Comments on: Prospect time

By: Alan Horn

Alan Horn — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:42:33 +0000

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).

By: Dan

Dan — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:41:23 +0000

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.

By: Dan

Dan — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:37:51 +0000

@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.

By: shane

shane — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:41:31 +0000

@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

By: Drew Nelson

Drew Nelson — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:24:45 +0000

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.

By: Dan

Dan — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:39:47 +0000

@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?

By: shane

shane — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:51:56 +0000

OK, let’s say Juan Castro was hitting .280 and 15 HRs, who would you rather have at SS, Castro or Janish?

By: brublejr

brublejr — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 03:20:50 +0000

@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.

By: Shane

Shane — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 02:45:42 +0000

Duh, obviously the ones without good hitting c’s/ss’s

By: Greg Dafler

Greg Dafler — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 02:15:21 +0000

Shane: 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

Which teams are we talking about?

By: Dan

Dan — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 01:42:37 +0000

@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.

By: EKyRedsFan

EKyRedsFan — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 01:12:37 +0000

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.

By: Shane

Shane — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:49:18 +0000

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

By: Drew Nelson

Drew Nelson — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:58:32 +0000

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.

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:18:32 +0000

@brublejr: Yup.

That’s our $3.5 million manager…