The Internet is an amazing thing.
At the touch of a button, anyone anywhere can virtually get the answer to ANY question…in seconds. Today, the Internet is an integral component of critical societal mechanisms such as education and medicine, just as it is the quickest and easiest way to uncover what movies are playing and which bars offer the best happy hour.
Indeed, over the last 30-some odd years, the Web has revolutionized every aspect of our day-to-day lives. And, while it has assisted in making our country safer, our lives longer, and our kids smarter, I think everyone that patronizes this website can agree that the Internet’s main contribution to society has been its impact on sports.
As children of the digital age, we have come to demand certain luxuries that only the Internet can provide. We can ascertain every detail of any game with up-to-the-minute accuracy, just by picking up a cell phone. From that same phone, we can tell our TV to record a game, which we will then watch at our leisure as we sit on the couch, casually ordering dinner as we monitor our fantasy stats.
Yet, while it has forever improved the fan experience, the World Wide Web is, at its core, an information super-highway. Thus, not only have sports become more accessible to fans, they’ve also become more visible to those who make sports their livelihood.
Whereas, years ago, the names, faces, and skill-sets of dynamic prospects were only known to the most closely-connected scouts and media members, fans today are privy to virtually as much information as they care to search for. Never before has the sporting world been so transparent, where 14 year-old kids become celebrities, their skills paraded across Youtube, Google, and every blogger’s keyboard.
With that in mind, any examination of the heralded prospects in any organization must actually be, in part, a study of the time, the setting, and the vehicles that existed to catapult an individual from teenage ballplayer to public sensation.
The following list should be kept in perspective. For, though the Cincinnati Reds have certainly seen immense talent climb through their ranks as early as 1910, it’s the top prospects a century later that can most accurately be considered “hyped”, as the age of the Internet has made an expert out of every person with working fingers and a will.
That being said, what follows are the top ten most anticipated Reds prospects in recent memory.
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