I have to admit, it isn’t often that an article loses me in the first paragraph. From MLB.com:
Because of his inexperience at third base, prospect Juan Francisco seemed to have a distant shot at the Reds’ left-field vacancy.
UPDATE: I just received a very nice email from Mark explaining that this was a communication mistake between he and his editor that has been corrected. We appreciate Mark’s letting us know.
I’m not doubting his possibility of making the team in LF, especially with Drew Stubbs really struggling offensively; I question the “inexperience at third base” part of the sentence.
Not one to “pick a nit”…but according to Baseball Cube, he’s played 392 minor league games and 390 of them have been at 3B.
Even later in the article, we find this:
In 397 Minor League games, Francisco has logged five of them in left field. In winter ball with the Cibao Gigantes, Francisco played 36 games at third base and 18 in left field.
Despite the unexplainable first sentence, the idea of a Gomes/Francisco platoon in LF could really help this team offensively; assuming Francisco’s the hitter he’s shown last fall, in the Dominican League, and this spring thus far.