That's the middle of the order, one of the top line starters and your closer.
The team really was only healthy in June and early July and over that time the club climbed back into the race -- only to suffer through the worst second half in club history after Votto went down for good.
The Reds beat writers are calling for an overhaul. I'm in the camp that you shouldn't retool the team after last season because you don't really know if it was the collection of players or just bad luck.
I'm in the "let's give it another shot" camp.
Here's one thing I do know, the Reds have to get back to what got them back to the top in 2010, 2012 and 2013 and that's winning the June draft.
In 1990, the Reds won their last World Series. The team also drafted catcher Dan Wilson in the first round. Wilson would go on to become an All Star, except it wasn't for Cincinnati. Still, the Reds went from winning that title in 1990 and having a fairly solid decade to going from 2001 to 2009 without a winning record.
How did that happen? The team had a terrible run of drafts. I looked at the top five picks of every draft from 1990 through 2014. I graded each player on a scale, giving them 0 if they never reached the majors, 1 point for getting a cup of coffee in the bigs, 2 points if they stayed as a backup and bullpen filler, 3 points for a starter, 4 points for an all star caliber player and 5 points for an MVP/Cy Young player. Let's call that the Votto rule.
Let's look at the Reds drafts from 1990 through 2001.
1990 -- 6 points -- NO. 1 pick, Wilson. Only one of the two, three, four and five round picks so any time in the majors. Shane Halter, a career backup, was drafted in the 16th round.
1991 -- 4 points -- No. 1 pick, Pokey Reese. Reese won two gold gloves. The 2, 3, 4 and 5 round picks didn't reach the majors.
1992 -- 4 points -- No. 1 pick, Chad Mottola. Mottola played just 59 games in the majors. Eric Owens in the fourth round played 806, only 117 of those were for Cincinnati.
1993 -- 5 points -- No. 1 pick, Pat Watkins. Scott Sullivan was the best of this bunch.
1994 -- 5 points -- No. 1 pick, C. J. Nitkowski. Aaron Boone in the third round gave the Reds seven solid seasons.
1995 -- 10 points -- top pick, Brett Tomko, second round. Tomko gave the Reds a couple of seasons as a front rotation starter and won 100 games. J.D. LaRue in the fifth round was a solid career backup catcher.
1996 -- 2 points -- top picks, Johnny Oliver, P, and Matt McClendon, P, in first round. This is the kind of draft it takes small market clubs years to recover from. The Reds had two picks in the first round and two in the second and only Buddy Carlyle reached the majors, where he won a grand total of 12 games.
1997 -- 7 points -- NO. 1 pick, Brandon Larson, SS. Larson and second round pick Gookie Dawkins were cup-of-coffee major leaguers. The Reds did get Scott Williamson in the 9th round and Williamson had one glorious Rookie of the Year season in 1999.
1998 -- 11 points -- No. 1 pick Austin Kearns. Kearns looked to be a budding star until breaking his wrist. Still, he has played 1,125 games in the majors. The Reds got Adam Dunn in the second round and he hits lots of homers, struck out a ton of times and was a circus in the field. The Reds struck gold in the 17th round with B.J. Ryan, but then they blew that by trading him for Juan Guzman during the 1999 pennant race.
1999 -- 6 points -- No. 1 pick, Ty Howington. Ben Broussard in the second round was the best of this bunch.
2001 -- 6 points -- No. 1 pick, Jeremy Sowers. Sowers won 18 games in the majors. The 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th round picks didn't make the majors. The Reds did take Nick Markakis in the 35th round as a pitcher. Markakis didn't sign and in 2003 he was the No. 7 overall pick for the Orioles. Sigh.
So really other than 1998, the Reds brass was worse than bad when it came to evaluating talent. Most of this was during the Marge Schott era. Schott ran everything on the cheap and hated spending on scouting. Her famous quote was "all they do is watch ball games."
Schott finally gave up control of the Reds in 1999 and in 2002 the rebuild began although no one would notice until 2010.
2002 -- 7 points -- First round picks Chris Gruler and Mark Schramek. Neither Gruler nor Schramek would play in the majors. In fact this was a terrible draft except for the second round when the team took Joey Votto.
2003 -- 4 points -- No. 1 pick, Ryan Wagner. Wagner was barely serviceable and this was a weak bunch. But then the team started connecting.
2004 -- 8 points -- No. 1 pick, Homer Bailey. Bailey is a mid rotation starter with 58 wins, although he'll be coming off an injury in 2015. The Reds also got Paul Janish in the fifth round. He's a serviceable backup shortstop.
2005 -- 13 points -- No. 1 pick, Jay Bruce. Bruce is a multi year all star who just had his worst season. The Reds got Travis Wood in the second round and he's been a solid starter for the Cubs. Sam LeCure (4th round) and Logan Ondrusek (13th round) were, until this past year, solid bullpen pitchers.
2006 -- 9 points -- No. 1 pick, Drew Stubbs. Stubbs had a couple OK seasons in Cincinnati and has found some success in Colorado. Chris Heisey, picked in the 17th, has been a good backup sometime starting outfielder.
2007 -- 13 points -- First round picks, Devin Mesoraco, Todd Frazier and Kyle Lotzkar. This is the kind of draft that makes teams playoff contenders. Mesoraco and Frazier made the all star game this year. The Reds also got Zack Cozart in the second round.
2008 -- 4 points -- No. 1 pick, Yonder Alonso. Alonso was the best of a weak bunch and he became part of the trade to get Matt Latos.
2009 -- 9 points -- No. 1 pick, Mike Leake. Another draft the Reds are living off of. They got Leake and his 54 wins in the first round and stealing Billy Hamilton in the second.
2010 -- 3 points -- No. 1 pick, Yasmani Grandal. Grandal was used along with Alonso to get Latos.
The last four drafts are impossible to grade because players are still in the pipeline. Tony Cingrani, taken in the third round in 2011, was a big contributor in 2013 but spent most of this year on the disabled list.
The Reds need bats and of the players drafted since 2010 only Jesse Winker is developing into a top prospect. Most of the Reds other top prospects are pitchers. That will help as the Reds sort out who to keep amongst Latos, Johnny Cueto and Mike Leake. Still, the cupboard is kind of bare.
If the Reds want to remain contenders they'll have to have more drafts like 2007 and 2009.
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