JJ Cooper is the moderator now and he said he is going to answer a lot of Reds questions this hour.


Q: Deywane from memphis asks:
What type of year are you expecting Juan Francisco to have?

A: J.J. Cooper: Since I do our Reds Top 30 Prospects list and just got back a couple of days ago from the seeing the Reds Future Team there may be more Reds questions than normal for the next hour. I think this is a huge test for Francisco. He has some of the best power in the minors--his batting practice on Friday was more impressive than any Reds big leaguer--and he showed his game power when he took Francisco Cordero deep for 440+ feet. But Francisco has never shown that he can consistently lay off pitches in the dirt or over his head. He made some strides on that in winter ball, but he'll have to keep getting better at pitch selection or his strikeouts will outweigh his home runs. It is a good sign for him however that the Reds decided to move Todd Frazier to left field, that seems to be a sign they believe that he can stay at third even if there are concerns about how big he'll be as he continues to mature.


: Deywane from Memphis asks:
How has Dallas Buck looked this spring and is he still a prospect?

A: J.J. Cooper: We got to see Buck pitch against the Reds major leaguers last Friday in Zebulon. Admittedly, the Reds big leaguers were not looking to work deep counts--they had a flight to catch--but Buck was very impressive as he paired an 88-90 mph fastball with a nice slider. As you can see on the Prospects Blog, Buck feels like he's finally healthy for the first time in nearly three years, and he's able to go out and pitch instead of babying his arm or working back from surgery. He's definitely still a prospect, and could end up being one of the top starting pitchers in the Reds system with a strong year.