Thursday night in Chattanooga had something you don’t see happen all that often: A player leaping over the catcher on a play at the plate. That player was Robbie Tenerowicz and it may not have been the best thing. He had walked earlier in the inning and he was trying to score on a double off of the wall in center. The throw home beat him but he decided to attempt to leap over the catcher. He was tagged out mid front flip and landed on his shoulder as he rolled through the landing. Tenerowicz got up immediately but grabbed at his upper arm as he jobbed his way towards the dugout. He didn’t take the field when the next inning began. At this time no update.
Joe Boyle makes ’em miss
Earlier this week Joe Boyle took the mound against the Palm Beach Cardinals and struck out 10 of the 17 batters he faced in 4.0 shutout innings. He picked up 19 swinging strikes in the game. You should spend the next minute watching each and every one of them:
Here's 1 minute of Joe Boyle getting Palm Beach to swing and miss, roughly, 1 billion times from his last start pic.twitter.com/pIIAbntCME
— Doug Gray (@dougdirt24) September 16, 2021
In 2021 we’re dealing with a small sample size of mound time for Joe Boyle. He didn’t pitch in a game until August 3rd and his first four appearances all came at the complex level as he was rehabbing his way back from an injury that he suffered near the end of spring training. He’s now made four appearances with Low-A Daytona and he’s been consistently inconsistent. There have been a lot of walks – 13 of them in his 12.2 innings. There have also been a ton of strikeouts – 28 of them in his 12.2 innings.
Joe Boyle’s stuff is unquestionable. In the video above you can clearly see that his breaking ball is flat out filthy. What you can’t quite tell from the above video is that his fastball has been working 95-97 this season so far and is showing high spin rates (2500 RPM on average). The control absolutely has to be improved on, but the pure stuff he’s showing allows one to dream.
Jay Allen’s strong debut
When the Reds selected Jay Allen 30th overall in this summer’s draft the expectations were high. Considered to be very athletic, Allen was said to have all the tools you wanted to see from an outfielder. But it’s one thing to have those things said about you and another thing to get out on the field and show them all early on. That’s what Allen has been doing out in Arizona, though.
Last night he picked up another two hits for the Arizona Complex League Reds to raise his batting average to .316 on the season. He’s also walked eight times this year with just 10 strikeouts in 18 games – helping him post an on-base percentage of .437. Allen has also added six extra-base hits along the way to lead to a .509 slugging percentage. Oh yeah, he also has 13 stolen bases in 14 attempts. Small sample size of just 18 games, but it’s hard to look at the performance thus far and come away as anything but impressed.
With the torque he puts on his torso you can see how Boyle might have some back issues. I’m sure Strength and Conditioning guys will work on a program for him to strengthen what needs to be strengthened.
Allen has become a top 5 prospect in the organization (at least on my list). His K/BB ratio is really impressive. He has decent power.
Few players with any power keep their K/BB ratios around 1. Players I can think of that did this in the minors include Valdimir Guerrero, Juan Soto, Mike Trout and Mookie Betts.
I am not sure how to factor in the fact that Allen is 8 months older than Trout when he was in rookie ball, 9 months older than Guerrero and 11 months older than Soto. Betts did not play rookie ball (4 PA) but Allen is one year younger than Betts was when Betts was in A- ball.
Comparison:
Soto: 183 PA/5 HR/5 SB/7.7% BB/13.7 K%/.189 ISO/.960 OPS
Guerrero: 276 PA/8 HR/15 SB/12.6 BB%/10.7 K%/.164 ISO/.889 OPS
Trout: 187 PA/1 HR/13 SB/9.6 BB%/15.0 K%/.146 ISO/.924 OPS
Allen: 71 PA/2 HR/13 SB/11.3 BB%/14.1 K%/.193 ISO/.946 OPS
Betts: 292 PA/0 HR/20 SB/17.1 BB%/11.8 K%/.040 ISO/.659 OPS
Allen easily has the highest SB/PA%
Allen has the highest ISO
Allen is second in HR/PA (Guerrero is first)
Allen is second in OPS (Soto is first)
Allen is third in K/BB% and if you take out Betts because of his .040 ISO he would be second.
I think you will be seeing Allen on many top 100 lists this winter. He is without a doubt one of the Reds top 5 prospects and could be as high as 3 on my list.
Promising start, for sure!
The only detail is the sample size of the stats… Allen took only 71 PAs … We should watch him out next season obviously. He’s been kind of mini-Betts in a mini-season time… But that he’s showed until now really promise a lot…
correction: But that he’s shown until now is really promises a lto
well…i’m in trouble with my english and my keyboard is not helping either
Here’s to Joe Boyle….keep on striking out those Cardinals for the next 18 years or so!!!
Should the Reds turn Boyle, Roa, and Bonnin into bullpeners? It would fast track them to the major leagues. Lodolo, Greene, Ashcraft, and Gutierrez will be given every opportunity to remain starters. Santillan, and Moreta could use some company in the pen in 22 / 23. This season illustrates just how important the bullpen is.
I don’t think Gutierrez will be a SP long term. Boyle may have a higher ceiling than Greene. Many of those swing and misses in the video brought the batter to his knees.
Maybe I am missing something but if you consider only the ceiling I rank them
Boyle, Greene, Bonnin, Lodolo, Farr, Gutierrez, Ashcraft and Roa. I would not fast track anyone.
I like Gutierrez’s chances of sticking in the rotation. He goes after batters, and goes deep into games
Lodolo was shut down for the year with shoulder issues. Lyon Richardson just had Tommy John surgery. Today Pitching Guru Boddy and Reds parted ways! Sounds like Nick Krall recognized his mistake of bringing in Boddy as one of his first hires when he was named the Reds General Manager. Great win tonight vs the Dodgers! Go Reds!
Krall didn’t bring Boddy in.