Price: Reds won't take baby steps with young starters

Now that the Reds have a rookie-dominated rotation, it might seem like standard operating procedure to go easy on the kids.

Anthony DeSclafani, Michael Lorenzen and Jon Moscot are in the rotation. Raisel Iglesias will be back in the rotation or in the bullpen when he gets off the disabled list.

"We had tabbed these four guys we have now — even though Iglesias is on the disabled list — as the future of our starting rotation and perhaps our bullpen," Reds manager Bryan Price said. "Sometimes you have to settle in at the big league before your role is defined."

But when the four are in the rotation, they'll be expected to perform like veteran starters.

"We felt like all four of those were destined to be part of starting rotation," Price said. "It's come a little bit sooner than we anticipated. We embraced it. It's a great opportunity to learn and get better. We're not really going to take baby steps. We expect these guys to go out there and keep themselves in games and compete and learn and pitch innings."

"We're all excited about it," Price said. "It's an interesting mix because we have more of a veteran group of position players."

Even after a somewhat rough start in his debut Friday, Moscot said afterward that he feels he belongs in the big leagues.

"A lot of that has to come more through the experience than be told anything," Price said. "We're always trying to talk our players up. Not only the rookies, but the veterans. Some of veterans aren't on track to do what they expect to do.

"We're always talking players up and reminding them of what they do well. Let it happen. Don't come to the ballpark with so much on your shoulders. The better teams, the better managers, the better coaches are the ones that are able to take things off their shoulders. We impress that upon our players."

All of the rookies pitched well enough to earn their chance.

"The younger players have to understand they were doing something very well in the minor leagues. Don't change it," Price said. "The game itself will teach you what you need to do to be successful.

"They're not a fragile as we make them out to be. They're not on some precipice looking down into the abyss. I think they can do it. They're coming up typically when they're throwing the ball well.

"Once you can manage the emotion, you can manage a baseball game. It's going to take a part of this season to get really comfortable in making the major leagues their normal environment.

"That'll happen."

PRICE ON MOSCOT: Price thought — aside from the first inning — Moscot's debut was fine.

"He threw a very high percentage of strikes with his slider," Price said. "His fastball strike percentage wasn't good as it needs to be, but it got better over the course of the game."

Moscot went five innings and allowed four runs on four hits. Two of the hits and all three of his walks came in the two-run first.

"He made the adjustments from the early innings, not only to be competitive but to throw quality innings," Price said. "It could have gotten out of hand early. It would not have allowed him to anticipate having success later if he hadn't stayed in that game and pitched better."

Moscot has to learn what Lorenzen has.

"It's understanding your stuff works here," Price said. "Funnel it into the zone and challenge hitters in the at-bat to get ahead. It seems the more (Lorenzen's) comfortable here, the more he's on the attack. I always saw pitching as an offensive position. You have to take your game to the hitter. You can't flirt around the zone. Pitchers have to set the tone of the game.

"I think Lorenzen gets better every time out because he's more of a force."

ORGANIZATIONAL DECISION: Jason Marquis told more than a few people that if he wasn't starting, he would consider retiring.

But Price said Marquis did not ask to be designated for assignment and was not given the opportunity to stay a reliever. The club DFA'd Marquis Friday.

"It was an organizational decision," Price said. "Part of that is we were going to go with the younger pitchers. We did feel stronger about our younger pitchers in the rotation. I personally felt Jason wasn't going to get a lot of opportunity to pitch.

"He worked very hard to get back after his arm surgery. We weren't going to be able to provide him with an opportunity to pitch as much as a guy with his experience deserved. There's probably more opportunity for him at a ball club to pitch as a starter."