Quote Originally Posted by dougdirt View Post
You don't have enough posts to make a topic of our own. As far as stuff goes, Jordan Smith has a very good sinking fastball that sits 91-93 and hits 95. He has a slider that is considered to have plus potential. The stuff is most certainly there for him, but given those things I have always felt he should miss a few more bats than he has.

I am with you on Valaika.... it seems that depending on who is talking you are going to get a different response about Valaika and shortstop. Rick Sweet earlier this year said the Reds didn't view him as a long term guy there and that he was moving to 2B and he did. He moved back after some injuries, then was injured himself.
Its certainly to the Reds advantage to keep the door open for Valaika at SS. I personally don't like the cumulative effect of iffy defense at SS every day (but am ok with a guy like Rosales, Frazier, Sutton or Valaika getting a few ABs there occassionally), but keeping SS on Valaika's resume may help his marketability. I'm sure other teams will make their own determination but it can't hurt the perception of Valaika if the team who sees him every day still maintains that SS is a possibility.