Baseball America top 10 prospect archive

[OnBaseMachine]

I was just reading the Baseball America top 10 prospects archive that spans from 1983 to 2008 and I was amazed at how great the Reds 1984 top 10 list turned out. Take a look:

1984 Reds top 10 prospects from Baseball America:

1. Kurt Stillwell, ss
2. Eric Davis, of
3. Curt Heidenreich, rhp
4. Chris Sabo, 3b
5. Jeff Russell, rhp
6. Paul O'Neill, of
7. Tom Browning, lhp
8. Lenny Harris, 3b
9. Jeff Montgomery, rhp
10. Hugh Kemp, rhp

Only Curt Heidenreich and Hugh Kemp failed to reach the majors. Kurt Stillwell was obviously a bust.

Eric Davis became a superstar and would have been a sure Hall of Famer if not for the injury bug. Chris Sabo put together a few very good seasons and won a ROY and World Series ring. Jeff Russell only played two seasons with the Reds but he went on to throw roughly 1100 innings with an ERA at 3.75 and ERA+ of 112. Paul O'Neill had a stellar career as he made five All-Star teams, won five World Series titles, and racked up 2,105 hits and 281 homers. Tom Browning won 123 games and threw the only perfect game in Reds history. Lenny Harris put together a couple solid seasons and went on to become the all-time pinch hit leader. Jeff Montgomery only threw around 19.1 innings with the Reds but went on to have a solid career with the Royals (868.2 IP, 3.27 ERA, 134 ERA+).

I just thought it was incredible how well that class turned out. You probably won't too many lists that churned out that many good major leaguers.

Here's the link to the archive:

http://www.baseballamerica.com/onlin...10archive.html

[RedlegJake]

Impressively this came at a low point in the organization, too, when they fell off a cliff after the 70s dominance.

[camisadelgolf]

Impressively this came at a low point in the organization, too, when they fell off a cliff after the 70s dominance.

Yeah, and a few of those guys were huge pieces of the 1990 championship team. I think this just goes to show that you can't expect anything from a list of prospects until at least three or four years later. I'm just as excited as everyone else about Yonder Alonso, Kyle Lotzkar, Todd Frazier, Nefi Soto, Drew Stubbs, Chris Valaika, etc., but I don't think we'll see those guys contributing in a major way, if ever, until at least 2011.

[Will M]

the Reds really had a nice farm system in the early 1980s (pre Marge). it has only been in the last few years (post Bowden) that we have one again.

[redsfandan]

that's 20 years where there wasn't a focus on the farm system. if only...