5 most disappointing and 5 breakout seasons for 2006

Top 5 Most disappointing seasons....

1. Drew Stubbs - 8th overall pick and hit .252 in rookie ball coming out of a major college program....enough said.

2. BJ Szymanski - 2004 2nd round pick spent his second year in Dayton and saw his average, slugging percentage and on base percentage fall, and it was not that good the first time around.

3. Adam Rosales - 12th round pick last year came onto the scene and made it to Dayton where he tore it up with the stick. Started the season in Sarasota where he was often injured and hit just .213 before being demoted back to Dayton where he hit 58 points less than he did last year.

4. Rafael Gonzalez - What's that, he didn't have a good season last year so why is he on the list? Well by all accounts, coming into the season he had the best stuff of anyone in the Reds pitching system that wasn't named Homer Bailey. He then went out and posted a 4.99 ERA over 2 rookie levels and Dayton.

5. Miguel Perez - Last season he showed that maybe he could hit for at least some sort of average in the pitcher friendly league of the FSL. His defense is much more advanced than his bat, and after this season and a .595 OPS in AA it looks like he is destined to be a defensive backup in the majors who brings you no power off the bench as a PH.

Onto the top 5 Breakout seasons....

1. Johnny Cueto - Coming into this season, no one had a clue who he was. Baseball America's preseason Reds top 30 prospects had him nowhere to be found. He pitched in 15 games in 2005 between the GCL Reds (13g, 6gs) and the Sarasota Reds (2g, 1s) and posted an ERA above 4.75. Starting the year in Dayton he blew through the league posting a 2.59 ERA and a 0.88 WHIP in 14 games before being promoted to the FSL where he posted a 3.50 ERA over 12 games.

2. Drew Anderson - Drew spent 2005 hitting .246 for Dayton with an OPS of .669 before filling in up north in Louisville and hitting .154 in 13 games. Starting off in Sarasota Drew hit .300 and had an OPS of .810 in the pitching friendly FSL before being promoted to Chattanooga where he hit .277.

3. Paul Janish - 2 middle infielders in a row here, both ending the season in AA. Janish has been known as a non hitting, slick fielding SS in the past. 23 years old for the season he tore up the Midwest League hitting .398/.435/.612 in his first 26 games before getting a promotion to Sarasota. He held his own there hitting .278/.355/.421 in 91 games. He played just 4 games in AA with Chattanooga, but I think Janish broke out this season hitting

4. Homer Bailey - Yeah I know he was a first round draft pick and he had the best potential in the system, blah blah blah....2005 was not a great season for him number wise, and 2006 put any doubt behind him with what may have been the best season for a pitcher in the entire minor leagues. 3.30 ERA in Sarasota before being promoted at the All-Star break, and all he did after that was post a 1.59 ERA in AA while striking out more batters than innings.

5. Rick Asadoorian - What's that? He only hit .267 as a 25 year old in AA, what's breakout about that? Well how about what he did on the mound? He went 1-0 in 3 games where he pitched 4 innings and struck out 7 without walking a batter. He did not allow a single run to cross the plate in his appearances either. Its not really the best reason, or even the best choice for this spot, but I wanted to write about it.

Oh and sorry for such a late posting, poker game popped up at a friends house for MNF and I completely forgot to update, so here it is at 2:15 in the morning.