Daytona trailed 5-0 and came back to win 9-6 to stay undefeated. Hector Rodriguez homered for the second straight night. Joey Votto got on base four times while rehabbing with Louisville and Lucas Sims tossed a hitless inning. James Free picked up four hits for Chattanooga. Tyler Callihan hit a grand slam and Carson Rudd set a new career high in strikeouts during Dayton’s win.
Through Friday the 14th I will be including the Top 25 Prospect Rundown here on the site and game notes, but after that if you would like to get that each and every day, you can get it emailed to you every morning during the season by signing up at Patreon and helping support the site.
The Louisville Bats lost 7-1. Box Score
- Joey Votto (rehab) went 1-1 with 3 walks.
- Nick Senzel (rehab) went 0-3 with 2 walks and a strikeout.
- Lucas Sims (rehab) threw a hitless inning with a walk and 2 strikeouts.
- Michael Siani went 1-4 with a walk.
- Matt McLain went 1-4.
- Henry Ramos went 1-4.
- Chuckie Robinson went 1-4 with a solo home run (1).
- Daniel Duarte threw 1.1 perfect innings with 2 strikeouts.
- Zack Brown threw 1.2 shutout innings with a strikeout.
Game Notes
The loss was the Bats 7th in a row and they now sit at 2-9 on the year.
Joey Votto got on base all four times he stepped to the plate. He singled on a hard hit grounder and walked three times.
Lucas Sims pitched a shutout inning. His fastball was 93.2-96.0 MPH on the night.
Chuckie Robinson picked up his first home run of the year. Former Reds minor league pitcher Aneurys Zabala threw him a 100.4 MPH fastball and Robinson sent it out at 104.1 MPH.
Top Pitch Velocity: Jared Solomon – 96.7 MPH (ball)
Top Exit Velocity: Chuckie Robinson – 104.1 MPH (home run)
Furthest Hit Baseball: Chuckie Robinson – 402 feet (home run)
The Chattanooga Lookouts lost 9-5. Box Score
- Jose Torres went 1-5 with a walk and an RBI.
- Noelvi Marte went 2-5 with a solo home run (1).
- Rece Hinds went 1-4 with a walk and a run.
- James Free went 4-5 with a double, run, and an RBI.
- Ashton Creal went 2-4 with a double, run, and 2 RBI.
- Mac Sceroler was charged with an unearned run in 3.0 innings with 2 walks and 7 strikeouts.
- Stevie Branche was charged with an unearned run in 2.0 innings with 5 strikeouts.
- Eduardo Salazar threw a hitless inning.
Game Notes
It was a tough season debut for Christian Roa as he didn’t make it out of the 1st inning after walking four batters, giving up a grand slam, and exited down 5-0 while recording just two outs. He threw 32 pitches with just 12 strikes.
Noelvi Marte picked up his first home run of the season. It was just his 4th hit in five games as he’s gotten out to a bit of a slow start this season.
James Free entered the day 0-5 on the season. Now he’s 4-10 after a big night at the plate for the Lookouts.
The game featured 3 errors and 7 hit batters.
The Dayton Dragons won 7-3. Box Score
- Austin Hendrick went 1-4 with a walk, double, and a run.
- Mat Nelson went 1-3 with a walk and solo home run (1).
- Austin Callahan went 1-3 with a walk and a run.
- Tyler Callihan went 1-4 with a grand slam (1).
- Carson Rudd allowed a run in 5.0 innings with 8 strikeouts.
- Manuel Cachutt threw a perfect inning with a strikeout.
- Jake Gozzo threw a hitless inning with 2 walks.
Game Notes
Dayton took a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the 1st inning on a Tyler Callihan grand slam and they never looked back.
Carson Rudd made sure of that as he allowed just one run in 5.0 innings and picked up eight strikeouts without a walk along the way. That set a new career high in strikeouts, topping the seven that he had in May of 2021 and September of 2022 when he fanned seven for Daytona.
The grand slam by Callihan was his first since September 4th of 2019 when he was playing for the Billings Mustangs.
Blake Dunn picked up his second stolen base of the year. He is now 27-for-28 in stolen bases since being drafted. He’s played in just 52 games.
Prior to the game it was announced that Edwin Arroyo had been placed on the injured list with a strained left hip.
The Daytona Tortugas won 9-6. Box Score
- Leo Balcazar went 0-2 with 3 walks, a steal (2), and 3 runs.
- Hector Rodriguez went 1-3 with a walk, home run (2), 2 runs, and 2 RBI.
- Sal Stewart went 0-2 with 2 walks, a run, and an RBI.
- Ariel Almonte went 2-5 with a double, run, and 3 RBI.
- Cade Hunter went 2-3 with a double and an RBI.
- Victor Acosta went 1-2 with a triple and an RBI.
- Logan Tanner went 0-2 with 2 walks.
- Wendell Marrero went 1-2 with a walk and a solo home run (1).
- Jean Correa allowed a run in 2.1 innings with 2 strikeouts.
- Arij Fransen threw 3.0 shutout innings with 4 strikeouts.
Game Notes
Palm Beach was up 5-0 when the top of the 3rd inning was over. Daytona then scored a run in their half of the 3rd, 2 runs in the 4th, a run in the 6th, 3 runs in the 7th, and 2 more runs in the 8th as they completed the comeback to move to 5-0 on the season.
It was another big day at the plate for Ariel Almonte. He picked up two more hits, including a double, and drove in three runs for the second straight night. Almonte did strike out on Wednesday – the first time he’s done so in 20 plate appearances. He’s hitting .375/.500/.563 with three walks, three doubles, and seven runs batted in.
Wendell Marrero crushed his first home run of the season. He’s 3-9 on the season with all three of his hits being extra-base hits. He’s also walked more than he’s struck out.
Hector Rodriguez homered for the second straight game. It was another opposite field home run. His career high in home runs for a season is three – he’s done that in both of his seasons which consisted of 42 and 49 games played. He’s played five games this season and has two homers already. Only Daytona, St. Lucie, and Tampa have more home runs as a team than Rodriguez (there are 10 teams in the league).
Leo Balcazar didn’t pick up a hit on Wednesday, but he did walk three times. He now has eight walks in five games.
Daytona walked 11 times with just eight strikeouts in the game. For the season the team has 42 walks and 43 strikeouts. Only one other team in the league has 25 walks (Bradenton has 30). Daytona leads the Florida State League in doubles (14), triples (4), home runs (5), runs (41), walks (42), on-base percentage (.417), slugging (.471), and OPS (.888).
Top 25 Prospects Rundown
4/13 Game Preview
| Team | Record | Time (ET) | Probable | Box Score | Listen | Watch |
| Louisville | 2-9 | 6:35pm | Williamson | Here | Here | Here |
| Chattanooga | 2-3 | 7:15pm | Abbott | Here | Here | Here |
| Dayton | 2-3 | 7:05pm | Rivera | Here | Here | Here |
| Daytona | 5-0 | 6:35pm | Richardson | Here | Here | N/A |
Those are some pathetic pitching performances by stoudt and roa last night. I’m beginning to question what we are doing with pitching development. Pitchers we get from other organizations go down the tube when our coaches and trainers get hold of them.
I feel sorry for the fans of Louisville. On paper, that team should be average. The offensive performance from all but 1 or 2 players is terrible.And chattanoogas offense is abysmal but at least it’s a smaller sample.
I think it might be time for Krall to clean house on minor league coaching and development side – at least in the upper levels. Players just simply stall or get worse when they reach those levels as Reds.
They’re minor league pitchers. There’s a reason they’re down there.
Roa just couldn’t find the zone at all (I was there in person). His delivery was all over the place. Velo and movement were fine, but it was clear from the very beginning that Mississippi wasn’t planning on swinging, and I think it got to him after he got squeezed once or twice in the first couple hitters. The home run may or may not have landed yet. The stuff still looks good and he’s still not 6’4″ or anywhere close. Absolutely deserved the hook. Just a rough night.
On the offensive side, the reason they don’t hit is there’s not a lot of hitting talent there. There are some guys who have flashes or pieces of it but are miles away from being complete hitters – Cerda and Hinds most prominently. But overall, there’s just not enough chicken for a chicken salad there.
Also, Marte should be at 3B permanently. It only took about 5 innings to see that he’s not a shortstop, at least not at his current size. Very good hands and the arm is ok, but the range isn’t close to major league level – they gave up at least 2 hits on balls that would have been outs with De La Cruz or McLain.
I had to double check Roa’s height and weight last night watching the game. The guy who was out there looked more of 6’0″ than 6’4″. I thought it was an imposter. And, yeah, his delivery is/was a mess, arms flying all over the place. Sure looked like a reliever last night, to me.
It is indeed time to clean house and let Nick Krall pick his own people. The farm system looks to be stocked with an abundance of young talent, but it can be wasted as we have seen.
Nick may or may not be the answer but he is surely the only hope that we have currently.
Interesting post.
Do you think a system that graduated Stephenson, India, Jose Barrero, Tony Santillan and Vladimir Gutierrez in 2021 needs a complete overhaul?
Do you think a system that graduated Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo, Graham Ashcraft, Alexis Diaz, TJ Friedl and Reiver Sanmartin needs a complete overhaul?
Do you think that a system that turned Jake Fraley from a .196 hitter in Seattle to a .270 hitter in Cincinnati needs a complete overhaul?
Do you think a system where Carlos Jorge woke up today with an OPS of 1.000 yet he was 7th on the team in OPS needs a complete overhaul?
Do you think a system that has it’s top two active pitchers (Per my rankings not Doug’s) start the year with 18.7 K/9 and a 0.00 ERA needs a complete overhaul?
In a word, yes.
Unfortunately, the Cincinnati Reds have cultivated a culture of losing. It seems to me the further you go up in the farm system the worse the teams are. This is not a positive development, and although we can find a few gold nuggets here and there, it comes up woefully short in the long run.
Stock – I love your passion.
My point is mainly on the upper levels – Louisville & Chattanooga.
I would argue that other than 1st rounders, we have done terribly in pitching development – especially when it comes to live, bullpen arms. And SanMartin, Santillian and Gutierrez are from from major league success stories.
Of the current active roster bullpen, 1 player is a Reds developed pitcher. The others are cast-offs and minor league free agents that probably wouldn’t even make the active roster on a playoff-caliber MLB team (see Jeff Hoffman). Where are the drafted & developed “live” arms. Seattle and Tampa Bay churn them out like they are a dime a dozen.
There are 2 huge holes in the starting rotation that are begging to be filled by “developed” minor league pitchers. Stoudt and Williamson have back-slid from where they were at trade time from a rankings standpoint. Both were considered nearly finished products by baseball prospect writers and ready to contribute. Pitchers that can’t get out of the 3rd inning in triple A ball are not ready for MLB hitters. If they aren’t hurt, then it is a huge developmental failure.
The offensive players at the upper levels simply don’t make enough contact to be successful major leaguers. That Louisville team has 2 wins and 9 losses already with practically an entire new roster from last year. Chattanooga players strike out at an alarming rate. That is a coaching and development failure.
We expect first rounders to make the team and be productive. Teams like the Reds need some later round picks and minor league free agents to become productive. Otherwise it is a never ending rebuild cycle.
Yes, we need some new coaching and development staff. And DJ does not need to be in charge of both minor league and major league pitching.
For some perspective, Roa has been oft injured and/or coming back from an injury. He has a total of 150 pro innings. He got shelled in his first start. He was lights out in 3 starts at AA last year. He may or may not be a starter moving forward, but that’s been known since drafted. If he can stay healthy, he’s likely a middle reliever. There’s value in that, making something out of an unfinished product.
Stoudt was the third piece out of four in a major trade that netted the other teams #1 and 2 prospects. He missed his first two pro seasons entirely, with this being just the beginning of his third one of playing. He has 200 career innings pitched. From BA:
“He has a year or two more to help the Reds figure out if he’s going to be a power reliever or back-of-the-rotation starter. He needs to gain consistency if he’s going to avoid a future move to the pen, but his varied pitch mix and control seem to point to him being able to handle the challenge.”
Neither Roa or Stoudt ever profiled as the #2/3 starters we’d love to have filling in behind The Treys so it’s just not worth sweating over them getting shelled in their first or second start of the season.
As for development, given what the development teams had to work with last year, I’d say they did a very good job. I cite Petty, Aguiar, Rivera, Parks, Cooper and other Daytona kids as examples. In addition, Abbott, Benschoter, Phillips all moved from A to AA somewhat quickly. And the system drafted, developed and promoted Greene, Lodolo and Ashcraft, as well as Diaz last year.
As for DJ, his development program has been in effect for one year. These are typically a minimum of three to five year programs to gauge success or not.
If he “cleans house”, do you really think there’s better guys just sitting out there waiting for a job in this organization? Sure find some young guys you can maybe poach and promote from other orgs, but you can still do that without jettisoning your entire minors coaching staff.
Last week Stoudt had an excellent outing and commenters were moving him up in their rankings, some even tabbing him as the next man up. This week Stoudt has a bad outing and the entire developmental staff needs to be fired and replaced. I wonder what tomorrow’s weather will bring.
LOL. So true.
#Redsfans
Poor Louisville hasn’t had a winning record since July 2016. Heck, they haven’t had a winning season since 2011. Do you think the Reds are suffering? You have no idea. This is a travesty.
Yeah the Louisville situation has taken me from being a season ticket holder and what I would describe as a pretty rabid fan of the team to the point now where I only occasionally even check the box scores. I haven’t attended a game for going on three seasons and don’t bother to tune into radio broadcasts anymore either. I’m biding my time and hopefully will live to see the day that the Bats are no longer affiliated with the Cincinnati Reds.
And I’m a lifelong Reds fan too. I thought it was the greatest development ever when the Bats became the Reds AAA team.
For the sake of argument let’s assume Barrero and Steer cement their jobs. Does that make McClain expendable? I suppose what I’m saying is with the top 7 prospects all position players maybe the Reds should move him in a package to a rebuilding team with some players outside the top 10 to acquire some pitching that can contribute to the big club NOW.
Might as well for the sake of argument assume that Larkin comes back and cements SS.
And now’s not the time to trade McLain, coming off a down season in AA.
Who said he had a down season?
2020ball: Me, plus most of the major scouting services. I live in Chattanooga and saw him struggle with contact for long stretches last season, and that’s how he’s dropped out of Top 100 rankings despite advancing a level, generating some power, and handling both middle infield positions on defense.
He’s a really good player. There’s a reason he was picked twice in the first round and came out of the gate roaring last season before he got sidetracked for a bit. But for long stretches last year he looked like a guy who might struggle to hit MLB pitching because there were two clear pitch/location holes to exploit. I think that issue will fall away, and it would be a shame to trade him before he shows that.
As long as David Bell is the manager, I would be reluctant to invest in the present and focus on the future instead.
A total guess but I’m thinking Nick was under pressure to sign someone with a name during the off-season to placate the Castellini‘s. Thus, we get stuck with Newman and Myers. I don’t think these were serious acquisitions to improve the fortunes of the team. Looks like Nick just tried to minimize the damage in my opinion.
So, Newman is a name?
? on a shoestring budget? Probably.
Hypothetically, speaking: Phil goes to Nick. Here’s a couple of shekels now go out and find me a couple of guys. We got a couple of guys! I’m guessing NICK is praying that he can move them before the trade deadline for something of value.
I don’t think McLain is the guy to move if that scenario happened. Marte would be the guy I’d move to fill other holes on the roster.
C Stephenson / (Casali / FA / Vellojin)
DH McGarry / Stephenson
1B CES / McGarry
2B India / McLain
SS Barrero / McLain
3B Steer / McLain
RF EDLC / (Benson / Hopkins)
CF Friedl / (Siani / Benson)
LF Fraley / McLain
McLain is a good SS, he’s spent a good amount of time at 2B, and also played CF in college. He seems to be the makings of a super utility if Barrero and Steer locked down SS and 3B. I don’t think they have, but this is how I could see it play out if they do. Marte wouldn’t be as good of a fit in that role, and he would probably get you a better return than McLain.
I don’t think so, but I understand the point you may be making. My perspective is a competitive MLB team needs more than eight everyday players. With the DH, there’s an opportunity to bat nine hitters daily. Over the 162-game season, players need rest to perform optimally. Also, injuries happen. Ideally, the Reds are building towards a team with four starting outfielders, five starting infielders, and two catchers. That’s eleven players rotating through nine lineup spots–enough to keep everyone sharp and avoid burning out players. The last two roster spots should go to role players with additional depth playing daily at AAA. I think we’re at least a year away from having enough roster depth to consider moving players because they are blocked. Quality depth is a differentiator over 162 games.
Thoughts from Dragons game last night. A couple of impressive things that didn’t count:
Hendrick pulled a long foul ball to right field that might still be in the air if it hadn’t hit the building across the street.
After hitting an opposite field home run Nelson pushed a beautiful bunt towards third and was thrown out by a step..
Thanks for this MK!! I love your insights from games you are at.
MK – why is it impressive for a player that is capable of hitting home runs to bunt into an out? A speed-challenged player at that.
In fairness to Louisville, their expected 2 best players (EDLC and CES) are not yet playing. Both should be among the best players in AAA when they come back.
I wouldn’t be so hasty to replace the pitching development staff that has developed Greene, Lodolo, Ashcraft and Diaz in the past year, especially based off 1 week of games this year. Anthony Abbott gave up no hits and walk, with 11 strikeouts, in his debut last week. Every pitcher on the roster is not a MLB prospect.
One positive from last night is that Rece Hinds had no strikeouts in 5 PAs, on a night where his teammates struck out 12 times.
Their more recent acquisitions via draft and trade have not been good at all. So far. About a 2-3 year drought at the moment in the pitching pipeline. The kind of thing that sinks a team, similar to the drought of 2011-2016. Some dumb luck may be required. Still early too.
The top 7 pitchers per my ranking currently have a cummulative ERA of 1.14 a WHIP of 0.676 to go with 14.1 K/9 IP and 3.4 BB/9 IP. These are pretty impressive numbers. These pitchers include:
Connor Phillips (ranked #5), Chase Petty (#6), Andrew Abbott (#7), Joe Boyle (#10), Jose Acuna (#19), Julian Aguiar (#24) and Javi Rivera (#29)
The only one who has even given up a run thus far is Joe Boyle. If you remove Joe Boyle’s stats you have the remaning 5 with an ERA of 0.00, WHIP of .458, 14.6 K/9 and 2.3 BB/9.
It is still early and I don’t anticipate any of these pitchers going the full season without giving up a run but this is a good start.
This is a system that graduated Greene, Lodolo and Ashcraft in 2022. No overhaul needed on the pitching side of the system. It seems to me that pitching development is pretty strong and not a weakness.
As for Stoudt, when acquired from Seattle in 2022 his ERA was 5.28 (87 IP). His career ERA in Louisville is 3.60.
Finally Roa has not been in my YE top 25 since I had him at #15 in 2020. You can blame development if you want but I tend to think Roa was a poor choice on draft day.
Add to this list Lyon Richardson who pitched 3 inning his last start allowing 1 hit, 0 BB, 7 K and 0 runs.
I am very excited to see how Richardson, Phillips, Abbott and Petty fare this year. I could see all 4 starting in the majors.
Good optimistic outlook, thanks.
I have a feeling that Abbott or Phillips will be starting on the Reds at some point this season. I don’t do personal rankings, but I’d put Petty as our top pitching prospect, and I could definitely see him as a call up at some point in 24.
A lot still needs to go right but the rotation by the end of 24 could be excellent.
Greene, Lodolo, Ashcraft, (Abbott / Phillips), Petty
I’d still sign a FA starter in 24, plus a closer and setup man to help solidify the pitching staff in 24.
Phillips is most likely a back-end reliever. Maybe a good one, but the stuff, build, command/control, and development timing/path (community college, 19 years old, 2020 draftee) all don’t seem to get him to the majors as a viable starter on a Rule 5-compliant clock. He’s pretty much a classic example of a guy you start until you can’t.
Maybe as much as any player in the system, I’m excited to see the progress of our 30 year old rookie manager at Daytona. I gave up on the game early and I could kick myself when I look at the final score. Actually, I’m going to go watch them play on the 21st against Palm Beach in Palm Beach. I’m very excited and taking my nephew along with me.