Loading ...Doug has begun counting down his top forty Reds prospects. The first installment is here; be sure to check out Doug’s website daily for the rest of the list.
Second installment
Third installment (And one that will hold particular interest for RN fans)
Last installment
After he has revealed the entire list, Doug is going to join us on the podcast to discuss the top forty.
A quick write-up from Kevin Goldstein, the minor league guy on baseballprospectus.com:
Zack Cozart, SS, Reds (AFL: Peoria Saguaros)
Yesterday’s stats: 2-for-4, 2B, RBI, BB, K
Cozart’s solid showing offensive showing during his pro debut in 2008 was tempered by the fact that he was a bit advance for Low-A, but a two-level jump to Double-A gave scouts a much better opportunity to figure out what the Reds have here, and more and more think that while he’s not a star, he’s a legitimate big league shortstop. An above-average defender, Cozart doesn’t hit for much average, but he makes up for it with a solid number of walks and double-digit power. After slugging two home runs on Friday, Cozart followed that up with another good game with the bat, and while he’ll start 2010 at Triple-A, he has a good chance to finish it in the majors.
I feel better about the farm system than I have in a long time…There is some really nice talent in there to develop. I really liked this year’s draft too.
I think we may be looking at a one-year experiment with Janish at SS… and after he hits .225 with no power, we’ll have Cozart starting at SS.
I wish we had a couple more sure-fire STUDS coming up, and I wish we had more at the hard-to-find positions (starting pitcher, SS, and C)… but in general, I do think that the depth is better than it’s been in a while.
I really wish Frazier could have stuck at SS, that would have been nice…
Dan, I think there are a couple of decent catching prospects in the lower levels, but nobody we will see for at least a couple of years…
Me too, bruble. When you have a SS (or a C) who can really hit, you’re way ahead of the game. Larkin was a huge advantage for us in that way. Not many teams have good-hitting SS’s.
I wish we’d seen more of Drew Sutton this year! Both batting and in the field. His numbers suggest to me that he can really hit, but it seems like yet another case of Dusty already having his mind made up about something and just sticking w/ that (in this case, he’s decided that Sutton is at best a utility guy, period).
I mean, maybe Sutton can’t hit MLB pitching ever, or he’s lousy in the field, or whatever… but can’t we at least give it a chance and find out??
As it is, he didn’t play much (and when he did it was bad, but I don’t think that tells you much when a guy is getting 5 AB’s a week)… so I’m just left to wonder.
@Dan: Kind of like not giving Janish any AB’s until after Gonzo and JHJ were traded away…
@brublejr: Yup.
That’s our $3.5 million manager…
Everyone seems to want a strong hitting catcher and SS. My question how many strong hitting catchers and SS are there in the ML right now? Of those how many are available? I am willing to bet there are fewer then 4-5 great hitting SS/catchers in the bigs right now.
Right Drew, and all those other teams get by without them and yet we absolutely positively have to have them and can’t win with out them
Speaking of prospects, former Reds draftee Will Hudgens is on ESPN2 right now playing QB for Memphis. He was a 23rd round draft pick and pitched for Billings posting a stellar 10+ ERA. Not too sad he left the organization.
@Drew Nelson: Brandon Phillips would be a good-hitting SS… if we’d be willing to try him there.
Kelly Shoppach might be a good-hitting C. Or maybe J.R. Towles.
It can be done. And we’d be a better team if we could do it. I don’t get what you’re objecting to.
Which teams are we talking about?
Duh, obviously the ones without good hitting c’s/ss’s
@Shane: You don’t have to have the best, but average would be great. The thing is the teams that don’t have good C/SS, they have the firepower elsewhere, where this team does not. I think Hanigan can be average on everything except power, and has above average defense. Janish is above average defense, but way below average batting.
OK, let’s say Juan Castro was hitting .280 and 15 HRs, who would you rather have at SS, Castro or Janish?
@shane: If Juan Castro is going to hit .280 with 15 HR this year, and still field well, then I want him.
But neither Castro nor Janish is ever going to sniff those numbers.
What point are you trying to make here, shane?
The Reds are not gonig to move Brandon Phillips to SS, so continually beating that dead horse is pointless. If Bruce, Votto, Rolen and Phillips hit like they can, that gives up 4 good bats. We got pretty decent production from RF this past season with the platoon of player we used. I like Stubbs in CF even though he won’t hit like he did he can still add some help plus I really like the d we now have up the middle.
@Dan: My point is that Janish’s defense makes up for some of his offensive deficiency. I’d rather have him in there, with his ability to get to balls that others couldn’t, his abilty to turn a DP that others might not, and his arm, than some guy that doesn’t have those abilities but can hit .280
Hell, his arm alone is worth a few batting % points
Then of course we can always rely on him to pitch in a pinch
@shane: I see.
Well, I agree with you to a point. Obviously SS is an important defensive position, so it’s valuable to have a good defender there.
But a good team has to have SOME minimum threshold for offense, below which you say (even to a great fielder), “We just can’t afford to have you out there all the time.”
It’s true that young Ozzie Smith and young Dave Concepcion and Mark Belanger of any age were terrible hitters… but that was during the 1960’s and 70’s. It was a low-offense era.
In today’s era (fairly high-offense), you’re just losing too much ground to your opponents if you have any regular (no matter how good the glove) in there every day and batting, say, .225/.300/.320.
I’m just not willing to COMPLETELY ignore offense, even at SS or CF or C. Good teams don’t do that.
That said… if Janish can improve and put up something even along the lines of .250/.330/.370, I’ll be OK with him.
I’m not asking for Jocketty to go out and get a Jeter or an A-Rod to play SS. I know that’s not feasible.
What I am saying is, let’s try to put a full lineup together in which there is not a single black hole of offense. We can be a vastly improved offense just by doing that, I think.
It’s kind of catch 22. You have to play them for them to develop. Davey and Ozzie didn’t turn in the hitters they became by sitting on the pine. True, it’s not a high percentage thing to happen but it does happen. There comes a time when you
have to call the experiment a failure and pull the plug when it isn’t working. As a long time player and coach(around 55 years), I am appalled at the lack of defense today that goes along with that high octane offense. They are far too many
skillet gloves/butchers on defense playing in the MLs today versus the old days. The DH helped contribute to this. I will
will forever remember Deion Sanders running over in the LF corner and waiting for a fly ball and getting hit on top of the
head. We had Encarnacion who couldn’t throw the ball anywhere near 1B. Adam Dunn in LF. It goes on and on throughout the
majors. You didn’t see so much of that in old days plus the players were more fundamentally sound(i.e. base running mistakes etc).