Potential DP Duo
-Not since "Twins" have you seen a stranger duo, but that may change in 2008. If certain things fall into place, like we believe they will, we may have a 6'6" place-holding SS and a 5'10" "rangey" 2nd baseman. I'd love to see JtD just leap over a standing Aki to make a game-saving play.
While many believe that Guzman may be too large for SS, that was his natural position and had been until midway through last season. If Logan White, the most underrated Scouting Director in all of baseball and best talent evaluator in the game, believed that Guzman was able to play SS for the 1st 5 years of his pro career(remember, Guzman was a 6 ft. 16 year old international signee). If I recall correctly, Maddon noted that Guzman's fielding at 3B was the smoothest of all the 3B candidates in Spring Training(which included Longoria and Iwamura).
I honestly doubt many major leaguers are going to try and slide hard into Guzman to break up a double play, seeing as they'd do more damage to themselves if they ran into baseball's closest thing to an infield brick wall.
Cincy OFer (Jay Bruce) provides his own Scouting Reports
Good things to hear about our "more than likely" starting 3B in 2008, but I'd like to point out to everyone that Evan seems to be "getting it" as he closes in on the majors. In AAA, thus far, he's showed great power(over half of his hits have been for extra bases-4 doubles, 3 HRs) and excellent plate discipline(13 BBs to 12 Ks). His OPS is higher in AAA than it was in AA, however his average seems to point out that he's still adjusting to AAA pitching and DBAP.
More than one....
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While some people consider Talbot to be a bit of a "lost cause" this year, he's still had success this year and his pitch repetoire will always keep his name near possible call-up candidates.
Keep an eye out for..
-While many of us believe that the ESPN TV network as something of a biased super-being, the print version is much...muuuuuuuuuuuch better. Starting today, they started their Face of the Franchise series with yours' truly as part of the selection committee for the Devil Rays. My selection, which I have forgotten myself, will be unveiled on Wednesday.
Prospect of the Week
-Lewis H. Rollins notched his 15th win of the year this weekend, putting him at the tops of the entire organization(by a good margin) in Wins. Why does it seem that "control artists" keep racking up the Win Crowns year-in-year-out? Rollins has a near 5:1 K/BB and is trying to duplicate another Winthrop Eagle's minor league success story.