Billy Hamilton New Face New Position

Baseball fans love new faces.

Reds' prospect Billy Hamilton is one of those faces. He is also learning a new position.

Hamilton played shortstop in the Reds' system since he was drafted in 2009 with the team's second pick.

Fans are enamored with his speed which enabled the 22-year old to set a professional baseball record with 155 stolen bases last season while playing in Bakersfield and Pensacola.

Manager Dusty Baker is eiger to know Hamilton.

"I'm interested in getting to know him," Baker said. "I'm interested in getting to know him as a person and getting to know him as a player, to see him firsthand. I look at things differently than the fans. I look at what he needs to improve on and what he's doing good right now. We want to enhance the things he's doing well and try to teach him how to do the things he doesn't do well."

The headlines from his stolen base record have fans just as eiger to see him in the Reds' uniform but Baker is more conservative in his approach.

"To play winning baseball there are things you have to do other than just steal," Baker said. "Switch hitting is new for him. Playing a new position is new for him. Those are things that you need to work on and to be able to do them, you've got to play. If you have an honor student as a freshman, are you going to graduate him right away?"

Baker has been in the game more than half his life. He has seen players that could run.

"I've seen speed before," Baker said. "We're all amazed by speed but learning how to harness it is next. I played with one of the fastest men in baseball, Ralph Garr. He was my roommate. I've played with some speed, speed guys. The only common denominator is that they all walk slow. They all walk like Micky Rivers."

Hamilton arrived in Goodyear for his first major league camp as a non-roster player. He knows there are facets of the game he needs to improve. He hit .323 in 82 games at Bakersfield. He had 109 hits and walked 50 times in 337 at bats which computes to a .411 on-base-percentage. He was promoted to Pensacola.  He hit .286 in 50 games for the Blue Wahoos and stole 51 more bases. With 50 hits and 36 walks in 175 at bats, Hamilton reached base 40.7 percent of his plate appearances.

"It is tough to learn to switch hit," said Hamilton, who is natural righthanded hitter. "I've been doing a good job with it. I need more work at it. The more I keep working at it the better I'm going to get. I am looking forward to what happens because it could be a big plus for my game."

Delino Deshields has worked with Hamilton. Deshields managed at Dayton for the past two seasons and will be leading the Pensacola team this year.

Hamilton is learning centerfield. He played it in the Arizona Fall League to prepare for this season.

"I made some mistakes which was good," Hamilton said. "I have a lot of things to work on so I need to learn from mistakes. They just threw me out there and said,'hey'. The angles to the ball are different from playing shortstop. The key is getting the angles right, getting to the ball or playing the wall to prevent triples. That's the main thing I've learned."

Arizona is a tough place to play outfield with high skies and few clouds.

"I don't judge to much from out here," Baker said. "If you can play outfield here, you can play anywhere. The centerfield area is bigger out here because of the thin air. The high sky and winds make it difficult."

Two years ago Hamilton got a reputation for a play he made in a minor league game. Leftfielder Juan Duran lost a fly ball in high sky. Hamilton raced from his shortstop position and made a diving catch just short of the warning track. Scouts still talk about it.

"People ask me about that all the time," Hamilton said. "The leftfielder one of my real good friends, I could tell there was something wrong. Juan looked at me. I couldn't tell him where it was, so I thought 'oh snap' I better go after it myself. I took off on a dead sprint and dove and the ball was right in my glove. It was unreal. I've watched a bunch of baseball and saw a lot of plays but never saw something like that."

His mother Polly Hamilton was in the stands. She told people that Billy didn't get many whippings because she couldn't catch him.

"She was always talking about trying to catch me. I didn't get a whipping that many times but she would wait until I fell asleep," Hamilton said.