Reds Sign OF Travis Mitchell

[camisadelgolf]

http://www.baseball-reference.com/mi...d=mitche001tra
It looks like this is a favor to someone because it's hard to imagine someone who performed so poorly making such a drastic turnaround. I think the best case scenario for Mitchell is that he stick as a reserve outfielder in Bakersfield.

[muddie]

The guy couldn't clear Rookie League for three years. Does his family run a field reconditioning business?

[Orenda]

Interesting that he comes from the St. Louis farm system. When did Jocketty arrive in Cincy again?

[RED VAN HOT]

Strikes me as odd that as an 18 yo 13th rounder, they started him in the Appalachian League rather than the Gulf Coast.

[lollipopcurve]

More on Mr. Mitchell

http://qctimes.com/sports/baseball/p...cc4c002e0.html

[redsof72]

Might need an extra outfielder in extended. Last year, they brought in a guy like this, took a look, and released him.

One value in these kind of players that you have absolutely nothing invested in: he is on the roster and can play if needed but the manager doesn't have any obligation to get him x number of at-bats per week (and thus, take at-bats away from the guys that you are actually trying to develop). In A-ball, you have 13 positions players on the roster and only nine are playing at a time, so that means four guys are on the bench everyday. With most players, the manager is required to get everybody in on a regular basis, and if you have prospects that you want playing every day...you can only cut the pie into so many slices.

If I had a club with 3-4 outfielders that I wanted on the field pretty much daily, I would want that fifth OF to be a guy that I didn't have orders to get playing time. Could be this kind of deal. Could be they got a good scouting report on the kid from someone and just want to take a look to see if he can help somewhere.