Baseball America pushed forward their schedule due to a writer being unavailable, so instead of the Midwest League Top 20 prospects being published today it went live yesterday. The Reds landed two players in the Top 10, but in the 16-team league they were the only two prospects to make the list.
Robert Stephenson came in at #3 on the list behind the top two picks in the 2012 draft. Stephenson was the top pitcher in the league and in the chat, JJ Cooper noted that he would have ranked ahead of the 2013 #1 pick Mark Appel who pitched in the league but didn’t have enough innings to qualify. Outfielder Jesse Winker came in at #9 in the league thanks to his bat, as most don’t see him being of value with his defense due to his being stuck in left field. As noted above, there are 16 teams in the league, which means that the league is usually going to be very, very deep in real prospects. From reading through the chat, it doesn’t seem that anyone else who played in Dayton was in real contention for the list.
The 2014 MLB Draft order is set and the Cincinnati Reds will be drafting 21st overall next June. The 21st spot in the draft has historically been pretty weak with just two players with more than 20 career WAR being taken (Jason Varitek at 24.3 and Rick Sutcliff at 34.3). The Reds have never drafted 21st before, so they don’t have much of a history with the spot, not that it would have any bearing at all on the pick.
The Reds have released the playoff roster.