First-round woes
A reader e-mailed asking how the Reds first-round picks from the last 10 years were doing. The answer says a lot about where the Reds are right now:
Three are in the majors: Austin Kearns 1998, Ryan Wagner '03 and Homer Bailey '04.
Three are out of baseball: Brandon Larson '97, Ty Howington '99 and Chris Gruler '02.
Four are in the minors: David Espinosa '00, Jeremy Sowers '01, Jay Bruce '05 and Drew Stubbs '06.
The killer was Howington, Espinosa, Sowers, Gruler in consecutive years. Sowers didn't sign. The three others were busts.
posted by John Fay at 12:05 PM
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Post a Comment*Actually, Larson was released by the Nationals from their Double-A club in Harrisburg, PA on June 28.
http://oursportscentral.com/services/releases/?id=3496755
Hey Jay,
I looked up Brandon Larson on a minor league website and it is showing that he was released in June. No longer affiliated with a parent club! He sure was a beast in the Reds Minor League system.
John-
I saw on Lance McAlister's blog that the Giants players knew what Ricky Stone was throwing on each pitch. They had a game to guess before each pitch. Have you heard anything on this? It makes me think long and hard why Dick Pole is still here. There are no adjustments (i.e. Matt Belisle to Chase Utley last week..same situation same result that happened twice)
Larson has been switched the out of baseball category.
John,
What seems to be the problem with Drew Stubbs? Is it taking him longer to catch up from some sort of injury or is he in pre-bust stages right now?
There are only 3 guys on the major league ballclub at all drafted by the Reds: Adam Dunn, Todd Coffey, and Homer Bailey. That tells you even more about the low quality of the farm system for years. Luckily, the farm system is looking much better right now (Votto, Dumatrait, Janish, Cueto, Bruce, etc.) than in many years. Dan O'Brien might have been a poor GM, but at least he knows a thing or two about farm systems.
Were Howington and Gruler "busts" or were they wrecked by a team that develops one starting pitcher every 25 years?
I second that on DanO. His 5 year wait and see was definitely in the works. I still believe that Mr. Castellini did the right thing by firing him. You just can't run a major league team by worrying about the farm and what happens 5 years down the road when there are so many holes and struggles at the Majors. That's where the owners make the money. We definitely needed someone that could do both. Rejunate the farm and supplement the majors. I don't know if Krivsky is the right guy yet. He has some more time to prove himself as a Major League GM. I bet his butt checks puckered when Mr. Castellini said, "If we don't get this thing figured out, I'm liable to fire myself."
The list John mentioned is only woes from the first-round. Add in the likes of Seth Etherton, Bobby Basham, and Luke Hudson and the pain only deepens. Too bad they gave up on Dustin Moseley and Justin Germano too soon.
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