Phillips frets about young 2nd baseman

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By Hal McCoy, Staff Writer 11:56 PM Wednesday, August 5, 2009

CINCINNATI — When Cincinnati Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips heard that Todd Frazier is playing second base at Class AA Carolina, he jumped to two quick conclusions:

• “I’m getting traded,” he said.

• “Or I’m moving to shortstop.”

Phillips said nobody has mentioned the possibility of moving from second base to him, “And who knows in this business. I might be traded. Don’t want to be traded, but anything can happen.”

Reds General Manager Walt Jocketty says moving Phillips to shortstop has not been discussed within the organization.

“We haven’t discussed moving Phillips to shortstop,” said Jocketty. “We moved Frazier to second because he has played left field all year; we know he can play there. He is too good of an athlete just to put in left field right now.

“We know he can play third base and shortstop, but we have Zack Cozart at shortstop and Juan Francisco at third for the future. We wanted to see if Frazier might be able to play second. And so far he has,” Jocketty added.

Owings ready

Pitcher Micah Owings threw 75 pitches Wednesday, Aug. 5, in a simulated game with Adam Rosales, Paul Janish and Chris Dickerson batting and is close to game-ready.

Owings thinks he is headed for Class AAA Louisville on Monday for a rehab appearance, but manager Dusty Baker said, “That may not be necessary.”

Owings is eligible to come off the disabled list Tuesday and could be activated instead of going on rehab.

“It hasn’t been that long since he went on the DL to be throwing so good,” said Baker. “He began throwing like two days after he came out of that start (stiff shoulder, July 26). He’s been throwing almost every day since.”

Said Owings, “It felt great and it was nice to see hitters. I threw everything and all went well.”

Rosales hit against him and said, “He looked good — kept the ball down, had good movement on his slider and attacked both sides of the plate.”

Salute to Balentien

Wladimir Balentien was in the lineup for the second straight night and before his first start Tuesday, Baker said, “We’re just looking for somebody to drive in runs.”

Balentien hit a two-run homer in the ninth inning of Tuesday’s 6-3 loss.

“What we’ve been looking for is RBIs — guys who can get on and guys who can drive ’em in with consistency,” Baker said. “He had four good at-bats. He hit a bullet up the middle that the pitcher kicked. He hit a bullet down the third base line and stayed off some pitches to get a walk.

“His home run was to right center (he bats right-handed), like Joey Votto does to left center as a left-handed hitter. That’s hard to teach. To do that you have to stay on the ball.”

Quote of the day

Baker asked if writers had figured out everything on their cell phones as he looked at his and was told to check with his 10-year-old son, Darren, because kids know those things. To that, Baker said, “That’s what’s wrong with it. He’s been trying to figure out my codes.”

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