With the Cincninnati Reds still looking for a compliment to Paul Janish at shortstop, there is no doubt the team's brass will be keeping a close eye on the development of 24-year-old infield prospect Chris Valaika. Rated one of the organization's top 15 prospects by Redsminorleagues.com, Valaika has spent his three years in the Reds' system mostly playing in the middle infield.
This past season, the right-handed Valaika spent all year in Louisville at triple-A with the Bats, starting 95 games, including 76 at the shortstop position. While Valaika's defense remained solid, his 2009 numbers at the plate dipped somewhat compared to his first few years with the club. 2009 was Valaika's triple-A debut season, and he finished the campaign with a .235 average to go with six homers, 36 ribbys, and 20 doubles.
It was an up-and-down season for the six-foot, 215-pounder, as he spent over a month of the early season on the DL after fracturing his hand when he threw a right cross at a Gatorade cooler in the Bats' dugout. Valaika finally started to find a groove at the plate once August rolled around, hitting .318 for the month, including a 13-game span that saw him light it up at a .380 clip. Interestingly enough, Valaika seemed to hit much better on the road (.273) than at Slugger Field (.196).
Hopefully Valika's pedestrian 2009 numbers were an aberration, and he will spend 2010 getting his mojo back at the dish. An offensive improvement would not come as a surprise, as he won the organization's Minor League Player of the Year in 2008 thanks to some excellent offensive numbers. Spending most of 2008 at double-A, Valaika led all Reds' minor leaguers in average (.317), and was second in runs driven in (81). In his three pro seasons before 2009, Valaika's lifetime average was over .300.
Valaika won gold medals at the Pan-Am Games and the World University Baseball Championships before becoming a third round pick of the Reds in 2006 out of the University of California-Santa Barbara. Being a Cali native his whole life, it's no surprise that Valaika chose to play ball at UCSB, which is the home of the Gauchos. Notable Gaucho alumni include five-time MLB all-star shortstop Michael Young, as well as radio blowhard Jim Rome. According to wikipedia, a gaucho is sort of like a spanish cowboy, or it could be someone who lives in the Patagonian region of South America.
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