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Reynolds rises through ranks in record time

By Tracy Ringolsby, Rocky Mountain News

Published May 9, 2008 at 9:15 p.m.
Updated May 10, 2008 at 12:23 a.m.

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Right-handed pitcher Greg Reynolds was the second player selected in baseball's 2006 draft.

One year and 48 weeks later, he's going to make his major league debut, the quickest any pitcher in Rockies history has risen through the minor leagues.

And he has made the trip to the big leagues with only 133 innings of professional work on his resume.

Reynolds will draw the start Sunday in the series finale against the Padres at Petco Park, the third homegrown starting pitcher the Rockies will use in the series. Aaron Cook started the opener Friday and Ubaldo Jimenez will start tonight.

"We have gone out and knocked on some doors and everybody wants five times the value (of available pitchers)," manager Clint Hurdle said. "We are not going to be silly, especially when we have a young guy like Reynolds to go to. It's consistent with our philosophy, of giving opportunities to players within the organization."

It's what the Rockies did in the second half of last season, ignoring high prices that teams wanted for journeymen such as Esteban Loaiza, David Wells and Brett Tomko and promoting Jimenez and Franklin Morales, key members of a rotation that helped win the first National League pennant in franchise history.

This year, general manager Dan O'Dowd made a series of inquiries into available pitching, particularly Josh Fogg with Cincinnati - and Fogg eventually could wind up back with the Rockies in a long relief role - but the decision was made that the Rockies are going to give Reynolds a legitimate shot at the big leagues.

The quickest any previous Rockies pitcher climbed to the big leagues was Bryan Rekar, a second-round pick in 1993 who made his debut July 19, 1995, a week quicker than Mark Thompson, the team's second-round pick in 1992 who debuted July 26, 1994.

Reynolds would have been a likely call-up last year, but he had some shoulder issues, which limited him to only six games at Double-A Tulsa, where he was 4-1 with a 1.42 ERA. He underwent exploratory surgery that eliminated concern of a major shoulder problem and has been with Triple-A Colorado Springs this year. The 6-foot-7 product of Stanford was 1-2 with a 4.86 ERA in seven starts but gave up seven runs in his first inning with the Sky Sox. Discarding that inning, he had a 3.06 ERA with Colorado Springs.

"We saw growth, composure this spring," Hurdle said of Reynolds. "He had the focus of a guy with a plan."

Comments

  • May 10, 2008

    1:42 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    flybys writes:

    Greg Reynolds is an interesting prospect.

    One day he could very well be Jason Jennings, a solid horse in the rotation who could win slightly more than fifty percent of his games.

    Right now, he's going to turn out to be a high-paid batting practice arm.

    Look how Jamey Wright and Bryan Rekar flew through the minors. Their numbers, if not game, looked dominant. So what happened upon reaching Denver and what became of them and their careers?

    That is what we call a rhetorical question for the informed.

    Granted, that was pre-humidor but this is still the major leagues, still Denver, and the fact is Reynolds is not dominating in Colorado Springs. He's good.

    Good in the Pacific Coast League does not translate to being good enough in Denver.

    So after management subjects Reynolds to two or three beatings as a right of indoctrination of sorts, he will be banished back south to pick up the emotional pieces in addition to trying to figure out how to a develop major league game.

    Not a wise decision. Colorado doesn't feel like it can be patient with its' starting rotation any longer. So it will punish Reynolds because management failed in the offseason, fooling itself that Mark Redman, Josh Towers or Kip Wells was the answer to the questions in the starting five.

  • May 10, 2008

    9:02 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    croth writes:

    I think Reynolds is being rushed a little too much here. I understand the circumstances. However, given just 2 more starts at AAA to build arm strength could have been very good for Reynolds. I think he is going to prove to be a very solid starter, but he may need a little more time right now.

    The next name we need to start talking about is Brandon Hynick of AA right now. He should be promoted to AAA before long and could become a future #2 or better type of pitcher. He is a strike out pitcher and if memory serves he has 4 pitches that he is very accurate with. As a matter of a fact here is an old article from the RMN on Hynick.

    http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn...

  • May 11, 2008

    11:08 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    OrangeCrush_77 writes:

    Had the Rockies addressed this problem (lack of depth in rotation) in the off-season, there would be no need for any of this. It was obvious, when Kip Wells was your opening day starter and Mark Redman was seen as a viable option, that the Rockies were screwed from the beginning. But, as usual, the tight-a$$ed Rocks weren't interested in improving a team that needed an unheard of, historic and highly improbable streak to get into the playoffs.