C. Trent Rosecrans

crosecrans@enquirer.com

The Blog Above Replacement a daily look at the Reds, their minor leagues and whatever else is on the mind of Enquirer Reds beat writers, C. Trent Rosecrans and Zach Buchanan.

Billy Hamilton didn’t play the hero on Monday, but he played his part.

Hamilton didn’t swing the bat once in his eighth-inning plate appearance against David Hernandez even with two runners in scoring position and no outs and the Reds down a run.

A single would have given the Reds the lead on Opening Day, Hamilton knew it, but he didn’t let it control him.

“In the past couple of years, I would have panicked right here, try to put too much pressure on myself,” Hamilton said.

He said perhaps in the past, he’d be so nervous he wouldn’t even really see the ball. There was none of that Monday.

Batting ninth, Hamilton knew the top of the lineup was up after him and they had a good shot of getting it done if he didn’t.

“I knew I had Cozy behind me and Cozy was 3-for-3, he can hit,” Hamilton said. “I’m just going to get my pitch that I want to do something with — I knew I couldn’t hit a curveball how I wanted to hit it, so I wanted to work the count and get to a pitch where I could drive it in the gap or a deep fly ball. I didn’t panic, that was the main thing I was excited about.”

The first pitch to Hamilton was a ball, but the second was a strike that he watched. Still, the bat stayed on his shoulder — ball two, ball three and ball four.

“I knew I had to work the count and hit the pitch I wanted to hit and it worked out great,” he said.

Cozart got the fly ball the Reds needed and then Hamilton scored easily from second on Joey Votto’s single.

Hamilton has a career walk rate of 6 percent and it was 6.2 percent last season. The league average last season was 9.2 percent. If Hamilton were able to walk at just a league average rate, his on-base percentage would have gone from the .274 he had last season to a .296. While that’s still not where the Reds or Hamilton ultimately want to be, that’s 14 more times on base. (At a league-average rate, his .292 on-base percentage in 2014 would have been at .317 — above the .316 National League average for OBP.)

In addition to bunting, Hamilton has said he’s worked during the off-season and during spring training on keeping the ball out of the air, something that seemed to produce the intended results this spring. Strike zone patience and recognition is something much more difficult to work on in batting practice, so only competition — and time — will really show if that’s improved. If it has, it could be the missing part of the puzzle that not only returns him to the top of the Reds’ lineup but also makes him a valuable player there.

Last year’s NL average on-base percentage for leadoff men was .330 while the Reds’ was .290.

Hamilton walked just once on Monday, and a single at-bat in a single game in a 162-game season is the smallest of sample sizes, but it was something that Hamilton recognized as a step in the right direction.

In his first year, and even last season, the Reds would say, “as Billy goes, we go.” And they did. He sometimes put that pressure on himself, and Monday he said he didn’t. If he doesn’t he could take off (walking), and that would certainly help the Reds.

ICYMI: Tyler Holt, optioned to Triple-A last Wednesday, made the most of his second chance. While Joey Votto’s heroics and odd absence grabbed most of the attention, Holt made the most of his one half-inning on the bases and one half-inning in the field.

PROGRAMMING NOTE: Today marks the return of the BAR (Blog Above Replacement) and we’ll be doing it a little differently this year, adding Zach to the mix. Zach will have his own style on our daily (or weekdaily) Reds and baseball musings, but we’ll still have some Reds thoughts as well as the minor-league roundup every day. The minor-league roundup could be one of the most important things as the re-whatever Reds are going to be keeping a close eye on those down on the farm, as well. All four of the Reds’ full-season minor-league teams open the season on Thursday.

MINOR LEAGUE ROUNDUP

Triple-A: The Bats announced their roster on Monday, highlighted by lefty Cody Reed, infielder Jose Peraza and outfielder Jesse Winker. The Bats start the season Thursday in Toledo (Tigers). [The Courier-Journal]

Double-A: Manager Pat Kelly is excited about his rotation of Nick Travieso, Sal Romano, Amir Garrett, Rookie Davis and Jackson Stephens. The Blue Wahoos start the season Thursday in Mississippi (Braves). [Pensacola News-Journal]

High A: The Tortugas released a travel roster, if not the final roster, on Monday. That roster has 11 of the Reds’ top 30 prospects according to Baseball America. Right-hander Keury Mella will likely start in Daytona. Mella was acquired along with Adam Duvall in the Mike Leake trade. The most intriguing prospect may be OF Aristides Aquino, who is trying to bounce back from an injury-riddled 2015. Daytona opens at home on Thursday against Brevard County (Brewers). [Daytona Tortugas]

Low A: Last year’s top pick, catcher Tyler Stephenson, will start the season at Dayton. 1B James Vasquez was Arizona League’s MVP last year, taking the batting title (.359) and home run title (9) and finishing second in RBI (36). The Dragons open the season Thursday in Bowling Green, Ky. (Rays) [Dayton Dragons]

THE ROTATION

1. Yesterday I was asked to do a couple of trivia questions for our social media folks, and one of the three I came up with was, “Three players have hit eight home runs on Opening Day in their career, and all three played for the Reds. Name them.” Eight, as implied by the question, is the record. That’s why it’s so impressive that 23-year-old Bryce Harper has four. Oh, and I love his “Make Baseball Fun Again” hat. [Washington Post]

2. The Chase Utley Rule has its first victim — Atlanta’s Nick Markakis. [USA Today]

3. Many MLB players are excited about expanded netting at big-league parks. The Reds said the existing netting at Great American Ball Park met MLB’s specifications, so it was not expanded. [USA Today]

4. The Los Angeles Times has a good use of graphics for the player/team salary database.

5. May the Force Be With You as the Force Awakens comes out on home video today. I know how I’ll be spending my day off. I don’t have the Sphero BB-8 (and I thought I told Santa that’s what I wanted), but it’ll now watch the movie with you and hide when Kylo Ren appears, which is pretty cool. [The Verge]