Reds 5 at 5: Hamilton Live Tweet, Farm Rankings, More

Of course the big baseball news of the day surrounds the information coming out of Miami about, well, those PEDs. If you want to read about that, go here as I’m not going into that in this post.

But the “5 at 5” will make you forget about that. There are some positives things here such as Billy Hamilton live tweeting this evening. Also have a bit about how you can take your “no longer wanted” baseball card collection and make great use of it.

Oh, and there’s a little more about Reds prospects and the farm system.

1. Hamilton Alert!

Billy Hamilton, that is. He will be live tweeting tonight. He will be doing so in conjunction with the unveiling of the top 100 prospects according to MLB.com.

Tonight at 9 PM ET, the show will air on MLB.com and MLB Network. You have the opportunity to follow along or to interact with several of the players on the list as they live tweet during the show, which will be moderated by MLBPipeline.com (@MLBPipeline). Simply use the hashtag #MLBPipeline.

As a primer, and not that this will be exactly as MLB.com has it, you can go to FanSided’s prospect site, Seedlings to Stars to catch Aaron Somers and his top 100. Well, except for the top 10.

2. And on prospects…

MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo has a breakdown of prospects and how they rank in his top 10 by position lists. The Reds have three players that are in his top 10’s. The obvious one is Hamilton (#3 OF). The others are Tony Cingrani (#6 LHP) and Ryan Wright (#9 2B).

Mayo places a value in correlation to his ranking. He then takes those values and adds them together to come up with a total. For Cincy, that sum is 15, which places them at 13th among the 30 MLB teams.

Worthy of note, the Toronto Blue Jays and San Francisco Giants do not have any prospects ranked within the top 10 at any position. We know why Toronto isn’t. They were the buyers in the Marlins “fire sale”.

Mayo will be releasing his top 20 by organization lists beginning with the NL East on February 4. The NL Central is slated for Feb. 6.

Sept 15, 2012; Miami, FL, USA; Cincinnati Reds relief pitcher Tony Cingrani (52) reacts during the fifth inning against the Miami Marlins at Marlins Park. (Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports)

3. Reds farm system not in bad shape

In fact, this was a little better news than I expected. Since the trades prior to and during the 2012 season, some have speculated that the Reds farm system has taken a big step in the wrong direction. While it’s not ranked as high as it was a couple of years ago, Minor League Ball has the Reds system rated at MLB’s #15 farm system. Over on FanSided’s Motor City Bengals, John Verburg has Cincy as #16.

It should be of no surprise that both see the Reds still owning some nice arms (including the aforementioned and pictured above Cingrani), but lacking a little as far as positional depth is concerned. After Hamilton and Jesse Winker, neither sees much to like from an offensive perspective. Can’t disagree too much on that point.

4. Tired of collecting baseball cards and want to find a good home for them? Donate them!

The fever is hitting. Not only for spring training to start, but as the date for pitchers and catchers to report draws closer, I would imagine the itch to buy a pack or two of baseball cards is building as well. That’s to say if you haven’t done so already. I know on MLB’s website, they have an ad for 2013 Topps Series 1.

But what if you are wanting to rid yourself of your collection? What if you are no longer interested in the hobby? There’s someone that can help you with that. May I introduce you to Commons 4 Kids. They will take your cards and donate them to shelters, hospitals, anywhere a card can end up in a child’s hand.

They have even received a donation from former NBA star Rik Smits and former Bengal Deltha O’Neal!

For more information, head over to their website. In the future, we will have more news from C4K.

5. Bat tosses are “in”…in Japan

While some baseball fans detest the “bat toss” (or bat flip, in some cases) after a player hits a home run, they are becoming quite the rage in Japan.

Yes, someone took the time to put that together. It must be big then.