Last week, Major League Baseball asked the 30 teams to find a site within 100 miles of their ballpark to act as a second practice facility once the regular season began so they could use it as a site. for the squad of taxi players, which could be as large as 34 players. Taxi team players will not be training and practicing with the major league “hot list.” The Cincinnati Reds announced today that their practice facilities will be in Mason, Ohio, at Prascot Laboratories, where they have two fields: Prasco Park and Legacy Field. From the Cincinnati Reds:
In addition to using Great American Ball Park, the team is finalizing plans to use a state-of-the-art facility located on the Prasco Laboratories corporate campus in Mason. That facility houses two fields, Prasco Park and Legacy Field.
The facility serves as the home complex for the Cincinnati Spikes, a select, nonprofit roaming baseball team, and includes a weight room, workout room, cafeteria, meeting rooms, and multiple clubs. Prasco is illuminated and can be used for training at night. Furthermore, Legacy Field is a fully synthetic field.
During preseason training, the team plans to use both facilities. Once the regular season begins, the Mason facility would be the team’s designated alternate training site, which will house players not on the active roster.
“We are very excited about the possibility of training at Prasco,” Williams said of the state-of-the-art facility north of Cincinnati. “The facilities are world class and have been home to many of the best young players in our region. From the moment MLB gave teams the ability to decide where to conduct preseason training, we have vowed to find a facility near our home stadium. It will be exciting for players to prepare here in our local market for this unique season. We are very grateful to the Arington family for working with us to make this happen. ”
This is a surprise, at least for me. With all the technology in baseball, it seemed likely that teams were trying to find a nearby minor league stadium that already had a technology set up to use to help analyze and further develop players. Dayton’s Day Air Ballpark, where the Low-A Dayton Dragons seem to fit perfectly as a Reds-affiliated stadium that Trackman and Field F / X have (tracks the movement of all fielders and runners throughout the game). The downside could be that it’s just one field, something that with site selection at Mason might have been a determining factor.
Of course, teams also have the ability to use more portable solutions to track some of these things. Rapsodoes can be placed on the field as teams will not play actual games, or teams could configure the Trackman portable radar if they so choose. However, they probably won’t set up the Field F / X, which requires a more complicated camera system and setup.
With Spring 2.0 training at two locations, it’s worth noting that both will be closed to the public. You can’t attend either, so don’t try.
