Cincinnati Reds plan for the warmth of Arizona in the cold of November

The Cincinnati Reds released their spring training schedule in time for everyone to be thankful for something besides turkey.

The Cincinnati Reds have a full slate of March games planned to get ready for the 2017 season.  2017 will be the latest installment of the World Baseball Classic.  The only projected Red to be involved in that is Joey Votto for Team Canada.

The highlight of the spring for Reds’ fans will likely be the barnstorm at the end of spring training.  They have a pair of Futures games on March 31 and April 1 at Louisville and Dayton, respectively.  The Reds’ fans can see all of youngsters first hands.

More importantly, it is the one time a year that fans in Louisville and Dayton can see the big league players without driving for an hour and a half.  Last year the top line players didn’t play in the Dayton game because it was so close to the start of the season.  The fans were still able to see young everyday players like Eugenio Suarez.

Another highlight of spring training is a trip to Las Vegas.  The Reds and World Series Champion Chicago Cubs (that still doesn’t sound right) are playing a pair of split squad games in Las Vegas the last weekend before camps break.  The Reds and Cubs play each other enough during the regular season that the location, not the teams will be the star in this match-up.

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The Cincinnati Reds will be focusing on player development and assessment this spring more than ever.

Pitchers and catchers report to Goodyear on February 13.  That gives them two weeks to prepare for the first spring training game.  Both the pitchers and catchers will be highly scrutinized this spring.

The full team workouts begin on February 17.  Most of the focus will be on the three minor league outfielders new to the forty man roster Jesse Winker, Phil Ervin, and Aristides Aquino.  Winker is in the battle for right field heading into the spring with incumbent Scott Schebler.

Five times the Reds play one of the teams from Los Angeles.  This is of note because Brandon Phillips has hinted that he would be willing to consider a trade to one of the LA teams.  This might be the first chance to see Phillips playing against the Reds in a long time.

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For fans just the thought of baseball in this cold weather is reassuring.  The players have plenty of work to do this off-season before heading to Arizona.  We aren’t even sure who will be on the team yet.