OF Taylor Trammell (.276/.371/.406/.777 at A+ Daytona) has become the third top Reds prospect to find his way to the DL. Trammell has been placed on the Daytona Tortugas DL with concussion symptoms. He was removed from Tuesday nights game after crashing into the OF wall. Top Reds prospects IF Nick Senzel (surgery for a torn tendon in his right index finger) and SP Hunter Greene (sprained UCL in his right elbow) are both already on the DL with season ending injuries. There is no time table set yet for Trammell’s return, but it does not appear to be season ending.
Now let’s see what else is going on down on the farm.
AAA Louisville Bats
The Bats have a 50 – 61 record and in 4th out of 4 in the International League West.
International League hitters are hitting .252/.322/.390/.713.
- OF Brian O’Grady, .283/.321/.528/.850 in 58 PA, has 3 HR with the Bats and 9 HR in the minors this year. The 26 year old LH batter hit .258/.354/.472/.826 in 214 PA at AA Pensacola before joining the Bats.
- RF Gabriel Guerrero, .286/.323/.490/.813, is tied for the team lead with 14 HR. The 24 year old hit .296/.336/.469/.806 in 107 PA at Pensacola to begin the season.
International League pitchers have a 3.86 ERA.
- RH SP Matt Wisler, 1.13 ERA, tossed 8 IP allowing 5 H and 2 BB with 8 SO in his 1st start for the Bats. The 25 year old put up a 4.37 ERA tossing 70 IP allowing 79 H and 14 BB with 65 SO with AAA Gwinnett before coming to the Reds.
- RH SP Lucas Sims, 1.80 ERA, tossed 5 IP allowing 4 H and 0 BB with 6 SO in his 1st start for the Bats. The 24 year old put up a 2.84 ERA tossing 73 IP allowing 66 H and 34 BB with 83 SO with AAA Gwinnett before coming to the Reds.
AA Pensacola Blue Wahoos
The Blue Wahoos have a 59 – 53 record and are 2nd out of 5 in the Southern League South
Southern League hitters are hitting .249/.327/.387/.714.
- CF Jose Siri, .244/.317/.530/.848 in 186 PA, leads the club with 6 3B. The 22 year old was hitting .261/.280/.395/.675 in 126 PA at A+ before his promotion.
- 3B/1B Mitch Nay, .263/.359/.451/.811 in 153 PA, has 6 HR since joining the Blue Wahoos. The 24 year was hitting .271/.342/.418/.760 in 281 PA at A+ Daytona before his promotion.
Southern League pitchers have a 3.99 ERA.
- RH SP Tony Santillan, 1.78 ERA, has thrown 35.1 IP allowing 32 H and 8 BB with 36 SO in 6 GS for Pensacola. The 21 year old put up a 2.70 ERA in 86.2 IP allowing 81 H and 22 BB with 73 SO at A+ Daytona before joining the Blue Wahoos.
- LH RP Seth Varner, 2.91 ERA in 20 G/12 GS, has thrown 89.2 IP allowing 77 H and 24 BB with 78 SO. The 26 year has a 1.13 WHIP.
High A Daytona Tortugas
The Tortugas have a 59 – 52 record and are 2nd out of 6 in the Florida State League North. They have qualified for the Playoffs by being the First Half Division winners.
Florida State League hitters are hitting .252/.323/.368/.691.
- 1B Ibandel Isabel, .250/.329/.534/.864, leads teh team with 25 HR and 119 SO. The 23 year old also leads the club with 54 RBI.
- 1B Bruce Yari, .281/.394 /387/.781, leads the team with 52 BB. The 23 year LH hitter is 3rd on the club with 17 2B and 47 RBI.
Florida State League pitchers have a 3.82 ERA.
- LH SP Scott Moss, 3.63 ERA, has thrown 106.2 IP allowing 104 H and 31 BB with 87 SO. The 23 year old has 2.6 BB/9.
- RH RP Ryan Hendrix, 1.88 ERA, has thrown 43 IP allowing 34 H and 22 BB with 66 SO. The 23 year has a very good 13.8 SO/9 and has recorded 10 S.
Low A Dayton Dragons
The Dragons have a 51 – 62 record and are 6th out of 8 in the Midwest League Eastern
Midwest League hitters are hitting .251/.325/.375/.700.
- C Hendrik Clementina, .273/.347/.519/.866, is leads the club lead with 15 HR. The 21 year old also leads the team with 48 RBI.
- 3B Jonathan India, .286/.375/.476/.851 in 24 PA, is now with his 3rd minor league team this season. The 21 year old hit .250/.400/.250/.650 in 10 PA at R Billings and .261/.452/.543/.995 in 62 PA at R Greeneville before joining the Dragons.
Midwest League pitchers have a 3.83 ERA.
- RH SP Wendolyn Bautista, 3.42 ERA, has thrown 102.2 IP allowing 110 H and 27 BB with 101 SO. The 25 year old has 2.4 BB/9 and 8.9 SO/9.
- RH RP Cory Thompson, 3.09 ERA, has tossed 58.1 IP allowing 60 H and 9 BB with 58 SO. The 23 year old has 5 S and 1.4 BB/9.
Rookie Billings Mustangs
The Mustangs have a 24 – 25 record and are 2nd out of 4 in the Pioneer League North.
The Pioneer League hitters hit .282/.353/.439/.792.
- OF Zeek White, .317/.418/.549/.967 in 98 PA, is tied for the team lead with 2 3B. The 21 year old hit .438/.514/.625/1.139 in 38 PA at R Greeneville before joining the Mustangs.
- CF Mariel Bautista, .312/.363/.518/.881, is tied for the club lead with 2 3B. The 20 year old leads the team with 9 SB.
The Pioneer League average ERA is 5.23.
- RH SP Luis Alecis, 3.95 ERA, has thrown 41 IP allowing 32 H and 20 BB with 54 SO. The 21 year old has 11.9 SO/9.
- RH RP Ryan Dunne, 2.84 ERA, has thrown 12.2 IP allowing 7 H and 2 BB with 12 SO. The 23 year old has a 0.71 WHIP.
Rookie Greeneville Reds
The Reds have a 18 – 28 record and are 5th out of 5 in the Appalachian League West
The Appalachian League hitters hit .264/.353/.397/.750.
- 1B Rylan Thomas, .291/.452/.641/1.093, leads the club lead with 9 HR. The 21 year old also leads the team with 30 BB.
- 2B/3B Jonathan Willems, .298/.329/.528/.857, leads the team with 11 2B. The 19 year old leads the club with 4 3B and 32 RBI.
The Appalachian League average ERA is 4.87.
- RH SP Josiah Gray, 3.09 ERA, has thrown 35 IP allowing 24 H and 9 BB with 36 SO. The 20 year old has a 0.94 WHIP.
- RH SP Alexis Diaz, 3.44 ERA, has thrown 36.2 IP allowing 38 H and 11 BB with 49 SO. The 21 year old has a 12.0 SO/9.
Rookie AZL Reds
The Reds have a 8 – 30 record and are 6th out of 6 in the AZL Central.
The AZL hitters averaged .253/.342/.360/.702.
- 2B Danielito Remy, .339/.364/.427/.792, leads the team with 11 2B. The 20 year old LH hitter has 3 BB in 129 PA.
- CF Danny Lantigua, .237/.270/.504/.774, leads the club with 6 HR. The 19 year old LH hitter leads the team with 5 3B.
The AZL average ERA is 4.38.
- RH SP Orlando Noriega, 4.38 ERA, has thrown 37 IP allowing 34 H and 17 BB with 36 SO. The 19 year old has 8.8 S0/9.
- RH RP Marvin Mateo, 0.00 ERA, has thrown 14.1 IP allowing 4 H and 4 BB with 12 SO. The 20 year old has a 0.56 WHIP and 2 S.
Rookie DSL Reds
The Reds have a 26 – 31 record and are 5th out of 6 in the Dominican Summer League Baseball City.
The DSL hitters averaged .238/.339/.333/.672.
- OF Darlin Guzman.286/.355/.492/.847, is tied for the team lead with 6 3B. The 17 year old LH hitter also leads the team with 36 H.
- CF Allan Cerda, .252/.403/.424/.828, is 2nd on the team with 24 BB. The 18 year old leads the team with 5 HR.
The DSL average ERA is 3.88.
- LH RP Jose Salvador, 1.28 ERA, has thrown 42.1 IP allowing 22 H and 20 BB with 56 SO. The 18 year old has a 0.99 WHIP.
- RH SP Raul Hernandez, 1.99 ERA, has thrown 40.2 IP allowing 27 H and 18 BB with 64 SO. The 19 year old has 14.2 SO/9.
The Wahoos and the Tortugas have winning records. The rest of the minor league system teams have losing records.
Is a culture of “losing” permeating the Reds. and why can’t there be more winning in the minor leagues? I realize that winning is secondary to developing players in the minors, but I also think that NOT developing a winning attitude contributes to the complacency of losing.
Matt Wisler looks impressive. Let’s see if he sustains his performance over the last few starts of the AAA season. And I also think he is out of minor league options, so he has to be on the 25 man roster for the Reds, just like Robert Stephenson.
A lot of player movement after this season is over.
Wisler pitched last night in relief of another strong start by Cody Reed. Matt faced 3 batters in the 8th inning & was awarded the win. His best chance to stay with the Reds is to make the bullpen out of ST next year.
This frustrates me to no end and I think is a large part of why I seem to think the Reds promote so slowly. When you are drafting a guy out of a major conference like the SEC in the top 5, you’ve gotta be fast tracking them. I can understand Rookie league for maybe a week to get your feet wet if you go a while between draft day and actually signing. But India was in Rookie league for longer than necessary. He’s got a 128 wRC+ in Dayton now. Let him spend the rest of the year in Daytona. He’s not playing SS as it is, Daytona’s going to be in the playoffs. Their 3B is a non-prospect., Go ahead and let India start playing with Fairchild and Trammell and Stephenson so they can all start 2019 in AA with at least a shot at making it to the big leagues in September 2019 or the start of 2020. No reason to slow-walk all these guys.
Totally agree with all of you.
I wonder if with India/Senzel… Reds are manipulating service so that peak years happen under team control. For India, age 21 rookie/Low A, age 22 A+/AA, age 23 AAA/MLB (but less than 1 service year), age 24-29 MLB. If they are chasing a championship and he helps. I think they promote more aggressively. That plan would have put Senzel in Cincy this year but his vertigo/finger pushed the whole thing back one year.
All that said, Trammel needs promoted and fast-tracked, he’s an upgrade over all the MLB outfielders when ready.
The Reds did that with Jay Bruce and he never actually developed well as a hitter. He spent age 19-20 year in Low A, then moved from High A up to AAA to the Reds in one season (I think).
Jay was very talented, but he lost a lot of hitting discipline.
Trammel is still young age wise, and would like to give him time to physically mature.
And if I were investing millions of dollars of bonus money on 1st round picks, I would want them to be successful. Starting them a little low in the minors is better than starting them too high and seeing them over matched right off the bat (literally).
You mean like they did with Joey Votto, whose rookie year was age 24?
Their incentive is to bring up guys to Cincinnati only when they are ready to produce. As you allude, there is no point in having a 22-year-old struggle at the MLB level, because the team would just be trading that year for his purportedly prime-level 28-year-old season. The idea is not to promote fast, but to promote at the pace that figures to render them ready to produce at the MLB level when they finally get promoted, so as to get 6 good years out of them.
Votto, at age 21, slashed .256/.330/.425 in the Florida State League. Taylor Trammell, at age 20, is slashing .276/.371/.406. I agree that Trammell is likely ready for a promotion, but the development people must want him to work on something in Daytona. Pensacola is going to win its second-half season and make the playoffs, so maybe he will be up there by then, with Aquino getting a September callup to evaluate whether to keep him.
But if Taylor Trammell next year proves that he is ready to start and produce for the Reds in 2020, I am all for it. He may not even need any AAA time.
Well, to answer your question, yes, other teams do the same thing. In this draft, there were 5 other college hitters taken in the first 20 picks, plus Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray.
Joey Bart (#2) is in Short-Season A ball in the Northwest League. Alec Bohm (#3) is in the Short-Season A New York-Penn League. Nick Madrigal (#4) played his first A+ game on August 3. Travis Swaggerty (#10) is in the NY-Penn League. Trevor Larnach played his first A-level game last night, having been at Rookie ball until then. Most of the guys, like India and Senzel, were spotted at Rookie ball to get their feet wet, in light of their having some time off since the end of their college seasons.
It is a great myth, pushed by the SEC and others, that their leagues are about equal to AA ball. It is not now nor has it ever been true. A very select few college players rocket through to the majors, just like a few American high school and international players do, like Soto and Acuna, or Griffey and Trout and Harper. For the most part, the can’t-miss American players don’t go to college, leaving the colleges with hitters who are excellent but not precocious.
You can fault the Reds’ system for teaching Phil Ervin how to play outfield, but you can’t fault it for this.
You suppose the development people had Ervin down so long they were teaching him to hit the cutoff man? If they would have brought Senzel up when some suggested he may not have had a bad finger. It is hard to figure but the danger of keeping them down when they should move is injury.