Christian Encarnacion-Strand

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(07-31-2023, 02:21 PM)ochocincos Wrote: I get the concern, but there still might be some value there as a power guy.
He reminds me of Adam Dunn, personally.
He'll swing at dumb pitches, and he'll probably strike out a lot, but he'll get some hits and knock in some runs.

Right now though, the Reds don't NEED another infielder, so if there's more benefit to sending him back down to Louisville for continued development for August vs getting that exposure to big league pitching, I say do it. Reds can always bring him back up when rosters expand around Labor Day.

I would take him being Adam Dunn in a heartbeat. Dunn struck out a lot, but a huge part of his value was he would also walk a lot. Career .380 OBP as a Red. in a 7 year span of 2002-2007, he hit 259 HR, walked 759 times (averaged 39 HR and 115 BB per 162 games), and was 30% above league average offensively. Ideally I would like CES (or anyone else) to be a bit more invested in playing defense than Dunn was, but offensively I would take that from anyone, regardless of strikeouts.