33-year old righty swinging Ramon Hernandez and 29-year old righty swinging Ryan Hanigan give the Reds an outstanding pair of defensive catchers. Hernandez will be the starter because he is the better hitter of the two. He played in 81 games for the Reds last season and he was 74 for 287 (.258 avg, .698 OPS) with 25 runs scored, 5 homers and 37 RBIs. Hernandez has more power than he showed last season and he will likely hit 15-20 homers in 2010 if he can just stay healthy. Hernandez only had 1 error and he didn’t have any passed balls in 55 games behind the plate for the Reds last season. He also threw out 25% of the runners trying to steal on him in 2009 and Reds’ pitchers had a 4.41 ERA with him behind the plate.

Ryan Hanigan would be an all-star type of catcher if he just hit a little bit more. He played in 90 games for the Reds last season and he was 66 for 251 (.263 avg, .692 OPS) with 22 runs scored, 3 homers and 11 RBIs. The RBI number (11) is the one of the main reasons that the Reds brought back Hernandez instead of giving Hanigan a shot at starting in 2010. But, he is an outstanding defensive catcher. He only had 1 error and 3 passed balls in 88 games behind the plate for the Reds last season. He also threw out 40% of the runners trying to steal on him last year and Reds’ pitchers had a 4.27 ERA when throwing to him.

PROJECTED GRADE FOR THE CATCHERS IN 2010: B

The Reds have signed 22-year old lefty starting pitcher Aroldis Chapman to a 5-year, $25 million dollar contract with a option for a sixth season valued at $5 million bucks. Chapman really brings the heat often throwing his fastball in the high 90’s. The Reds will likely start him in the minors but they won’t hesitate to call him up if he is dominating down there. This was a good gamble for the Reds who need pitching but they have a lot of holes on the major league roster that could have been fixed with the kind of money they gave Chapman so they need him to be a force in the very near future.

The Big Red Machine was one of the best collections of players in major league history and starting LF George Foster often gets lost when talking about those teams. That is a shame because he was a dominating player especially in 1977 when he won the MVP of the National League. Foster played in 158 games for the Reds in 1977 and he was 197 for 615 (.320 avg, 1.013 OPS) with 124 runs scored, 52 homers, 149 RBIs and 6 stolen bases. In fact for a three year span (1976-1978) he might have been the best hitter on the Reds. In those three years, Foster played in 460 games in which he was 539 for 1,781 (.303 avg) with 307 runs scored, 121 homers, 390 RBIs and 27 stolen bases. Foster played 11 years for the Reds appearing in 1,253 games in which he was 1,276 for 4,454 (.286 avg, .870 OPS) with 680 runs scored, 244 homers, 861 RBIs and 46 stolen bases. Foster is #6 all-time in OPS for the Reds, #6 in homers and #9 in RBIs. Foster might not be a Hall of Fame player but he was great with the Reds.

I know that Reds’ fans can’t be happy that their team has really done nothing to improve over the winter. If the season started next week the starting line-up would look like this:

C-Ramon Hernandez
1B-Joey Votto
2B-Brandon Phillips
SS-Paul Janish
3B-Scott Rolen
LF-Chris Dickerson
CF-Drew Stubbs
RF-Jay Bruce

I would hope that the Reds are keeping tabs on Orlando Cabrera because it would be smart for them to sign him to a 1-year deal to start at shortstop in 2010. If he is deemed too expensive the Reds could sign someone like Khalil Greene to a minor league deal to compete with Janish for the starting job. Greene could really hit a lot of homers in Cincinnati if he is healthy and focused. I just don’t like the idea of starting Paul Janish who is a good defensive player but he can’t hit his way out of a paper bag.

The Reds have signed 27-year old lefty swinging outfielder Josh Anderson to a minor league deal. Anderson played in 118 games for the Tigers and Royals last season in which he was 68 for 283 (.240 avg, .580 OPS) with 42 runs scored, 1 homer, 24 RBIs and 25 stolen bases. He has now played in 179 games in his major league career and he is 132 for 486 (.272 avg, .665 OPS) with 73 runs scored, 4 homers, 47 RBIs and 36 stolen bases. This was a decent signing for the Reds as Anderson should be able to provide defense and speed off the bench if he makes the team out of spring training.