Dragons: Bruce, Wood in the Enquirer

Today’s Enquirer has a couple of articles on a couple of players on the Dragons.

Jay Bruce is profiled in one article.

What I found most impressive in the article is his manager and hitting coach’s comments:

Gardner and Dragons hitting coach Alonzo Powell have been impressed with Bruce’s eagerness to learn and improve.

“He wants to learn,” Gardner said. “You take that work ethic and his physical ability, which he has a lot of, and you’ve got a player with a pretty good upside.”

Powell has been working with Bruce on hitting the ball to the middle of the field, and he fields plenty of questions from him about the mechanics of hitting.

“Jay always wants to get better,” Powell said. “You like to see that in a young kid. He’s always offering to do extra hitting. A lot of times I’ve got to tell him to take a day off and we’ll do some tomorrow.”

Bruce admits to pushing too hard at times. He said his impatience comes from having a major-league goal in mind and enjoying the pursuit of it.

“They call it a job and everything, but I don’t understand how people could call this a job,” Bruce said. “It’s fun. It’s what I love to do and what I’ve loved to do ever since I could remember.”

And an article that Chad will really enjoy, concerning Travis Wood.

Again, manager Billy Gardner Jr.’s comments:

“I was impressed with the way he pitched inside,” Dayton manager Billy Gardner said afterward. “He went inside for effect, which helped his changeup. His changeup had real good deception, and it makes his fastball better.”