Reds fans,
The more I think about this, there is no real justifiable reason for Homer Bailey to be in the minors.
The Diamondbacks sent their bigtime pitching prospect, Max Scherzer, back to the minors last year (age 23), and then recalled him…and sent him to the bullpen.
He pitched extremely well. In 16 appearances, he made 7 starts: a total of 56 innings, allowing 48 hits, 21 walks, and striking out 66 with a 3.05 ERA.
Earl Weaver, who had some “moderate” success as a manager, used this as his pitching business “model”. Here’s some information:
Doyle Alexander, 21 year old rookie, 106 innings, 35 games, 9 starts
Roric Harrison, 25 year old rookie, 94 innings, 39 games, 2 starts
Wayne Garland, 23 year old rookie, 91 innings, 20 games, 6 starts,
Paul Mitchell, 25 year old rookie, 57 innings, 11 games, 4 starts
Mike Flanagan, 24 year old rookie, 85 innings, 20 games, 10 starts
Dennis Martinez, 22 year old rookie, 166 innings, 42 games, 13 starts
Scott McGregor, 23 year old rookie, 114 innings, 29 games, 5 starts
Pretty darn good track record, if you ask me; in fact, I found one -– only one -– starting pitcher that joined the Orioles as a youngster and started the majority of his games his rookie year. That was Jesse Jefferson, who didn’t work out. In fact, he was sent to the bullpen the next couple of years to try to work it out.
Jim Palmer was brought along the same way as a 19 year old rookie.
Oh…you may have noticed, the best pitchers started younger than the others. Weaver’s philosophy was give the pitchers time to get used to it, and then put them in the rotation.
Masset is a commodity. It’s time to develop Bailey…and it’s not in the minors.