The Cincinnati Reds acquired three left handed pitchers from the Kansas City Royals when they traded Johnny Cueto last July. Two of those pitchers, John Lamb and Brandon Finnegan, are already pitching in the big league rotation. The third pitcher, who many believe will be the best of the group is Cody Reed.
The Reds assigned Cody Reed to the Louisville Bats to start the 2016 season. The results have been nothing short of outstanding. The left hander has posted a 2.21 ERA in eight starts with just nine walks and 40 strikeouts in 40.2 innings pitched. The 23-year-old has also allowed just one home run in that span to go along with a 1.05 WHIP.
Reed, particularly over the 2015 and 2016 seasons, has done a strong job of throwing strikes. In his first two seasons he walked 59 batters in 113.2 innings pitched. He’s only walked 50 batters in 180.1 since the start of 2015, a big improvement. Along with the drop in walks has come a big rise in strikeouts as well.
The stuff was never a question with the former 2nd round draft pick, but his control had led to issues. When it came around he began to dominate. On Wednesday I made the trip to Louisville to see the lefty pitch against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. The results were good, though he would take the loss. He allowed two runs in 6.0 innings on four hits, a hit batter and a walk. Reed would also strike out six batters.
Here is some video from the start:
You can see the full arsenal in the video above, showing off the fastball, slider and change up.
Cody Reed Scouting Report
Fastball | The pitch started out in the first inning working at 94-95 MPH, touching 96 a few times and topped out at 97 with an easy motion.
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After the first inning though, the velocity came down some. Over the next few innings he worked more in the 92-94 MPH range and touched 95 regularly. The last two innings though he saw the velocity come down again, working in the 90-93 range.
Change Up | The pitch was a little bit better than what I saw in person last year when he was in Pensacola. Reports from scouts had the pitch rated out as slightly above-average later in the season in 2015 though. He struggled to locate it most of the time on Wednesday – often leaving it up in the zone. The pitch shows some armside run and a little bit of fading action to it in the mid 80’s.
Slider | The bread-and-butter pitch for Reed is his slider and it’s an above-average to plus offering that works in the 85-89 MPH range. He’s able to locate the pitch well, often starting it near the bottom of the strikezone and watching it fall off out of the zone under the bat of most hitters.
While Cody Reed entered the season as my Reds #5 overall prospect, if someone wanted to make the argument that he’s the #1 prospect in the organization right now, it’s an argument that I’d listen to all day long. I’m tempted to say that as things stand right now, he is the top prospect in the organization. While he doesn’t quite have the highest upside of all of the starting pitchers in the organization, he’s probably got the 2nd highest and when you add in his ability to throw strikes and his polish, the case can easily be made that he’s the top guy on the farm system.
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