving forward with Billy Hamilton as their center fielder to start the 2014 season. Due to the Reds extending a qualifying offer to Choo, they will pick up an additional draft pick after the first round in the 2014 draft. With the way things currently stand, that will give them the 20th pick in the draft and the 31st pick.

Baseball America has up the latest transactions. Along with the signing of Chien-Ming Wang the Reds also signed Ruben Gotay. Gotay has spent parts of four season in the Majors, but the last time was in 2008. He will be 31-years-old next season, and likely just some added depth for the Louisville roster. He hit .279/.366/.438 last season.  He has shown a good approach throughout his career, but hasn’t shown much power when adjusting for the Pacific Coast League.

Winter League Update

Neftali Soto has been on fire lately in the Puerto Rican Winter League, hitting .351/.385/.459 over his last 10 games, though most of the damage has come over the last 6 games where he has gone 11-20 with a double, HR and a walk.

Juan Silverio has only played 13 games in the Dominican Winter League,  but he has made most of his appearances in December and made them count. He has hit .412/.400/.588 over the last 10 games with 3 doubles, a home run and 8 RBI.

New Red Max Ramirez has been on fire in Venezuela, hitting .379/.471/.517 over his last 10 games with 4 doubles, 4 RBI and 4 walks spanning the last two weeks.

Felix Perez has had an interesting winter league so far. He played 41 games in Venezuela before heading to the Mexican Winter League where he has spent the last three weeks. After a slow start, he has hit .381/.422/.619 in his last 10 games with 4 doubles, 2 home runs and 10 RBI.

Daniel Corcino is still pitching well down in the Dominican. He is up to 10.1 innings where he has a 1.74 ERA with 1 walks and 12 strikeouts. After pitching every 5 days between his first four appearances, he has been appearing more frequently making appearances on 3 days rest, 2 days rest, 3 days rest and 1 day of rest over his last few appearances.

Jose Diaz has been dominant in the Dominican Winter League where he has a 2.37 ERA in 19 innings pitched. Over his last 10 games he has been even better, throwing 9.1 innings with a 1.93 ERA, 4 walks and 7 strikeouts.

Here are the stats for everyone playing winter ball.

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