On having a bright future

I can't remember the last time I was this excited about Reds prospects. Could be because I didn't pay attention to prospects the last time the Reds had such promise in their farm system. MLB.com ranked four Reds in their top 50 prospects list, including Jay Bruce, the Baseball America Minor League Player of the Year, at number one. Homer Bailey came in at number nine, Joey Votto at number 34, and Johnny Cueto at number 47.

Four out of fifty seemed like a decent number to me, so I went ahead and broke it down by team.

The Team Formerly Known as the Devil Rays cleaned up with five prospects in the top fifty. Then again, when you are so bad that you get the number one overall pick every year, that should be expected.

The Reds were the only team to have four prospects in the top fifty.

Teams having three in the top fifty were the Dodgers, Bankee$, and Rockies.

The Tigers, Red Sox, Angels, Orioles, Royals, D'backs, Chub$, Nationals, Sausages, Mariners, Rangers, and Padres had two each.

The Deadbirds, Pirates, Indians, Blue Jays, Mets, Marlins, Phillies, and White Sox had a single prospect each.

I guess we can start calling Houston the Lastros for a long time to come, as they have no future! Also failing to make the top fifty: Braves, A's, Giants, and Twins.

These lists don't mean much, of course, and for me to sit here and count the number each teams has is, well, remember when you were a kid and you sat around sorting and resorting your baseball cards? Here is a puzzle to describe it:

She did nothing but eat chocolate and grew and grew
The hour is getting near

Some of these prospects won't pan out, but to have four in the top fifty is pretty cool. Bailey and Votto will start the year in a Cincinnati uniform, and Bruce and Cueto will be wearing Cincy red sometime during the season. I sure can't wait for that.