From the Enquirer
When you have an abundance of infielders on your roster, what do you do?
Teach them to play the outfield.
The Reds had Ray Olmedo and Anderson Machado taking balls in the outfield before Wednesday’s game with the Giants.
Neither has played the position in the majors.
“It was fun,” Olmedo said. “I was comfortable. When I was a little guy, I liked to play center field.”
The exercise wasn’t such a hit with Machado.
“It was no fun at all,” he said.
Reds manager Jerry Narron said there’s a chance one of the two could play an occasional inning or two in the outfield.
“I want to be able to put them out there in the eighth inning without them being shocked by it,” he said. “They’re not going to a start a game there. But we need them to be able to play more than shortstop.”
With Ryan Freel on the disabled list, the Reds are short on outfield help.
“Olmedo has very good instincts out there,” Narron said. “Machado needs some work.”
The problem is Olmedo is coming back from offseason ligament replacement surgery on his right elbow.
“I don’t know if my arm’s ready for the outfield,” he said.
This may be the stupidest thing I’ve seen lately.
Let’s put two guys that can’t hit their weight into the outfield and take ABs away from 3 guys (Dunn, Griffey, and Pena) that are actually doing their jobs.
I don’t get it. What are the Reds seeing in Machado? He’s all glove and no stick. If they lose him because of his position on the 40 man roster, so what? Olmedo, OK lets take a look and see what he can do. He’s shown some talent in the past, but Machado just doesn’t do it for me.
Seems to me like they would only be doing this if they plan on one less outfielder in the near future, i.e. Dunn…
UGH…let’s hope its because Dunn is moving to first….permanantly
Travis Wood is dominating Rookie Ball.
Today, here is his line for today’s game:
4 IP, 0 H, 0 BB, 5K
Here are his numbers in his three appearances for the Gulf Coast Reds:
8 IP, 2 H, 1 BB, 13 K
Impressive, thus far.
Olmedo’s showing some Freel-esque moves of late – I think if you focus on his 2003 AA and 2004 AAA numbers (the levels he should have been at during those years), you’ll see decent hitting. His ceiling is not so high I know. He probably needs a lot of plate discipline when the hits dry up. He may get some confidence back in the sb department. He stole a base and stole a hit with hustle today. I was hoping they’d start him a couple games ago but they used Aurilia against the righty in that game. I think you have to ride the wave at this point. I didn’t know about the outfield thing but doesn’t sound too useful.