http://www.minorleagueball.com/
It's off of Lance's blog.
I think this is pertinent and shouldn't be moved because of the debate of who is more ready for the major leagues - Cueto or Bailey. This is probably the first guy to rate Cueto higher than Bailey. And he goes ever further to say he's not as high on Bailey and most are (at the bottom of the rankings).
I'd say he nailed the top 4, maybe flip Bailey/Cueto. Dunno enough about Cueto yet. Sickels isn't the first to put him above Bailey though. Not to keep banging the same drum on every thread I have a chance to, but I couldn't help but notice he referred to Dorn as a "major sleeper". A lot further along with the bat than Stubbs..
“Every level he goes to, he is going to compete. They will know who he is at every level he goes to.” -- ED on EDLC
After a guy has been as highly rated as Bailey, how does he go higher unless he's flat out brilliant right from the start? Bailey got pushed up too early this year as part of the attempt to save the job of an incompetent manager. He wasn't dominating right away, so now everybody's looking for the holes and there's no direction for him to go but down. He has some problems with his command. This is no surprise, he's got great stuff, a tremendously down-breaking curveball. That's harder to command than some other pitchers. I hope Cueto is great, and I like him a lot. But I'm not putting any faith in any predictions that this guy or that guy is better than Homer. Bailey throws an easy 93-95 and he throws a curveball that was, in one game last year (I think against Milwaukee) breaking 18-22 inches at a strong downward angle. And he was throwing it over the plate as he retired something like 12 or more in a row. That is absolutely dominating stuff. If he can get that over with some consistency he's going to be an absolute #1 pitcher.
I agree Hokie about Bailey I hope he stays here and develops and isnt traded, I think if Reds fans are patient and allow this organization one more year to allow pitchers to develop and another good draft (hopefully they will focus heavily on pitchers, I'd like to see them draft 5 of the first 6 as pitchers) the Reds could end up with several good stud pitchers in AAA and AA and two good young starters in the bigs and then they will have an minor league organization to be proud of, theyre that close.
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