Brandon Larson takes his cuts in Louisville. (Michael E. Keating photo) | ZOOM |

        LOUISVILLE — The slider. That is what Brook Jacoby remembers about last season. Slider after slider after slider, the one-pitch formula against Brandon Larson.

        Jacoby, the Louisville Bats hitting coach, remembers Larson striking out time after time on the slider. Occasionally Larson would make contact, and the ball flew to the warning track. But in 115 games for the Reds' Triple-A team, Larson struck out 123 times. In two early-season stints with the Reds, the third baseman struck out 10 times in 33 at-bats.

        “Last year they would just slider him to death,” Jacoby said. “His biggest problem was he kept pulling off the ball on his swing. I don't how many times he heard it from me last year to stay through the ball on your swing.”

        The Reds selected Larson with the 14th overall pick in the 1997 draft after he led Louisiana State to a College World Series title and earned the tournament MVP award. His own expectations jumped after a 2000 season at Double-A Chattanooga, where he hit .272 and made the all-star team.

        The next season, Larson joined the Reds one month in, hit .121 in 14 games with eight starts and was back in Louisville by the end of May. He stayed there the rest of that season and into this one. And it looked as if he might be there a while after the Reds traded minor-league infielder Ben Broussard for third baseman Russell Branyan from the Indians last week.

        “That stuff is out of my control,” Larson said. “I got phone calls from family wondering what's going on, but (the Reds) are not going to trade for a guy they don't need. Branyan fills a void they have: a left-handed power hitter off the bench.”

        Larson, meanwhile, is having the best season of his career. He is finally hitting the slider and is among the International League leaders in batting average (.333), home runs (13), slugging percentage (.624) and RBI (42). In 50 games, he has just 40 strikeouts. Because of that, Reds general manager Jim Bowden said the Reds are still interested in Larson.

        “We're very, very pleased with Brandon,” Bowden said. “We think he's developing in a similar way to Phil Nevin. He was a first-round pick who took some time to develop, although he went through a couple organizations.”

        Coaches no longer have to tell Larson where to place himself in the field for different situations or tell him to focus at the plate. The Reds have noticed and could call up Larson if Aaron Boone or Barry Larkin is hurt. Larson would platoon at third with Branyan.

        “I think he's got something more to prove,” Louisville manager Dave Miley said of Larson. “He's playing more like a man possessed. Nothing comes easy in this game. He found that out when he was taken off the Reds' roster last season. Maybe it was a wakeup call.”

        Another noticeable improvement in Larson is his strength. He's listed at 6 feet, 210 pounds, up 13 pounds from when he was drafted. His upper body dwarfs the build he had coming out of LSU.

        His increased size, recent hamstring injuries and baseball's spotlight on steroids have put Larson in the middle of a debate on substance abuse. He started at third Tuesday night but had not played since June4 because of a sore left hamstring.

        “It's easy to speculate,” Larson said. “It's easy to say, "He could be on steroids.' Hey, test me.”

        For Larson, being strong isn't so much an issue with hitting as it is helpful to getting through the Bats' 144-game season.

        That's certainly a prerequisite to playing a 162-game slate with the big-league Reds.

        “If I'm playing well enough, I deserve a chance,” Larson said. “But I could also have the greatest season of my life and not get called up. That's OK. I want to do good for me.”

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