This is the first in a series of posts that revive a long-lost, well-loved Red Reporter feature: the Red Report. The writing staff will be giving in-depth profiles on new faces who are at least somewhat likely to see time with the big league team this year.

Sean Marshall

#46 / Relief Pitcher / Cincinnati Reds

Height: 6-7

Weight: 220

Bats: L

Throws: L

Age: (b. Aug 30, 1982)

Nicknames: None official

Proposed Nicknames

Saving Sean Marshall (Setting Up Sean Marshall?), The Once and Former Cub, The Wood Shed, The Amp, The Stack, The Plan

Fast Facts

• Sean Marshall was born in Richmond Virginia. His older brother is a former farmhand in the Red Sox organization. Richmond is also the birthplace of Willard Marshall, an outfielder who played for the Reds for two seasons during the 1950s and attended the same high school as Sean. Baseball Reference doesn't list them as relatives, but considering the facts at hand and the genome of the South, they probably are related in some way (I'm allowed to say this because my recent relatives all came from a sticktown in WV) - though Marshall is a pretty common name down there.
  
• Virginia is also the birthplace of the other lefty shotgun barrel in the Reds' bullpen, Bill Bray, and Mat Latos too. This should help put the pitching staff's chemistry on a fast track.
• After pitching three seasons at Virginia Commonwealth, Marshall was drafted by the Cubs in 2003. He made his professional debut that same year with low-A Boise Hawks. He was teammates in the Cubs' system with Reds' spring training invitee Sean Gallagher. His lifetime minor league line is sterling, with a 2.70 ERA, 8.6 K/9 and 2.6 BB/9
• He was added to the Cubs 40-man roster after the 2005 season and began his major league career as a starter, making 24 starts his rookie year in 2006 - Dusty Baker's last in the Cubs' dugout.
  
• He converted to relief for good in 2010, after making both starts and relief appearances during ' 08 and '09. He started 2009 in the rotation, but spent most of the season in the bullpen.

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Organizational soldier. Sacrificial lamb. Air Kentucky shuttle pilot. Carlos Fisher has been called all these things. Mostly by me. I would guess most Reds fans are barely aware he's on the team. Those that are may hope he's swept out with any other quad-A arms when the pitching staff returns to normalcy. Which is probably what will happen and what makes the most baseball sense, depending on who gets healthy and rediscovers the strike zone. If Fisher's days are numbered before his next send-down (and inevitable call up), I thought it might be worth pausing for an appreciation.

Pitchers like Fisher often are called up for reasons other than strictly to help win baseball games. Be there for emergencies. Devour innings in lost causes. Tax purposes? When the novelty of pitching as a major leaguer wears off -which, in all honestly, it shouldn't but probably does - this can be a frustrating lot. Though let me be clear: making major league minimum to live your dream and appear in a few innings every four days should not be viewed as a burden. But there must be a certain degree of strain to finding yourself in Fisher's role. Feeling like little more than a warm body. Getting teased by a series of cups of coffee. Hopping on flights at the team's beck and call, unsure of when and where you'll return.

And then there's the pitching itself. Mop-up duty, by definition, guarantees you'll be used in a game that was lost before you entered. Or an extra innings game in which the bullpen is spent and you've got a 50/50 chance of being caught holding the detonator. Fisher has appeared in five games this season for the Reds. All losses. In the last two, he was on the mound when the opposing team walked-off in extra innings. Yet he's only allowed 2 earned runs (and no inherited runs) in 11.1 innings pitched. It's a small sample - with 4.8 BB per 9 innings thrown in there - but it still puts him the conversation for sticking around.

Fisher is from Covina, CA - roughly halfway between LA and Rancho Cucamonga. Rancho Cucamonga, besides being a funny name, is also home to Dodgers minor-league affiliate, the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes. Straddling the majors and minors at Age 28, Fisher is having a good season on a team that desperately needs a few good long-men.

Alex Gonzalez

#2 / Shortstop / Cincinnati Reds

Height: 6-0

Weight: 200

Bats: R

Throws: R

Born: Feb 15, 1977

Fast Facts:

• Alexander Luis Gonzalez was born in the small town of Cagua, Venezuela, also home to Reds minor league pitcher Ramon Ramirez.  Gonzalez is one in a line of great Venezeulan shortstops, including Luis Aparicio, Davey Concepcion, and Oman Vizquel.
• He was signed on April 18, 1994 as an amateur free agent by the Florida Marlins. 
  
• He was a highly thought-of as a prospect, with a rare blend of sharp defense at shortstop and decent power (19 HRs in AA in '97).  He rose as high as #17 in BA's prospect rankings (1999).  
• He made his debut for the Marlins on August 25, 1998 and hit a solo home run against the Cardinals.

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Chris Dickerson

#21 / Left Field / Cincinnati Reds

Height: 6-3

Weight: 225

Bats: L

Throws: L

Born: Apr 10, 1982

Fast Facts:

• Chris Dickerson was born in Hollywood, California and attended Notre Dame High School where he was teammates with current Cardinals IF/OF Brendan Ryan.  Other notable alumni include current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen, phormer GM Pat Gillick, Pitt basketball coach Jamie Dixon, a bevvy of young actresses like Rachel Bilsson, Kirsten Dunst, Michelle Trachtenberg, and Staci Keenan, as well as two members of Jane's Addiction (Dave Navarro and Stephen Perkins), and Jerry Mathers as the Beaver!
  
• Dickerson was drafted out of high school in the 32nd round by the New York Yankees but did not sign.  Instead he went on the University of Nevada.  He was teammates there with the Padres Kevin Kouzmanoff and Yankees pitcher Darrell Rasner.  Other notable alumns include former Red Corky Miller and former Reds-killer Lyle Overbay.
  
• He had a fine college career, showing a strong propensity for getting on base and even a small amount of power.  He was named to the Western Athletic Conference All Star team in 2001, as a freshman.
• His college success helped him get drafted again, this time in the 16th round of the 2003 draft by the Reds.
  

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Arthur Rhodes

#53 / Pitcher / Cincinnati Reds Height: 6-2

Weight: 210

Bats: L

Throws: L

Born: Oct 24, 1969

Fast Facts

• Arthur Lee Rhodes was born in Waco, Texas.  He's one of two Reds players born in the 1960's on this year's club, although David Weathers is a month older.
• He was drafted in 1988 out of La Vega HS by the Baltimore Orioles with their second round pick, the 34th overall.  It was a pretty interesting draft.  The only player the Reds drafted of note that year was Jeff Branson, but Reds fans would be interested to know that the Orioles that year also drafted future Reds Joey Hamilton and Pete Rose Jr.
• Another tidbit from that draft is that with their 14th round pick in 1988, the Reds drafted a pitcher out of San Antonio named Johnny Almaraz, presumably the same one that went on to become a scout for the Reds, the director of player development, and the guy responsible for the Reds signing players like Adam Dunn, Johnny Cueto, B.J. Ryan, and Jason LaRue.  Not such a bad draft after all, I guess.
• Rhodes spent his first 3 years in the Baltimore system as a starting pitcher, moving up from level to level pretty steadily.  In 1990, he pitched two games where he had 16 strikeouts, but didn't win either one.  After throwing 153 innings in 25 starts at A+ and AA, he was named the #6 prospect in baseball in 1991.
  
• He went straight from AA to the majors in 1991, but disappointed once he got there.  As a 21 year old, he went 0-3 in 8 major league starts, only pitching more than 4 innings in two of them, and managing to bring his ERA down to 8.00 by season's end.
• Despite his rough first go at the big leagues, he went into the 1992 season as the #5 prospect in baseball, and #1 in the Orioles system.  He pitched at AAA for the first 3 months, going 6-6 in 17 starts with a 3.72 ERA.  He got called up, and picked up right where he left off. 
  
• In his rookie season (which was only a half-season, because he got called up in July), he went 7-5 with a 3.63 ERA in 15 starts, with 77 strikeouts.  That K total was good for 3rd among AL rookies, and he threw the first shutout in Yankee Stadium in 11 years.  A sign of good things to come, I guess.

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David Weathers

#25 / Pitcher / Cincinnati Reds

Height: 6-3

Weight: 235

Bats: R

Throws: R

Born: Sep 25, 1969

Fast Facts

• John David Weathers (Baseball Reference coolly refers to him as "Dave") was born in Lawrenceburg, TN, home of amateur politician Fred Thompson and a famous Jeter.  Weathers attended Motlow State Community College, but was drafted in the 3rd round of the 1988 draft by the Blue Jays at the age of 19.
• Weathers made his Major League debut on Aug. 2, 1991 for the Blue Jays at the age of 21.  He pitched a scoreless inning against the Red Sox, striking out Ellis Burks.  In fact, he didn't allow a run in his first four appearances, but then things got shaky.  Weathers finished the season with a 4.91 ERA and an eye-popping 2.182 WHIP in 15 innings.
• After only appearing in two games in 1992 (and being left off the postseason roster), he was selected by the Marlins in the 1992 expansion draft.  It was the first of many moves for Weathers.  After pitching in relief during the first half of 1993 (including in four losing efforts against the Reds), the Marlins inserted Weathers into the starting rotation.  He wasn't very good, posting a 5.12 ERA and 1.533 WHIP, good for an 84 ERA+.
• Weathers was a starter for all of 1994 (8-12 record), then bounced between the bullpen and the rotation for the next four years for four different teams (Marlins, Yankees, Indians, Reds).  He never had an ERA+ of higher than 90 for any of those teams.
• In 1996, Weathers was dealt at the trading deadline to the New York Yankees in exchange for Aussie pitcher Mark Hutton.  (Hutton and Weathers would later be teammates on the 1998 Reds).  The move was great for Weathers, as the Yankees won the World Series that year.  Weathers pitched extremely well in the postseason, only allowing one run in 11 innings.
• As well as Weathers pitched in the playoffs, his time with the Yankees was the worst of his career.  He pitched for the Yankees for parts of 1996 and 1997, and with them he had ERAs of 9.35 and 10.00 and WHIPs of 2.135 and 2.444.  As such, the Yankees weren't sorry to give him up and traded him to the Indians for Chad Curtis (who would hit two home runs for the Yankees in the 1999 World Series).  Weathers was only slightly less awful for the Indians, and at the end of the year was placed on waivers.

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Edwin Encarnacion

#28 / Third Base / Cincinnati Reds

Height: 6-1

Weight: 215

Bats: R

Throws: R

Born: Jan 07, 1983

Fast Facts:

• Edwin Elpidio Encarnacion was born January 7th (my birthday too!!), 1983 in La Romana, Dominican Republic.  Other notable Major Leaguers born in La Romana are Antonio Alfonseca, Freddy Garcia, Ervin Santana, and fellow Reds infielder Danny Richar.  
  
• Though born in the DR, Edwin spent most of his childhood in Puerto Rico.  He attended Manuel Toro High School and was drafted in the 9th round (274th overall) by the Texas Rangers in 2000.  
  
• He was traded a year later with Ruben Mateo to the Reds for pitcher Rob Bell.  
  
• He made a steady climb through the minor leagues, hitting well at every stop.  He ranked #4 among Reds prospects in '03, #2 in '04, and #2 (#56 in MLB) in '05.  
  

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Jared Burton

#51 / Pitcher / Cincinnati Reds

Height: 6-5

Weight: 230

Bats: R

Throws: R

Born: Jun 02, 1981

Fast Facts:

• Levi Jared Burton was born in Westminster, SC, where he went to West-Oak HS.  He attended Western Carolina University, which has graduated other distinguished Major Leaguers like Mark DiFelice, and... that's about it.
  
• In 2002, he was drafted by the Oakland A's with their 8th round pick, the 248th overall.  It's worth noting that the A's had a pretty decent draft that year, with Burton joining Nick Swisher, Joe Blanton, Mark Teahen, Brad Ziegler, J.R. Towles, Ty Taubenheim, and Jonathan Papelbon in the A's 2002 class.  Not bad.
• The Reds drafted O.J. King in the same round.  Yep, he never made it past Dayton.  The only other Major Leaguer the Reds drafted before Burton was picked was Joey Votto.
• It's also worth noting that he was predominantly a starter in college, and went 7-6 in his final collegiate season, with 105 Ks in 103 innings.
  

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