San Francisco signed with Connecticut, which means we are the team in Carolina. I like this one better for us, warmer weather is always better on pitchers.

From Baseball America

Looks like Double-A Connecticut took the surprise out of Double-A Carolina’s player-development contract press conference tomorrow by announcing that the Defenders will once again be a Giants affiliate. That means the Reds will be coming to Zebulon to replace the outgoing Marlins.

Just a heads up for those of you who may have missed it.

Devin Mesoraco was promoted from extended ST to Dayton.

Todd Frazier was promoted from Dayton to Sarasota.

Chris Valaika was promoted from Sarasota to Chattanooga.

The Valaika and Frazier moves are a bit over due. Its also going to be nice to see Mesoraco play as I thought he should have been in Dayton from the start (reports had him hitting quite well in ST).

Went pretty well today. First at bat he hit a change up 421 feet to dead CF for a HR. In his second at bat, he drew a walk. In his 3rd and 4th plate appearances he hit line drives for singles into left field. Finished the day 3-3 with a walk and 2 runs scored.

Im pretty happy for the guy. He has earned his shot after the season he has put up and I hope the Reds just continue to start him the rest of the season.

Honest question for you guys. It stems from an arguement I have had with many Reds fans on another site and I am wondering your opinions.

You are a real GM. The Reds call you and offer you Adam Dunn (who has a contract valid through only this year) and they want back Clayton Kershaw. What do you do?

I will wait for a few responses before I state my stance.

There are some rumors flying around that Jay Bruce is heading to AAA and that it will be soon. Josh Hamilton currently is sporting a cast on his wrist and if its serious (right now just listed as a sprain but he is going to NY to see the Reds doctor today about it) that would leave the Reds starting outfield of Adam Dunn, Ryan Freel and Ken Griffey Jr with a backup of Norris Hopper. Rumors of a Dunn or Griffey trade pop up every day and Ryan Freel makes Ken Griffey Jr seem healthy in terms of numbers of injuries. If the Reds go the trade route they will need someone to come up and play in the outfield, and even not, maybe they are planning on a September call up to get him some real at bats in the plans of possibly having him out of ST next season.

Anyways, just throwing it out there as it comes from a fairly reliable source.

When the Yankees drafted him, they forbid him from throwing a slider and to work on a curveball (I would say he did pretty well with that lol). Well they told him he can throw his slider again last season but he stuck with his curve. This spring though he is bringing it back though.
From yahoo.com
And now the slider, which, for Hughes, is like a bottle of wine stashed in the closet for a special occasion. The grip and the action still feel familiar, he said, "Not bad to have in my back pocket."

"I don't know if I necessarily need it," he said, "but I've had experience with it. It's kind of like riding a bike."

Sounds like he is adding something else to his already impressive resume.

Using Minorleaguesplits.com I went and looked through the Balls in Play data for milb.com's top 10 hitting prospects and broke it down by Ground Ball percentage, Line Drive percentage, Fly Ball percentage and Pop Up percentage. It is always something interesting to look at.

Just thought maybe you guys would enjoy taking a look at the numbers as well.

These 4 are always grouped together and argued about after their first full season in 2006. With minorleaguesplits.com branching out into defensive stats, I thought this would be a good thing to look at.
All of these numbers are for the "plays above average per 150 games".

Jay Bruce is at +42 in CF

Cameron Maybin is at +21 in CF

Andrew McCutchen is at +1 in CF (Sally League numbers only)

Justin Upton is at +47 in CF

So, at least according to this Justin Upton and Jay Bruce are the very very good defensive centerfielders. Cameron Maybin is well above average, but not as good as Upton or Bruce. While Andrew McCutchen falls in at right about average.

Just a little food for thought to go with all of the arguements that everyone has had on here with these guys all included but we never really had any type of defensive numbers to go on, it was just all about what someone read on a scouting report somewhere.

With the new crop of pitching prospects having to come forward with the departure of Billingsley, Liriano, Hamels ect. Who would you rank as your top 10 pitching prospects in the minors right now?
I dont know what I would rank them yet, but just throwing around some names I would have to include:
Jared Weaver
Homer Bailey
Philip Hughes
Matt Garza
Kevin Slowey
Jeremy Sowers

How would you rank your top 10?