Keith Law Reds Top 10

[dougdirt]

It all depends on how you account for extended ST innings. I'm pretty sure teams don't count them 1:1 with live game innings.

Obviously they have an innings target. I'm kind of hoping that target is well short of the ~140 IP that he'd get in a full A-ball season. If it's <120 IP, then he's either a 4 IP starter, which I'm not sure allows him to work enough on consistency with his pitches, or he needs to keep his starts totals in the low 20s (in which case he'll need to miss some starts).

However they manage his IP cap, the main focus should be on making sure that power arm of his stays intact. In the grand scheme of his career, no one cares about his exploits in Dayton.

I could be wrong, but given the circumstances, I doubt he tops 120-125 this year. When limiting guys in the past they have just gone to some games where they limit them to 3-4 innings at times and have also shut guys down for August at times as well.

[AtomicDumpling]

I don't think a 2015 debut would be rushing Robert Stephenson, especially given the fact that several HS pitchers who were drafted in the same round as he was have already made their big league debuts (Bundy, Bauer, etc.) and others (Fernandez, et al) are playing at higher levels than Stephenson is.

If anything, the Reds have been overly conservative with Stephenson and Travieso, as there aren't many other examples of other first round HS pitchers beginning their second season in Rookie Ball.

I've said it before, but it's worth mentioning here again, that 2011 first round will go down as one of, if not the best round of pitching talent in draft history. Stephenson is an uber prospect, and he's arguably not even one of the five best pitchers taken in that round!

Bauer was a college pitcher at UCLA but I agree that 2015 would not be rushing Stephenson at all. The Reds have the luxury of not needing him any time soon most likely, so they will make sure he is good and ready before bringing him up. But even so I would expect to see Stephenson in Cincinnati some time in 2015.