Reds June 2023 thread

[*bengalfan74*]

(06-27-2023, 12:24 PM)Crazyjdawg Wrote: 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/



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

Oh I always have liked the small ball game waaayyyyyyy better than what baseball has descended to these last several years. It's like watching paint dry, 4 solo HR's 15 strikeouts, and 8 fly ball outs.

I love seeing the steals finally making a comeback. Would love to see more run and hit, more bunts, suicide squeeze. Put the pressure on D to make a play. 

And like he said you get those fast athletes that hit 15 HR's a year. That's 25 a year in Cincinnati.

Just get some damn pitching and we're good to go.