You have to love these deals. The Reds inked Jeff Francis to a minor league deal. He finished 6-16 for a bad Royals team last year but he logged 183 innings and he’ll be a good guy to have pitching down in Louisville in the event the pitching rich Reds run into problems with their rotation.

Francis was once a top prospect for the Colorado Rockies and he seemed to live up to his billing in 2007 when he went 17-9. He’s become more of a pitch to contact pitcher though and while his strikeout rate has come down considerably since then, he also sports a solid walk rate. Nice pick up with no risk.

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