Reds Minor League Baseball Blog

This may be hard to believe, but the Reds actually have other pitching prospects other then Homer Bailey.  They might not be as promising, but they definitely bear keeping an eye on.  The “next best guy” in the Reds farm system is right hander Johnny Cueto.  Mr. Cueto was signed out of the Dominican Republic in 2004 and he made his minor league debut in 2005 with the Gulf Coast League.  In 43 innings there, he showed some solid control and walked only eight while striking out two.  The problem was, he gave up runs to the tune of 5.02 and that pretty much took him off the radar.  He did make a brief appearance at Sarasota but he only threw six decent innings.

In 2006, he started the season at Dayton where he finally began to bloom.  In fourteen starts and 76 1/3 innings, he struck out 82 and walked 15 en route to 8-1 record and a 2.59 ERA.  He made the move back to Sarasota and while he was effective, he struggled at times.  His strikeout rate came down a touch (61 in 61 2/3 innings) and his walk rate went up (23).  He did finish 7-2 though and that his full season record an impressive 15-3.  That’ll turn some heads.

Cueto will most likely start the season back at Sarasota but if he proves his mettle, it wouldn’t surprise me to see him up at Double A by midseason.  John Sickels likes him, and while he only gave him a B-, he did say he could see Cueto breaking out this year.