The Cincinnati Reds announced that outfielder Shogo Akiyama will be out of spring training camp in Goodyear as he tends to a personal matter. They also noted that the matter is not COVID-19 related. No further details were provided
Mike Moustakas on injuries, last season, and what was learned
In the 2020 season, mostly, the Cincinnati Reds struggled offensively. Some players had bad seasons. Others struggled to be consistent in the two months of the year. There have been countless words written about it and why the team didn’t live up to the expectations. For Mike Moustakas, it was a bit of a mixed bag. He posted a 108 OPS+, which is better than the league average. It also came with a .230 average, which was the worst average he’s had since 2014, and the second lowest of his career.
Moustakas only played in 44 games during the season. He missed a few games early in the season due to what essentially came down to multiple negative COVID-19 tests after he didn’t feel well. He would then later miss some games with a quad injury, though he had played through the injury for a few days before winding up on the injured list. That certainly had an effect on his production.
“It definitely factored into it,” said Moustakas. “I’m never going to be one to sit here and make excuses for my performance on the field. If I’m on the field that means in my mind I’m 100% ready to go. Last year I didn’t play as well as I wanted to play. I think offensively that goes top to bottom we didn’t do as well as we wanted to do offensively. But, again, 60 games, short season – who knows what could have happened in the other 102 games? With that being said, we learned a lot. We’re going to use what we learned from those failures we had last year and we’re going to apply them to this year, we’re going to get better, and we’re going to move forward.”
Michael Lorenzen throwing some baseballs
Spring training is just different this year. Non-games are closed off entirely to the fans. Many media members aren’t traveling to Arizona or Florida to cover things in-person, and some that are are doing so in more limited fashions than in the past. All of that means we are getting a little less coverage than we’re used to. The Reds, though, are providing some video clips from the ground out in Goodyear. One of them provided to us here at Redleg Nation was of Michael Lorenzen on the mound from yesterday.
How about a look at Michael Lorenzen throwing some baseballs? We've got you covered. Video courtesy of the Cincinnati Reds pic.twitter.com/FUnPXy5MvH
— Redleg Nation (@redlegnation) February 26, 2021
Jonathan India taking some batting practice
The Reds also provided us with some video of Jonathan India in the cage taking some swings yesterday.
India looks to have a hitch in his swing. Also, did Lorenzen’s biceps get even bigger? Somehow I don’t think that’s a good thing. Double doink.
The man’s arms are frickin’ HUUUGE!!
India’s timing mechanism. LOL Just use the Tony Perez approach: “see the ball; hit the ball”. Game has become to da?! technical and the stats used today confuse the he?! out of ya.
Stat overload. I agree. BA, RBIs, OBP. That’s what counts.
Agree. I’m just an old RBI, batting average type guy.
TR – I agree. Does look like India has a minor hitch in his swing. Probably explains his high strike out ratio.
India struck out in 18% of his plate appearances in Double-A in 2019. The league average strikeout rate (in the league he was in) was 23%.
Poor Reds, year after year, all they do is talk no much action. Only action they take is sign mediocre players that are minor league bound. No good regular SS going to be another last place finish or next to last Olin the N.L. CENTRAL. What an organization. They evidently like being a cellar dweller team.
This past offseason sucked. But I certainly didn’t dream that they acquired Trevor Bauer in a trade, and then signed Mike Moustakas and Nick Castellanos two offseasons ago did I?
Signing Moustakas and Castellanos is a sign of a good offseason?
I guess $32 million/year for two barely average players is a good thing
At least Akiyama is only $7/million year for a wRC+ of 85.
He said “no action” and “the only action they take are signing players that are minor league bound”.
Mike Moustakas and Nick Castellanos are not that.
If you don’t show full televised Reds spring training games, you won’t have fans on opening day. Isolate the media from players. No personal interviews, except zoom.
I hope everything is ok with Shogo Akiyama and his family. I hope the Reds are accomodating him if he needs any kind of support. When it was Barnhart’s kid… we all kind of knew why the absence…when it was somebody else’s immigration issues, we all knew about that…whenever I DON’T hear what is probably going on, I think sad stuff…I guess its nice to rule out Covid…well…at least as much as any of us can rule out Covid.
Almost didn’t recognize India with all that hair! He was pretty clean cut in college. Dude can hit, can’t wait to see him at the big league level, think he’ll outshine Senzel…