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Paul Janish’s Slow Journey to the Bigs

Imagine yourself being 25-years old, having the same job since high-school, and making a mediocre salary. You’re close to a promotion, but the people ahead of you don’t seem to be going anywhere. That was Paul Janish a few days ago. He’d been playing baseball at a high level since he was 19, drafted at the age of 21. Six years later, an eternity on the bus trips of the minor leagues, he’s called by the boss. All of the sudden, Janish had a six-figure salary, a big league uniform, and a guaranteed seat on a first-class plane to the next road trip, not the bus. Where did this guy come from? It’s a long journey in the Reds’ farm system.

Janish began playing high-level baseball at Rice University. He hit .299 as a freshman in 2002, and was named a conference all-star. After hitting .294 in 2003, Janish broke out in his junior year. He hit .345 with nine homeruns and 60 RBI. After being selected to two all-star teams, and playing in two College World Series, Janish was selected in the 5th round of the 2004 draft (138th overall) by the Reds.

He spent the rest of 2004 at the rookie affiliate in Billings. He hit .263 with 22 RBI. He played the entire season of 2005 in Dayton, struggling offensively, but showed promise with his glove. He hit .245 with five homeruns that year. 2006 was moving year for Janish. He hit .398 to begin the year with Dayton, then was sent to high-A Sarasota. He hit .277 with nine homeruns in 91 games, then ended the year with Chattanooga of Double-A’s Southern League.

He struggled all of 2007, hitting .244 in 98 games for the Lookouts, then hit .221 in 55 games for Triple-A Louisville. With his inconsistent bat, and the likes of Jeff Keppinger and Alex Gonzalez, Janish seemed doomed in the Reds organization. He began 2008 with a string of impressive results, and was hitting .293 with four homers and 20 RBI when he was taken out of Tuesday’s game in Louisville.

Word had gone down that Jeff Keppinger had injured his knee badly, and Janish was being called up to replace him. He drove up to Cincinnati the next morning, receiving his uniform later that afternoon. He began Wednesday’s game on the bench, Jerry Hairston got the nod at short. With the Reds cruising with a 6-0 lead, Dusty Baker made a double-switch, and moved Hairston to left. That made room for Janish to come in at short for his first MLB playing time. He made two nice plays, as Florida was retired. He got his first big league at-bat the next half inning, hooking one foul, and then powering one to left that fell short a few feet of the warning track and into Luis Gonzalez’s glove. At this point, he had to be thinking he would have to wait until tomorrow to get his hit.

The ninth rolled around, and for Reds fans with long memories, this is not a pleasant inning. With a six-run lead however, what’s the worst that could happen? Just after I finished thinking that the Marlins scored six consecutive runs to send it to extras. After a scoreless 10th inning, the Reds came up with a shot to win. Two runners reached, bringing Janish up. What happened next can only be described as baseball romanticism. He sliced a slider down the right field line, landing a few feet fair. That was enough to score the runner from second, and Janish had his first hit, RBI, and walk-off hit in the same at-bat.

Janish is currently the toast of Reds nation, and should get a nice ovation once he comes to bat in the next Reds game, assuming the skies decide to stop raining. Whatever the case, as he has shown throughout his career, Janish will be ready. Let’s just hope they go a little easier on his nose this time.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 15th, 2008 at 8:10 pm and is filed under Reds Recap, Reds features, Reds Blogs, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.