Reds Retool with Rule V draft

The Reds have taken four players in the Rule V draft, which is still ongoing and they could add even more. Two dudes were brought in during the MLB portion (meaning they have to stay with the big club or on the DL all year) and another two in the AAA portion (same thing, but Louisville instead of Cincinnati).

After the Phillies took Tyler Goeddel with the top pick, the Reds selected left-handed OF Jake Cave from the Yankees. Cave is 23 years old, from Hampton, Va., and went a woop-de-doo .279/.339/.359 in AA (with a week's worth of coffee in AAA) last year.

Cave is one of those athletes who improbably has a double-chin, and he's from the same part of the country which gave us Missy Elliott and Allen Iverson, which is pretty cool. His role is to be, as I noted yesterday, a lefty sop to Billy Hamilton. He can hit righties and play around the outfield. This is, admittedly, not terribly exciting, but Cave has a high floor and a good nickname opportunity.

Eleven picks later (including the A's nabbing Jabari Blash), the Reds picked Chris O'Grady from the Angels. O'Grady is 25, out of George Mason University and a highschool in Rockland County, NY that I have on good authority only produces jerks. O'Grady struck out 57 and walked 14 in 57.2 innings between AA and AAA last year, which is pretty good. He could be a LOOGY considering that the only other bullpen lefty right now is Tony Cingrani, maybe?

In the AAA portion of the Draft, the Reds nabbed Ariel Hernandez (from Arizona) and Pin-Chieh Chen (from the Cubs). Hernandez is a 6'3 Dominican who washed out of Giants' rookie league in 2013 and showed back up in Low A last year, so man, not sure what to expect there. Pin-Chieh is a lefty-hitting outfielder from Taiwan who went.263/.338/.378 between A+/AA for the Cubs, so he's actually just Jake Cave.

Here are the new Reds! Maybe they'll still be relevant in six months.