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"He can get a lot better. He's gonna get better," Baker says of Phillips. "He's just now learning how to hit. He's just now learning pitch selection. Those numbers will go up big time. What'd he walk? Thirty times. [In almost 700 plate appearances, Phillips walked just 33 times, among the worst in baseball for that number of PAs.] So, right now, they can still trick him some times."

Baker wouldn't mind if Phillips walked a little more, especially considering he isn't a "base clogger"; he stole 32 bases last season. But getting on base -- especially getting on base by a walk -- is clearly secondary to Baker. He wants Phillips to be aggressive. Baker wants him to swing the bat.

"If you're supposed to be up there driving in runs ... a run producer, he ain't up there to get his on-base percentage up. He's in there to drive in runs," says Baker. "If you're passing it on to the next hitter, a lot of times, he's not as good of a hitter as you. Otherwise ... he'd be hitting ahead of you."

For his part, Phillips admits he's not your typical cleanup hitter -- "not even close," he says -- but he's fine hitting anywhere from 1-7 in the lineup. "I go up there trying to hit the ball hard. That's my No. 1 goal. Just put a good swing on the ball," Phillips says. "I like to swing the bat, that's what I like to do. I'm a swinger."

Analysts can give you some great arguments that hitting order, as a whole, is vastly overrated anyway, an argument that might let Baker off the hook in his latest run-in with the stats guys. But don't tell that to Baker, though.

"I heard this thing today, man: The lineup really doesn't matter. That's [poppycock]," Baker says. "I love stat guys, but statheads have gotten way, way out there."

Reds' odds and ends

• Don't be surprised if Baker pushes to get young right-hander Johnny Cueto into the rotation at the beginning of the season. Cueto, 22, has thrown nine innings and given up one run this spring. He has, by far, been the most impressive of Reds' throwers this camp. Given the fact that lefty Jeremy Affeldt has struggled -- 19 hits in 11 2/3 innings -- and may be thrown back into the bullpen, Cueto's chances of making the rotation look that much better.

• The Reds will have to keep careful tabs on him, though. He threw more than 161 innings in three levels of ball last season, ending with 22 innings at Class AAA Louisville.

• The Reds' other young stud pitcher, Homer Bailey, is not as assured of a spot. He's been unremarkable in the camp so far, with six strikeouts and six walks in 7 1/3 innings.

• If Affeldt moves back to the 'pen, the Reds will have an all-righty rotation, whoever ends up there.

• A couple of other youngsters, Jay Bruce and Joey Votto, both are expected to make the big-league roster. Bruce still has a very good chance of being the Opening Day center fielder, and Votto could start at first. Neither is having a great spring so far. But it is spring.