DAYTON, OH -Seven former members of the Dayton Dragons were added to the Cincinnati Reds 40-man roster today.Players added to the roster were pitchers Enerio Del Rosario, Logan Ondrusek, Jordan Smith, Philippe Valiquette, and Travis Wood; infielder Chris Valaika; and outfielder Chris Heisey.
The Reds removed three players from the roster to create openings for those added today. Catcher Craig Tatum was claimed off waivers by the Baltimore Orioles. Pitcher Daryl Thompson was outrighted to the Triple-A Louisville roster. Outfielder Laynce Nix refused an outright assignment to Triple-A and became a free agent.
Wood and Heisey both enjoyed huge seasons in 2009. Wood, who spent the 2006 season with the Dragons and went 10-5 in 27 starts with Dayton, won the earned run average title in the Double-A Southern League with the Carolina Mudcats in 2009, going 9-3 with a 1.21 ERA in 19 starts. He made eight more starts with Louisville and finished the year with a combined record of 13-5. His overall ERA of 1.77 ranked second among starting pitchers in all of Minor League Baseball.
Heisey split the 2009 season between Carolina and Louisville and led the entire Reds organization in batting at.314 to go along with 22 home runs and 77 runs batted in. He spent the 2007 season with the Dragons.
Del Rosario spent most of the 2008 season with the Dragons and enjoyed the team's best pitching performance of the year when he fired a nine-inning shutout over Lansing in his final start of the regular season. In 2009, he pitched at all three levels of the Reds organization and notched 12 saves to go along with a 1.68 ERA.
Ondrusek was with the Dragons in 2006. He emerged as the top reliever in the Reds farm system in 2009, posting a combined 19 saves and a 1.50 ERA at all three levels with Sarasota/Carolina/Louisville.
Smith was a 10-game winner with the Dragons in 2007. He pitched at Double-A Carolina this season and despite missing some time due to injury, was effective in 13 starts with a 5-3 record and a 3.44 ERA.
Valiquette is a hard-throwing left-handed reliever who spent parts of four different seasons with the Dragons from 2005-'08. In 2009, he split the season between Single-A Sarasota and Double-A Carolina, going 2-2 with a 2.58 ERA in 44 games.
Valaika was the star of the Dragons first half Eastern Division championship team in 2007. Joining Heisey and Smith on a team that began the year by going 24-5, Valaika batted.307 with 10 home runs and 56 runs batted in. Rated as the fourth best prospect in the organization entering this season, he endured an injury-plagued 2009 season at Louisville and batted just.235 with six homers.
All players added to the roster today are protected from being selected by another organization in the Rule V Draft in December.
• Discuss this story on the Midwest League message board...
• Digg this story
• Add to Del.icio.us
The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.