Redzone Community Prospect Vote #30

[dougdirt]

Vote for the player who you think is the Reds #30 prospect (the best prospect who is not yet on the list). We will go with this as far as you guys want to take it.

I will post a new list every 2 days with 10-15 options to vote on.

If you feel like making an argument on why a guy should be voted here, feel free to vote and state why you voted for that player.

If there is someone that is not currently listed as an option to vote on, vote for 'other' then just state who you want to vote for in the thread.

If there is anyone you would like to see as an option on the next poll, just say so and if they garner enough support, they will be placed on the next poll. Guys with the lowest amount of votes will usually be removed for the next few guys who were talked about in the previous thread.


Prospect 1 - Jay Bruce
Prospect 2 - Homer Bailey
Prospect 3 - Johnny Cueto
Prospect 4 - Joey Votto
Prospect 5 - Todd Frazier
Prospect 6 - Drew Stubbs
Prospect 7 - Matt Maloney
Prospect 8 - Josh Roenicke
Prospect 9 - Travis Wood
Prospect 10 - Devin Mesoraco
Prospect 11 - Kyle Lotzkar
Prospect 12 - Danny Dorn
Prospect 13 - Sean Watson
Prospect 14 - Carlos Fisher
Prospect 15 - Juan Francisco
Prospect 16 - Neftali Soto
Prospect 17 - Brandon Waring
Prospect 18 - Adam Rosales
Prospect 19 - Tyler Pelland
Prospect 20 - Daryl Thompson
Prospect 21 - Pedro Viola
Prospect 22 - Chris Valaika
Prospect 23 - Sam Lecure
Prospect 24 - Marcus McBeth
Prospect 25 - Justin Turner
Prospect 26 - Chris Dickerson
Prospect 27 - Scott Carroll
Prospect 28 - Richie Gardner
Prospect 29 - Justin Reed

[*BaseClogger*]

Basing it off of their career minor league stats, tell me which lefty reliever is Pedro Viola (Prospect #21) and which is Danny Herrera:

7.44 H/9, .29 HR/9, 2.73 BB/9, 10.47 K/9

6.03 H/9, .55 HR/9, 3.29 BB/9, 10.30 K/9

[Blue]

My vote is for Ramon Ramirez. He put up a great line across three levels last year:

3.70 ERA, 119.1 IP, 101 H, 43 BB, 137 K

That's across High-A, AA, and AAA. Finished the season very strong at AAA.

Its 30. Ramirez, 31. Lutz, and 32. Hildenbrandt for me.

[Kc61]

Jordan Smith was one of BA's top thirty Reds prospects last year. He is 6'4" and pitched at Dayton last year at age 21. He had a WHIP of below 1.3, allowing about a hit per inning with very few walks. In 133 innings he allowed only 8 home runs. His ground out to fly out rate was an excellent 1.71. The previous year in Billings his go/fo rate was similar. He was a sixth round draft choice in 2006.

Smith struck out 96 in 133 innings, just under 6.5 for nine innings, which is not super.

What I find most impressive about his very good performance is it covers 133 innings of starting pitching. The league got to see him plenty, yet his overall numbers were solid. If he gets his strikeouts up a little higher, he can be excellent.

I put him ahead of some good relievers like Lutz, who did well in far fewer innings, and ahead of Smit who gets Ks but his minor league career has been up and down. I can't rate Hildenbrandt who didn't pitch at all in the minor leagues last year. Gonzalez was good but gave up a lot of homers. Valiquette seems to be coming on, but not enough evidence yet. Ravin throws bullets but, well, those walks.

Herrera and Ramirez lack Smith's frame but get strong consideration as relievers. Herrera just seems to know how to pitch. Ramirez had a good year, showed improvement out of the pen compared with earlier years.

But Smith is a consistent young starter who shows a lot of promise, so I'll vote Smith.

[AmarilloRed]

I will continue to vote for Logan Parker.

[camisadelgolf]

I'm sticking with Smit.

[klw]

Should we have Sergio Valenzuela in the discussion?

[dougdirt]

I will add Valenzuela to the next poll and we can see how he fares.

[RedsManRick]

Had to go with Herrera again. He had good success in AA at age 22. Sure, his stuff might not work in the majors. But "trick" pitchers like Chad Bradford have had success. A 22 year old striking out 11 per 9 in AA deserves to be in the top 30.

[Superdude]

I went with Smith. Big guy with a good fastball and solid numbers so far. Possible breakout candidate in '08 if he can tighten up his secondary stuff. Hildenbrandt looks interesting, but I don't know much about him yet.

[M2]

Pa-Chiu Chiu Chomp

[Highlifeman21]

Pa-Chiu Chiu Chomp

Did you just sneeze, or are you ordering Asian food?

[M2]

Did you just sneeze, or are you ordering Asian food?

South Park, it's the only words Stan's giant, angry clone can say.

[gedred69]

Past the first four, this poll is so convoluted and distorted, showing stat only watching, favorites voting, that the rest is left to a great big, Huh!!?? I didn't even vote in this runner-up beauty contest. It's just good that we can look so deep. Some of these guys will materialize, as will some that never even made the poll. I await the emergence of such. We may well have over-looked the next Trevor Hoffman.

[marcshoe]

Past the first four, this poll is so convoluted and distorted, showing stat only watching, favorites voting, that the rest is left to a great big, Huh!!?? I didn't even vote in this runner-up beauty contest. It's just good that we can look so deep. Some of these guys will materialize, as will some that never even made the poll. I await the emergence of such. We may well have over-looked the next Trevor Hoffman.

But that's the fun of it! Pull this up in a couple of years and see who had the best eye. There are a lot of posters here (I'm definitely not one of them) who follow the system closely and have a good idea of what they're talking about, even when it gets down to number 30. I think this is an interesting series and gives me a better idea of who is in the Reds system and what to look for.