The month of April is nearing a close, and thanks to the rotating outfield situation at the big league level with the Cincinnati Reds we’ve been privy all month to the offensive force coming out of the AAA Louisville lineup. Rece Hinds got the call to take over RF from Noelvi Marte when the former was mashing so incredibly that the latter’s lack of production simply could not demand more patience.
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All Marte has done since his demotion is hit .452/.500/.714 in 46 PA. He might get Hinds’ job back at some point soon, but he already got skipped over for JJ Bleday, who homered as a Red yesterday after hitting an absurd .341/.462/.659 for Louisville in 104 PA before his promotion.
In other words, balls are flying for the Louisville Bats this year, and we’ve seen a lot of the successes their pushed into the spotlight with the Reds. What we’ve not highlighted much here this year, though, is the best of the best offensively from the other levels of the system. So, we’re going to do a bit of that Farmers Only style today!
Chattanooga Lookouts (AA Southern League)
The Lookouts are 16-5 on the season thanks to an offense averaging a rock solid 5.9 runs per game and a league-best pitching staff’s 4.04 ERA. We’ll get to the pitchers some other time, though, as it’s the hitters we’re going to highlight here.
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It’s a lineup featuring a trio of former 1st round picks as well as two other ranked prospects, so it should be this productive. Leading the charge, though, is Austin Hendrick, who’s been written off by most everyone due to his struggles with strikeouts. The former 1st rounder was old for being a high school draftee, though, and maybe it’s just taking him a bit more time to find his legs professionally as he’s old (25) for the AA level. Still, he’s hit .307/.373/.480 with 3 dingers so far this season, leading the team so far in hits, homers (tied), ribbies, slugging, and OPS.
Heating up next to him is Cam Collier, who owns a .304/.393/.565 line over the last 7 days to boost his overall season numbers to .263/.344/.475 (.819 OPS). He, too, has a trio of homers and the power looks back after last year’s wrist-induced outage.
Jay Allen II still has no pop, but owns a .355 OBP so far this season with Chattanooga. Carlos Jorge, meanwhile, missed about two weeks of action on the IL but a) is back and b) is hitting .316/.409/.368 in a small 44 PA sample so far.
Dayton Dragons (High-A Midwest League)
We simply cannot talk about the Dayton Dragons withough highlighting their hard-hitting catcher who owns an excellent eye at the plate. That’s right, folks, it’s Ryan McCrystal!
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As Alfredo Duno is off to merely an OK start (no pop yet but a 17/20 BB/K and .375 OBP), it’s been his peer at the position, McCrystal, who’s been red hot at the plate. He owns an .888 OPS through 69 PA to lead the team, the former 9th rounder out of East Carolina getting time at both 1B and DH as well as behind the plate.
As for breakout prospects go, it could well be happening (again) for Carlos Sanchez. Ranked #26 in the system by MLB Pipeline, he hit .308/429/.449 (.878) for Class-A Daytona last year in 264 PA before being bumped up to Dayton, and he struggled relatively (.244/.320/.373 in 201 PA) after the promotion. He was just 20 then, is 21 now, and has blasted out of the gate hitting .329/.420/.429 through 81 PA while playing every game at shortstop so far. I don’t care what lens you look at that through, that’s a quality prospect in the making.
Daytona Tortugas (Class-A Florida State League)
The Florida State League (and Daytona’s home park, in particular) has a long-standing reputation as a pitcher’s paradise. So, naturally they’ve got a guy down there who’s hitting the ball with more authority (and results) than anyone in the minors right now.
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That’s former 6th round pick Jacob Friend, of course!
Friend, a 23 year old Boston native who played ball at Davidson College, has exploded out of the gate hitting .333/.446/.767 witha 5 homers, 7 doubles, and a pair of triples through just 74 PA. He has just 20 hits all season, and 14 of them have gone for extra-bases. He’s also primarily a catcher, which means that right now Alfredo Duno is being lapped in the lower minors by not one, but two future potential journeymen at the position. Huzzah!
The Tugas are just 6-15 on the season and there aren’t a ton more highlights, but it’s worth a shoutout to Bernard Moon, at least. Redan High School in Stone Mountain, GA has had some pretty notable names come through it, the likes of Wally Joyner, Taj Bradley, Domonic Brown, and a guy by the name of Brandon Phillips who just went into the Reds Hall of Fame this weekend. It also produced Moon, a 2B/OF who has a .794 OPS so far this year that ranks 2nd to Friend in just about every category so far this season.
Because this is a hype piece, we are not going to talk about how badly Tyson Lewis has struggled with Daytona so far. Nope, we just are not going to do it.
Read the full article here
