Original Draft Series: #27 – Cincinnati Reds

For those that missed the guidelines I am using for this series of posts, you can find them here.

Team #27: Cincinnati Reds

General Managers(since 1994)

Jim Bowden (1994-2003): 782-776
Dan O’Brien (2004-2005): 149-175
Wayne Krivsky (2006-2008): 226-260
Walt Jocketty (2009-Current): 78-84

Team Performance

Playoffs			Division Finish
WC	League	Playoff App	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th
0	0	2	2	2	4	3	5

Both of the division titles came in 1994-1995, and unfortunately they lost in the 163rd game in 1999 to just miss the playoffs. With those exceptions, the past 15 years has not been particularly good for the Reds. They have had a few really good players who have gone through the organization, but there are still a lot of players that were drafted that are down in the minors. All information is drawn from Baseball Reference.

Position	Name	Acquired	Years with Org.	Stats with Organization	Left?
C	Ryan Hanigan	Amateur FA – 2002	8	153 gm, .281/.383/.371, 7 HR, 39 RBI, 43 R	Currently with Org.
1B	Joey Votto	2002 – 2nd Rd	8	365 gm, .309/.391/.537, 66 HR, 226 RBI, 19 SB, 202 R	Currently with Org.
2B	Justin Turner	2006 – 7th Rd	3	No Major League Appearances with Organization	Traded to BAL – 12/9/08
3B	Paul Janish	2004 – 5th Rd	6	151 gm, .210/.300/.303, 3 HR, 28 RBI, 2 SB, 45 R	Currently with Org.
SS	Adam Rosales	2005 – 12th Rd	4	105 gm, .212/.296/.309, 4 HR, 21 RBI, 2 SB, 23 R	Traded to OAK – 2/1/10
LF	Adam Dunn	1998 – 2nd Rd	10	1 All-Star Appearance 1087 gm, .247/.380/.520, 270 HR, 646 RBI, 58 SB, 678 R	Traded to ARI – 8/11/08
CF	Jay Bruce	2005 – 1st Rd (12)	5	274 gm, .246/.319/.462, 52 HR, 139 RBI, 12 SB, 148 R	Currently with Org.
RF	Austin Kearns	1998 – 1st Rd (7)	7	452 gm., .267/.358/.468, 71 HR, 263 RBI, 20 SB, 248 R	Traded to WAS – 7/13/06
SP	Johnny Cueto	Int’l FA – 2004	6	26-26, 4.59 ERA, 355 K, 152 BB, 423.1 IP, 1.370 WHIP	Currently with Org.
SP	Mike Leake	2009 – 1st Rd (8)	2	5-0, 2.68 ERA, 52 K, 29 BB, 77.1 IP, 1.358 WHIP	Currently with Org.
SP	Homer Bailey	2004 – 1st Rd (7)	6	13-15, 5.46 ERA, 173 K, 118 BB, 245.2 IP, 1.583 WHIP	Currently with Org.
SP	Sam LeCure	2005 – 4th Rd	5	1-3, 3.75 ERA, 16 K, 15 BB, 24 IP, 1.583 WHIP	Currently with Org.
SP	Dustin Moseley	2000 – 1st Rd (34)	4	No Major League Appearances with Organization	Traded to LAA – 12/14/04
RP	Jeff Stevens	2005 – 6th Rd	1	No Major League Appearances with Organization	Traded to CLE – 6/13/06
RP	Enerio del Rosario	Int’l FA – 2005	5	1-1, 2.08 ERA, 3 K, 4 BB, 8.2 IP, 1.962 WHIP	Currently with Org.
RP	Logan Ondrusek	2005 – 13th Rd	5	0-0, 8.10 ERA, 7 K, 6 BB, 13.1 IP, 1.950 WHIP	Currently with Org.
RP	Carlos Fisher	2005 – 11th Rd	5	2-2, 5.40 ERA, 58 K, 40 BB, 63.1 IP, 1.642 WHIP	Currently with Org.
RP	Todd Coffey	1998 – 41st Rd	10	12-9, 4.62 ERA, 137 K, 63 BB, 206.1 IP, 1.585 WHIP	Selected by MIL – 9/10/08
CL	Trevor Hoffman	1989 – 11th Rd	3	No Major League Appearances with Organization	Expansion Draft – 11/17/92
BN	Chris Dickerson (OF)	2003 – 16th Rd	7	148 gm, .274/.367/.421, 8 HR, 30 RBI, 19 SB, 60 R	Currently with Org.
BN	Drew Stubbs (OF)	2006 – 1st Rd (8)	4	103 gm, .256/.323/.426, 15 HR, 48 RBI, 23 SB, 62 R	Currently with Org.
BN	Chris Heisey (OF)	2006 – 17th Rd	4	25 gm, .294/.400/.676, 3 HR, 4 RBI, 9 R	Currently with Org.
BN	Chris Denorfia (OF)	2002 – 19th Rd	5	67 gm, .278/.358/.382, 2 HR, 9 RBI, 2 SB, 22 R	Traded to OAK – 4/27/07
BN	Jason LaRue (C)	1995 – 5th Rd	11	715 gm, .239/.325/.415, 84 HR, 303 RBI, 12 SB, 263 R	Purchased by KC – 11/20/06
BN	Craig Tatum (C)	2004 – 3rd Rd	5	26 gm., .162/.250/.221, 1 HR, 6 RBI, 3 R	Selected by BAL – 11/20/09

The Reds have had a little bit of bad luck, as they have generally been good enough to keep out of the top-10 picks in the draft, with only 6 picks in the top-10 in the past 15 years. But the performance on the field has still not been particularly good, and they haven’t had a whole lot of flags to fly for division titles as a result.

June Amateur Draft

Looking at their drafting results, they have had only 20 first round picks in the last 15 drafts (not including 2010). With only 6 picks in the top-10 during those drafts, they haven’t had the access to a lot of the top-tier picks in the first round. That said, they have done reasonably well in finding top players in other rounds, with Adam Dunn and Joey Votto (2nd Round) being the best examples. That said, they missed on quite a few draft picks in the early 2000s, most notably the 2002 3rd overall pick of Chris Gruler. Taken after Gruler at picks 6 and 7: Zack Greinke and Prince Fielder.

International Free Agency

The Reds have been slightly more active than some of the previous teams in the international free agent market, with SP Johnny Cueto being the biggest success story to this point for the team. The most notable signee is one who hasn’t made his Major League debut yet, but is likely to before the end of this season. Down at AAA, Aroldis Chapman, signed out of Cuba, looks like he’s going to be a top-10 prospect before the end of the season, if not at the Major League level by then. With the exception of Cueto and Chapman, however, they have not really seen a whole lot of success to this point. I’m wondering if having Jim Bowden as the GM during the 90’s or Marge Schott as the owner could have caused some of these issues.

Overall Grade

C- would be an apt grade for the Reds in my opinion. They have a lot of hope for the future, with top starting pitchers Homer Bailey, Mike Leake, Johnny Cueto and Aroldis Chapman to help anchor their starting rotation. While the only real star they have developed to this point was Adam Dunn, they have some bright spots in 1B Joey Votto, OF Jay Bruce,  and coming prospects Todd Frazier and Yonder Alonso also provide some hope. Having Walt Jocketty around to run things is likely to help as well.