Reds June 2023 thread

[CJD]

For the longest time, I hated that Great American Ball Park is so small. I felt like it fit the team we had the moment it was built (Ken Griffey Jr, Adam Dunn, Willy Mo Pena, Sean Casey, Aaron Boone etc), but I felt like it pressured us into building the team a certain way: for power.

Yesterday, the Athletic posted an interview with Shawn Pender, the Reds’ vice president of player development, and one of the questions was illuminating for me:
https://theathletic.com/4642784/2023/06/27/reds-prospects-halfway-shawn-pender/

Quote:Q: I know this has been talked about a lot, but the organization has had a focus on athleticism, and we’re kind of seeing it up and down the organization. How has that played out?

Quote:A: I think Nick and Brad and (Senior Director, International Scouting) Trey (Hendricks) and (Director of Amateur Scouting) Joe (Katuska) — all of them have done a really good job, and for that matter, Chris Buckley in the past, of identifying athletes and pushing that agenda forward. I know there were questions and concerns about what we were going to do with all these shortstops. Well, they can play other positions, which is proving itself out, in particular if they have enough arm to stay on the left side. They can play the outfield, they can play third, they can play short, they can play second. If they can run the bases and have that kind of athleticism, they can play the outfield and they can also use their speed in both halves of the inning.

That’s one of the things we talked about with the rule changes, if you’re a good hitter and you progress through our system as a good hitter, you’re likely going to have as much, or more likely more power in the big leagues than you will in the minor leagues for us. Our ballpark is smaller and it plays that way in particular in the summer. Be a good hitter and if you’re a 12-14 home run guy in the minor leagues, you may end up being 18-22. You’ll be able to hit enough to be a producer. I think they’ve done a really good job of identifying those folks. I think we’ve done a good job of forcing the issue.

I’m seeing it now, we have to go down and have another conversation with our guys in rookie ball and Low-A to basically say, this is who we are. You may be guys who were really good hitters in high school and you have talent, but we all have to run hard, we all have to (have) good dirt-ball reads, we all have to be willing to go first to third. If not, you’re going to have a hard time playing in our system because we emphasize it so much. You don’t have to be a plus runner to be a good base runner. You don’t have to be a plus runner to be a guy who can go first to third or be a guy who can bunt. We’re trying to go back to what I would say is more the ’70s baseball. Guys who can run and can play have real value in our system. I think our scouts have done a great job of identifying those types of kids.

At the end of the day, this whole power thing is so important but the game has evolved and I think it’s going to evolve again. It’s not that power is going to be important, but having athleticism gives you more flexibility and opportunities to be used throughout the entire game, whether it’s as a pinch-runner, pinch-hitter or defensive replacement. That’s something a small-market club like us has to really focus on in order to improve our depth and our ability to win those one-run games.

I highlighted the part that made me re-think things, but the whole answer is really good.

I felt like "Having a small ball park means we are pressuring ourselves to draft and develop home run hitters, which may not be best long term. I don't like that." But, based on this response, it seems like the team's emphasis is exactly the opposite. Because of how small the major league ball park is, they can emphasize other aspects of prospects, hit tools, speed, defense etc, and still get quality power production out of them because the ball park kind of amplifies their power (by being a small park).

I don't know if anyone had the same perspective as me, but this makes me actually pretty excited about the way we're building our team, because I've always valued the hit tool over the power tool and it seems like the Reds organization feels the same way too