Elly De La Cruz and Christian Encarnacion-Strand Top Prospects Sent To Minor Leagues

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Two of the Reds' hottest prospects were sent to the minor leagues this afternoon.

Elly De La Cruz had five hits in 25 at bats this spring with one impressive home run but he was optioned to Triple A Louisville.

Christian Encarnacion-Strand was re-assigned to minor league camp while he was hitting .577 (15-for-26) with four home runs.  Most likely he will be at Chattanooga to start the season.

The numbers for either player will not define them good or bad for spring training may be an indication of talent but does nothing to indicate success or failure.

Dusty Baker once explained that young players tend to hit early in spring.  "They can all hit fastballs.  That's why they were drafted or signed in the first place."

Starting pitchers, especially experienced starting pitchers, come into spring training to build arm strength, experiment with improving pitches or learning new pitches.  When building arm strength they throw fastballs.

The Guardians manager Terry Francona justified sending their prospects to the minor leagues this morning.

"The are all in the same boat. They're young talented, 40-man roster guys. They need to get stretched out.  They got an at bat or two almost every day. It is really helpful for their timing at the plate but getting ready for the regular season, they need more at bats."

"We tried to impress upon them, whatever you hit here, we don't even look. It is not going to define who you are.  Go play. We told them to enjoy being young and not stress out over where they are or where they aren't. The best advice is enjoy playing the game right."

Francona was a prospect himself in the late 70's.  How did he handle it.

"It was so long ago and so different," Francona said. "The day I got called up, I was stunned.  I was just playing on the Triple A team. There was no internet, no talent prognosticators, prospect ratings.  We just tell them to pay attention to what you can control and enjoy doing it.  Micha mentioned to me, that he flew under the radar as far as rankings. I don't give a shit what Baseball America has you ranked.  You never fly under the radar with us. The guys that are ranked real high doesn't mean they're going to get a better chance. I'm not saying I don't have respect for these website, but it doesn't affect us.  You see it happen from time to time, a player gets put in in the seventh inning, he tries to show off his arm no matter what the score is."