Baseball America on the Dayton team

[OnBaseMachine]

• Dayton has one of the more prospect-laden rosters in the Midwest League, as it boasts six of the Reds top 30 prospects. The presence of prospects does not always lead to wins; however, as Dayton is currently 3-8. It is the worst record in the MWL and they sit in last place in the Eastern division. To open the season, they lost three of four to South Bend, a club that features none of the Diamondbacks' top 30 prospects.

It has not been the fault of the Dayton prospects; however, as outfielder Jay Bruce (No. 2) and shortstop Paul Janish (No. 14) are hitting .304/.347/.565 and .440/.423/.440. That is not a typo, by virtue of having no walks and one sacrifice fly, Janish has a lower on-base percentage than batting average.

Lefthanders Travis Wood (No. 3) and Philippe Valiquette (No. 20) and righthander Zach Ward (No. 13) have combined for a 2.27 ERA in 32 innings, with 26 strikeouts and 13 walks.

The outlier of the group has been outfielder B.J. Szymanski (No. 4), who is hitting .171/.227/.390 with 23 strikeouts in 41 at-bats. This is Szymanski's second time through the MWL as he hit .262/.332/.471 there last year in 191 at-bats before his season was cut short by a hand injury.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today...ws/261060.html

[LincolnparkRed]

Sounds like another rough season in Dayton. Are they still getting a lot of people out to the park? I know the first couple of summers I would come home to find all the games were sold out.

[TOBTTReds]

Almost all seats are sold out there. Lawn tickets are usually all you can get.

Just a correction on that article: BJ tore a lig in his knee last year, it wasn't a hand injury.

[rah-ri]

I am interested in who is posting the errors in dayton.......it looks as though the pitching is good, the hitting aint bad.....so what gives....??????????? The errors?

[Doc. Scott]

It's been poor/inconsistent relief pitching and typically erratic defense. The starting pitching has been quite good for a team that's lost eight out of twelve.

The Reds cut two of the bullpen guys (Melendez and Weimer) and added Lundgren, Lanier, and Stevens to shake things up. Should be an improvement.