BAR: Reds could be looking at first overall pick

The Blog Above Replacement is Reds beat writer C. Trent Rosecrans' daily look at the Reds, their minor leagues and whatever else is on his mind.

As the Reds' season continues its downward spiral, it's time to start look at the standings from the bottom, because the only tangible result of the results of the remaining games is the draft order.

Right now, the Reds' 51-71 record is worse than any team in the American League and fourth-worst overall. Only the Marlins (50-74), Phillies (50-74) and Rockies (49-73) stand in the way of the Reds picking first overall for the first time in team history.

The Reds also have the added benefit (if that's what you want to call it at this point) of a killer schedule the rest of the way. After tonight's game against the Tigers, the Reds will only have nine games left against teams that currently have losing records — and all of those are against the Brewers. The other 30 games are against teams in the playoff hunt — and of those 30 games, 26 are against teams that would be in the playoffs if the season ended today.

The Reds' highest draft pick ever was second in 1983, when they took shortstop Kurt Stillwell with the second overall pick out of Thousand Oaks High School in California. Stillwell was joined in the Reds' shortstop pipeline two years later by Barry Larkin, the fourth overall pick in the 1985 draft.

The Reds picked their shortstop of the future — and history shows picking Larkin was the right pick — and traded Stillwell and Ted Power after the 1987 season to the Royals for Danny Jackson and Angel Salazar. That also turned out to be a good move by the Reds.

The Reds' latest top-10 pick was Mike Leake (8) in 2008. The team's last top-five pick was Chris Gruler, third overall in 2002. Other top 5 picks were Chad Mottola (5th in 1992), Larkin in 1985, Pat Pacillo (5th in 1984) and Stillwell.

It's still way too early to be looking at top 5 picks, but here are some names you may start hearing — University of Florida lefty A.J. Puk, Oklahoma University right-hander Alec Hansen, Texas A&M outfielder Nick Banks, Clemson catcher Chris Okey, University of Georgia right-hander Robert Tyler, California high school outfielder Blake Rutherford and Kansas high school right-hander Riley Pint.

Yes, it's probably too early.

MINOR-LEAGUE ROUNDUP

• Triple-A: Gwinnett 5, Louisville 4: Tony Cingrani gave up two runs on four hits in just three innings, throwing 42 pitches. He allowed a homer, walked a batter and struck out one. [Box]

• Double-A: Mississippi 3, Pensacola 1: The Blue Wahoos managed just three hits — two of them, a double and homer, were from Phillip Ervin, in just his fourth Double-A game. He also homered on Saturday. [Box]

• High-A: Clearwater 10, Daytona 6: RF Sebastian Elizalde was 2-for-4 with his 10th homer of the season and drove in three. 3B Ronald Bueno and 1B Brian O'Grady also went 2-for-4, with O'Grady adding a double and a home run, also good for three RBI. O'Grady now has four homers for the Tortugas. [Box]

• Rookie: Missoula 13, Billings 2: Reds first-round pick Tyler Stephenson hit his first pro homer. He's hitting .276/.362/.378 for Billings this season. [Box]

THE ROTATION

1. The Reds' Brayan Pena writes about the struggles of Cuban players in the United States and what teams and the MLB Players Association needs to do to help Cuban players. [ESPN.com]

2. Hall of Fame advice for NFL players: Have a fall guy. Cris Carter told rookies, "If you're going to have a crew, one of those fools got to know he's going to jail. We'll get him out." [SI.com]

3. That was from a video that had been up for more than a year on NFL.com and nobody thought twice about it — or at least nobody who watched it. It only came to light after Chris Borland mentioned it in this ESPN The Magazine story about his early retirement from the NFL.

And Borland is the guy the NFL has targeted.

The Borland story, by Steve Fainaru and Mark Fainaru-Wada is worth reading.

4. The week he announced he had cancer, Jimmy Carter was the same place he always is on Sunday — in Plains, Ga., teaching Sunday School. [AP.org]

5. Jason Isbell on CBS This Morning: