The Cincinnati Reds minor league season is wrapping up. The Arizona Complex League Reds, Daytona Tortugas, and Dayton Dragons seasons have all come to an end. Chattanooga and Louisville both continue to play this week, with the Lookouts season coming to an end after the series this week. Louisville’s season will continue through September 28th. With the season now over in Dayton several Dragons players have been promoted up to join Chattanooga and one player from the Lookouts moved up to join Louisville.
Michael Siani’s enjoying the best season of his professional career and after hitting .252/.351/.404 with a career high 12 home runs and a career high 49 stolen bases in 121 games with Chattanooga, he’s been promoted to Triple-A to join the Louisville Bats. Siani is already in St. Paul with Louisville and in tonight’s starting lineup at the leadoff spot.
While Chattanooga lost their leadoff hitter and center fielder to Louisville, the Lookouts are getting a handful of players from Dayton. Rece Hinds missed several months this summer after breaking the hamate bone in his hand/wrist. In his 67 games with Dayton he hit .235/.310/.425. At times he hit very well, but he also slumped big in April and June with the Dragons.
Steven Leyton is also moving up to Chattanooga. It will be his third stop of the season after playing 51 games with Daytona and another 23 games in Dayton. Leyton hit .260/.287/.494 between the two stops. His time in Dayton was stronger than in Daytona, hitting .293/.333/.524 with 12 extra-base hits in his 23 games with the Dragons.
Sam Benschoter will join the Lookouts pitching staff, and like Leyton it will be his third stop of the season after seeing action with both Daytona and Dayton this year (he also pitched in Goodyear while rehabbing from an injury). During his time in A-ball between his two stops he threw 68.1 innings with a 4.08 ERA, giving up 61 hits, six home runs, walking 23, and striking out 103.
Vin Timpanelli will be returning to Chattanooga. The reliever began the year with the Lookouts, but struggled in the first six weeks of the season (7.63 ERA with 20 walk s and 21 strikeouts in 15.1 innings) before he was sent to Dayton. Things improved with the Dragons as he posted a3.94 ERA in 29.2 innings while striking out 54 batters and walking 19. Over the last six weeks he’s allowed just four earned runs in 13.1 innings with 28 strikeouts.
Noelvi Marte to play for Team Spain
One name missing from the promotions list that could have been there based on his 2022 season was Noelvi Marte. The infielder will be heading to Europe this week to play for Team Spain in a World Baseball Classic qualifier that begins on Friday in Germany. This was first reported by Francys Romero of MLB.com.
Good to see Benschoter promoted. He’s not getting any younger at 24 and his SO/BB rate is quite impressive at over 4/1. Was hoping Noelvi would get promoted and move either McLain or EDL to AAA in a corresponding move.
They may just be holding off on Marte given reports he’s heading to the AZ Fall League.
Hope so! Live in AZ, and the AFL is pretty much my favorite baseball now.
Marte’s actually heading to join Team Spain in a World Baseball Classic qualifier this week over in Germany.
Whah! That’s great! Good luck, Noelvi!
Good to know thx. What is the WBC qualifier competition level? I did a quick read on Wikipedia and literally didn’t recognize a single player except for Ivan Herrera of the Cards. Well…and Dante Bichette Jr for obvious reasons LOL
Also how is qualified for Spain? Isn’t he Dominican?
Here are the eligibility rules:
In a year where I have eaten plenty of crow (Krow), Michael Siani is apparently going to keep piling it on.
I would not have had him ranked too high for a breakout year last spring, but here we are. Hitting .252/.351/.404 from the leadoff slot, while closing in on 50 steals and continuing his stellar CF defense, Siani has answered some big questions, for me at least.
I have rooted quite hard for Nick Senzel to perform where we all hoped he would. I thoroughly enjoyed Almora’s very nice half season filling in. While Friedl and Fairchild have been adequate, they haven’t been Jesse Winker in CF either.
However, in the category of Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due (a weekly Sunday morning sports page topic with my older brother before he passed), if I’m Nick Senzel, I’m hearing some footsteps coming fast.
“Don’t look back, somebody might be gainin'”
Props to Michael Siani.
Been a BIG proponent of Siani because of his GG level defense and the fact that he has 3 tools that are 60-70 IMO (check out his crazy amount of assists from the OF…its Aquino 2022 level insane but over an entire career). It’s one of the 3 positions where you can OPS+ 90 and still be a 2-4 bWAR player.
Plus his plate discipline is excellent and getting better. His BB+HBP/SO rate is approaching 1.0 in 2022 which is a big improvement for 2021 where it was close to 2.0. Reds 2024 Centerfielder IMO.
Welcome to the dark side DaveCT!
What is thy bidding, my master
Steven Leyton is a bit sleeper for me in a group of high profile infielders. The OBP is admittedly not encouraging, but there’s some slugging there this year for a smallish player. Perhaps he’s figuring stuff out. AA will probably reveal things.
He is a ball player too not just an athlete that plays baseball. He could end up a Kyle Farmer type.
Hate to bring up the elephant in the room. But, Hinds? has he earned the promo to double a?
Dayton’s season is over and Hinds missed a lot of time with an injury. Chattanooga only had 6 games left, but they probably want him to get a few more at-bats. Plus, he probably starts 2023 in Chattanooga. I expect there to be a lot of attrition at the higher minors levels this year.
He’s got a double and a homer tonight…. so if nothing else, he’s certainly shown for a game that he’s capable to stepping up.
Hinds hit an impressive 0.171 in his last 18 games before the injury, and 0.183 in the 20 games after the injury, while compiling a 38% strikeout rate.
Are you trying to insinuate that somehow doesn’t merit a promotion?
But seriously, I’m sure there is more to his brief jump to AA other than the sub-Mendoza level hitting he has compiled over the past half season.
Sam Benschoter is an interesting player. He was a 24-year-old in Rookie ball to start the year, but his K/BB ratio is crazy good, and has stayed consistent with each promotion. For some pitchers, it just takes time for them to figure out their control. I know Doug has written about him on this site, but it seems like he has legit MLB caliber stuff. He might be the greatest riser in the entire system