Baseball America Reds Top 30 (+1)

[New Fever]

The Prospect Handbook is very interesting this year everyone who is a fan of Reds prospects or any baseball team should get the book.

1. Yonder Alonso
2. Todd Frazier
3. Drew Stubbs
4. Chris Valaika
5. Yorman Rodriguez
6. Kyle Lotzkar
7. Neftali Soto
8. Juan Francisco
9. Juan Duran
10. Devin Mesoraco
11. Daryl Thompson- may become a solid #3
12. Chris Dickerson
13. Jordan Smith- pitching with knee injury ruined season
14. Josh Roenicke
15. Zach Stewart
16. Ryan Hanigan
17. Ramon Ramirez
18. Matt Maloney
19. Zach Cozart
20. Juan Carlos Sulbaran- three pitch mix will start in Dayton
21. Dallas Buck- if healthy front-of-the-rotation stuff
22. Chris Heisey
23. Danny Dorn- can hit anybody's fastball
24. Carlos Fisher
25. Pedro Viola- Reds believe he can become a #3 starter
26. Sean Watson
27. Robert Manuel
28. Craig Tatum
29. Adam Rosales
30. Alex Bucholz- impressive bat speed
31. Phil Valiquette

[tripleaaaron]

How it stacks up with our pool
Us .................................................. ...BA
#1 - Yonder Alonso...............................Same
#2 - Todd Frazier..................................Same
#3 - Neftali Soto..................................Drew Stubbs
#4 - Drew Stubbs ................................Chris Valaika
#5 - Chris Valaika.................................Yorman Rodriquez
#6 - Kyle Lotzkar .................................Same
#7 - Daryl Thompson..............................Neftali Soto
#8 - Juan Francisco ..............................Same
#9 - Juan Duran ...................................Same
#10 - Chris Dickerson ............................Devin Mesoraco
#11 - Devin Mesoraco ..........................Daryl Thompson
#12 - Danny Dorn ................................Chris Dickerson
#13 - Yorman Rodriguez ........................Jordan Smith (38)
#14 - Zach Stewart ..............................Josh Roenicke
#15 - Josh Roenicke.............................Zach Stewart
#16 - Ramon Ramirez............................. Ryan Hanigan
#17 - Zach Cozart................................. Ramon Ramirez
#18 - Matt Maloney.................................. Same
#19 - Carlos Fisher....................................Zach Cozart
#20 - Chris Heisey.....................................JC Sulbaran
#21 - Ryan Hanigan.................................... Dallas Buck
#22 - Dallas Buck .......................................Chris Heissey
#23 - Adam Rosales...................................... Danny Dorn
#24 - Alex Buchholz .....................................Carlos Fisher
#25 - Travis Wood........................................ Pedro Viola
#26 - Jeremy Horst.......................................Sean Watson (34)
#27 - Pedro Viola........................................... Robert Manual
#28 - Evan Hildenbrandt..................................Crai g Tatum (NR)
#29 - Juan Carlos Sulbaran...............................Adam Rosales
#30 - Sam Lecure............................................ Alex Bucholz
#31 - Robert Manuel.........................................Phi l Valiquette (40)

() denotes rank in prospect vote if not otherwise listed

[Mario-Rijo]

Intriguing.

[Screwball]

Wow, how badly did we miss Jordan Smith?

[camisadelgolf]

Originally Posted by Screwball

Wow, how badly did we miss Jordan Smith?

If not for the injury, he would have ranked much, much higher. We're a fickle crowd, here at RedsZone.

[dougdirt]

Originally Posted by Screwball

Wow, how badly did we miss Jordan Smith?

Badly. Don't feel too bad though. That one seems to be a wide spread one.

Back when I did my list on my site, I put him at #34. In hindsight I probably should have put him 10 spots higher or so. I talked with a scout who got to see him in earlier in the year and his words were 'He could start in the majors right now'.

Granted at that time he was throwing really well at the time, and I knew his potential. I didn't know that he was throwing with a banged up leg though.

Still, with that said John Sickels left him off of the top 21 he listed on his site and didn't mention him in his 16 other prospects he named. So, it seems that most of us missed out on him some.

[jojo]

Smith is a 23 yo pitch to contact arm who might be Ryan Franklin as a starter in the majors if he can prove that he can eat innings. BA is probably reacting to his control as control is a first prerequisite for pitching success in the majors but, really, Smith doesn't have a lot to distinguish himself after that....

[OnBaseMachine]

It looks like Baseball America is high on Juan Carlos Sulbaran. I am too. I've seen some video of him pitching and I came away very impressed, especially with the great movement on his fastball. And it looks like BA agrees with most of us on Dallas Buck - if he regains his fastball then he's got a chance at being a top-of-the-rotation starter.

I've always liked Pedro Viola but I had him pegged as a reliever in the mold of a Rafael Perez type. It looks like the Reds like him even better than I do if they see him as a potential #3 starter. He's got a very good fastball/slider combo so if he can master a changeup then he could possibly reach that ceiling.

[dougdirt]

Originally Posted by jojo

Smith is a 23 yo pitch to contact arm who might be Ryan Franklin as a starter in the majors if he can prove that he can eat innings. BA is probably reacting to his control as control is a first prerequisite for pitching success in the majors but, really, Smith doesn't have a lot to distinguish himself after that....

Smith has good control and a sinker that runs up to 95 MPH with an above average slider. That is fairly distinguishing. He hasn't missed a ton of bats in his minor league career, but his K rate has stayed around 16-17% the entire time up the ladder and his control has always been good. He needs to be more consistent with his third pitch though.

[princeton]

it'd be funny if Chris "Dangerfield" Dickerson won Rookie of the Year award (is he eligible?)


I could live with that.

[OnBaseMachine]

Originally Posted by princeton

it'd be funny if Chris "Dangerfield" Dickerson won Rookie of the Year award (is he eligible?)

Yep he's still eligible. He only had 102 atbats (the limit is 130) and wasn't on the active roster for more than 45 days before September 1.

[jojo]

Originally Posted by dougdirt

Smith has good control and a sinker that runs up to 95 MPH with an above average slider. That is fairly distinguishing. He hasn't missed a ton of bats in his minor league career, but his K rate has stayed around 16-17% the entire time up the ladder and his control has always been good. He needs to be more consistent with his third pitch though.

His sinker isn't going to consistently be anywhere close to 95 mph. If he makes it to the majors, he'll have average velocity. The guy begs hitters to put the ball in play.

[dougdirt]

Originally Posted by jojo

His sinker isn't going to consistently be anywhere close to 95 mph. If he makes it to the majors, he'll have average velocity. The guy begs hitters to put the ball in play.

Not many guys can, but he has two above average pitches, gets lots of ground balls, has good control and a big pitchers frame that should be able to lead to plenty of innings.

[jojo]

Originally Posted by dougdirt

Not many guys can, but he has two above average pitches, gets lots of ground balls, has good control and a big pitchers frame that should be able to lead to plenty of innings.

He's got an average sinker and slider that he can throw for strikes. He doesn't miss bats.

If he had two plus pitches and plus command, wouldn't BA have him higher than 13th in a farm characterized best by it's depth? John Sickels tends to mention guys like that too....

[Superdude]

No Dorn love! Interesting about Smith. I really thought he was older than 22 though until I checked his stats a minute ago.