MLB.com has been polling front office executives about things related to prospects and development. There were a lot of categories that were asked about, and the Cincinnati Reds showed up in some of them and were completely absent in some others.
When it comes to the best farm system in baseball the Reds weren’t among the top four vote getting organizations. They were, however, among the other five teams who did receive votes. The Baltimore Orioles got half of the votes, while the Los Angeles Dodgers were next in line and the only other team to get a double-digit percentage of the vote (21%).
The next question asked was interesting. The question was “which team uses the draft best?”. I find it interesting that the question wasn’t “which team drafts best”, implying that there’s a difference in the two things (which you can argue there is, but I feel like which team drafts best is the question that has an answer that matters in terms of winning baseball games instead of winning accounting games). The Reds also got votes here and were tied with Atlanta for the 4th most votes. The Dodgers were atop this poll, with the Orioles and Cardinals coming up next. The Reds also did well in the question about which team plays the international market better than any other. The Astros and Dodgers were at the top, followed by the Yankees. But Cincinnati was tied with Cleveland, Washington, and San Diego at the #4 spot.
When it comes to the farm system being underrated, it’s a bit strange because many of the teams that got votes for the best farm system also got plenty of votes for the most underrated farm system. Cincinnati came in at #4 here.
With regards to developing players, this is where things did not seem to favor the Reds. The question was asked about which team is best at develop pitchers, and a separate question for developing hitters, and Cincinnati didn’t get a vote in either category. 10 teams received votes in the pitchers category, while 12 teams received votes in the hitter category.
Individual player questions were asked, too. The first time we see Elly De La Cruz show up is when he received the 4th most votes in the “most usable power” category. 13 players got votes, but surprisingly Christian Encarnacion-Strand was not among them. De La Cruz showed up with the 4th most votes in the “most speed” category as well. He was the only Red – hitter or pitcher – to get votes in any of the individual categories.