Cincinnati Reds Press Clippings January 24, 2019
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Cincinnati Reds Press Clippings January 24, 2019 THIS DAY IN REDS HISTORY 1990-The Reds sign a three-year agreement with SportsChannel Cincinnati to carry 25 games a season on cable television. MLB.COM Trammell among MLB's Top 10 OF prospects By Mike Rosenbaum MLB.com @GoldenSombrero Jan. 23rd, 2019 MLB Pipeline will unveil its 2019 Top 100 Prospects list on Saturday with a one-hour show on MLB Network at 8 p.m. ET. Leading up to the release, we look at baseball's top 10 prospects at each position. Ronald Acuna Jr. headlined MLB Pipeline's 2018 list of the Top 10 outfield prospects before making his big league debut last April and garnering National League Rookie of the Year honors at age 20. He edged then-19-year-old Juan Soto, No. 9 on last year's list, for the award, though both players established themselves as potential generational talents. In the American League, two-way star Shohei Ohtani captured the circuit's ROY award after checking in as MLB Pipeline's No. 4 outfielder prior to the season. Ohtani, of course, never actually appeared as an outfielder in a game and was limited by the Angels to designated-hitter duties. He still made an impact with his bat, slashing .285/.361/.564 with 22 home runs in 367 plate appearances. It's very possible that we'll see another outfielder take home top-rookie honors in 2019, too. Eloy Jimenez, who ranked second behind Acuna on last year's list, is MLB Pipeline's new top-ranked outfield prospect and is poised for success at the highest level. He and fellow White Sox prospect Luis Robert bookend a loaded Top 10 that's teeming with future All-Stars, all of whom could reach the Majors before the end of 2020. The Top 10 (ETA) 1. Eloy Jimenez, White Sox (2019) 2. Victor Robles, Nationals (2019) 3. Kyle Tucker, Astros (2019) 4. Alex Kirilloff, Twins (2020) 5. Jo Adell, Angels (2020) 6. Taylor Trammell, Reds (2020) 7. Alex Verdugo, Dodgers (2019) 8. Cristian Pache, Braves (2020) 9. Jesus Sanchez, Rays (2020) 10. Luis Robert, White Sox (2020) Mike Rosenbaum is a reporter for MLB.com. Follow him on Twitter at @GoldenSombrero. CINCINNATI ENQUIRER 2019 Cincinnati Reds pitching staff much more reliable, better than 2018 version John Fay, Cincinnati Enquirer Published 12:02 p.m. ET Jan. 23, 2019 | Updated 12:25 p.m. ET Jan. 23, 2019 Last year at this time, I’d get daily queries on Twitter asking me what I thought the Cincinnati Reds rotation would be. For a gag, I considered giving a different answer each time. It was that much in flux. It ended up being Homer Bailey, Luis Castillo, Sal Romano, Tyler Mahle and Cody Reed. I don’t think I answered with that combination once, by the way. Predicting this year’s rotation is much easier, largely because the Reds have added three pitchers who make the rotation, well, more predictable. That’s a good thing. The trades that brought right-handers Tanner Roark and Sonny Gray and left-hander Alex Wood didn’t make the Reds instant contenders, but the trades make contending a possibility. If the Reds had chosen to roll the dice with the young pitchers and hope against hope to salvage something out of Bailey – last year’s plan – contention would have been pretty much an impossibility. The acquisition of Gray completed the rotation overhaul that was Job 1 of the offseason. “Conceptually, we always wanted to add three starters if we could do so economically,” Reds president of baseball operations Dick Williams said. “We just thought that would really improve our overall depth.” It does that. Castillo is only one of the five starters that began last year in the rotation to have a chance to make this year’s. I can confidently predict that the rotation – barring injury – will be Roark, Gray, Wood, Castillo and Anthony DeSclafani. The order? That’s not so predictable. The three starters the Reds added all fall into the No. 3 starter category. I could see any of them starting Opening Day, and I could see any of them being in the fourth slot. To add three starters and do so economically and not give up top prospects Nick Senzel and Taylor Trammell, the Reds did not go for a No. 1 starter, like Corey Kluber or Dallas Keuchel. Instead, they added three guys who are similar in this way: They aren’t coming off great years, but they’ve had great years in the past. Roark, Gray and Wood went a combined 29-31 with a 4.67 ERA. And they threw an average of 154 innings. Not exactly ace numbers. But, again, all three have been good in the past. Bookmakers have the Reds at 77 1/2 wins. For the Reds to make the bookies look bad – no small feat – Roark, Gray and Wood are going to have to get back to what they were. So let’s look at the rotation (I’ll go with alphabetical order): —Castillo, 26: He has the stuff to be an ace. He was 10-12 with a 4.30 ERA overall last year. A bad start ruined his overall numbers. He had a 3.60 ERA after May 8 and was 5-4 with a 2.44 ERA in the second half. I could see him getting the Opening Day nod if he has a good spring. —DeSclafani, 28: He’s coming off a rough year as far as record and ERA (7-8, 4.93). But his WHIP (1.287 vs. 1.216), strikeout rate (8.5 per 9 innings vs. 7.7) and walk rate (2.3 per 9 vs. 2.3) were virtually the same as what they were in 2016 when he went 9-5 with a 3.28 ERA. For him, the key is staying healthy. —Gray, 29: He is 59-53 with a 3.66 ERA overall. But he struggled in Yankee Stadium so badly that the Yankees gave up on him. Why? “That’s the question, isn’t it?” Gray said. His groundball rate, strikeout rate, walk rate and home run rate weren’t much different in 2018 than when he was having his success in Oakland. The most significant difference when you study his fangraphs.com page? He threw only 35.1 percent fastballs in ’18. In 2015 when he was an All-Star, he threw 60.5 percent fastballs. —Roark, 32: He went 9-15 with a 4.34 last year, but his WAR last year (3.4, according to baseball-reference.com) was the best of any of the five by far. (The six pitchers who combined for the most starts for the Reds last year had a combined WAR of 1.1. That explains a 95-loss season). —Wood, 28: He’s only one year removed from a season in which he went 16-3 with 2.72 ERA and finished ninth in the National League Cy Young vote. His career numbers (52-40, 3.29 ERA) are the best of the bunch as well. He also gives the Reds a left-hander in the rotation. That was part of the goal when adding the three starters. By adding the trio of veterans, the Reds increased the depth on the pitching staff. Mahle, Reed, Romano, Robert Stephenson, Brandon Finnegan and Michael Lorenzen, all of whom made at least three starts last year, are likely out of the rotation plans if the aforementioned five stay healthy. It should be noted that the Reds are likely to start the season without a homegrown pitcher in the rotation. Solving that problem remains the difference between sustained success for the franchise long-term. That’s another column. But the patchwork the Reds did this offseason makes them a team to watch at worst and a contender at best. That’s a lot better than what they were at this point last year. THE ATHLETIC Rosecrans: Shed Long ready for next chapter of his story with Mariners By C. Trent Rosecrans Jan. 24, 2019 “You still have to be at the debut,” Shed Long told me as we were wrapping up our 15-minute conversation on Wednesday. “You said you were going to be there.” I laughed. Because I knew I’d said that and even thought about that the last couple of days. I’d told Shed that I was going to be at his debut, just as much for me as I wanted to be there for him. I thought it’d be easy. I cover the Reds and Shed Long was on the Reds’ 40-man roster. Until Monday, that is. After spending his entire professional career up until that point in the Reds’ system, Long was traded to the Yankees. He found out 30 minutes later he was then traded to the Mariners. “Keep in mind,” Shed told me, “it could be in Japan. Tell them they’ve got the money at The Athletic.” Two years ago around this time, I had an idea. I wanted to do a narrative podcast about life in the minor leagues. I’d heard a 30-minute podcast about life in the NBA’s G-League that left me wanting more. I knew it would be a good way to tell the story of the minor leagues and I wanted to do it. So, as my wife and I drove to Savannah for a vacation, I planned it out. I’d do a series on minor-league life.