By Kevin Kelly
The Cincinnati Enquirer

SARASOTA, Fla. — The Reds have enjoyed a steady stream of young position players - Aaron Boone, Austin Kearns, Adam Dunn, Brandon Larson and Jason LaRue - out of their farm system in the past few years.

But when do the pitchers start showing up?

"Pitching is the name of the game," chief operating officer John Allen says. "We've worked very hard on it, but we're finally starting to get six, seven, eight guys that may make it this year or in 2004.

"You've got to feel pretty comfortable that you're going to get two or three solid starters out of that group. That's what's taken the longest, to get that stockpiling of pitching."

Closer Scott Williamson, a ninth-round pick in the 1997 draft, along with fellow relievers Scott Sullivan (second round, 1993) and John Riedling (22nd round, 1994) will be the only home-grown pitchers on the Reds' Opening Day roster.

The organization has invested three of its past four first-round picks and millions of dollars on pitchers (Ty Howington, 1999; Jeremy Sowers, 2001; Chris Gruler, 2002). Sowers did not sign and is now at Vanderbilt, where he is one of the top collegiate pitchers.

Two Reds pitching prospects were listed among Baseball America's top-100 list released earlier this month. Bobby Basham (seventh round, 2001) was 25th-best pitching prospect; Gruler was 31st. Howington (2-7, 4.81 ERA), Josh Hall (11-8, 4.51) and Dustin Moseley (11-9, 3.40) spent time at Double-A Chattanooga last season.

Each pitching prospect is locked into a well-organized development program as far as mechanics and conditioning, minor-league pitching coordinator Sammy Ellis says.

"But there aren't any absolutes," Ellis says. "We're going to do our job whether they sign talented arms or non-talented arms. We take everybody we get and try to make them as good as we can."