Bailey sent to Louisville

It finally happened yesterday. Shouldn’t have really been a surprise to anyone, but there are some interesting things from Wayne Krivksy about it this morning on XM Radio. Wayne said that the Reds had Bailey (Photo: Brita Meng Outzen/MLB.com) working on specific things during the spring, including his mechanics (which was talked about a lot). Other things were his slider and his cutter. The Reds and Bailey discussed what that he needed to work on in AAA.

Louisville keeps winning

Louisville only has a few losses this spring and kept their winning ways going yesterday on the back of a strong start by Matt Maloney. The big lefty allowed 4 hits and a walk in 5 shutout innings while striking out 5 batters. Jay Bruce led the hitting attack with an RBI triple. Ryan Hanigan and Jerry Gil also had RBI doubles.  Luis Bolivar also had an RBI in the game.

Sorry about the updates, my Chicago trip was actually pushed back until Thursday so I have been gone the past two days and have a little catching up to do.

Spring Training Game Review 3/13/08 

Adam Rosales went 2-2 with an RBI and a double.

Drew Anderson (OF) went 0-1 with a walk.

Joey Votto went 0-2.

Jay Bruce went 0-2.

Chris Dickerson went 1-2 with a run.

Spring Training Game Review 3/14/08 vs Pirates

Chris Dickerson went 0-2.

Sean Henry went 1-1 with a walk in his spring debut for the Reds.

Luis Bolivar went 0-2.

Michael Griffin went 1-1 with a walk and a run.

Adam Rosales went 1-2 with a run.

Chris Valaika went 1-2 with a run in his spring debut.

Jay Bruce went 2-3 (now hitting .313).

Jerry Gil went 0-1.

Marcus McBeth went a perfect inning with a strikeout.

Brad Salmon struck out the side while mixing in a walk in his inning of work.

Tom Shearn allowed a hit in a scoreless inning of work.

Spring Training Game Review 3/14/08 vs Yankees 

Paul Janish went 0-1 with a walk.

Drew Anderson (OF) went 0-1.

Drew Stubbs went 0-1 with a run scored.

Joey Votto went 1-3.

Justin Turner went 0-1 with a run scored in his spring debut.

Ryan Hanigan went 1-3.

Juan Francisco went 1-2 with a run, RBI and a double.

Josh Roenicke and Pedro Viola each pitched a perfect inning of relief.

Daryl Thompson pitched a perfect 1.1 innings with a strikeout.

Roster Moves

Paul Janish and Chris Dickerson were optioned to AAA and Justin Lehr was reassigned to Minor League camp.

News

Tomorrow should be a solid update of lots of articles and some updates on some minor leaguers and how they are doing in their spring training.

2/28 Spring Training Game

Jerry Gil went 1-2 with a 3 run HR.

Chris Dickerson went 1-2 with a double.

Adam Rosales went 1-2 with a run.

Jay Bruce went 1-2 (Photo by Jeff Swinger/Enquirer).

Joey Votto went 1-3 with a run.

Baker on Bailey

This is from John Fay

“I think he’s in better position because his mechanics are better, allowing him to throw better strikes,” Baker said. “From what I hear, he was all arms and legs last year.”

There were whispers last year that Bailey wasn’t very coachable. Baker hasn’t seen that.

“Sometimes you need to fail to really listen,” Baker said. “He’s been all ears basically, which you like in a young player. But sometimes they have to fail before they listen.”

And apparently, it’s working.

“Dick Pole told me his side (sessions) were very good,” Baker said. “It’s getting better each side. I talked to him and he feels he’s improving, getting better, which is what you want to see.”

Thats is good to hear. I have been saying for quite a while now that the reason I would have had Bailey in the majors before he was completely ready is that nothing turns someone into a listener quicker than having struggles. Bailey seems to be another good example of that. He makes his spring debut in about 10 minutes along with Edinson Volquez. Hopefully they have a good day today. I should have up some pictures from todays game later on hopefully as I have some friends down at the game.

Spring Training Game Review

Chris Dickerson went 1-2

Jerry Gil went 1-2

Adam Rosales went 1-1 with a solo HR (Photo by Keith Srakocic/AP)

Joey Votto went 0-2

Jay Bruce went 1-2

Paul Janish went 0-1

Craig Tatum went 0-1

Brad Salmon went 1 inning, allowed a hit and a walk.

Baker says the young pitchers could start in the bullpen

From John Fay:

There’s no question that Johnny Cueto, Edinson Volquez and Homer Baiely have three of the best arms in camp. They’re being prepared as starters. So, if they don’t make the rotation, do they start the year in the minors?

“Not necessarily,” Dusty Baker said. “I come from the Dodger way. With young guys, the next best thing is long relief. It’s in between starting and relieving. It’s probably the less pressure on the staff because most of the time you’re coming in when you’re behind. We did it with Dave Burba in San Francisco, and he ended up winning nine, 10 games.

“Throw up zeros, so the offense can come back. You can’t let add on or trade runs. That’s where that guy is really important. If you’re not going to come back (and win games), you’re not going to win the pennant or the wild card. You need a guy who allows you to come back.”

Nolan Ryan, Johan Santana, Pedro Martinez, Don Gullett and Roy Oswalt are among the dominant starters who began their careers in the bullpen.

“A lot of young guys start out in long relief,” Baker said. “If a guy’s not going to start, that’s the next best thing.”

This will make for interesting decisions at the end. The Reds owe Mike Stanton and Todd Coffey a lot of money. They’re going to have to pay them regardless of whether they’re on the team or not. Sounds like Baker would like to go with 11 or 12 best arms.

Now of course we have to realize that Nolan Ryan had extreme control problems for almost his entire career, so starting him in the bullpen was a way to lessen the damage that was going to do. Johan Santana was also hidden away in the bullpen because he was a 20 year old with no experience above A ball just taken in the Rule V draft. That said, I don’t think it would be a horrible idea for one of them to start the year in the bullpen, but more than that and I think its a bad idea. You can only have one ‘long guy’ out of the bullpen and I think its counter productive to have a starting pitcher on the ‘Joba Chamberlain’ bullpen ride if you truly want them to be a starting pitcher.

Lisa Wintson has her 2008 Cincinnati Reds Milb Preview up

There is a TON of great information in this article, so be sure to go to the link and read the entire thing, but here is some of the highlights from it.

Devin Mesoraco, C
The Reds’ top pick in 2007 out of high school in Punxsutawney, Pa. may not be able to tell you if there will be six more weeks of winter in February, but he should be calling much bigger things before long as one of the rare five-tool catching prospects in the game.

Just 19, he is a good-hitting catcher whose arm seems fully recovered from the Tommy John surgery he underwent in 2006. He hit just .219 in 137 at-bats in the Gulf Coast League in his debut but the Reds feel confident that that was not indicative of his talent.

“He was pretty beat up and I’ve got to give him credit, he just hung in there and played hurt the whole season,” Reynolds said. “He went home, rested and had a great instructional league. He has great makeup and all the tools for the position.”

It is something that people often overlook when they see a players numbers and they aren’t the best looking. In this case, Mesoraco was playing with two hurt thumbs almost all season and just think about how difficult it would be to hit like that.

Drew Stubbs, OF
The Reds’ top pick in 2006 out of Texas was slowed in his first full season by a nagging case of turf toe that ultimately required surgery this past winter. Considered perhaps the best defensive outfielder in the system, the injury hampered his plus speed.

A 23-year-old with College World Series experience, Stubbs could move up quickly if he remains healthy. He has plus power and a strong arm that was good for 15 outfield assists at Dayton in ‘07, where he hit .270 with 12 homers and 43 RBIs. Despite the injury, his 23 steals were third most in the Reds organization.

Just like with Mesoraco, Stubbs was playing injured for the entire season, although his injury led to surgery in the offseason. Stubbs is one of the guys that I really want to see play healthy this year.

Carlos Fisher, RHP
Keep an eye on this Lewis-Clark State product this year as he moves from the rotation to the bullpen. He began the ‘07 campaign at Sarasota, going 4-1 with a 2.20 ERA in seven starts before moving up to Chattanooga, where he was 5-9 with a 4.29 ERA in 21 games.

His bread-and-butter pitch, a heavy sinker, should be more effective in the late innings and that’s where the 2005 11th-rounder should see the most time, either at Chattanooga or Louisville.

“He’s a good guy with good makeup and good stuff and we feel he’s gotten the innings he needed as a young pitcher, so now is the time for the move to the pen,” said Reynolds. “With his stuff he could be a real good relief pitcher.”

Looks like this move is one we should really follow. Fisher has a fastball that has gotten up to 94 MPH in the past although it generally is in the low 90’s. With him moving to the bullpen, I would love to see if he can dial it up just a little more knowing he is only going to be throwing 15-20 pitches a game instead of 90-100.

Daryl Thompson, RHP
Originally taken out of high school in Maryland by the Expos in the eighth round of the 2003 Draft, Thompson missed half of 2005 and most of 2006 with a torn labrum but was still a key cog in a multi-player deal with the Reds last summer. He made his Reds debut in 2007, and though still not yet 100 percent as the season began, he put up fine numbers.

The 22-year-old Thompson combined to go 14-5 with a 3.18 ERA at Dayton (5-0, 0.96 in five starts) and Sarasota (9-5, 3.77). His fastball is not back to its pre-surgery blaze, but it was still sitting in the low 90s and helping him lead the Reds organization in wins, finish second in ERA and fifth in strikeouts.

Another injury type guy who should be fully healthy this year, Thompson could start in AA and could be another guy who just steps forward a little bit thanks to being fully healthy.

That is just a few of the great things from the article. Seriously, go give it a read.

Paul Daugherty has a nice article on Jay Bruce and Joey Votto and their relationship with one another and what they hope for in the future.

Intrasquad Scrimmage

Johnny Cueto pitched an inning and recorded a groundout from Edwin Encarnacion and struck out David Ross and Chris Dickerson. Video of that is below. Jay Bruce went 1-3 with two ground outs and a single. Joey Votto had a rough day as he went 0-3 with 2 strikeouts. Matt Maloney allowed a hit to Jerry Gil (stolen base and went 2-2 with a double) and an unearned run while recording a strikeout. Richie Gardner allowed a walk and had a strikeout. Alexander Smit pitched an inning, allowed a single, walk and had a strikeout. Ryan Hanigan went 1-1 with a single and a stolen base. Josh Roenicke pitched an inning and allowed a double and an unearned run to go with a hit by pitch and a strikeout. Daryl Thompson allowed 3 singles and a double (Gil lost it in the sun, likely shouldn’t have been a double). Chris Dickerson went 1-3 with a double and a stolen base. Paul Janish made several very good plays defensively at SS and drew a walk. Ramon Ramirez allowed a single and had a strikeout in an inning of work. Tyler Pelland worked a 1-2-3 inning. Sergio Valenzuela was roughed up big time as he allowed a 3 run HR and 6 runs total in 2/3rds of an inning.

Video of Johnny Cueto taken by C. Trent Rosecrans of the game

He looked pretty good there, can’t wait to see him throw some more.Prospect articles and newsJohn Fay has this up on his blog where Dusty Baker talks about possibly putting the young starters into the bullpen role.

There’s no question that Johnny Cueto, Edinson Volquez and Homer Bailey have three of the best arms in camp. They’re being prepared as starters. So, if they don’t make the rotation, do they start the year in the minors?

“Not necessarily,” Dusty Baker said. “I come from the Dodger way. With young guys, the next best thing is long relief. It’s in between starting and relieving. It’s probably the less pressure on the staff because most of the time you’re coming in when you’re behind. We did it with Dave Burba in San Francisco, and he ended up winning nine, 10 games.

“Throw up zeros, so the offense can come back. You can’t let add on or trade runs. That’s where that guy is really important. If you’re not going to come back (and win games), you’re not going to win the pennant or the wild card. You need a guy who allows you to come back.”

Nolan Ryan, Johan Santana, Pedro Martinez, Don Gullett and Roy Oswalt are among the dominant starters who began their careers in the bullpen.

“A lot of young guys start out in long relief,” Baker said. “If a guy’s not going to start, that’s the next best thing.”

This will make for interesting decisions at the end. The Reds owe Mike Stanton and Todd Coffey a lot of money. They’re going to have to pay them regardless of whether they’re on the team or not. Sounds like Baker would like to go with 11 or 12 best arms.

Hal McCoy has an article up on Matt Maloney in the Dayton Daily News. Here are some of the better excerpts from it:

“He not only has good breaking stuff, he has deception and late movement on his fastball,” Baker said. “He has control and he is not afraid to throw the ball inside on right-handers, which is one of the toughest things to teach a left-handed pitcher. A lot of them don’t like to try that because the ball tends to creep back over the heart of the plate.

“Most of the left-handers I didn’t like facing were guys who could throw their fastballs inside,” Baker added.

Baker didn’t put Maloney into the same category as Jerry Koosman and Frank Tanana, “Left-handers who were nasty on everybody,” but said Maloney appears to be trying to do what they did.

Matt Maloney throws during the intrasquad game (Photo: Jeff Swinger)

Mark Sheldon has a piece up on Richie Gardner on reds.com. Here are some of the better excerpts from that article.

Pained and discouraged by the long, slow slog that is shoulder surgery rehab, pitcher Richie Gardner once considered chucking his big league dream, packing his bag and going home to California.

What stopped him? His wife, Heather.

“My wife is what kept me going,” Gardner said. “I wanted to quit. Well, I didn’t want to quit, but at times it got so rough that I felt like, ‘Why am I doing this?’ She was on me and told me to give it two years. If it’s not back after two years, I could shut it down. It took about a year and a half.”

“It was terrible. It really was,” Gardner said. “It’s probably the worst thing a player can go through.”

In 2004, Gardner won the Sheldon “Chief” Bender Award as the Reds’ Minor League Player of the Year as he led the farm system with a 2.53 ERA. In 2005, USA Today named Gardner the Reds’ best pitching prospect.

The surgery forced Gardner to start over. In 2006, he was with the Gulf Coast League and Class A Sarasota and made nine starts. Last year, he got back on track.

“I couldn’t even throw from the windup last Spring Training,” Gardner said. “When the season started, [Sarasota pitching coach] Tom Brown helped me. He kind of got my motion and rhythm back. Everything was good from there.”

“It’s a remarkable story,” Reds Minor League director Terry Reynolds said. “A year ago, he was stuck in rehab wondering if he could pitch again. His attitude was great. He knows how to pitch. I don’t know if he’s back to where he was, but he’s close. He’s kind of right back on schedule.”

The Reds added Gardner to their 40-man roster in November, which brought him to big league camp this spring.

“It’s a great reward for the work he put in,” Reynolds said.

The right-handed Gardner said his velocity is back up to the high 80s and 90 mph.

“It’s exciting. I can’t say that I can’t sleep because I’m tired,” Gardner said. “But I’m excited every time I wake up. Two years ago and last year, I was basically on the rack. I had no idea if I was going to play well again like I was capable of.

“My arm strength is different. I don’t get as tired. I feel like I can extend better. It’s just easier to pitch.”

I really hope Gardner gets his chance in the majors. He is a great story and from everything I have read, a real good guy.