Earlier this week I wrote about the various offensive leaders for the 2022 season in the Cincinnati Reds farm system. Elly De La Cruz was all over the leaderboard and won the Triple Crown among the players in the farm system (among full-season players). That led to reader AMDG to pose the question…. how often has a Reds minor leaguer won the organizational Triple Crown?
It took me a little bit of time to do the research (though not too long) and while there were about 20 times where a player led in two of the categories it’s only happened two other times since 1960 (the furthest back we’ve got full minor league stats).
It’s been nearly 40 years since another player had won the Triple Crown. In 1984 Alan Knicely hit .333 with 33 home runs and 126 RBI for Triple-A Wichita to pull off the trifecta for the farm system. Six years prior to that it was Champ Summers who also got the job done. He hit .368 with 34 home runs and 124 RBI for Triple-A Indianapolis. That’s it. 60+ years and it’s happened just three times.
There is a big difference between Elly De La Cruz and those two players, though. De La Cruz did so at the age of 20. Alan Knicely was 29-years-old in 1984 with Wichita. Champ Summers was 32-years-old when he was in Indianapolis in 1978.
Checking in on the Arizona Fall League
On Wednesday out in Arizona Matt McLain was the only position prospect for the Reds who played in the game for Glendale. He started the game at shortstop and hit leadoff. He went 2-4 with a walk, run, and an RBI. Vin Timpanelli pitched an inning out of the bullpen, giving up two runs on two hits and two walks to go along with a strikeout.
Thursday afternoon Noelvi Marte and Rece Hinds got back into the starting lineup for the Desert Dogs. Marte once again started at third base. At the plate he went 0-4 with a walk, steal, and a run scored. Rece Hinds went 2-5 with a double – his third in as many games – an RBI, and 2 runs scored.
Dayton has the best attendance in the minors
The Dayton Dragons did not have the most fans come through the gates this season in minor league baseball, but that may have only been due to the fact that A-ball teams didn’t play as many games as the Double-A or Triple-A teams did. What the Dragons did do was have the highest average attendance per game in 2022 among all of the minor league baseball teams. According to Baseball America the Dragons averaged 270 more fans per game than the next closest team (Lehigh Valley). Dayton was the only team below Double-A in the top 20 of attendance per game.