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.

I am still working on running the numbers on several guys for a new little stat I was introduced to the other day by Adam Foster (of Projectprospect.com). So I decided to put up some quotes from Dusty Baker and others on the prospects in Spring Training.

Here are some things Dusty Baker had to say about Jay Bruce:

“We’re trying to get best pieces of the puzzle and do what’s best for everybody concerned, now and for later,” Baker said. “I haven’t seen Bruce play. On the other hand, you see [Ken Griffey Jr.] came in at 19. Corey Patterson looked like he was rushed a little bit on to the Cubs and didn’t get time to mature.

“It’s like raising your kids — you don’t know if you did it right until later. You hope you did it right. It’s something that’s very hard to judge — when is now?”

Bruce, 20, was the Baseball America Minor League Player of the Year and blasted through three levels last season to Triple-A.

“It’s no secret that this guy is a star of the future,” Baker said. “He could be a star of the present, who knows? I’m very impressed talking with him, but there’s more to baseball than just hitting, too.”

Here is what Dusty Baker and AAA pitching coach Ted Power had to say about the pitching situation with the Cueto (pictured first), Bailey and Maloney.

“We’ve got enough people,” manager Dusty Baker said. “We’ve got some pretty good arms. It depends on how some of them mature. It depends on how their attitude and application for learning is.”

“Stuff-wise? Yes,” Power said. “I haven’t been around long enough and seen enough guys get to the big leagues to be an expert. But they have good stuff.”

On Matt Maloney:

“You’re used to left-handers having that stuff that tails away from right-handed hitters,” he said. “He doesn’t have that.”

“When he’s on, Homer has nasty stuff,” Power said. “Cueto was very impressive every time he pitched. Their stuff is pretty damn good.”

Seriously how great is it to just see baseball pictures again?

Second Photo: Sergio Valenzuela taking bunting practice

My brother is pretty skilled with Photoshop and made me a background for my desktop. I liked it and thought I would share it with you guys in case anyone else wanted to use it. It is currently on the Multimedia page, but I figure I would link it here too.  Below is a smaller sample:

Click here for the 800×600 version.

Click here for the 1024×768 version.

Reds.com has up an article looking at the bullpen for 2008. They talked about guys like Marcus McBeth, Sergio Valenzuela and Josh Roenicke. Each of those guys could break with the Reds, although Roenicke is the least likely despite being the most talented. I do wonder why that Tyler Pelland is talked about in the article. He is on the 40 man roster and has had success in AAA as well as quality stuff to get the job done. I just found it odd that he was not even mentioned in the article at all.

Justin has up some interesting stuff on both the defensive infielders in the system as well as some stuff he did for The Hardball Times Season Preview 2008 where he gives a sample of his comments on Jay Bruce. While I don’t put much into the numbers that Justin linked to for the infielders because they are based against the league, not the entire minors it is still interesting to take a look at.

Like Part 1 of this series, this idea spawned from what Justin did a couple of days ago on the Reds future payroll commitments. Today though I wanted to take a look at the pitching staff.

The Starting Rotation

Lets assume that right now (and its not really that big of an assumption) that Harang, Arroyo and Belisle are three-fifths  of the Reds starting rotation for at least 2008. Matt Belisle is under control through the 2010 season before he is eligible for Free Agency. Both Aaron Harang and Bronson Arroyo have contracts through 2010 with options on each for 2011. There is also Edinson Volquez who looks to be a solid bet to also join the rotation but is less locked in than Belisle. Volquez, who was one of the players (and the main player) received for Josh Hamilton, is under contract through 2011. The wild card though is Jeremy Affeldt. He is only under contract for 2008, but is shooting for the rotation after being a bullpen arm for the past few years.

For as much as I like Belisle as a back of the rotation guy (unless he takes Aaron Harang type steps forward) he is going to have to hold off a bunch of strong candidates over the next few years. First there is the cream of the crop in Homer Bailey and Johnny Cueto who both will be Reds property for 6 years from at least this season. After that there is a group that could include Matt Maloney, Richie Gardner, Sam Lecure, Travis Wood and Carlos Fisher who all could develop into middle to back of the rotation type starters if not better. Wood has the highest upside of anyone in that group, but is also the furthest away as he is likely to begin the season in Sarasota while the rest of the group has a shot to begin in Louisville, although Chattanooga could be a destination for Lecure or Fisher.

The Bullpen

Last season the Reds bullpen was nearly a full run worse than just the Major League average bullpen. Lets assume that the 2008 Bullpen will at least break with Cordero, Weathers and Jared Burton. That leaves up 4 spots in the bullpen for a group full of guys between veterans and prospects. The veterans that could make the bullpen would include Todd Coffey, Mike Stanton, Gary Majewski, Bill Bray and Jeremy Affeldt (if he doesn’t break camp as a part of the rotation, he is likely in the bullpen, leaving just 3 open spots). There is also a group of prospects that will be in spring training with possibilities of leaving Sarasota on a plane back to Cincinnati. Guys such as Jon Coutlangus, Brad Salmon and Marcus McBeth have big league experience, while Tyler Pelland (pictured above), Ramon Ramirez, Sergio Valenzuela and Josh Roenicke all lack the big league experience but may have the stuff and ability to help out.

David Weathers is in his final year of his contract, while Cordero is signed through 2011 with an optional 5th year. Jared Burton is under control through 2012. Those two are the only true options right now, while guys like Coffey, Majewski and Bray will need to prove that they are good enough to be on the roster. The bullpen looks quite unstable moving forward, but it seems that the talent is close even for this year and that doesn’t include guys such as Sean Watson or Pedro Viola who aren’t coming to Spring Training with the Reds this year but have good stuff and project to be valuable to a bullpen one day.