He's not there yet, but Homer Bailey is warming up in the bullpen.
He's not there yet, but Homer Bailey is warming up in the bullpen.
She used to wake me up with coffee ever morning
There were pretty high expectations associated with Claussen. He was a top prospect with the Yankess. Granted, this was during a down period in their farm system. However, the Reds system was in even worse shape at the time. The expectation was probably a product of our lack of pitching talent instead of his degree of talent.
Also, Claussen didn't have shoulder surgery prior to coming to the Reds. He had Tommy John surgery and arguably came back too quickly.
https://baseballprospectus.com/artic...articleid=2050
Noteworthy Prospect: Brandon Claussen made his major-league debut Saturday, shutting down the Mets with 6 1/3 innings of two-run ball. That's not terribly newsworthy; beating the 2003 Mets is a line on the resumé of just about every interesting rookie pitcher in baseball, from Dontrelle Willis to Brandon Webb to Horacio Ramirez. It's a rite of passage, like having your first hangover.
What is interesting is what Claussen was doing less than one year ago: recovering from Tommy John surgery. Claussen was pitching in anger just 10 months after having the procedure last June 25, which is one of the fastest comebacks on record. The Yankees allowed him to move up quickly based on performance: a 1.64 ERA and 26-to-3 K/BB ratio in four starts in Tampa, a 1.36 ERA and 27/5 ratio in six starts for Columbus.
Whether Claussen makes it to August 1 in this organization is an open question, but right now, he's arguably the fourth-best option the Yankees have for their rotation. He's also a significant data point in the argument that Tommy John surgery has moved from career-threatening procedure to the pitching equivalent of having a wisdom tooth removed.
How do we know he's not Mel Torme?
Jake, After looking at the above names the next one I thought of was Reggie Jefferson. A big basher looking guy that played 1st base. Never made with the Reds and I think Cincinnati traded him to Cleveland. Bobby Basham was another pitcher in the Reds farm system that always seemed to be on the verge of making it to the Reds but never did.
Another guy far in contrast to the others who was slain outside of Phoenix during the Arizona Fall League some years ago was Dernell Stenson. I can remember seeing him standing in leftfield and thinking just how much he reminded me of Griffey Sr. when he was a rookiw with the Reds. Not batting, if memory serves, I believe Dernell was a righty, but in the sense that they had the same type of physique and a ton of promise.
Much has been written here at Redszone about Stenson so I won't further elaborate.
Frank Pastore
Brad Lesley....His Fidrych type antics brought attention to himself. Unfortunately the attention was he wasn't very good.
Frank Pastore....The next Tom Seaver
Champ Summers...had an amazing 1978 season at Indianapolis where he almost won the Triple Crown. Never made it in the bigs.
Darrel Chaney..The Reds gave him every opportunity to be the starting SS. A guy that wore #13 took the job instead.
Jeff Russell..Couldnt put it together with the Reds. Eventually did with Texas.
Bernie Carbo...Former #1 pick, even drafted over JB. Won the 1970 ROY but never did much after that unless you ask Bosox fans.
Dan Wilson....Former #1 pick, ended up in Seattle.
"Boys, I'm one of those umpires that misses 'em every once in a while so if it's close, you'd better hit it." Cal Hubbard
Cesar Cedeno and Milt Pappas. Everyone else pales in comparison.
Definitely Householder in the OF. He was pitched as the guy who was going to make everyone forget Foster, Griffey, Collins and Knight, but oh how he flopped.
And I'll take Ty Howington on the pitching side. He was rated the #25 overall prospect in the minors by BA in 2001 and never threw a major league pitch.
Yet no Reds prospect ever got more hype than Kurt Stillwell and, man, did he stink. His only saving grace is that he fetched Danny Jackson.
I'm not a system player. I am a system.
Agreed.Gary Redus. A ridiculous 1.346 OPS in Rookie ball and a 1.004 OPS in his lone AAA season. Was supposed to be Eric Davis before Eric Davis came along. Didn't quite work out that way.
Also, for me, Pastore and Kal Daniels (though Daniels' decline had a lot to do with his bad knees).
"Boys, I'm one of those umpires that misses 'em every once in a while so if it's close, you'd better hit it." Cal Hubbard
I'm surprised no one has brought up Ryan Wagner.
CJ Nitkowski
Pat Pacillo
Scott Scudder
Tim Costo
Reggie Jefferson
Jeff Treadway
Nigel Wilson
Also, Antonio Perez was a very highly rated SS who the Reds traded in the Jr. deal just in time.
Last edited by Benihana; 11-12-2008 at 05:13 PM.
Go BLUE!!!
Eric Milton and Corey Patterson. With Dusty Baker as the manager of this team
Milt Pappas. The savior of the staff that was worth Frank Robby - and picked over Palmer or McNally, either or maybe both available. Really disappointing, although Robby's Triple Crown with Baltimore made it pretty inevitable that Pappas was going to have no chance with the fans even if he'd won his usual 14 or 15 games that he'd done pretty regularly with Baltimore. Oh, if only prospects had been as valued then as now - perhaps the Reds would have gotten both McNally and Palmer as a package for Robby. That would sure have changed history.
I remember Redus and his incredible Billings season, too, but his minor league seasons after that were fairly pedestrian so we were at least forwarned he wasn't a superstar-in-waiting, but I sure expected a better player when he arrived.
Jefferson looked like a slugger for sure - anyone that big and strong had to be a great slugger, didn't he? The only problem was a little thing called contact.
I also remember the hype around Pastore. Compared to Seaver regularly in the press, something never clicked. Did he come up lame armed or was his arm just lame? I can't remember now.
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