Opening Day! We still don’t understand why this isn’t a National Holiday. Here’s the series:
• Thursday: RHP Logan Webb vs. RHP Hunter Greene, 1:10
• Saturday: TBD vs. TBD, 1:10
• Sunday: TBD vs. TBD, 10:40
Seriously, TBD’s? The Giants figure to use Verlander and Ray this weekend, and there’s a hypothetical Reds rotation below.
There’s no RBI or WHIP stats to use, so this is not exactly a data-rich summary of the Reds. The Roster Resource site figures manager Terry Francona will play starters
♦️ 1B Christian Encarnacion-Strand, 2B Matt McLain, SS Elly De La Cruz, 3B Jeimar Candelario
♦️ RF Jake Fraley, CF TJ Friedl, LF Gavin Lux
♦️ C Jose Trevino (backup C Austin Wynns), DH Spencer Steer
♦️ rotation Hunter Greene, Brady Singer, Nick Lodolo, Nick Martinez, Carson Speirs
♦️ closer candidates Emilio Pagan, Taylor Rogers, Tony Santillan, Scott Barlow, Graham Ashcraft
Lux was a minor trade back in January. Good for Austin Wynns who turned an NRI into a job. And it will be interesting to see how twin Taylor fares under a different manager. The 65 year old Francona was hired just after the last season ended, on a 3 year deal. He had managed Cleveland from 2013 to 2023, stepping aside for health reasons, but must be doing better now.
This does leave a bit of room to write about the most surprising result of camp. Here’s a paragraph from a recent post, about a player who has now earned his second Picture of the Post, without ever playing in The Show!
Let’s pick Christian Koss [for PotP of the Padres recap], who is having a very good camp. Koss was a 12th round pick by the Rockies in 2019, and was traded to the Red Sox organization in 2020’s winter, pre-Covid. He resumed his professional career in 2021, and reached AAA Worchester in 2023. Zaidi snookered the Red Sox by offering them some “cash considerations” last March. Koss got a player of the week honor last year while with the Flying Squirrels, and wound up hitting 0.257 for the River Cats in 54 games. He has played very well this spring, as Ritzo and Miller and FP have each commented numerous times how impressed they are with his defense. And he brought a bat to camp, too: 8 for 22 (0.364) with 3 doubles. Koss is 27 this year, 6’1”, and 182 pounds. Koss must have the inside track on this camp’s Barney Nugent award.
As it turns out, the Barney Nugent went to fastballing reliever Joel Peguero, who has now been assigned to the River Cats. But Koss got an even better prize, a slot on the 40-man and 26-man, and a plane ride to Cincinnati. Look for his parents in the crowd this afternoon! Koss’ final BA this spring was 0.341 (14 for 41) with 4 doubles and a homer, 5 walks and 7 strikeouts.
