Cincinnati Reds issues go back to their inability to develop pitching

Cincinnati Reds pitchers since 1991

In order to find sustained success, typically a team needs to have solid pitching. That has not been the case for the Cincinnati Reds since they last won the World Series.

Since the start of the 1991 campaign, the Reds pitching has been generally atrocious. There have been solid years here and there, and some dominant performances, but the body of work, as a whole, has been miserable. This is particularly true when looking at their pitching Wins Above Replacement since the 1990 World Championship banner was raised.

Since that time, Jose Rijo leads all Reds pitchers, posting a 16.4 WAR. The only other pitcher to post a WAR above 10.0 is Johnny Cueto, who was worth 14.7 WAR in his five and a half years in Cincinnati. The immortal Aaron Harang ranks third, with a sharp dropoff to his 7.7 WAR. Amongst the top ten are pitchers such as Elmer Dessens (fifth, 5.4), Pete Harnisch (ninth, 4.4), and Mat Latos (tenth, 3.9). This is hardly a list of pitchers that inspires any thoughts of victory.

Meanwhile, over that same time frame, 85 pitchers have managed to post a WAR over 10.0, including the likes of Brad Radke, Jamie Moyer, Pedro Astacio, and Kelvim Escobar. If that search is extended out to 7.7 WAR to match Harang’s total in a Reds uniform, we find 120 pitchers that match that criteria. Other legends like Steve Reed, Francisco Cordova, Kevin Tapani, and the bloated corpse of Sid Fernandez were all better than Harang.

Chances are, one would have to work really hard to only find two pitchers in nearly three decades that were better than Aaron Harang. However, the Cincinnati Reds general ineptitude when it comes to starting pitching extends even further back, lasting to the end of the Big Red Machine.