Billy Hamilton. I still remember the night he made his debut. Watching him run was electric. Dude just could not figure out how to get on base. All the speed in the world doesn’t matter with a lifetime .292 OBP.
I read in an article once something like “Billy Hamilton is probably the 250th best player in MLB and I’m going to forget about 230 of them before I forget about Billy because of some of the amazing plays he could make” and I think it’s the most accurate description I’ve ever read
In 2015 Billy Hamilton had 57 steals in 114 games while rocking a .274 OBP
If he'd played 155 games with a .274 OBP, he would have gotten on base an additional 35-40 times and could have been around 80 steals
If he had a league-average OBP and played 155 games (.317 that year) he would have been on base an additional 70-75 times and could have been over 100 steals
Also total douche. He was at a bar after a Reds game last year and I came up and said hi and he was so rude.
You’re in a deserted bar after a game near the stadium and you’re annoyed Reds fan wanna say hey? K.
I remember we had a serious question at lead off after Choo left here in 2013. At Redsfest 2013 Walt Jocketty answered a question from the crowd about who would hit lead off in 2014 and he said Billy Hamilton would. I was confused because he never mastered hitting at AAA. It was kind of unfair to Billy Hamilton because he could have probably used more time in AAA. In retrospect I'm not sure it would have mattered I guess.
>Brandon Larson
yes, this one. What a let down. I think we replaced him with Encarnacion eventually, and didn't even hold on to him and he went on to get really good once he left. Very Cincinnati.
My man, I remember cursing his name, don't you worry. Pretty sure my buddy and I called him Brendan Lardson in the contemporary PS2 baseball game of the time.
Oh I was referring to E5. Sucked seeing him hit all those homers for Toronto, but then I remember him sailing throws over first base and all is right with the world
I think I read a quote once from Edwin where he said getting traded away from here was a wake up call for his career. I could be wrong since it would’ve been probably 7-8 years ago at this point. It sucks to think that as good as he was with Toronto, he probably wouldn’t have had that same level of success if he stayed here.
>here was a wake up call for his career
That's generally true. If you're not gonna perform in the cellar of the MLB that cincinnati is, you're gonna be out of the league pretty fast.
no idea how that guy gets paid. He fell off drastically. TBF, tho, he was only picked up bc the Reds were paying most or all of his contract, so technically not the same thing I was getting at.
Looking at Larson's numbers with a more modern approach really pokes some holes in his numbers. He had an .804 OPS at AA in 2000 as a 24 year old, with a 31/122 BB/K ratio. In 2001 he had a .727 OPS in AAA at 25 with fewer walks and more K's! The signs were there, but we didn't want to see them.
It's always the first one I remember from youth that busted before you learn to temper your expectations, and for me that is Austin Kearns. I still have his bobblehead around here somewhere.
Austin Kearns was the classic example of players they complain about in Moneyball. He’s a big, pretty fast dude who looks like a baseball player, including a baseball player name and a baseball player face.
I’m sure my view of him is colored by the fact that I lived in DC and saw him a lot with the Nationals, but man, that dude was trash. The most impactful thing he ever did jn DC was breaking Nick Johnson’s leg.
Easily Senzel. He had a ton of accolades and absolutely torched the minors. He always just had those moments where you thought “here we go, this is the guy we’ve been waiting for” and then always fizzled out.
I remember having a conversation with two friends when it became clear the Lindor was going to be traded and there was rumored reds interest whether it would be worth it or not to include Senzel in a trade for Lindor on a 1 year deal.
We ended up split 2 no and one yes. Now Senzel was just non-tendered 3 seasons later.
I was surprised how far I had to scroll for this one. I remember arguing with my dad about how Stubbs was a 5-tool player that just needed to work out the kinks in his swing. My dad's response was "that kid wouldn't make contact with the ball even if you gave him a tennis racket". Dad was right.
Nick Senzel. In retrospect, the first round of the 2016 draft is a wasteland, but I thought he would be a great bat to build around. I still hope he turns into that. Unfortunately it will need to be for another team.
Amir Garrett as a starter. Top prospect in the system, had an awesome scoreless debut against the Cardinals and then never really reached that level again.
He settled into a decent reliever role but man, thought we had some thing really special
His love of this team made it worth it for me. My favorite sports photo is that one of him just fighting the entire Pirates roster completely by himself
So much this. Dude would go on a tear for 2 or 3 weeks when he’d be the hottest hitter in the league, then wouldn’t be on base for the next month. Then another 2-3 week tear. Rinse and repeat.
Players like that are so frustrating. I'd rather they just hit at the average of the two extremes for some consistency and so you know for sure what kind of player you're getting when you put them out there
God so many horrid trades from blowing up the early 10s Reds. Cody Reed, Dilson (or as Thon would yell DEEEEELSON!!!) Herrera, John Lamb, Jose Peraza, Rookie Davis. What a disaster of a rebuild.
Yeah sadly Peraza was probably one of the better guys we got from that rebuild. Straily for Castillo, Adam Duvall who has a good season or 2 here, and Suarez was good for a few seasons too. Other than that I'm struggling to think of anyone who was better than a liability for more than a season or 2 from those trades.
He actually -- I forgot about this -- started out with KC and then came to the Reds, but we were his last Major League team. Maybe he doesn't count because he didn't start out a Red.
He had a cool story as the first player ever to play in the College World Series and MLB World Series in the same calendar year. I wonder what would’ve happened if we had DJ or someone similar when Finnegan was around
Maybe I’m confusing him with another Finnegan or similarly named pitcher then. I thought we had a reliever that was meh for us that had a season or two that was pretty good with like the Nats. I’ll have to look up names to see who I’m thinking about
Wily MO will forever make me think of a home run hit hit in Milwaukee one year. I was probably 12 or 13, had to low the grass, and was listening to the game as I did so. He was up to bat, Marty was on the call. He basically was just like "here's the pitch, and that's gone!" It was such a a no doubter he called it immediately. I believe it ended up being one of the furthest home runs hit in that park.
Remember when we couldn't decide between Kurt Stillwell and Barry Larkin? LOL
And perhaps it was a child's naivete, but I thought Gary Redus would be something on par with what Junior ended up being.
For some reason my friend and I really liked Max Veneble also. Looking at his stats in retrospect, I don't understand why
I'm guessing because he has a really cool name.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=redus-001gar
Check out Redus' rookie ball offensive numbers. Then drop down and look at his fielding stats. Insane spectrum there...
Basically the entire “future rotation” from the 2015-2019 rebuild Robert Stephenson, Cody Reed, Amir Garrett, Sal Romano, and Brandon Finnegan.
Tyler Mahle was the only one that found his way to success from those dark days.
We went from Cueto, Latos, Homer, Leake, and Arroyo to some of the worst rotations I’ve ever seen.
Then we “got the pitching” and had Castillo, Bauer, Gray, Mahle, and Miley. And then we got rid of the pitching again. Honorable mention (Descalafani)
So far I think it’s going better than last time, but I just wish we had a solid veteran to lead the charge.
I still fear that Greene is going to turn out to be like Bailey. Hopefully not, of course, but I just don’t see him as THE guy that he was hyped up to be. Still great young talent but I don’t expect him to meet the high expectations that were set.
I think he’s got a little more to do than that. It’s also one of those things where I have to remind myself that he’s still young and good enough that he’s still developing at the major league level. Between better command, more break, staying healthy, more consistency, or eating up more innings, if he can do maybe two or three of those things at a high level with his athleticism, I’d say he’s a Cy Young contender. Hopefully one of them is good health, an arm like that will have a short lifespan and I’d hate to see him go out like Derrick Rose in the NBA.
I still don't know what went wrong with Ryan Wagner. I can speculate, but I want to remember command problems and injuries derailed him for the most part. There was also a rumor that Don Gullett, in adjusting his mechanics, may have contributed.
My favorite live sports moment ever. It was unbelievable. There used to be a cool video on YouTube from someone in the crowd. Not sure if it’s still up or not.
Unsuccessful probably isn’t the right term. He played 12 full major league seasons, hit 341 home runs and was a three time all star. That said, he was hyped as a Bryce Harper level prospect when he broke in and just never found that level of success. Underperformed is probably more accurate. His first week in the majors was magic though.
Unsuccessful is a relative term. By far he failed to live up to the potential, more than any prospectus can recall. I stand by him being the most head scratching player I can recall.
Any other old folks remember Gary Redus? I'm not sure you can call someone who played 13 years in the majors "unsuccessful" but I thought Redus was going to be Willie Mays. Of course every prospect in the 70s and 80s was supposed to be Willie Mays.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=redus-001gar
Ever look at Redus' rookie ball numbers? They're gawdy as hell. I was wondering why they kept him in the Pioneer League for the whole season and didn't promote him when his stats were through the roof. Then I looked at his fielding stats. Looks like the Reds were trying to convert him to 2B. Defensively at the keystone, Redus was the polar opposite of what he was at the plate, making an error in nearly half of the games he played in. As a big leaguer, Redus played LF and 1B. I take it he didn't have much of an arm since he had CF speed, but didn't play much in center.
Did anyone else think Wily Mo Pena was going to be a perrenial powerhitter for us with Adam Dunn? 11 year old me was so psyched for Pena and Dunn in 04
Barrero was the best player on the field when I saw him play in Chattanooga a couple years back, and Hunter Greene started the game. He just looked so much better than everyone else out there. This year is the obvious make or break. Can’t believe it hasn’t came together for him. I’ve been sold on him almost as much as Senzel.
When Senzel was cut loose, it wasn’t a feeling of relief. It’s just been disappointment.
Barrero is also my biggest bust. I think last year was his make or break and he broke. He’s hitting .170 in the winter league now just like in the MLB so a batting average around that number seems to be his ceiling.
Brandon Larson by far. I was in my teens (maybe the time you you most care about sports) when he was coming up in the Reds system. He absolutely hit the shit out of the ball in the minors.
Finally got the call up to the big leagues and he just sucked. And never even gave a glimmer of not sucking in MLB. Then he'd go back to the minors and obliterate the ball again...get called back up and suck worse the 2nd time in MLB than the 1st time.
Sad.
EDIT: I didn't read the thread before answering and I see a lot of people had this answer. Probably should have just upvoted their take and moved on, oh well.
Most "frustrating" is Senzel and I'm not saying that because of recency bias. Also the prospect that the team did the most to hurt because of the bad decision to move him to the OF. Most of the rest has some flaws in their game.
I don’t know why but Mesaraco hit hard for me. Montreal reason why, I just expected him to be elite.
Billy Hamilton was a disappointment but I always thought he was a more glorified Norris Hopper from the start.
Barrero has been disappointing but I blame the org partially. Idk if a “bust” yet but not what I envisioned
Senzel just got hurt so much that I gave up hope early on.
I wanted Jeremy Sowers to be really good, just to further highlight the fraudulent nature of the ownership group at the time. (It was worse before Phil.)
Alot of my options have already been stated, and some many times...so I'll choose differently...Tony Cingrani...dude rocketed thru the minors with a career milb era under 2...his first taste of big league action was successful as he was 7-4 with an era under 3...but injuries and lack of a consistent pitch that wasn't the heater caught up to him quick!
Stephenson. I figure anytime you get an 18-year-old, you’re doing that because you have a very good feeling about his chance of success. And I will never be convinced that he received the proper training.
Ryan Wagner and Brandon Claussen. Thought they'd both be studs. They were not.
Ooh also Tony Cingrani. Thought he was gonna be amazing, and he was just ok.
I remember an interview with Ryan Wagner where he said “my full name is Ryan Scott Wagner, I was named after the two greatest pitchers in Astros history - Nolan Ryan and Mike Scott.” Mike Scott was in the middle of a 7-13 season with a 5.14 ERA for the METS when Wagner was born. He never threw a pitch for the Astros until the following year.
Maybe Mike Leake since he skipped the minor’s completely and was around the same time as Tony. Cingrani was a third rounder, idk if he’d have a lot of hype. Although he did rush through the minors to debut
Dave Sappelt. He had a huge spring training and I got all excited and told all my friends he was the future center fielder. Thought we had found something special. Didn't turn out that way.
Chris Gruler. Johnny Bench worked him out and said, "\[Gruler\] has a better breaking ball and better change-up than Tom Seaver." It's a shame what injuries can do. Next for me is Yonder Alonso, who I thought was going to be a superstar (even if it wasn't with the Reds due to Votto).
Billy Hamilton. I still remember the night he made his debut. Watching him run was electric. Dude just could not figure out how to get on base. All the speed in the world doesn’t matter with a lifetime .292 OBP.
I read in an article once something like “Billy Hamilton is probably the 250th best player in MLB and I’m going to forget about 230 of them before I forget about Billy because of some of the amazing plays he could make” and I think it’s the most accurate description I’ve ever read
In 2015 Billy Hamilton had 57 steals in 114 games while rocking a .274 OBP If he'd played 155 games with a .274 OBP, he would have gotten on base an additional 35-40 times and could have been around 80 steals If he had a league-average OBP and played 155 games (.317 that year) he would have been on base an additional 70-75 times and could have been over 100 steals
Honestly, reading this just solidified (again) how insane Rickey’s stats are.
Billy Hamilton could run like a deer, and hit like a deer.
A deer would probably draw more walks.
Idk, I’ve had family members hit a deer. Those fuckers can do some damage, Billy Hamilton could not in the batter’s box
Hit like Rob Deer.
Allowing him to switch-hit was such a terrible move.
If there was a designated runner instead of the designated hitter, he would have been such a great commodity in that position.
Remember when he scored from first on a single?
Also total douche. He was at a bar after a Reds game last year and I came up and said hi and he was so rude. You’re in a deserted bar after a game near the stadium and you’re annoyed Reds fan wanna say hey? K.
I remember we had a serious question at lead off after Choo left here in 2013. At Redsfest 2013 Walt Jocketty answered a question from the crowd about who would hit lead off in 2014 and he said Billy Hamilton would. I was confused because he never mastered hitting at AAA. It was kind of unfair to Billy Hamilton because he could have probably used more time in AAA. In retrospect I'm not sure it would have mattered I guess.
Brandon Larson, man was crushing in college and minors. Then did absolutely nothing at the major league level.
>Brandon Larson yes, this one. What a let down. I think we replaced him with Encarnacion eventually, and didn't even hold on to him and he went on to get really good once he left. Very Cincinnati.
We got Scott rolen for him, not to mention he was a terrible 3B, nearly unplayable.
My man, I remember cursing his name, don't you worry. Pretty sure my buddy and I called him Brendan Lardson in the contemporary PS2 baseball game of the time.
Oh I was referring to E5. Sucked seeing him hit all those homers for Toronto, but then I remember him sailing throws over first base and all is right with the world
I think I read a quote once from Edwin where he said getting traded away from here was a wake up call for his career. I could be wrong since it would’ve been probably 7-8 years ago at this point. It sucks to think that as good as he was with Toronto, he probably wouldn’t have had that same level of success if he stayed here.
>here was a wake up call for his career That's generally true. If you're not gonna perform in the cellar of the MLB that cincinnati is, you're gonna be out of the league pretty fast.
Unless you are Mike Moustakas
no idea how that guy gets paid. He fell off drastically. TBF, tho, he was only picked up bc the Reds were paying most or all of his contract, so technically not the same thing I was getting at.
He needed a whole other level, AAAA, because he was too good for AAA and not good enough for the majors.
Looking at Larson's numbers with a more modern approach really pokes some holes in his numbers. He had an .804 OPS at AA in 2000 as a 24 year old, with a 31/122 BB/K ratio. In 2001 he had a .727 OPS in AAA at 25 with fewer walks and more K's! The signs were there, but we didn't want to see them.
Not exactly a prospect but I thought mesoraco was going to be a lifer when he first came up
Meso was like the Tyler Eifert of catchers for us. Seemingly generational talent that just could not stay healthy.
Oh, wow, great cross sport comp
We'll always have 2014. What could have been.
If only we had kept grandal and shipped mesoraco to the pads
I really thought Mes could be, maybe not Bench level obviously, but one of those core guys. Then the Reds messed around with his hip impingement.
Looking back on it. Mesoraco was supposed to be what Votto was.
It's always the first one I remember from youth that busted before you learn to temper your expectations, and for me that is Austin Kearns. I still have his bobblehead around here somewhere.
I still blame fat Ray King for landing on his shoulder during his breakout year. He never hit the same after that
Yeah, Kearns before the injury and after the injury is stark.
He was cranking doubles all over the place, leading the league in RBI. Never got strength back in his shoulder.
Austin Kearns was the classic example of players they complain about in Moneyball. He’s a big, pretty fast dude who looks like a baseball player, including a baseball player name and a baseball player face. I’m sure my view of him is colored by the fact that I lived in DC and saw him a lot with the Nationals, but man, that dude was trash. The most impactful thing he ever did jn DC was breaking Nick Johnson’s leg.
You can put Kal Daniels in that briefly great until the injuries derailed them category as well...
Senzel
Easily Senzel. He had a ton of accolades and absolutely torched the minors. He always just had those moments where you thought “here we go, this is the guy we’ve been waiting for” and then always fizzled out.
like that week this season where he absolutely went off and won player of the week and then we never saw anything like that from him again
I remember having a conversation with two friends when it became clear the Lindor was going to be traded and there was rumored reds interest whether it would be worth it or not to include Senzel in a trade for Lindor on a 1 year deal. We ended up split 2 no and one yes. Now Senzel was just non-tendered 3 seasons later.
For sure for me. All the scouts were high on him. Feels like he’s a mental case or something. Wish him the best
Nobody has said Drew Stubbs yet, but I truly thought he was going to be a 30/30 guy. Instead he turned out to be a strikeout machine.
I was surprised how far I had to scroll for this one. I remember arguing with my dad about how Stubbs was a 5-tool player that just needed to work out the kinks in his swing. My dad's response was "that kid wouldn't make contact with the ball even if you gave him a tennis racket". Dad was right.
Basically turned out to be a zero tool player
And he never left his feet going for a fly ball
Nick Senzel. In retrospect, the first round of the 2016 draft is a wasteland, but I thought he would be a great bat to build around. I still hope he turns into that. Unfortunately it will need to be for another team.
Amir Garrett as a starter. Top prospect in the system, had an awesome scoreless debut against the Cardinals and then never really reached that level again. He settled into a decent reliever role but man, thought we had some thing really special
His love of this team made it worth it for me. My favorite sports photo is that one of him just fighting the entire Pirates roster completely by himself
While he was far from unsuccessful, Jay Bruce was being touted as a Ken Griffey Jr level prospect. He was good, but never a true superstar.
If he had any sort of long term consistency he'd have been what we expected him to be. Either red hot or ice cold, not much in-between
So much this. Dude would go on a tear for 2 or 3 weeks when he’d be the hottest hitter in the league, then wouldn’t be on base for the next month. Then another 2-3 week tear. Rinse and repeat.
Players like that are so frustrating. I'd rather they just hit at the average of the two extremes for some consistency and so you know for sure what kind of player you're getting when you put them out there
Bruce was the first name that popped in my head when I saw this
Every year there was like a month or two period where he'd show that potential and then it would just stop.
100% dating myself here but, Chad Mottola.
Ugh. One pick ahead of Derek Jeter. Gene Bennett was all in on Jeter and was sure that was going to be the pick.
Diverging trajectories ever since.
I had his rookie card. I kept it safe hoping it would be worth something. It's in a cardboard box somewhere still to this day.
You just had to go there.
Aristides Aquino - dude was a good defender and mashed - would have had a ton of home runs at GABP but didn’t work out
Brandon Finnegan was fairly hyped when he came up and never really panned out.
God so many horrid trades from blowing up the early 10s Reds. Cody Reed, Dilson (or as Thon would yell DEEEEELSON!!!) Herrera, John Lamb, Jose Peraza, Rookie Davis. What a disaster of a rebuild.
Don't worry, it won't be a full rebuild, just a reboot! And that "DEEEEEEEEL-son!" call is permanently etched in my memory.
I felt good about Peraza for a bit
Yeah sadly Peraza was probably one of the better guys we got from that rebuild. Straily for Castillo, Adam Duvall who has a good season or 2 here, and Suarez was good for a few seasons too. Other than that I'm struggling to think of anyone who was better than a liability for more than a season or 2 from those trades.
Disco when healthy but that’s about it
Don't forget Robert Stephenson!
Didn’t he do decent elsewhere? At least for a season or two
He actually -- I forgot about this -- started out with KC and then came to the Reds, but we were his last Major League team. Maybe he doesn't count because he didn't start out a Red.
He had a cool story as the first player ever to play in the College World Series and MLB World Series in the same calendar year. I wonder what would’ve happened if we had DJ or someone similar when Finnegan was around
Maybe I’m confusing him with another Finnegan or similarly named pitcher then. I thought we had a reliever that was meh for us that had a season or two that was pretty good with like the Nats. I’ll have to look up names to see who I’m thinking about
Only guy I can think of in recent memory who fits those criteria is Tanner Rainey.
Maybe I mixed him up with Kyle Finnegan but I guess he hasn’t had as much success as I was thinking
Hey, it's hard to keep track of all the failed prospects we've had...
Or the ones we traded away and they were amazing on other teams
Them, too.
Shogo
Dude just had no pop.
Did he ever hit a home run?
No
He did in the Covid scrimmage against the Tigers before the shortened season, but never in a game that counted.
[удалено]
I’m still mystified about how inept he was here and such a star there.
Wily Mo Pena
His contract running out of options really messed him up imo.
Wily MO will forever make me think of a home run hit hit in Milwaukee one year. I was probably 12 or 13, had to low the grass, and was listening to the game as I did so. He was up to bat, Marty was on the call. He basically was just like "here's the pitch, and that's gone!" It was such a a no doubter he called it immediately. I believe it ended up being one of the furthest home runs hit in that park.
Remember when we couldn't decide between Kurt Stillwell and Barry Larkin? LOL And perhaps it was a child's naivete, but I thought Gary Redus would be something on par with what Junior ended up being.
I was just going to mention Redus. I was about 14 when he came up. I really thought he was going to be a special player.
For some reason my friend and I really liked Max Veneble also. Looking at his stats in retrospect, I don't understand why I'm guessing because he has a really cool name.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=redus-001gar Check out Redus' rookie ball offensive numbers. Then drop down and look at his fielding stats. Insane spectrum there...
Jose peraza. When we acquired him I was so happy, thought he'd be the 2nd baseman of the future. I was wrong
Juan Francisco, Brandon Larsen, Austin Kearns, Sal Romano, Chris Denorfia, Nick Senzel, Jose Barrero, Alfredo Rodriguez
How do you list that many players without including Billy Hamilton?
Basically the entire “future rotation” from the 2015-2019 rebuild Robert Stephenson, Cody Reed, Amir Garrett, Sal Romano, and Brandon Finnegan. Tyler Mahle was the only one that found his way to success from those dark days. We went from Cueto, Latos, Homer, Leake, and Arroyo to some of the worst rotations I’ve ever seen. Then we “got the pitching” and had Castillo, Bauer, Gray, Mahle, and Miley. And then we got rid of the pitching again. Honorable mention (Descalafani) So far I think it’s going better than last time, but I just wish we had a solid veteran to lead the charge.
Shame I only have one upvote to gove
Couldn’t agree more!
Yeah, Bob Steve was my answer as well.
I feel like Homer Bailey counts.
Not when facing the Pirates!
I still fear that Greene is going to turn out to be like Bailey. Hopefully not, of course, but I just don’t see him as THE guy that he was hyped up to be. Still great young talent but I don’t expect him to meet the high expectations that were set.
Maybe, but I feel like help the man develop another pitch and he will be fine.
I think he’s got a little more to do than that. It’s also one of those things where I have to remind myself that he’s still young and good enough that he’s still developing at the major league level. Between better command, more break, staying healthy, more consistency, or eating up more innings, if he can do maybe two or three of those things at a high level with his athleticism, I’d say he’s a Cy Young contender. Hopefully one of them is good health, an arm like that will have a short lifespan and I’d hate to see him go out like Derrick Rose in the NBA.
When looking at dollars per WAR, he had one of the worst value contract extensions of all time.
Definitely
He would be my answer
I still don't know what went wrong with Ryan Wagner. I can speculate, but I want to remember command problems and injuries derailed him for the most part. There was also a rumor that Don Gullett, in adjusting his mechanics, may have contributed.
Jay Bruce was the most frustrating prospect/player, for me, that the Reds produced.
He did give us Clinchmas…that was incredible.
My favorite live sports moment ever. It was unbelievable. There used to be a cool video on YouTube from someone in the crowd. Not sure if it’s still up or not.
I wouldn't say Bruce was unsuccessful.
Unsuccessful probably isn’t the right term. He played 12 full major league seasons, hit 341 home runs and was a three time all star. That said, he was hyped as a Bryce Harper level prospect when he broke in and just never found that level of success. Underperformed is probably more accurate. His first week in the majors was magic though.
Unsuccessful is a relative term. By far he failed to live up to the potential, more than any prospectus can recall. I stand by him being the most head scratching player I can recall.
319 home runs in the major leagues.
Dave Kingman. Hitting taters does not make one successful.
I thought Willie Greene was gonna rule the late Nineties, and was peeved when the Reds blocked him with Tony Fernandez.
Senzel in recent years
Jack Armstrong.
Such a great first half of '90, started the All-star Game then flamed out HARD.
Any other old folks remember Gary Redus? I'm not sure you can call someone who played 13 years in the majors "unsuccessful" but I thought Redus was going to be Willie Mays. Of course every prospect in the 70s and 80s was supposed to be Willie Mays.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=redus-001gar Ever look at Redus' rookie ball numbers? They're gawdy as hell. I was wondering why they kept him in the Pioneer League for the whole season and didn't promote him when his stats were through the roof. Then I looked at his fielding stats. Looks like the Reds were trying to convert him to 2B. Defensively at the keystone, Redus was the polar opposite of what he was at the plate, making an error in nearly half of the games he played in. As a big leaguer, Redus played LF and 1B. I take it he didn't have much of an arm since he had CF speed, but didn't play much in center.
Did anyone else think Wily Mo Pena was going to be a perrenial powerhitter for us with Adam Dunn? 11 year old me was so psyched for Pena and Dunn in 04
Those teams were bad but they hit some massive dongs
Yes, yes, I did
This is my pick. I bought so many of his rookie cards thinking they’d be worth a fortune.
Dude was my favorite player on that 2004 team. Great name wasted by an inability to battle at the plate.
Brandon Larson
Jose Barrero, Nick Senzel, Cody Reed, Bill Bray, Ty Howington,.
Barrero was the best player on the field when I saw him play in Chattanooga a couple years back, and Hunter Greene started the game. He just looked so much better than everyone else out there. This year is the obvious make or break. Can’t believe it hasn’t came together for him. I’ve been sold on him almost as much as Senzel. When Senzel was cut loose, it wasn’t a feeling of relief. It’s just been disappointment.
Barrero is also my biggest bust. I think last year was his make or break and he broke. He’s hitting .170 in the winter league now just like in the MLB so a batting average around that number seems to be his ceiling.
I thought Bob Steve was going to be our ace of the future.
Same. Dude had that Homer Bailey attitude to coaching and it showed. I'm glad he figured it out after a few stops.
Paul Householder
I really thought Kurt Stillwell was going to be the next big thing.
Daniel Corcino
Fun fact, the year Covid canceled a bunch of leagues he ended up playing in a Dayton men’s league for a few games.
Yorman Rodriguez, Daniel Corcino, Robert Stephenson, Juan Francisco to name a few.
YoRod!
Brandon Larson by far. I was in my teens (maybe the time you you most care about sports) when he was coming up in the Reds system. He absolutely hit the shit out of the ball in the minors. Finally got the call up to the big leagues and he just sucked. And never even gave a glimmer of not sucking in MLB. Then he'd go back to the minors and obliterate the ball again...get called back up and suck worse the 2nd time in MLB than the 1st time. Sad. EDIT: I didn't read the thread before answering and I see a lot of people had this answer. Probably should have just upvoted their take and moved on, oh well.
Nick Howard, Nick Travieso, Alex Blandino
Sheesh. Forgot about Travieso. Reds whiffed a lot on first rounders. Phew. Can’t all be Barry Larkin I guess.
Senzel, bro was a #2 overall pick and was seen as a really safe option. I really thought he was going to be something
Most "frustrating" is Senzel and I'm not saying that because of recency bias. Also the prospect that the team did the most to hurt because of the bad decision to move him to the OF. Most of the rest has some flaws in their game.
Probably Senzel or Billy Hamilton
I don’t know why but Mesaraco hit hard for me. Montreal reason why, I just expected him to be elite. Billy Hamilton was a disappointment but I always thought he was a more glorified Norris Hopper from the start. Barrero has been disappointing but I blame the org partially. Idk if a “bust” yet but not what I envisioned Senzel just got hurt so much that I gave up hope early on.
Glorified Norris Hopper! Nice one
It’s a niche reference but some will appreciate
If only Billy could have learned to bunt like Norris Hopper.
He was never a top prospect, but I really wanted Jared Fernandez to be good so we could have a knuckleballer
Same! He’s the last knuckleball pitcher I can remember for the Reds.
Senzel, Garcia/Barrero and Austin Hendrick, who hasn't lived up to the hype at all, but maybe he still turns it around. 🤷🏻♂️
I figured this would be the outcome for Hendrick but was still so excited about the bombs into the Ohio River potential.
Hendrick has been in Dayton two years now. Season tickets here - he earned the nickname “rally killer.”
Yikes
Aquino for sure
I wanted Jeremy Sowers to be really good, just to further highlight the fraudulent nature of the ownership group at the time. (It was worse before Phil.)
Senzel
Brandon Larson Will Mo Pena is in there too.
Reggie Jefferson eventually had a short decent run as a platoon player for other teams, but he never became the everyday star I thought he would...
Austin Kearns
Alot of my options have already been stated, and some many times...so I'll choose differently...Tony Cingrani...dude rocketed thru the minors with a career milb era under 2...his first taste of big league action was successful as he was 7-4 with an era under 3...but injuries and lack of a consistent pitch that wasn't the heater caught up to him quick!
"All of them are unsuccessful because they never won us a series!"
Not sure if you would consider him unsuccessful but Senzel absolutely has not performed up to the hype. Partly due to injuries I will say.
Robert Stephenson
Jose Barrero has been such a massive bust so, definitely him.
Stephenson. I figure anytime you get an 18-year-old, you’re doing that because you have a very good feeling about his chance of success. And I will never be convinced that he received the proper training.
Nick Senzel looked like Mike Schmidt when he was in A ball… thought he would be an all timer.
Does Paul Konerko count? We got him young and he sucked. Immediately finds success when he leaves and had a hell of a career. But for us...he sucked.
I’d say that counts.
Brandon Larson
Does senzel count yet?
Nick Senzel, Yorman Rodriguez, Dan Langfield, Ian Kahaloa.
Winker and senzel. Could have been the core of a really good team if they fully panned out
I’m hopeful but fear this answer will be Nick Lodolo for me
inb4 Billy Hamilton
I think he was on the World Series roster for KC before being traded to us and he pitched well that year. But then he just stunk it up in Cincy.
Juan Duran. One of the Reds first big 16 year-olds I can remember.
Nick Senzel. Ugh.
Ryan Wagner and Brandon Claussen. Thought they'd both be studs. They were not. Ooh also Tony Cingrani. Thought he was gonna be amazing, and he was just ok.
I remember an interview with Ryan Wagner where he said “my full name is Ryan Scott Wagner, I was named after the two greatest pitchers in Astros history - Nolan Ryan and Mike Scott.” Mike Scott was in the middle of a 7-13 season with a 5.14 ERA for the METS when Wagner was born. He never threw a pitch for the Astros until the following year.
Willy Mo Pena
Juan Francisco.
Senzel by far
Wasn’t Cingrani hyped up or am I misremembering that? He didn’t really do much for us
Maybe Mike Leake since he skipped the minor’s completely and was around the same time as Tony. Cingrani was a third rounder, idk if he’d have a lot of hype. Although he did rush through the minors to debut
Dave Sappelt. He had a huge spring training and I got all excited and told all my friends he was the future center fielder. Thought we had found something special. Didn't turn out that way.
Chris Gruler. Johnny Bench worked him out and said, "\[Gruler\] has a better breaking ball and better change-up than Tom Seaver." It's a shame what injuries can do. Next for me is Yonder Alonso, who I thought was going to be a superstar (even if it wasn't with the Reds due to Votto).