2021 Cincinnati Reds Spring Training

[corkedbat]

Happy "last day of the no Reds ballgames season" everybody!

[Ron Madden]

Bobby Nightengale @nightengalejr
#Reds reliever Héctor Pérez spent the offseason training with Pedro Martinez and Ramon Martinez.

#Reds game vs. Cleveland tomorrow is 8 innings. Monday's game at Oakland is 7 innings.

Charlie Goldsmith @CharlieG__
Reds Minor League free agent pitcher Cam Bedrosian, a proven big leaguer with the Angels, says he was surprised he fell out of the market this season.

“I know it’s been a crazy 12 months. Not much I can do about it.”

“I knew there were some spots up for grabs (here)."

Bedrosian, who was a late addition to the team, says that because of the shortened season, he had a more aggressive offseason throwing program.

As a result, even though he was delayed to camp, he says he's close to pitching in games.
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[JaxRed]

The big question I have on Cam is whether he has one of those 'can ask for release' if not on ball club deals.

I don't think there are "spots" available. I think there is one spot available.

[Ron Madden]

Reds Hitting Approach Alterations

The team batted a Major League-worst .212 last season and went scoreless across 22 innings in two postseason games vs. Atlanta. The club did a postmortem to evaluate how to improve.

“The quality of the contact when we did put the ball in play, we just hit it up in the air too much,” Reds hitting coach Alan Zinter said Saturday. “So just having a focus and more of an intent to get down through the ball can clean up a lot of those low rankings.”

League-wide, hitters have focused harder on launch angle and tried to hit more homers. It often led to the “three true outcomes” -- homers, strikeouts or walks -- dominating box scores. Cincinnati isn’t abandoning that approach altogether, but it is making alterations.

“We don’t want to strike out as much, but we want to give ourselves more room for error,” Zinter said. “It’s just really focused on getting down through the baseball a little bit more correctly, rather than trying to create some results, and over time, that’s going to give us more room for error when we do unleash in the game.

“You can see that we walked, we had great swing decisions last year, but our guys never scored. We were missing the variety of hits, so we didn’t really work in that spectrum where that high hit probability is. We hit a lot of home runs when we were on, but when we did miss it, we were in the air too much. We’re trying to bring down that focus a little bit, so we open up that spectrum.”

Full Story reds.com(Turn the page: Castellanos eyes '21 success)

[Ron Madden]

Bobby Nightengale
@nightengalejr
“We got dudes. We started getting in a vibe at the end of last year.” Nick Castellanos is confident in the #Reds roster and he’s happy to be playing in front of fans again.

[Kc61]

Reds Hitting Approach Alterations

Full Story reds.com(Turn the page: Castellanos eyes '21 success)

Good article, sounds like a solid plan to get Reds’ offense back on track.

Given the disappointing off-season, one can view 2021 as the Year of the Coaches for the Reds.

Can this respected coaching staff get results from a team that, on paper, probably has declined somewhat in its major league personnel?

Something worth watching as the season goes forward.

[UPRedsFan]

The big question I have on Cam is whether he has one of those 'can ask for release' if not on ball club deals.

I don't think there are "spots" available. I think there is one spot available.

And if he does make the roster it likely means we say goodbye to Romano who has no options left. Interesting competition for the bullpen

[UPRedsFan]

Reds Hitting Approach Alterations

Full Story reds.com(Turn the page: Castellanos eyes '21 success)

I’m having a hard time processing this. How do you get down through the ball, while not abandoning the launch angle approach? Isn’t down through the ball going back to the old school approach to hitting?

[Bruce Berenyi]

just a bunch of space filling pre season noise

[Ron Madden]

just a bunch of space filling pre season noise

Noise is all you have ever posted.

[RED VAN HOT]

I’m having a hard time processing this. How do you get down through the ball, while not abandoning the launch angle approach? Isn’t down through the ball going back to the old school approach to hitting?

I found it confusing too. Still, it is encouraging that there is a change. Last year they seemed to sell out for pull and launch angle. There were too many solo shots and too few rallies. Elite pitchers and opposing managers (shifts) were able to take advantage of that. The strategy was somewhat understandable in that the Reds had an elite starting pitching staff and hitting more HR's was likely to be the difference in a close game. This year's staff is above average, but not elite. The Reds will need more base runners and a better ability to create runs.

[Kc61]

I’m having a hard time processing this. How do you get down through the ball, while not abandoning the launch angle approach? Isn’t down through the ball going back to the old school approach to hitting?

Sounds like code for taking a good swing and making contact rather than focusing on lifting the ball to deep outfield.

[Ron Madden]

Charlie Goldsmith
@CharlieG__
Reds manager David Bell says Max Schrock can play every infield position, and “he’s a guy we know can hit… I’m excited to watch his at-bats."

[757690]

Watching the Blue Jays/Yankees game and they are talking about a few new rules for this spring:

Games can be 5, 7 or 9 innings, to be agreed upon before the game starts. In the last week, they can be 7 or 9 innings.

Pitchers can be limited to 20 pitches an inning. If the pitcher hits that number during the inning, and the manager wants to keep him in the game for the next inning, they can just end the current inning.

[NebraskaRed]

Mark Sheldon
@m_sheldon

The #reds game notes list LHP Brandon Finnegan as their starter tomorrow vs. Oakland. Finnegan hasn't pitched in the big leagues since 2018. He's in Minor League camp now.