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Hall of Fame baseball writer Hal McCoy has retired from the Dayton Daily News after covering the Cincinnati Reds for 37 years. Hal's blog, though, will continue to be a must-read for Reds fans. He'll share his thoughts on the team this season and will file updates from Great American Ball Park. You also can catch Hal in print every Sunday in his popular Ask Hal columnHome > Blogs > The Real McCoy | Cincinnati Reds baseball news > Archives > 2008 > August > 14
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Reds sign No. 5 pick
The Reds haven’t yet corraled their No. 1 pick, Yonder Alonso, but they haven’t been twiddling their fingers and sitting on their thumbs.
On Thursday they signed their No. 5 pick, Juan Carlos Sulbaran, a pitcher out of American Heritage High School in Fort Lauderdale. He was signed for $500,000.
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TweetCatcher acquired from D-Backs
A second player in the Adam Dunn deal has been identified — a catcher who isn’t a catcher.
Wilkin Castillo, just-turned-24, is listed as a catcher, but in recent times with Class AAA Tucson he has played shortstop, third base and left field.
In 104 games this season he hit .254 with six home runs and 47 RBIs for Tucson.
He joins pitcher Dallas Buck as announced acquisitions, with pitcher Micah Owings and his problems yet to be resolved.
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TweetDunn denies dollar demand
Adam Dunn is not a bit pleased that Bronson Arroyo told the Cincinnati writers that Dunn would be asking for $115 million to $125 million after the season.
And, in fact, he denies it.
“I don’t know where that number would come from,” said Dunn. “False information, that’s all I can say. That makes me look like a jackass. You never hear players talking about money. I don’t think about the offseason. Me and my agent don’t even talk about numbers.”
It came, of course, from Arroyo and Dunn is correct. Players don’t often talk money issues in the clubhouse. I’ve been around Dunn his entire career and not once has he lied to me or fudged on any question or answer.
If he says he never mentioned his asking price to be $115 million to $125 million, I believe him implicity.
And he said GM Walt Jocketty and his agent never discussed a contract, let alone any figured and he said he never told any teammates anything about what it would take to sign him.
THE ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS were not happy that pitcher Micah Owings’ name surfaced as one of the two players to be announced later as part of the Adam Dunn trade.
They wanted him to clear waivers before they told him he was part of the trade, but his name surfaced quickly.
Owings was supposed to pitch Wednesday for Class AAA Tucson, but was scratched with a shoulder problem. An injured player cannot be placed on waivers, so the Diamondbacks can’t put him there until he is healthy and it is expected the Reds will put him through a physical before he is accepted in the trade.
So have we another Gary Majewski thing on our hands? Majewski was hurt when the Reds acquired him two years ago from the Washington Nationals. The Reds filed a grievance with Major League Baseball but it was denied and nothing came of it.
And pay attention to this? Dallas Buck, the pitcher that has been announced as part of the trade for Dunn, had Tommy John surgery last year.
IT IS LOOKING more and more like No. 1 draft pick Yonder Alonso won’t sign with the Reds. They have until midnight Friday to sign him. If they don’t, he goes back into the draft pool for next year.
Alonso reportedly wants a $7 million deal and a major-league contract that would put him on the 40-man roster. The Reds are offering $2.5 million and no major-league contract - and that’s about as far apart as opposite ends of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.
Alonso is threatening to return to the University of Miami for his senior year or to spend the rest of the summer and the first part of next year playing independent league baseball.
Alonso said the Reds knew what he wanted when they drafted him and wonder why they went ahead and did it if they thought it would come to this.
Sort of reminds me of 2001 when the Reds drafted pitcher Jeremy Sowers No. 1. Sowers made it clear he was going to attend Vanderbilt University and would not sign if drafted. The Reds had no money for a No. 1 draft pick that year so they drafted Sowers, knowing he wouldn’t sign.
Then they told fans, “Hey, we made a good pick, but he wouldn’t sign.”
Maybe that’s the case this year, too. Who knows? I do know that it was a strange pick, in that Joey Votty is a young first baseman and there are some first base prospects in the system and some scouts believe that Alonzo is, “a bad body type who can only play first base and can only hit. He does nothing else.”
It reminds some of the year the Reds drafted first baseman Simone Peters when they could have drafted Lance Berkman because they thought Peters would hit 50 homers a year. As one man said, “Peters never made it out of ‘A’ ball and Berkman is on his way to the Hall of Fame.”
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