Which 5 would you rather have?

[corkedbat]

The Reds seemed to have a few things in common with the Yanks and the RedSox at the recent Winter Meetings.

* They each had a core group of young ball players that drew interest in discussions for top pitchers

* Each has been unable or unwilling to pull the trigger

* Each has a talented young CF, a young Middle Infielder and (at least) a couple of very highly regarded pitchers

[Notes: This is pretty arbitrary - there are no hard and fast criteria like they must be rookies or prospects, etc. (although I did limit it to younger guys AA or above). The CFs & MIs are listed first because each has one - the lists are not in order or talent. You could probably make a similar list that you like better for another team (the Dodgers spring to mind), but for the sake of this discussion I limited it to the Reds, Yanks & BoSox.]

Just thowing it out for discussion about the guys listed. Which Six would you rather have?

Reds:

(OF) Josh Hamilton
(2B) Brandon Phillips
(OF) Jay Bruce
(RP) Homer Baley
(RP) Johnny Cueto
(1B) Joey Votto

Yankees:

(OF) Melky Cabrera
(2B) Robinson Cano
(RP) Phillip Hughes
(RP) Joba Chamberlain
(RP) Ian Kennedy
(RP) Alan Horne

Red Sox:

(OF) Jacoby Ellsbury
(SS) Dustin Pedroia
(RP) Clay Bucholz
(LP) John Lester
(RP) Justin Masterson
(SS) Jed Lowerie

[bearcatfan24]

It appears that the yankees based on what you listed have the upper hand as far as pitchers go, the Reds next year figure to have at least two of your six starting with the Big league club and Homer Bailey as a very strong possibility.

[OnBaseMachine]

I would take the Reds.

The Yankees pitching slightly beats the Reds but Jay Bruce, Josh Hamilton, Joey Votto, and Brandon Phillips is what pushes the Reds over the top for me.

[corkedbat]

It appears that the yankees based on what you listed have the upper hand as far as pitchers go, the Reds next year figure to have at least two of your six starting with the Big league club and Homer Bailey as a very strong possibility.

True, like I said though, there were some arbitrary factors when I didn't limit it to Rookie or Minor League prospects. I could probably expaned it out to 8 or 10 guys and included names like Encarnacion. Burton, Bray, Salmon, etc. for the Reds (I added the MIs at the last second) or I could have added guys like Chein-Ming Wang, Jeffrey Marquez, etc. for NY, but I just limited it to the ones listed for discussion.

[camisadelgolf]

Given only those three options, I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to go with Florence Freedom's young group of players. I really like Tony Perez, Collin Martin, J.D. Foust, Matt Rainey, Zach Gray, and Alain Quijano.

[Degenerate39]

I'd take the Reds