Redsminorleagues.com

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Reds farm system ranked 7th in baseball?

Well according to Minorleaguenews.com they are. Before I jump in and state my opinion on the list, here is what they have to say.
Cincinnati Reds (4; Top: 13) (List)

There was a time when the Reds should have shared the theme song with WKRP In Cincinnati: "Baby if you've ever wondered whatever became of me..." Adam Dunn and Edwin Encarnacion were the only two faint heartbeats in a farm that has been largely dysfunctional and plagued by injury. This year, we can get excited about home grown talents like Chris Denorfia, Joey Votto, and Homer Bailey to help the new ownership group put that quintessential Cincinnati stamp back on the club and remove the retreads from the post-Marge era. Jay Bruce is farther down the line, but also shows some continued seeds of good development in the mix.

13. Chris Denorfia
31. Joey Votto
38. Homer Bailey

Ok, where to start, where to start......
  • The simple fact that Homer Bailey is ranked 25 spots BEHIND Chris Denorfia makes this list absolutely laughable. Homer Bailey is a top 10 prospect in all of baseball, #38 is a total laugh.
  • Joey Votto seems in the good range for him.
  • Chris Denorfia at #13....in all of baseball?! He might be #13 in the International League, but not in all of baseball. I love Denorfia, I really do. But having him come in at #13 in all of baseball is possibly the funniest thing I have seen since I saw Snakes on a Plane this past Friday.
  • Jay Bruce not making the top 50 is also a joke. The Baseball Analysts had him at #11 in all of baseball in the middle of July, and I would say that Jay should be between 10-15 and to leave him out of the top 50 makes me question how much they actually follow the minor leagues. The only thing I can understand is that they HIGHLY weigh their rankings on being in AA or AAA.
Now onto the overall list of system rankings....the Reds at #7 is very inaccurate. The Reds are a 15-20 system. The Reds have a solid top 5 prospects between Bailey, Wood, Cueto, Votto and Bruce. However after that, they start to lack some depth and it starts to get fuzzy as who goes where in a ranking system for the Reds.

You can read the entire list by clicking the link below, take it with a large grain of salt though.
http://www.minorleaguenews.com/baseball/features/articles2006/08/fab50/53.html