Mar
19
Major League Baseball Preview: NL Central - Cincinnati Reds
March 19, 2008 |
The Reds have a tremendous collection of great young ballplayers. They seem to have a bright young player at every position either already playing in the bigs or set to go in the minors. Now if only anybody else besides Dusty Baker was managing this team, they could be contenders.
Enhanced production: 3B) Edwin Encarnacion, 1B) Joey Votto, SP) Matt Belisle, SP) Edison Volquez, Closer) Francisco Cordero
The Reds have a closer?!?! It feels like the Reds haven’t had a set closer since Johnny Franco left town and the Nasty Boys took over.
Encarnacion scuffled at the start of the 2007 season - as did apparently every other player on my fantasy roster - but after a brief trip to the minors he came back and demonstrated why so many people are high on him. This has the feel of a breakout season where he hits 25-30 homers and knocks in close to 100.
Votto almost certainly be the starting first baseman, even if not at the beginning of the season. Scott Hatteberg is a nice player, but come on.
Slightly enhanced production: OF) Corey Patterson/Jay Bruce/Norris Hopper, OF) Adam Dunn, SS) Jeff Keppinger, SP) Aaron Harang, setup) David Weathers
The Reds’ centerfield situation is a bit muddled, but they have a couple of potential superstars waiting in the wings. Patterson is far from great, but he can steal bases and hit for moderate power. It would appear that Ryan Freel is the odd man out, though he is also a stolen base threat - but little else - if he gets the chance to play.
Dunn frustrates fans and managers, but I’ll take a guy who can pop 40 homers every single year while getting on base at better than a .380 clip.
Weathers served admirably as the primary closer, but he is better suited for setup.
Aaron Harang is now being recognized as a true ace. Imagine if he pitched home games anywhere else.
Slightly diminished production: OF) Ken Griffey, 2B) Brandon Phillips, C) David Ross, SP) Bronson Arroyo
Griffey has suffered his disappointments, but though his career has been derailed by injury, he still manages to produce fairly consistently into his late 30s. This continued production has lessened some of the bitterness of all that lost time.
Phillips’ combination of power and speed makes him one of the elite second basemen in the game. He had such a phenomenal season a year ago, thus a very slight fall-off should be expected.
Overall assessment: As you can probably tell I am fairly high on this team. This team could legitimately threaten for a post-season berth. But will their youngsters a) get a chance to play, and b) get the chance to play as they want. Time will tell.
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[...] paul zummo placed an interesting blog post on Major League Baseball Preview: NL Central - Cincinnati Reds [...]
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