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Blogs: C. Trent Rosecrans

Fundamentally Sound

C. Trent Rosecrans Cincinnati.com Reds blog 2/27/07

Fundamentally sound

SARASOTA, Fla. -- Whatever happens the rest of the day, I'm good. It's not every day you get a compliment on your baseball skills from a future Hall of Famer. Today I did. While I was standing around while the players were warming up, a ball got past Ken Griffey Jr. and came to me. I bobbled the grounder, but I picked the ball up and threw it back. After he caught it (and it was a strike, I must add), Junior just looked at me for a second. "What?" I said. "Nice overhand motion. I like it," Junior responded. "Hey man, I'm fundamentally sound," I said. And that was it. My dad will be very proud.

 

Not only that, got a George Brett story from Jerry Narron. Brett was my childhood hero and I still love hearing anything about my all-time favorite player. Here's Jerry:"I’ll never forget George Brett when I was a coach with the Orioles. I played against him in the 80s, but with the Orioles the last year he played, he hit a ball to right field and at that time George had a pair of pants that zipped up from the inside so it would fit over his big knee brace, it was a day game and about 90 degrees in Baltimore, he hit a ball to right field, a routine fly ball and he’s standing almost on second base when the ball is caught. That’s the kind of thing that makes you proud to be part of this game when you see guys like that, especially a guy like George Brett."

Reds signed Chris Denorfia, Bill Bray and Brian Shackelford to 1-year contracts today.

I love watching fielding drills. It's fun to see guys work on the little things and really appreciate how smoothly some guys opperate. Alex Gonzalez and Brandon Phillips seemed to work pretty well together as a double play combination, but the guy I really like watching is Juan Castro.Castro, whose nickname is "Manos de Oro" (hands of gold), is amazing. Everything is just so smooth. He also gets the ball out of his glove very quickly. Watching him field, I liked to see where his throwing hand was on every catch. It was usually just a couple of inches from his glove, ready for a quick transfer.

In early outfield drills, Ryan Freel was in center, Dunn and Griffey were in left and Crosby and Hamilton were in right. Not that I think it means a whole lot, but it did happen.

The first baseman for infield drills got a little extra grief for every ball he misplayed. But Jerry Narron can handle it. Narron does a little of everything during the spring. He throws batting practice, he sets up at first base during infield, he hits fungos. Basically, he just loves the game and every part of it.

On one relay play, Gonzalez bobbled the throw from Griffey. Griffey called out, "It's OK, dog, I'll take something off of it for you next time." Gonzalez, who has as solid a defensive reputation as anyone in baseball, just laughed.

There's never a dull moment with Marty Brennaman around, I'll tell you that.

Saddest sight of the spring. I watched the first basemen take infield and all three -- Scott Hatteberg, Jeff Conine and Joey Votto are right handed. What's up with that? That's just not fair. Young left handed kids have only three places they can play -- first, pitcher and outfield. And to have the only infield position taken away? Blasphemy.I suggested a Constitution Amendment against right-handed first basemen, but fellow blogger Josh Katzowitz suggested that may be a bit much. So maybe just a law. No reason to go mess up the constitution. Side note, all four of the regular Red beat writers: myself, Hal McCoy, John Fay and Mark Sheldon are all lefties -- and so is Marty Brennaman. Thom Brennaman is right handed.