"I'm ready, I feel comfortable and I'm anxious for the games to get started," he said Monday through interpreter Tony Fossas.
Fossas was asked what he's seen from Chapman through two live BP sessions and four or so bullpens.
"His progress is tremendous, mechanics are better," Fossas said. "As you've seen, he's around the plate with about everything."
* I noticed his teammates had found a copy of Reds Report with him and Walt Jocketty on the cover -- someone had added a goatee and blacked out some of his teeth and hung up the new version of the cover on his locker.
That's not as good as when Adam Dunn found the cover of Jay Bruce on the cover with the headline "The Next Big Thing" and made his sign copies for everyone in the clubhouse and then go and give a signed copy to Dusty Baker.
* As I walked back to the media work room, I saw Yonder Alonso in right field shagging BP balls. That said, it shoud be noted he was still wearing a first baseman's mitt and there were also catchers in the outfield shagging balls. But he was taking angles and attacking the ball like an outfielder and not like a shagger.
I watched Alonso hit a bit and after crushing a ball over the fence in right, someone asked him when his hand started to feel better, he joked, "today."
* If you didn't see it, I updated my Alonso story with a comment or two from Walt Jocketty.
Here's what he said about Alonso: "We'll work him at third base and left field." He said Alonso may get to play in some games at those positions.
As for moving Votto to the outfield, "I can't see moving Joey. He's worked hard on his defense."
* This morning, Dusty talked a lot about defense.
On Votto: "He works at it, he really works at it. That was the knock on him when I first got here. He works, he went out earlier and worked with Jackson down in Florida because he saw Rolen and Cabrera and Brandon out there. He didn't want to be left out of that excellent infield."
"Everyone talks about the Big Red Machine's hitting, the Reds had Gold all over the field. The best teams I had had Gold on the field. I'm big on defense. Biggest thing I'm most proud of, the awards I've won, is the Gold Glove. That's work. Hitting's fun. Playing defense is work. It's something you've got to take pride in. You go out to a Little League field, everyone wants to hit, once they hit, they go home. They're ready to go in. How many kids do you know who like to shag? They like to hit. I look at Concepcion and Morgan and Geronimo and Bench and Pete -- most people don't know he has a couple of Gold Gloves -- and Griffey. If nothing hits the ground in the outfield and nothing gets through the infield, you're not going to score runs, it makes your pitching better. You've got to catch the ball."
"(In the outfield) You look up there, I've seen Anderson, he looks good going to get that ball. Anderson, Bruce, Nix, Stubbs, Heisey, Balentien, Gomes is working at it. I don't know much about Dorn. Jonny works. All those guys, they've got some speed. (Nix) is very good to me. He looks easy to how he gets to it and he's got something to throw with. What we may lack in some areas, we're extremely good in other areas."
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