Reds rotation offering glimpse of the future

The five pitchers currently in the Reds' rotation have a career total of 330 1/3 innings pitch in the big leagues – and nearly half of those belong to Anthony DeSclafani (153).

"Well, they're fresh," Reds right-hander Homer Bailey joked when he heard that bit of trivia. "They can't say they're tired, there's that."

Bailey, the lone veteran starter in the Reds clubhouse, is out for the season after undergoing ulnar collateral ligament replacement surgery earlier this season. Bailey, 29, has more than three times the experience of the current five starters: DeSclafani, Michael Lorenzen, Raisel Iglesias, David Holmberg and Keyvius Sampson.

Reds manager Bryan Price called Sampson's start on Sunday a spot start, but with a chance to stay in the rotation. Sampson's debut was promising, allowing three runs on three hits over five innings in a loss to the Pirates.

Regardless of whether Sampson stays in the rotation, starting five rookies this past week was something the Reds hadn't done since Sept. 15-18, 1935, when Al Hollingsworth, Lee Grissom, Gene Schott, Leroy Hermann and Whitey Hilcher started five games in a row.

Rookie status or not, the remainder of the 2015 season will be a learning experience for the young Reds pitchers.

"These guys are getting opportunities that most people dream of having, being a rookie in a starting rotation and have the opportunity to log some innings, so I want them to take advantage of it," Price said after Iglesias' start on Saturday.

It's been quite the whirlwind run for DeSclafani, now the old man of the Reds rotation. When he came into the spring, he looked around and saw Johnny Cueto (1,208 1/3 career innings entering the season), Bailey, Mike Leake (891 2/3), Jason Marquis (1,921) and Paul Maholm (1,556 1/3) in the battle for five spots with him. At that point his entire big-league resume was composed of just 33 innings thrown for the Marlins in 2014.

Now DeSclafani, who wasn't sure for a while if he'd be in the big leagues or the minor leagues, is the most established of Reds starters.

Well, make that active starters. Even though he had "Tommy John" surgery, Homer Bailey is still in the Reds clubhouse, and he's still making sure he's heard by the young pitchers, including the five in the rotation and the injured Jon Moscot, who suffered a shoulder injury earlier this season.

"The really good thing about these guys – DeSclafani, Lorenzen, Moscot, Iglesias – I know that I don't have to teach them how to want to compete and win, because they all want that," Bailey said. "They all work really hard. They're all already doing the things you can't teach somebody. I don't have to worry about that, that's a cool feeling. You have a guys on your team – especially starters, because we stick together – I don't have to get on them for that. It's easy, they already do all their stuff."

What's left, Bailey said, is talking about the game, learning about what to do and not to do. He mentioned that, during Friday's game, he led a group discussion with DeSclafani, Moscot and injured reliever Manny Parra about mechanics and strategy that stretched over two innings.

"Just different thoughts and what I think, they think, what they feel. That stuff is fun," Bailey said. "If you like playing baseball, you like talking baseball. It's the other stuff, they go about their business really well. They're not out there acting like goofballs – Moscot needs a few more PFPs, but we'll get to that."

Bailey was referencing PFPs, or pitcher's fielding practice, as an antidote to the injury Moscot suffered last month when he tried to make a diving tag on a Tigers baserunner, injuring himself and ending his season.

That experience is one of the few, Bailey said, he can't offer some insight on for the young starters.

"I'm not winning any Cy Young Awards, so I have a ways to go myself. But a lot of the stuff they're going to experience, I just hope I can nip things in the bud before it happens to them," Bailey said. "See things and say, 'Hey man, you might want to try X, Y, Z because it could lead to something else. Why? Because I already did it. I know.' I was the guy who touched the hot stove, now I can tell them not to."

At this point, he points to his hand – "You see that? You don't want to do that."

Price, the Reds' pitching coach from 2010 to 2013, said Bailey will play a huge part of the development of not only the five starters on hand, but also the next wave that could include the likes of top prospect Robert Stephenson and the recently acquired Brandon Finnegan and John Lamb.

"It bodes well for the future knowing that Homer will be coming back to help stabilize a group of young guys," Price said. "I think he'll play a very important role in the development of this staff and the cohesiveness of that staff to have somebody on top of it that understands leadership and is willing to create from a player perspective a really good environment in which to learn and how to set standards and how to work."

DeSclafani said he's certainly listening and craving that kind of input.

"It's good, we talk a lot on the bench, just about the game and the mechanics of baseball," said DeSclafani, who was acquired by the Reds in the December trade of Mat Latos to the Marlins. "It's good to have that around, I've never had that. I didn't have that with Miami, because everyone was still – I wouldn't say young, but they hadn't been around as long as (Bailey) had or Cueto or Leake. You could always ask questions. It's been a good group to talk to."

And if there's one thing Bailey will do, it's talk. The 29-year-old loves to talk, be it baseball, books or music. But ask him a question, and he'll have an opinion or some sort of insight, garnered not just from experience, but also learning from the likes of Price, Bronson Arroyo and Aaron Harang, who helped mentor him along the way. He can become that Mother Hen, of sorts.

"Not mother-henny, but more like bigger brother who has screwed up enough to teach them. I can tell you what doesn't work," Bailey said. "I think I can impart a lot of knowledge, but wisdom would be stretching it."