By John Erardi and Kevin Kelly
The Cincinnati Enquirer

M O R E   I N F O R M A T I O N

STAT SHEET Here is the list of major-league organizations with the number of pitchers each has signed who, with a week left in spring training, were projected to be in some major-league team's starting rotation: 10 Chicago Cubs 9 New York Yankees L.A. Dodgers 8 Texas Rangers Atlanta Braves 7 Houston Astros Boston Red Sox Seattle Mariners Toronto Blue Jays 6 Oakland Athletics San Diego Padres Pittsburgh Pirates 5 Anaheim Angels Kansas City Royals Montreal Expos 4 Minnesota Twins Chicago White Sox Cleveland Indians Florida Marlins Phila. Phillies Arizona D'dbacks 3 Baltimore Orioles San Fran. Giants New York Mets Colorado Rockies 2 Cincinnati Reds Detroit Tigers T.B. Devil Rays Milwaukee Brewers 1 St. Louis Cardinals FARM FACTS 2 Major-league teams that have four pitchers originally signed by them in their five-man starting rotation: the Chicago Cubs and the Oakland A's. 7 Teams that have three signees in their rotation: Houston Astros, Los Angeles Dodgers, Seattle Mariners, Anaheim Angels, Kansas City Royals, Cleveland Indians and Texas Rangers. 7 Teams that have two: Atlanta Braves, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Mets, Pittsburgh Pirates, San Diego Padres, Chicago White Sox and Toronto Blue Jays. 13 Teams that have one: the Reds, Florida Marlins, Milwaukee Brewers, St. Louis Cardinals, Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies, San Francisco Giants, Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees and Minnesota Twins. 1 Team that has zero: Montreal Expos.

It is testament to the difficulty of finding and developing starting pitching that the Reds' lone homegrown starter is a former third baseman in the Dominican Republic who was asked by a scout five years ago to try pitching.

The pitcher? Jose Acevedo. The scout? Johnny Almaraz.

The Reds' other four projected starters are Cory Lidle (Minnesota Twins), Paul Wilson (New York Mets), Jimmy Haynes (Baltimore Orioles) and Aaron Harang (Texas Rangers).

Of the 476 pitchers the Reds have selected and signed since Tom Browning was picked in the ninth round in 1982, only 39 have made it to the big leagues - with any of the 30 teams.

Of those 39, only five besides Browning became starting pitchers of even minimal consequence with the Reds.

In their best seasons with the Reds, those five pitchers won a total of 46 games, an average of just more than nine victories each. They are: Brett Tomko (13-12 in 1998), Kevin Jarvis (8-9 in 1996), Chris Hammond (7-10 in 1992), Scott Scudder (6-9 in 1991) and Jack Armstrong (12-9 in 1990).

Since Browning went 14-14 in 1991, there have been only two double-digit victory seasons by Reds starters who were original Reds signees out of the draft. Those two double-digit seasons both belong to Tomko: '98, and 11-7 in '97).

The Reds' inability to produce starting pitching was typified by last season's parade of wannabes as the team used 17 different starters, a franchise record.

That ineptitude is part of what spurred the trade March 26 of hard-throwing Reds setup man Chris Reitsma, 26, for two younger Atlanta Braves pitchers whom the Reds will groom as starting pitchers.

"It is harder to develop starting pitchers than relievers," Reds general manager Dan O'Brien said.

Under O'Brien, the Reds will not be quick to turn their best arms into relievers in the minor leagues. Unless a pitcher shows a distinct ability for relieving rather than starting, he will remain on the starting track.

In today's baseball, only the richest teams can afford to buy a starting rotation. The surest way for a mid- to lower-revenue team to build a solid rotation is to develop its own starters, O'Brien said.

To the credit of the Reds' brain trust that was running the organization after Jim Bowden was fired as general manager in July, two starting pitchers were acquired even before O'Brien was hired last fall to begin re-tooling the Reds into a pitching organization.

The same organization that in the past 50 years has brought in such homegrown position players as Frank Robinson, Vada Pinson, Pete Rose, Tony Perez, Johnny Bench, Dave Concepcion, Ken Griffey Sr., Ron Oester, Eric Davis, Paul O'Neill, Chris Sabo, Joe Oliver, Pokey Reese, Aaron Boone, Adam Dunn and Austin Kearns, has set out to transform itself into something it has never been known for: producing starting pitching.

"On an organization-wide basis, our goal in time is to be a pitching-oriented organization," O'Brien said. "That's our focus. That's what we're working toward. That's ultimately the level of production that we have to achieve."

If you are a small- to medium-revenue market team, one way to get into the postseason with some regularity is to develop your own starting pitching (Oakland), or another way is to be so rich in player talent top to bottom that you are able to trade for somebody else's top pitching prospects (Florida).

The Marlins have only one homegrown starter, albeit a huge one - ace Josh Beckett - but their March 2002 acquisition of Dontrelle Willis from the Cubs was critical to the Marlins being able to win the wild card last season, then go on to win the World Series, after a stumbling start.

"Sometimes there is a little too much focus on the higher draft selections that a club makes," O'Brien said. "The reason I say that is (because) a draft, as it relates to pitching, should be looked at in the cumulative context.

"Whether the player is (drafted in) the 25th round or fifth round, when all is said and done it doesn't matter. What matters is: Does the pitcher become a productive major-league performer? ... There are prospective major-league pitchers that are potentially available that are not necessarily high-profile individuals who can and do pitch in the big leagues."

Organizationally, the Reds "have to open our field of vision when we are considering free agents on an amateur level," O'Brien said.

"That also includes our international scouting operations."

Almaraz is in charge of international players. He has found some players and is searching for more, pitchers among them, in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela and the other Caribbean countries. But he also believes fervently in giving the newly signed Reds pitchers a strong foundation.

"It's where it all gets started," Almaraz said. "Those fundamentals you put in place never leave them."

One of the beauties of baseball is that in so many cases the proof is in the numbers.

Interesting, isn't it, that the Reds have developed so little homegrown starting pitching since the days of the Big Red Machine?

The only two homegrown starters of any consequence since are Mario Soto, from the Dominican, and Browning.

"I can only go by what I see," said Bob Howsam, former Reds general manager and architect of the Big Red Machine. "By no means do I see everything. And by no means do I know what the Reds are up to. But in general, I think the problem in keeping pitchers healthy and getting them to the major leagues has to do with training. It's not on the scouting level. It's in how they're used, how they're worked, what they're taught and how they're trained. There are simply way too many injuries."

Any chance, by the way, that reliever Ryan Wagner one day might be converted into a starter, since he has proven he can get guys out in the big leagues?

Probably not, says longtime Reds scout Gene Bennett.

"He's a valuable guy doing what he's doing," Bennett said. "He throws hard; he throws strikes. You know he can help you. Don Gullett, Dave Miley and Dan O'Brien don't want to mess with that."

It also says something about the Reds of the recent past that Browning, known for being able to hit his spots and think his way through a lineup, is not coaching somewhere in the system. Rather, he is the manager of the Florence Freedom, an independent league team that will play its first 26 games on the road this season to make absolutely certain its new stadium is ready for its first home game.

That's a lot of consecutive bus trips for Browning. The Reds, as an organization, have been "riding the bus" a lot longer when it comes to being able to find and develop starting pitching.

"Sometimes there's too much emphasis on velocity," Browning said. "How many guys have velocity and command? Sure, you're always looking for the next Roger Clemens, the next Curt Schilling, but they are few and far between. Until you can come up with a guy like that, you're better off teaching pitching, teaching pitchers how to get guys out, how to get ahead and think ahead and work with what you've got that day."

Browning said he "strongly believes" that pitching is "90 percent mental."

"More than anything else it's confidence," Browning said. "Do you have confidence in yourself? Do the manager and the pitching coach have confidence in you? I believed in my stuff. I believed I could get guys out. I've found that I'm able to pass this confidence along to the pitchers and get them to believe."

Teaching their young charges the art and science of pitching is, of course, what the Reds finally have begun doing in earnest.

They like to say they've been doing it all along, but the numbers say otherwise.

In major-league baseball, there are 30 teams, each with a five-man rotation. That is, theoretically, 150 slots for starting pitchers.

As of two weeks ago, when the 30 major-league teams were asked by the Enquirer to project their starting rotations beginning with Opening Day, only two of the 150 spots belonged to pitchers who originally had been signed by the Reds: Acevedo and Brett Tomko, who was drafted in the first round by the Reds in 1995

Last year, only one Reds signee was in a rotation on Opening Day: Tomko, for St. Louis.

Meanwhile, of the 150 pitchers projected to be in someone's starting rotation this season, 10 were signed by the Cubs; nine each by the Yankees and Dodgers; eight each by the Rangers and Braves; seven each by the Red Sox, Blue Jays, Mariners and Astros; and six each by the A's, Padres and Pirates.

Of course, there is a lot of difference on most teams - the Reds aren't one of them - between a No. 1 starter and a Nos. 3-5 starter, which is where Acevedo and Tomko fall. Proof of this is the Rangers' eight big-league starters.

O'Brien said the Reds worked hard in the offseason to get everybody on the same page in all areas, particularly on pitching.

"It starts with your perspective in the amateur area, but it carries over to player development and that carries over to what we're doing at the major-league level," O'Brien said. "The theme, whether it's coming from the top to the bottom or the bottom to the top, it has to be the same. Everybody has to comprehend it in the same context."

For lack of a better word, a "oneness" in pitching philosophy is what O'Brien seeks.

It is remarkable in similarity to the way Howsam was running the Reds 30 years ago. He said the Reds emphasized instruction and divided the teaching between the low minors and high minors.

O'Brien doesn't name names, but the Reds apparently got away from a oneness approach. And judging by what some former players and coaches said, the people at the top of the Reds' player brain trust were not listening to what their top pitching instructors were saying about which pitchers were ready for the major leagues.

Browning likes what he is hearing from within the Reds organization, now that Bowden is gone. Browning didn't get along with Bowden - a lot of players didn't.

The Reds might have reached a nadir last summer in major league-minor league trust and communication when the Reds kept calling up re-tread after re-tread instead of calling up Acevedo, who was clearly ready and proved it when he came up.

"You need to have people upon whom you can rely - and then you rely on them," Howsam said. "Scott Breeden (who later was the Reds' pitching coach in the late 1980s) was a teacher. He didn't force it. He worked with what the pitcher had and made it better.

"When Vern Rapp, our manager at Triple-A (before Howsam elevated him to manage the big club in 1984) told you somebody was ready for the major leagues, well, by gosh, they were ready. You could take that to the bank. That went for position players and for pitchers. Vern was a former catcher, and he knew."