The Reds have reactivated 3B Edwin Encarnacion from the disabled list. He had been on the DL since April 28 due to a chip fracture in his left wrist. Encarnacion fills the roster spot opened when IF Danny Richar was placed on the 15-day DL with a torn labrum in his left shoulder.

Richar got hurt sliding head-first into home plate in the third inning of Wednesday’s 1-0 win against Arizona. That’s the same injury that ended Wilkin Castillo’s season last month, except Castillo got hurt sliding head-first into second base. This makes me wonder if somebody’s not teaching proper baserunning fundamentals to young players in the Reds’ farm system. With all due respect to Pete Rose, head-first is for diving back to the bag when you’re on base and they try to pick you off. If you’re at a dead run and you go head first, you’re begging for a lengthy stint on the DL.

Which is exactly what Castillo and Richar are getting for their efforts. If any of the Reds players are reading this, PLEASE get Billy Hatcher to show you the right way to slide, and don’t go head-first and get hurt!

Profile: Edwin Encarnacion in the Cincinnati Enquirer

Player Information on Reds.com

Edwin Encarnación was born on Janary 7, 1983 in La Romana in the Dominican Republic, where I guess he still lives. His entire biography on the official Reds site is:

Attended Manuel Toro High School in Caguas, Puerto Rico.

I think the thing is that little Eddie is too young to have much of a biography yet. I don’t believe he’s married, I don’t think he’s particularly involved in any causes, and he hasn’t been involved in any scandals. Plus, I’m not sure how confident he is in his English, so he might shy away from reporters. It’s not much of a profile, but he seems to just be a good kid finding his way in the majors.

That being said, his favorite television program is S´bado Gigante, a colorful variety show hosted by Don Fransisco. You may remember Don Fransisco as the man who interviewed Sammy Sosa.

OK, now I’m really stretching for content. I’ll stop now.

Edwin Encarnaci´n plays third base for the Reds. He came to the Reds in 2001 in a trade with Texas for pitcher Rob Bell, and finally made his way onto the major league scene in 2005.

After a 2004 season that saw five different people trying to establish themselves at third, the Reds brought in Joe Randa in 2005 to babysit the bag until Encarnación was ready to ascend to the throne of the hot corner. When Randa was traded to the Padres in July, Encarnación took over and never looked back.

You may recall that Rich Aurilia started at second base in 2005 over Felipe Lopez, much to the disdain of many vocal fans. So when the Reds signed Rich Aurilia in January, saying that he’d be an option at third, many of those fans got vocal again. “They’re going to do to Eddie what they did to Felipe!” they shouted indignantly, forgetting 1) Lopez came out of his month of exile to the bench an all-star, 2) a completely different person would decide who played third base in 2006 than had decided to play Aurilia at short in 2005, and 3) except for the occasional ridiculous throwing error, Encarnación bears very little resemblance to Lopez as a player.

Encarnación is a passable defender, though the single-most-likely infielder to casually watch a ball roll past, which is especially dangerous with Adam Dunn in the field behind him. The errors are there, but he’s so young and so promising that most people will forgive them so long as he can keep it to one or two per game.

Encarnación brings yet more hot-and-cold running power to an already powerful line-up.

Hot: In the two months that Encarnación played in 2005, he hit the same number of home runs as Sean Casey did all year.

Cold: Though he’ll never take the title, now that Wily Mo Peña is gone, Encarnación is now the designated over-enthusiastic-swinging-strikeout guy. But these days, the Reds aren’t afraid of a good strike out or ten. Young though he is, Encarnación fits right in.

Check out his actual numbers in JinAZ’s Better Know a Red feature.