2013 Baseball America Reds Top 10

[nate1213]

Can this excerpt put to rest the "Hamilton has a weak arm" and is destined to be Juan Pierre meme?



(I know it won't, but at least it's another bullet in the chamber.)

I heard the same from someone who played with him his first year in pro ball.

[Cooper]

Cueto has an awful violent finish - i'm not sure another pitcher should emulate that -in fact, Corcino's may be more violent. Of course they all fall apart eventually- and they'd all last longer in the bullpen -i just don't think he can make it to the bigs as a starter without a major injury.

[BuckeyeRedleg]

For those younger than me that might like a little historical perspective of the guys mentioned here: Don Gullett went 16-6 for the Reds at the age of 20, which was his second year in the bigs. Gary Nolan went 14-8 for the Reds at the age of 19. You do not hear much about pitchers from the Big Red Machine era but they were key cogs.

Reds scout Gene Bennett signed Gullett as well as many others (Larkin, O'Neill, Sabo) and loved to tell stories about Gullett as a high school pitcher in Kentucky. He has told me that he saw Gullett throw a perfect game and only one ball was actually put in play. He held his breath that no one else would see this kid, knowing that the Reds had the 14th pick in the first round. They drafted Gullett, and he pitched in a total of 11 minor league games before getting called up at age 19. Gullett's career record in the majors was 109-50 before injuries ended his career at age 27.

Gary Nolan's first year in the minors is a testament to the way things were in those days. At age 18, right out of high school, he made 12 starts with Sioux Falls, and logged 104 innings. That means he AVERAGED eight and two-thirds innings per start, for the year! He averaged more than 13 strikeouts per start over a season. Good Lord.

How good was Gary Nolan before his shoulder injury? At the all-star break in 1972, he was 13-2, 1.81. He then missed the next two years and came back as a control pitcher for two seasons before retiring at age 29.

Great stuff as always, redsof72.

Very interesting on Nolan. I wanted to learn more about him and found this great story done by the SABR folks. Good read.

http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/dd89241b

[Ohayou]

When is the actual Top 100 being released?

[dougdirt]

When is the actual Top 100 being released?

February 19th.