Johnny Cueto

The Cincinnati Reds are a team on the rise and one of the main reasons is the emergence of their young pitching prospects. Johnny Cueto is one of the biggest prospects in the game today. He made his big league debut April 3rd of this year, and showed why he was a top prospect. He has a 4.05 ERA on the season for 5 starts, but 3 of those 5 starts have been stellar! In his debut, he gave up one earned run over 7 innings. His next start was April 8th. On that day he went 6.1 innings and game up 2 earned runs. His 3rd game (April 13th)as well as his most recent game (April 24th), were bad. He gave up 10 earned runs in 13.1 innings between the 2. But, sandwiched between the two was a great start (April 19th) where he have up 2 earned runs in 7 innings. Don't be concerned about him. His season will be much like his first 5 games, a roller coaster ride of sorts. He will sometime this season get everything worked out and go out every day with a quality start. Cueto is a top of the rotation guy. His fastball is in the Mid-90s and his 2 secondary pitches, his Slider and Changeup are excellent. He has shown great command of all of his pitches. Cueto is not afraid to throw any of his 3 pitches, no matter what the count is.

Cameron Maybin

Prospect look #1:
Cameron Maybin

If you don't know this kid's name yet: GET IT MEMORIZED. Because you WILL see him starting at Center Field in the All-star game for MANY YEARS to come. The term five tool talent is thrown around so much, and maybin isn't there mostly because he lacks the power, but gets an A in every other category. He is a speed demon, and can hit it all over the ballpark. He also is amazing in the field as well, and will soon be looked at as what all other Center Fielders are compared to. He now has the chance to be an everyday player in Florida, and he will not disappoint. The small market of Florida will help him thrive, because he will have less pressure on his shoulders. I see him hitting .285, with 37 steals, and he will be in the top 5 in the league in outfield assist as well as extra base hits. Oh, and he'll win the 2008 National League Rookie of the Year, even as the Marlins lose 90 games.


My grade for Maybin: B-
It would be nice if he could add a little pop to his game, but he's good. Scary good.

Baseball Prospects

This blog will be dedicated to talk about the latest baseball prospects. I will be traveling to the minor league teams of the Philadelphia Phillies, to both AA (Reading) and AAA (Allentown) and will blog about prospects I see there from the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, Reading Phillies, and the teams they both play.

I will also be blogging about top prospects in the minors from other teams as well.

I will begin as soon as possible, and hope to be running within the next few weeks, and will begin by profiling Cameron Maybin, Carlos Carrasco, and Fernando Martinez