Milb.com is running a series called Path of the Pros. They haven’t featured any current Reds yet, but former Red Adam Dunn was Wednesday’s featured player.
It tells the story of Dunn’s rise within the Reds organization, starting with just before the Reds drafted him in 1998, up to his first partial season with the Reds in 2001. The story at the link also has a picture of Dunn in action as Quarterback of the Texas Longhorns.
It is a really good read. It provides a lot of details about Dunn’s minor league path, his options and decisions with respect to baseball vs. football, and commentary from coaches about how hard he worked as a player within the Reds minor league organization.
There was one snippet that I don’t recall reading in the past:
Dunn was offered a promotion to the Majors in September 1999, but opted to work on his swing in the instructional league.
“It wasn’t really fair to everyone else to go up then. They were battling for the playoffs and I knew I wasn’t ready to play up there,” Dunn said. “I think I gained more respect doing that and I think it was the right decision.”
Then, there’s a new player profile for Jay Bruce yesterday from hardballtimes.com. Thanks to Steve for linking to that article.
The article describes Bruce’s professional career thus far with a detailed breakdown of his 2009 season and what we might expect in 2010.
For 2010, expect a very different Jay Bruce, one who finally lives up to his No. 1 prospect billing. A .275-.285 average with 30 home runs doesn’t seem out of the question. If he is able to maintain his plate discipline gains, he could post an OPS in the .900s as well, with the high .900s a possibility and 1.000â€â€while a reachâ€â€not out of the question.
I think all Reds fans are hoping for that kind of breakout season from Jay.