Two Hall of Famers with ties to the Cincinnati Reds have been elevated to new gigs within the baseball world this week. On Thursday the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association announced that Barry Larkin, Chipper Jones, and Edgar Martinez would be the organizations new Vice Presidents. On Friday morning Major League Baseball announced that Ken Griffey Jr. would be a senior adviser to the commissioner, focusing on “baseball operations and youth baseball development”.
Barry Larkin has been working in the game since he retired, mostly. He has spent plenty of that time working for the Cincinnati Reds as a special adviser as well as an instructor within the organization who has helped develop minor league players. Larkin has also spent time working for the Washington Nationals, ESPN, MLB Network, and he also managed Team Brazil as they qualified for the World Baseball Classic in 2013.
Ken Griffey Jr. will be taking on a role to advise the commissioner’s office. He hasn’t been nearly as active in baseball since retiring as Larkin has. Of course he retired six seasons after Larkin did, but he didn’t jump into things in the same way. Griffey is also going to serve as an ambassador of the game and he’ll be featured at large-scale events such as the All-Star game and postseason events.
Reds land four prospects in MLB’s Top 100 list
MLB Pipeline, the official prospect portal of MLB.com released their Top 100 Prospect List on Thursday night. The Cincinnati Reds landed four prospects on the list.
The four prospects on the list is the best showing for the organization among the big prospect ranking places thus far. As I noted earlier today over at RedsMinorLeagues.com – this is just another instance of the weird spot that the Reds farm system is at right now. Nick Lodolo was the highest rated prospect on this list, coming in at #59 overall. But over at Baseball America, Lodolo was rated as the organization’s 7th best prospect. It seems that there’s a large group of Reds prospects that are all valued similarly – very good prospects, but no one jumps out as an elite-level, top 25 in baseball kind of guy, either.
Doug, any new info on the Reds International signees. Looks like a pretty good group.
Thanks
Wrote about all of them, except the newest one, right here: https://www.redsminorleagues.com/2021/01/15/the-cincinnati-reds-2021-international-signing-class/
Will Barry still be working with the reds.
Also I noticed joe oliver and Jeff Reed weren’t returning as coaches to their teams. Reds reunion?
Reds need to try and acquire Pitcher Ian Hamilton cut by Phillies today
Guess that means we can’t resign Larkin for Shortstop.
With the Cardinals trading for Arrenado, does that make Story a more likely trade candidate? Or were the Rockies simply trying to get out from under Arrenado’s contract?
Rockies gave Arenado a contract that allowed him full no-trade … and an opt-out after 2021.
Rockies GM and Arenado get into a spat … Colorado staring at unhappy star walking into free agency for free in November.
The Rockies GM is the last guy I would want trying to extend Story and doing a re-build … but, this is MLB … where family members of ownership get GM jobs and background checks for other GM jobs are apparently not required.
I think Rockies now try to extend Story.
It’s Story, Blackmon … 13-10 games in an awesome stadium, with plenty of amenities outside of it.
30 games behind the Dodgers and Padres.
Think the Reds Lead Owner has bamboozled us with promises of “Winning Baseball?”
He has nothing on the Rockies owners. Reds have only drawn 30K a game for a season twice in GABP (2013-14).
Rockies have drawn 30K+ every season in Coors since 2008.
Colorado now set up to make a fortune for a few years rebuilding, once fans all allowed to attend en masse.
(Sadly, it feels like this is how 90% of MLB owners think).