Ismael Guillon

The Reds had a problem in that their High-A affiliate was in Bakersfield of the California League, a high-run environment that makes it awfully difficult to develop pitchers, far away from their home base no less. They moved the affiliate to Daytona this offseason, but before that, so many of their pitching prospects spent extra time in an extreme low-run environment at Dayton in Low-A, then made the Double-A jump hastily so as to avoid Bakersfield. Performances from prospects like Guillon helped guide that decision. After spending a year-and-a-half at Dayton, Guillon got torched at Bakersfield over the second half to the tune of a 6.79 ERA and a whopping 13 homers allowed over 58.1 innings. Is Guillon overmatched at higher levels, or did pitching in that ballpark and league get into his head? Unfortunately for the Reds, he's already on the 40-man roster, so they aren't afforded the ability to be patient with him as they would other prospects with that sort of half-season.