CCiinncciinnnnaattii RReeddss MMeeddiiaa CClliippss JJaannuuaarryy 2233rrdd,, 22001177 Cincinnati Reds Press Clippings January 23, 2017 THIS DAY IN REDS HISTORY 1992-The Reds sign Scott Bankhead of the Mariners as a free-agent. Bankhead will spend one season with the Reds, collecting a 10-4 record, with a 2.93 ERA in 70.2 innings pitched, allowing just four home runs MLB.COM Legendary groundskeeper Schwab honored Cincinnati's longtime park superintendent to enter MLB Groundskeeper Hall of Fame By Mark Sheldon / MLB.com | @m_sheldon | January 20th, 2017 + 2 COMMENTS CINCINNATI -- Mathias "Matty" Schwab began tending to the fields at the Reds' home ballparks way back in the 19th century, but his contributions to the game and groundskeeping so long ago have not been forgotten. Schwab, who was the Reds' park superintendent from 1903-63, will be the recipient of the Gary Vanden Berg Award as the 2017 inductee into the Major League Baseball Groundskeeper's Hall of Fame. There will be a ceremony this weekend in Clearwater, Fla., during the annual meeting of the groundskeepers from all 30 clubs in MLB. The Schwab family name is practically groundskeeper royalty. Schwab began working on the fields at Reds ballparks in 1894 under the supervision of his father, John. Matty took over in 1903 and oversaw the installation of the field when the Reds moved to Redland Field, later renamed Crosley Field. Members of the Schwab family worked other MLB ballparks, including his son Matthew, who was park superintendent at Ebbets Field, the Polo Grounds and San Francisco's Candlestick Park, and grandson Mike Dolan, who succeeded Mr. Schwab as superintendent at Crosley Field. Schwab was responsible for major innovations in field drainage systems and, inspired by their use on golf courses, pioneered the use of sprinkler systems at Major League ballparks. Apparently a renaissance man of sorts, he also designed and built scoreboards, including those at League Park in 1894 and Crosley Field. Schwab-designed scoreboards were also used at the Polo Grounds and Yankee Stadium in New York and Brooklyn's Ebbets Field and Major League ballparks in Boston, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Reds announce Minor League coaching staffs By Mark Sheldon / MLB.com | @m_sheldon | January 20th, 2017 + 2 COMMENTS CINCINNATI -- The Reds' Minor League affiliates announced their 2017 coaching staffs on Friday, with familiar faces returning to their posts. Delino DeShields, the father of Rangers outfielder Delino DeShields, will be back for his third season as manager for Triple-A Louisville. DeShields, who has a 135-153 career record for Louisville, is entering his ninth season as a manager or coach in the Reds' organization. The rest of the Louisville coaching staff will include three incumbents: pitching coach Jeff Fassero, hitting coach Jody Davis and trainer Steve Gober. Bench coach Darryl Brinkley and strength and conditioning coach Cole Durham will join the staff in 2017. Pat Kelly will return as manager for his third season with Double-A Pensacola. Kelly is entering his 25th year as a Minor League manager. Dick Schofield, who served as the Class A Dayton manager in 2016, will be the Blue Wahoos' bench coach. Gookie Dawkins, formerly the hitting coach at Class A Advanced Daytona, was promoted to hitting coach at Pensacola. Danny Darwin will be return as the club's pitching coach. Pensacola BlueWahoos ✔ @BlueWahoosBBall Field Staff for 2017: Pat Kelly - Manager Danny Darwin -Pitching Gookie Dawkins - Hitting Dick Schofield - Bench 3:24 PM - 20 Jan 2017 For Daytona, manager Eli Marrero is returning for his third season with pitching coach Tom Brown, hitting coach Alex Pelaez and bench coach Ricky Gutierrez. Marrero is 159-125 in his two seasons with Daytona, and he is entering his seventh season with the Reds' organization. The Reds added a fourth coaching role -- the bench coach -- at each of their affiliates for 2017. "We did add a fourth coach to each staff with the intent of providing more individual defensive instruction as well as improving our ability to teach in-game situations," said Jeff Graupe, the Reds' senior director of player development. "We believe than an additional coach in the dugout will allow us to increase the overall baseball IQ of our players while allowing the managers and hitting coaches to focus on their specific duties. We have made an effort to hire staffs with diverse areas of expertise so that we could provide as much individual instruction as possible." CINCINNATI ENQUIRER Reds add fourth coach to every minor-league team REDS BLOG Zach Buchanan , [email protected] Published 3:09 p.m. ET Jan. 20, 2017 The Cincinnati Reds have filled out their minor-league coaching staffs – although only three have been announced – and it's a bigger group than in past years. For the 2017 season, Reds affiliates will have four coaches per team, instead of the previous three. The position of bench coach has been created to supplement the duties of manager, hitting coach and pitching coach. Player development director Jeff Graupe said there are three prongs to the move: - Pre-game: "We try to have as many diverse and versatile staff members as possible, whether that be English/Spanish, catchers and infielders and outfielders, former starting pitchers and former relievers. We're trying to have someone on staff who can hold their expertise and be able to help every player we have." - In-game: "We want the manager to be able to manage, hitting coach to be able to focus on the hitters and then still have someone on the bench whose job is to teach the rest of the players what's happening in the game, to improve our interaction with the guys who aren't involved in the immediate action, to improve situational player and baseball IQ." - Workload: "These are long seasons. We have a manager, hitting coach and a pitching coach. Essentially, if there's no rover in town that day, they have to throw BP and hit fungoes. It's a really significant physical component for the workload these guys have to take on. To have one more person to be able to spread that out amongst I think will keep coaches healthier, which is important." Graupe said he knows several teams who do this, so it's not like the Reds are breaking new ground. But it does show an increased investment in minor-league development. Here are the three staffs that have been announced so far. Coaches return to their previous positions unless otherwise noted Triple-A Louisville Delino DeShields, manager Jeff Fassero, pitching coach Jody Davis, hitting coach Darryl Brinkley, bench coach* Double-A Pensacola Pat Kelly, manager Danny Darwin, pitching coach Gookie Dawkins, hitting coach* Dick Schofield* High-A Daytona Eli Marrero, manager Tom Brown, pitching coach Alex Pelaez, hitting coach* Ricky Gutierrez, bench coach^ * returning to the organization in a new position ^ new to the organization Looking at the Dan Straily deal REDS BLOG Zach Buchanan , [email protected] 3:23 p.m. ET Jan. 20, 2017 The Reds made a pretty proactive move Thursday by trading Dan Straily to the Miami Marlins for three prospects, and it's received generally positive reviews across the baseball community. But don't hyperventilate, Reds fans. This deal didn't reshape the rebuild that much. Some executives told both C. Trent and me that the return in this deal rivals that of the Aroldis Chapman deal last winter, but that may say more about how little the Reds got for Chapman than how much the Reds got for Dan Straily. Yet, getting as much for Straily as the Reds did is impressive. I was a big doubter in Straily's trade value dating back to the trade deadline, believing that you can't simply rebuild it that much in so short a time. He was a waiver claim less than a year ago. On top of that, there were reasons to think he might regress some in 2017. Some people will look at his advanced pitching metrics like FIP and xFIP and figure he outperformed his true talent level. He's a flyball pitcher who managed a 3.76 ERA despite leading the National League in homers allowed with 31. That's a hard mix to keep up. NL Cy Young winner Max Scherzer tied him in homers last season, but no one is saying Straily is in Scherzer's company talent- wise. This is not to say that Straily won't continue his success in Miami. It's a bigger park, and there are some pitchers who can consistently succeed despite giving up homers. Straily is certainly a student of his craft, and believes he's found the right mix to consistently perform. But if you're an interested team, it's like buying a car. You overemphasize any potential issues in order to get a better price. The Marlins must have wanted him badly in order to sacrifice three prospects from a pretty shallow system, including their No. 2 prospect by some measures in right-hander Luis Castillo. Righty Austin Brice and outfielder Isaiah White both appear among Miami's top 10 prospects, depending on the source. Good for the Reds to extract that kind of price. But here's where I caution you not to get overexcited about them. Like Straily, they have their doubters too. One pro scout told me he projects both Castillo and Brice as bullpen arms. Brice sits at 95 mph, but doesn't have an out pitch among his secondary offerings, he said. Castillo topped out at 98 mph, but has average and inconsistent secondary pitches and command. (He hadn't seen White, who is already more of a project than the two pitchers.) Fangraphs' prospect guru Eric Longenhagen had similar evaluations: Eric Longenhagen @longenhagen Luis Castillo sustainable upper-90s velo, inconsistent, slurvy breaker (he's already 24), fringe change.