Tony Cingrani came into the 2012 season as a much talked about and divisive in both fan and scouting circles. He had come off one of the most impressive statistical debuts that the Pioneer League has seen in the last 25 years.
The Reds took the domination of the Pioneer League as a sign that Cingrani was ready to head directly to High-A ball and the California League. In his first start of the year he took the mound for the Bakersfield Blaze and fired 6 shutout innings with a walk and 5 strikeouts while allowing just one hit. That was a sign of things to come for April as Cingrani finished the month with 23 innings pitched, just 9 hits allowed, 5 walks and 28 strikeouts to go along with a 0.39 ERA and a 0.61 WHIP.
When May rolled around Cingrani went into a relative slump compared to April with a 1.60 ERA in 33.2 innings. He allowed just one earned run in four of his six starts in the month. In his other two starts he allowed 2 runs and 0 runs. On the 18th against the Padres affiliate the lefty struck out 12 and walked none in 6 innings. He finished the month with 8 walks and 43 strikeouts and earned a promotion to AA after his final start of the month.
Cingrani once again took a relative slump as the calendar changed and saw his ERA skyrocket all of the way up to 2.15 on the month for June with the Pensacola Blue Wahoos. Once again Cingrani demonstrated strong control with just 8 walks in 29.1 innings while striking out 38 hitters on the month, including 15 on the 27th of the month in 8 shutout innings with just a single walk. He finished June with a 1.02 WHIP.
July saw the same ERA as June with a 2.15 mark and his WHIP also matched up perfectly at 1.02, but the month was actually a step backwards as Cingrani walked 13 batters and struck out just 24 in 29.1 innings. It was the first month where he failed to strike out more batters than he had innings pitched and he walked double digit batters. In his first three starts of the month he threw 19.2 shutout innings before giving up 6 earned in his next start that lasted 5.1 innings.
August and one final start on September 1st saw Cingrani post a 2.05 ERA in 30.2 innings, but again saw his control suffer as he walked 18 batters in that time frame. While the walks were quite high, he boosted his strikeouts back up to 39 on the month. It seems that as the season wore on he also wore down. He finished the minor league season with a 1.73 ERA in 146 innings with 52 walks and 172 strikeouts.
Initially the Reds did not call Tony Cingrani up in September, but he did eventually get the call up and made his way into 3 games where he gave up 1 run in 5 innings with 2 walks and 9 strikeouts out of the Reds bullpen.
Overall Thoughts
Cingrani picked up where he left off from 2011 from a statistical standpoint with a downright dominating year, perhaps the most impressive from a Reds pitcher that I can recall. There is still some split among the scouting community as to whether Cingrani can be a starter in the long haul. His fastball and change up are both viewed as quality MLB pitches, but his third pitch, his slider is viewed as a below average pitch. I am still a bit torn on whether or not he can start as well, but I have seen enough of his slider to know it has some potential and he just needs to be more consistent with the pitch. I would look for him to be in Louisville as a starter to being next season.
Stats
| Tm | W | L | ERA | IP | H | HR | BB | SO | WHIP | K/BB |
| Bakersfield | 5 | 1 | 1.11 | 56.2 | 39 | 2 | 13 | 71 | 0.92 | 5.5 |
| Pensacola | 5 | 3 | 2.12 | 89.1 | 59 | 7 | 39 | 101 | 1.10 | 2.6 |
| MILB Totals | 10 | 4 | 1.73 | 146.0 | 98 | 9 | 52 | 172 | 1.03 | 3.3 |
| Cincinnati | 0 | 0 | 1.80 | 5.0 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 1.22 | 16.2 |
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