Enthusiasm In Reds Camp On A Cloudy Day

 

 

Dateline: 318 Kilometers from the Gulf of Mexico

March 12 at Reds camp is a cloudy day with rain in the forecast as the Reds take on the Texas Rangers in Surprise, Arizona established 1960.

Defense can be beautiful even on a cloudy day, especially to those that can appreciate a 3-6-1 double play. In the early morning Brad Mills led a rapid PFP pitcher’s fielding practice. Sometimes during the drill the ball would barely finish its flight on one play when Mills, calling out the situation, had a fungo on its way. There was spirit and players' noise, a lot of energy.

Later against the Colorado Rockies the Reds pulled off a 3-6-1 double play with Christian Encarnacion-Strand fielding a grounder to first, firing a strike to Elly De La Cruz who returned it to a sprinting Bryan Shaw covering first. The play allowed Shaw, who gave up three hits in the inning to get out of it without a run scoring.

“That was so nice,” Francona said. “You could see me pointing at Millsy because he had run that rapid PFP. As long as we can keep Millsy from having a heart attack, it’s a good drill. I even had Wade Miley come up to me and told me it was the best drill he’d ever run.” 

“I used to have Millsy do that once or twice a spring when you wanted to have a little energy kind of infused in the day,” Francona said. “I haven’t felt that way this spring because Freddie (Benavides) runs a drill, it’s laid out, he’s in the middle of it and there’s enthusiasm.”

Sick Bay:

Tyler Stephenson was originally expected to DH in the game but is feeling tightness in his lower back. 

 

“He’s going to be fine. It just didn’t make sense to push something,” manager Terry Francona said.

Blake Dunn was inserted into the lineup.

Spencer Steer toted a bat to the batting cages. He has been working on his range of motion on his right shoulder.

“He’s chomping at the bit and I get it, actually I respect it,” Francona said. “We just have to do the right thing. We want his shoulder to tell us that (he’s ready) not opening day. I know it’s hard. We’ll just keep watching it.”

The Reds will not use an artificial deadline for when a player is ready, such as opening day. 

“We don’t want to undo the good we’ve done,” Francona said.

Andrew Abbott, who was behind coming into camp, went through a slow throwing progression similar to what Steer is going through.

Abbott will pitch two innings in a Triple A minor league game in Goodyear with pitching coach Derek Johnson watching. Chris Spiers, who is healthy, will pitch four innings in the minor league game.

Spiers has pitched well under the bright light of competition for the fifth starting spot in the rotation, battling Abbott and Graham Ashcraft.

“He’s done a really good job,” said Francona of Spiers. “There are going to be some guys that make this very difficult in the end (earning roster spot). We respect that. We told them at the very beginning. I hope we have tough decisions. I also told them we’ll be conscientious about it. We’ll do it as respectfully as we can. Truth be told you can’t just set your opening day roster because there’s six more months of baseball. Sometimes that’s a difficult message to young kids.”

The Reds announced the return of Rule V draftee Cooper Bowman to the Oakland Athletics roster.