Wow.

That is simply all that I can say. The Reds have not been huge in the international free agent market in terms  of throwing large amounts of money at players, but it sounds like they found a kid they really liked as well and decided to pay him for his skills.  It is the highest international bonus the Reds have ever paid and the third highest signing bonus ever (Gruler and Bailey both got more, Stubbs got the same).

I am going to paraphrase some things now from the article, but his power potential is literally the highest it can go on the scouting scale. The Reds talk about him as if he is a better prospect at the same age than Angel Villona, who at the age of 17 just ranked as the #33 prospect in the BA top 100.

Check out the entire article at Baseball America. I, for one, am pretty excited after reading it.

Sorry for no updates yesterday, some things came up and I didn’t get into the house until 8am this morning before crashing.

Spring Training Game Review - 3/3/08

Chris Dickerson - 0-3

Ryan Hanigan - 0-1

Drew Anderson (INF) - 1-3

Drew Anderson (OF) - 2-2 with a walk and a run

Joey Votto - 0-2

Paul Janish - 0-2

Adam Rosales - 0-2

Player News and Updates 

Jay Bruce just got one step closer to Louisville. The Reds have signed Corey Patterson to a minor league contract. I can’t say I have a problem with that, but its just one more reason to send Bruce to the minors. Baker has been making comments all spring training setting up Jay Bruce to not make the team and this is just one more nail in the coffin, and given that Jay is sitting out for a few days isn’t going to help much either. With that said, he was running around today, said he feels fine but they want to take a few days and not rush him back to early.

Homer Bailey will pitch Wednesday against the Red Sox. That should be interesting to follow. Johnny Cueto starts on Friday against Pittsburgh. Neither game is on the radio and since MLB won’t allow John Fay or C Trent to blog live about the games anymore, following along is going to be tough to do in real time. Thanks MLB, outside of your actual product, you suck.

Edinson Volquez and Johnny Cueto could be a nice part of the pitching staff in ‘08 (Photo: Al Behrman/AP)