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The Reds made an international signing last week, inking Jake Turnbull, a 16 year-old catcher from Australia. The Reds were one of 6 teams that scouted Turnbull, who the manager of the Perth Heat described as having the best swing he's ever seen from a junior ballplayer. Turnbull will play for the Heat this winter, before heading to Arizona this spring to join the Reds.
The terms of the signing bonus have not yet been released, but it purportedly took a six-figure bonus to lure the Koondola native to the Queen City. With a farm system that is very pitching heavy, it's nice to see that Bavasi and his team are scouring the globe looking for position player talent.
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Fangraphs: Gold Glovers by the Numbers
August Fagerstrom gives us a breakdown of who the defensive metrics say should take home the Gold Glove Awards in the National League. As far as methodology, they take DRS and UZR, prorate both to 1,000 innings, and then do a 50/50 split of the two numbers also prorated to 1,000 innings to get the final number (tDEF/1000). Got that?
None of the Reds players come out on top with this method, but Brandon Phillips comes in 2nd behind D.J. LeMahieu, Zack Cozart also came in 2nd behind Andrelton Simmons, and Billy Hamilton finished 3rd in the CF ranks. The metrics were not kind to Devin Mesoraco, who finished with the 3rd worst season of an NL catcher behind only Salty and the Beef Castle.
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Source: Aroldis Chapman has jumped agencies to Relativity. He's eligible for free agency after 2016 and could smash closer-contract records.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) October 28, 2014
Enjoy the last two seasons of Chapmania while you can.
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Baseball America: Minor League Moves
Trevor Bell has elected free agency and has been removed from the 40-man roster. Davide Anselmi, Fabian Roman, Jakob Izold, and Alex Greer were all released.
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Hardball Times: Did Adam Dunn Ruin Baseball?
P Doc just gave himself whiplash from furiously nodding in agreement.
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Have you ever wondered what it would sound like if the Ramones wrote a song about Rey Ordóñez? Well wonder no longer. Here's the Vancouver based, baseball-themed punk band, the Isotopes:
You can find more of their stuff here. I highly recommend checking out "Around the Horn" and "Infield Fly."
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And while we're at it here's another pop-punk band loosely related to baseball: