Cincinnati Reds links - Scooter Gennett’s four homer night

Scooter Gennett. Heard of him?

The Cincinnati Reds’ 2B/RF/Razor/LF/3B is the talk of baseball at the moment, one day removed from clubbing 4 homers - and an RBI single! - in front of a few dozen fans at Great American Ball Park. His 10 ribbies tied a club record on top of becoming just the 17th player in MLB history to stroke 4 seat-denters in a single game, which has many of the talking heads wondering if it was the single greatest offensive game in the long, long history of Major League Baseball.

ESPN Sweetspot’s Dave Schoenfield explored that question from a variety of angles, most all of which conclude it’s at least one of the top two most productive outings from a player to date.

Yahoo’s Tim Brown spoke with Scooter after the game, and put into context what it means to join the likes of Willie Mays, Lou Gehrig, and asshole Mike Schmidt as players with 4-dinger games under their belt.

/mlb’s Grant Brisbee tried to place where Gennett, all 5 foot nothin’ and a hundred and nothin’ of him, bashing 4 dingers in a game ranked on the all-time baseball weird-crapometer, which is a great read that highlights several other notably odd days from years of yore.

Over at Brew Crew Ball, they (and the comments) largely congratulated their former everyday 2B on his accomplishments. (Reminder that the Reds plucked Gennett off waivers after the Milwaukee Brewers cut him after Spring Training.) Speaking of which, it’ll be interesting to see what the Reds choose to do with Scooter going forward, since he’s making $2.53 million in his first year of arbitration, meaning for the next two years of team control, he won’t exactly be the cheapest option as a bench bat as his salaries continue to rise. He seems to have taken rather well to versatility this year despite never having spent big league time anywhere other than 2B prior to joining the Reds, though, so perhaps keeping him around for the $10 million or so it’ll cost to have him around through 2019 could provide him a significant enough role to make him worth it, assuming he continues to hit anything like he has this year. Otherwise, he might well make a nifty trade piece to flip come July.

Big time congrats on the night of a lifetime, Scooter.

In other Reds news, the Reds signed Cuban IF prospect Jose Israel Garcia earlier today, splashing big time cash again before their window to do so closes for two years. This signing falls in the same calendar year as those of Alfredo Rodriguez and Vlad Gutierrez, which means both a 100% penalty on the dollar outlay for going over their spending limit and that the Reds won’t be able to sign any international free agent for more than $300K for the next two years.

Scott Schebler’s shoulder appears to be just fine, as he walked last night in a pinch-hit appearance and is back in the lineup tonight against St. Louis.

Finally, The Enquirer’s Zach Buchanan caught up with University of Louisville two-way stud Brendan McKay about next week’s MLB Draft, as well as speaking with his college coach, Dan McDonnell. McKay is certainly in the mix to be selected 1st overall by the Minnesota Twins, which means he’s certainly in the mix for the Reds at #2.