The minor leagues kicked off the season yesterday around the country. The Cincinnati Reds farm system could have had a better night as they went a combined 0-4. But while the teams all lost, that doesn’t mean there weren’t things to take away on the positive side of the ledger.
I was at the game in Dayton, and it’s the only game that I watched all of the way through. Only the Bats game was also available to watch, and I was able to check out some of the highlights from that game – but more on that later. The Dragons lost 3-2, on the back of two of the top prospects in the Rays organization. Wander Franco might be the best prospect I’ve had a chance to ever see play. He doubled, walked twice, and scored two runs in the game for Bowling Green. On the mound the Hot Rods ran out 2018 1st rounder Shane McClanahan, who was throwing 94-96 and touching 98 from the left side – while racking up 9 strikeouts with just one walk in 5.0 innings. Some days that’s going to happen.
With that said, particularly against McClanahan, who only gave up three hits, one hit jumped out at me. Miguel Hernandez doubled against him in the second inning. As noted above, McClanahan was bringing absolute heat all night. And particularly in the first two innings he was more 95-96, consistently. Hernandez took a pitch on the outer third of the plate and doubled over the right fielder. What stood out to me was how well the ball carried.
If you’ve read the site for a few years now then you know I’ve been driving the “Mariel Bautista” train since I first saw him in spring training of 2017. Last night he went 2-4 with two singles. While I’ve seen him play in a few games out in Goodyear during spring training, last night was the first time I had an opportunity to see him play in a game that counted in person. A lot of the things translated from what I had seen in Goodyear. The thing that just sticks out to me, from batting practice to the game, is his ability to barrel a baseball. He’s got plenty of bat speed, but he also controls the barrel well along with it.
In Daytona it was the Reiver Sanmartin show. He tossed 6.0 dominant innings for the Tortugas to welcome the new field turf to the league. The lefty is the forgotten player that came over in the Sonny Gray trade. When he was traded for the scouting report was solid, with a little bit of upside in there. Last night he wasn’t throwing quite as hard as he had in the past (89-92 was the report at the time of the trade). His fastball was 86-90 on the night, but it was moving and working well. He was also mixing his change up and slider in there while pounding the strikezone. The ball stayed on the ground when guys did make contact, generating 9 ground outs with just 2 fly outs. Strong organizational debut for the lefty.
In Chattanooga they kicked things off last night, welcoming the Lookouts back to the Reds family. Things didn’t go as planned as they fell 6-3. TJ Friedl had himself a big game, though. The outfielder had two hits, including a triple. He also drove in a run. To top things off he gunned out a runner at the plate. Unfortunately the Lookouts are the only Double-A team that doesn’t have the video package for MiLBtv, so there’s no ability to go back and watch any of the game.
Louisville hit the road to start their season. With a 4:05pm afternoon start in Toledo, it was probably for the best with an early start as the game temperate was in the 30’s. Josh VanMeter had two hits, including a double. The Bats offense was patient, drawing seven walks in the game – including two each by Sherman Johnson, Christian Colon, and Juan Graterol. The offense did struggle to come up with the timely hits, though, as they left 13 runners on the bases.