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<\/p>\nCINCINNATI \u2014 As Rece Hinds began his pregame routine of yoga and walking barefoot in the outfield grass at Great American Ball Park on Tuesday, Cincinnati Reds catcher Jose Trevino saw him and had a simple question: \u201cHow does it feel to be back home?\u201d<\/p>\n
With a smile as big as his 6-foot-3 frame, Hinds told the veteran catcher it was great.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis clubhouse, these guys, it\u2019s awesome seeing these guys and being around these guys,\u201d Hinds said. \u201cThere\u2019s such good camaraderie around all of us. I\u2019ve played with a lot of these guys coming up through the system.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Reds entered Tuesday\u2019s series with the San Francisco Giants tied for the third-fewest runs in Major League Baseball. After Sunday\u2019s loss to the Los Angeles Angels, the team optioned outfielder Noelvi Marte to Triple-A Louisville and then officially called Hinds up Tuesday. Hinds was in the team\u2019s lineup, hitting sixth behind Eugenio Su\u00e1rez and playing right field, in hope of both buoying the team\u2019s anemic offense and getting Marte back on track.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t expect him to come here and be the savior,\u201d Reds manager Terry Francona said before Tuesday\u2019s game. \u201cWe just want him to play the best baseball he can and go from there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hinds played his best baseball this spring, putting up a 1.414 OPS with five home runs in 43 plate appearances during Cactus League games. The Reds sent him to Triple A to start the season, where he didn\u2019t slow down. In 13 games and 61 plate appearances with the Bats, Hinds had a 1.246 OPS and five home runs.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Rece Hinds had a strong offensive showing in spring training and kept it up in Triple A. (Mike Christy \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
\u201cRece had just a good spring \u2014 we told him, and we know he wasn\u2019t pleased, but we said, \u2018We want you to play. We don\u2019t want you to sit the bench,’\u201d Francona said. \u201cTo his credit, he goes (down) and plays and plays really well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hinds knew he belonged in the big leagues. In fairness, it wasn\u2019t that anyone doubted him, but the competition for the team\u2019s final roster spots this spring was as close as it has been in years.<\/p>\n
While the decision at the end of March was tough for Hinds, a simple adjustment to his attitude the last couple of years helped him thrive even in disappointment. Instead of trying to prove others wrong in their decision, he wanted to prove to himself he was correct in his belief that his work and performance were worthy of a big-league spot.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe past couple of years, I\u2019ve proven to myself that I\u2019m an all-around player and I can do every phase of the game,\u201d Hinds said Tuesday.<\/p>\n
It was those parts of the game \u2014 his defense in the outfield and his base running \u2014 that Francona noticed the most this spring. Hinds said he spent a lot of time during the offseason shagging fly balls at Kennesaw State near his home in the Atlanta area while the Owls players were taking batting practice.<\/p>\n
Francona said the team\u2019s message to him after last season and at the start of the spring was about being more consistent. A message he took to heart.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the biggest thing was focusing on the little things \u2014\u00a0really paying attention to the game, paying attention to situations instead of just going out there and trusting my talent in general,\u201d Hinds said. \u201cI\u2019m out there actually thinking and observing the game and being more conscious of what\u2019s going on in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the plate, Hinds also made an adjustment with his approach, which has been paying dividends. There will always be swing-and-miss in Hinds\u2019 game. In 95 big-league plate appearances over the previous two seasons, Hinds had a 38.9 percent strikeout rate. In the minors over that same span, it was 31.8 percent in 858 plate appearances. He lowered his strikeout rate to 30.2 percent this spring and 24.6 early in the season with the Bats.<\/p>\n
The change isn\u2019t as much about whiffing less as swinging less. Hinds is laying off the breaking balls lower in the zone because not only are they more likely to be balls, but also the quality of contact if he does hit them is likely to be poor. As a result, he improved his walk rate from 8.2 percent the last two seasons in the minors to 19.7 percent early this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think just seeing those pitches, seeing myself be able to lay off certain pitches, really stick to a game plan, stick to a zone I\u2019m looking for,\u201d Hinds said. \u201cI think it just grows that confidence in that approach more and more.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Marte, the results were the opposite. Last year, his strikeout rate was 23.6 percent, and early this year, it was 32.3 percent, a gulf that not even a slight rise in walk rate (from 4.4 to 6.5 percent) could help.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe got to a point where he was trying to hit himself back in, and he was swinging at everything,\u201d Francona said. \u201cThat\u2019s a hard way to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moved from third base to right field in July last year, Marte will play both right field and center field with the Bats.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want him to do well. We really do. But go do it,\u201d Francona said. \u201cNobody\u2019s pulling against him, I guarantee you that. We just felt like he got himself in a position where it was going to be hard to kind of dig out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CINCINNATI \u2014 As Rece Hinds began his pregame routine of yoga and walking barefoot in the outfield grass…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":728426,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[5048,1266,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-728425","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-cincinnati-reds","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116405718814487669","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=728425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/728426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}