Breaking Habits Difficult For Bryan Price

Bryan Price, new manager for the Cincinnati Reds, arrived at camp to check on early arrivals. Price lives 40 minutes away in Scottsdale AZ. Mat Latos was one of those early arrivals. Latos suffered a minor injury to his left knee, the knee on which Dr. Timothy Kremchek operated to repair Latos' meniscus. This injury will keep Latos from throwing for a seven to 10 days.

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Before the injury, Latos noticed Price collecting baseballs, pulling tarps off the bullpen mounds and making sure they were ready for his pitchers.

"You're not the pitching coach anymore," Latos told Price.  "You can get other guys to do that stuff.  You're the manager now."

On the first day, Price showed up at 6 a.m.  He admitted that old habits were going to be tough to break.

"It was difficult wanting to make sure everything is ready," Price admitted.  "The instinctive part is wanting to talk to pitchers in the middle of a bullpen. I have guys to do that now."

Jeff Pico is the new pitching coach, with holdovers from Dusty Baker's staff Mike Stefanski and Mack Jenkins around to attend to the more minor details.

"From a selfish standpoint it was exciting to come here this morning," Price said.  "More importantly the guys looked good."

Latos and Jonathan Broxton were notable exceptions to this.  Neftali Soto, who wants to add catching to his toolbox, Daniel Corcino and Carlos Contreras had flights canceled by the winter weather.

When asked about Latos, Price played dumb.  "What's up with Latos?'   Price's joking with the media underlined the point that the injury was minor.

"It was disappointing, but it's minor in the big scheme of things," Price said.  "It's a seven to 10 day setback."

Broxton had surgery on his elbow in August and the prognosis was for him to miss six months.  That six months is just about up.

"He is on a throwing program, three or four days a week," Price said.  "We don't know whether he will be ready by opening day or late April.  When he comes back, he will be ready."

Price has talked to Johnny Cueto, who missed significant portions of the 2013 season with oblique injuries.

"We want him to make the turn more compact so he can repeat his delivery more often," Price said.  "Sometimes he gets too far on the turn and flies open (with hips opening too soon).  He was healthy when we brought him back at the end of last year but he wasn't mid-season healthy or 100 percent.  It was like Ryan Ludwick.  Neither of them got into mid-season form."

Tony Cingrani is in camp and healthy.

"He made a commitment to spend this off-season back in Detroit because he felt he had a good relationship with a trainer," Price said.  "He made a commitment to get himself not just in shape but get really well conditioned and strengthen his lower back and hip."

"Cingrani is a big part of what we're doing here," Price said.  "As much as we talk about Bronson (Arroyo) not being here, we've got to talk about Tony being here. The way he was feeling deteriorated over the course of the year.  Even when he wasn't feeling good, he kept the lower back issue under wraps.  He gave us a chance to win games almost every time he took the ball.  If we can bring that to a full season and get Johnny (Cueto) back and healthy for a full season. It will allow our other guys to continue to do what they do, to me you're looking at to me one of the best starting rotations in the National League, if not the best."

Jay Bell is taking over for Mark Berry, who had cancer last spring.  Berry is okay but decided to take a lessor role in the organization for a year.  Bell has experience running camps.  Pitching coach Pico has also done it in the past.

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