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Chattanooga: Stubbs has noteworthy debut with Lookouts

By: David Paschall
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Drew Stubbs

As far as debuts go, Drew Stubbs assembled a pretty good one last Thursday night at AT&T Field.

In his first Double-A game and his first as a member of the Chattanooga Lookouts, the center fielder raced to the gap in left-center to rob Huntsville of an extra-base hit in the first inning. He singled in his first at-bat during the second inning and added three more hits for a 4-for-5 opening at the plate.

So what did he enjoy most?

“If you can make a play in the field to really help during a tough spot in an inning, making a catch like that can really take the wind out of the other team,” Stubbs said. “In that situation, the catch is better. Otherwise, you always like to get four hits in a game.”

While maintaining his .800 average may be a bit of a task, Stubbs is hoping there will be plenty of Lookouts games in which he can provide productivity with his bat and glove.

Stubbs was the first-round pick of the Cincinnati Reds two years ago out of the University of Texas and signed for $2 million. He hit .270 with 12 home runs and 43 RBIs last season at Single-A Dayton and was hitting .261 with five homers and 38 RBIs in 86 games at high Single-A Sarasota before his promotion last Wednesday.

Cincinnati farm director Terry Reynolds said the promotion of Stubbs was due partly to an injury to Aaron Herr at Triple-A, which sent Shaun Cumberland up from Chattanooga.

“Two things have to happen for a guy to get promoted — a guy has to perform, and there has to be an opportunity,” Reynolds said. “There is an opportunity now for Stubbs, and he’s played well enough to earn it. He’s a guy who’s going to eat up ground in the outfield. He has raw power, and he swung the bat exceptionally well the last month in Sarasota.

“Now that he’s there, he’s got to play well to stay there, but I think he’ll be an exciting guy for the fans there to watch.”

Stubbs began this season rated by Baseball America as the No. 5 prospect in Cincinnati’s organization and the No. 100 prospect overall. By coming to Chattanooga, he rejoined a slew of players he started the season with in the Florida State League, including infielders Chris Valaika, Michael DeJesus and Justin Turner and outfielder Sean Henry.

One factor that hindered Stubbs from arriving earlier was a disappointing late-spring stretch.

“It’s one of those things I guess everybody goes through, so you just try to limit your slumps to a minimal amount of games as possible,” Stubbs said. “It just kind of drug on and ended up being a bad month instead of a bad week. That’s the thing I continue to strive toward, limiting those bad times when you’re not feeling as good at the plate.”

The 23-year-old did not play last Friday or Saturday because of a strained wrist he suffered when his running catch took him up against the wall. He didn’t notice the injury until halfway through the game because of the adrenaline that was accompanying his debut.

Stubbs should return to the lineup tonight when the Lookouts resume play in Mobile, and manager Mike Goff can’t wait.

“We really haven’t had a true center fielder here the entire year,” Goff said. “A lot of guys have been playing center, but here is a guy who’s been playing center his whole life. The Shaun Cumberlands, B.J. Szymanskis and Cody Straits have all pretty much been corner guys who were playing center field because we had no true center fielder at that time. They did a good job, but seeing a guy like Stubbs go get that ball the other night was pretty impressive.

“That’s what you expect to see at this level and above playing center field.”

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