Here's the rest of the posts I've done for this eeries:
Anyways, we're going to be going off of Baseball Prospectus lists and information. I do not claim to know anything about the farm systems of teams outside of the Pirates, so I'm basically just going to be regurgitation information that the geniuses at BP have come up with.
So here's the top 20 list for the Cincinnati Reds.
- Billy Hamilton, SS
- Devin Mesoraco, C
- Zack Cozart, SS
- Robert Stephenson, RHP
- Daniel Corcino, RHP
- J.C. Sulbaran, RHP
- Didi Gregorius, SS
- Todd Frazier, UT
- Neftali Soto, 1B
- Henry Rodriguez, 2B
- Yorman Rodriguez, OF
- Kyle Lotzkar, RHP
- Kyle Waldrop, OF
- Donnie Joseph, LHP
- Gabriel Rosa, 3B
- Tony Cingrani, LHP
- Ryan LaMarre, OF
- Tucker Barnhart, C
- Juan Duran, OF
- Ryan Wright, 2B
The other big prospect the Reds have is Mesoraco, who is an older guy for being a top prospect. He was drafted in the first round of 2007 but struggled a lot in his first couple seasons. He is now 23 years old and has been raking the last two years. In 2010 he hit .302/.377/.587 (in A, AA, and a little bit of AAA) and last year he hit .289/.371/.484 in AAA. This kid could be one of the best hitting catchers in the league before you know it, however there is an issue with his defense. Mesoraco isn't great behind the dish in any aspect. He struggled receiving the ball and throwing out base runners, which is never good for a guy trying to be an everyday major league catcher. His bat is going to have to carry him while his defense improves, and I'd put a good bet down on him doing just that. Mesoraco has already made his major league debut and should be the Reds leading catcher this year, even if he isn't up at season's start.
After those two, the system gets kind of thin. They gave up a couple good prospects in Yonder Alonso and Yasmani Grandal for Mat Latos, which hurt the system substantially (although they are a good bet to win the N.L. Central this year because of it), so this certainly isn't a top of the line farm system right now. Zack Cozart made his debut last year and hit .324/.324/.486 in 37 at bats after hitting .310/.357/.467 in AAA, so he could be a nice offensive weapon for the Reds if they can fit him in somewhere down the road. Stephenson is a high school kid that just graduated last spring, so he's very far away but has some upside with the stuff. Corcino has been in the minor leagues a few years now and has had trouble putting up really good numbers, but definitely has some upside. Sulbaran strikes out a bunch of guys but hasn't posted an ERA better than 4.60 in his 3 seasons thus far.
There's a lot of guys like those last few in this system. They have upside, but they haven't figured it out in professional ball yet. None of the guys outside the top few have huge all-star potential, but they could contribute at the major league level at some point.
One thing with the Reds that you have to account for is all the prospects that have been at the major league level the last few years. Jay Bruce, Joey Votto, Chris Heisey, Drew Stubbs, Homer Bailey, and Aroldis Chapman are guys that have broke into the majors recently and have had big impacts. Those guys are a solid core that will contribute for a long time and make the Reds okay with not having the strongest farm system right now.
The Reds are one of the few teams on the rise in the National League Central. There farm system isn't a huge strength, but they have enough young talent in the major leagues to make me nervous about playing them in the future.