Reds Report: Mark Prior, Brandon in WBC, and Mesoraco v. Hanigan

The Cincinnati Reds have been in spring training camp for a few weeks now and there are a number of things that stand out up to this point including signings, surges of power, players in the WBC, Sin Shoo Choo in center field, and of course the biggest story in spring training this year, Aroldis Chapman in the starting rotation. Lets get to it in this edition of the Reds Report.

One of the most surprising headline coming out of camp is that the Reds have signed Mark Prior to a minor league deal and he reported to camp this week. Yep, that Mark Prior. Prior hasn't pitched in the majors since 2006, and hasn't been effective in the majors since around 2004. Still, Walt brought Prior in and reunited him with Dusty Baker from the Chicago days. Prior only has a minor league deal and has no shot at making the big league roster out of camp. He will likely pitch in Louisville for the year, if he can prove he is able to pitch at the AAA level during the spring. His name makes this story the top headline in spring, but it will have little to no impact on the reds 2013 season.

Another major thing that started this weekend is the World Baseball Classic. While Joey Votto has not yet decided, or at least not yet announced, whether he will be playing for Canada, we know that the Reds second baseman will be headed to play for Team USA in the Classic. Phillips has been open about playing and has said he is very proud to be representing his country this year. It may not be what Dusty or Walt want their star second baseman spending his spring on however after telling Johnny Cueto he couldn't play for his home country in the Dominican Republic. If Votto doesn't play, Phillips will be the only Reds star representing the team on the international stage, and I couldn't think of a better ambassador for Reds Nation than DatDudeBP himself.

There haven't been many position battles this spring as the roster is pretty much set in stone give or take a few spots. One position to keep an eye on during the spring as well as throughout this season is the catcher position. Ryan Hanigan received most of the playing time last year and young Devin Mesoraco mostly had to watch from the bench and occasionally pinch hit. While Hanigan has been rock solid and is definitely the safer of the two options because we know what we will get from him, Mesoraco is off to a great spring already with two home runs and seems to have made strides since last season. There's no question that Mesoraco has the higher ceiling and the most potential of the two. Will Meso get to fight for the starting job? That remains to be sen as we know Dusty loves Hanigan and Meso will have to force Dusty's hand to get major time behind the plate. So far he is off to a good start and if he keeps it up he might just steal the majority of playing time away from Ryan Hanigan.

The question everyone wants to know is whether or not Aroldis Chapman will be a starter this whole year. We know Chapman is in camp preparing to start and that the front office wants him in the rotation. Chapman made his first start the other day and seems to be adjusting to the starting role with ease. Aroldis hasn't been in a starting rotation since his days in Cuba, and was one of the most dominant closers in the game last year. It makes sense for your best pitcher to be in your starting rotation and Chapman has been the most dominating pitcher on the Reds roster since he came to the majors. We will see how the rest of the spring shapes up for the Cuban Missile, but s far everything is going according to plan for the Reds' young flamethrower.