Last night saw the Dayton Dragons pick up a 3-1 win in Peoria. Michael Trautwein was the only Dragon to pick up multiple hits in the game, going 2-4 with a home run. The homer was his 4th of the season and his second in as many games.
Last season, Michael Trautwein didn’t play much. He spent 11 games in Single-A Daytona and then 30 more games with Dayton. He struggled at the plate, hitting just .173 between the two stops. This year he’s already played in 20 games and has more hits, more home runs, more triples, as many doubles, and one fewer walk than he had last season.
Over the first three weeks of the season he was solid, posting a .754 OPS in 12 games for Dayton. But over the last two weeks he’s turned things up a notch or two. Since April 26th he’s gone 11-30 and has hit .367/.406/.633. That’s helped push his season line up to .286/.375/.500.
Hector Rodriguez is heating back up
It’s been an up-and-down season for Hector Rodriguez down in Florida. In the first two weeks of the season he hit .265/.359/.588 and hit three home runs in his first 10 games of the season. But over the final 11 days of April he went 1-20 without an extra-base hit and finished the month with a .185 average.
Last night the outfielder picked up four hits, including two doubles. It was his 4th consecutive multi-hit game. It was his 5th multi-hit game of May. He’s had at least one hit in seven of the eight games he’s played during the month. The 19-year-old is hitting .389 and slugging .611 during the month in his 36 plate appearances. He hasn’t drawn a walk yet, but he’s making more contact than he did during April and flashing power like he hasn’t shown in his previous two seasons.
Another Elly De La Cruz record
Last night Elly De La Cruz made a throwing error. He was at third base and fielded a grounder, looked back the runner at second, then fired across the field to first base. The throw pulled Christian Encarnacion-Strand off of the bag and allowing the batter to reach safely. That’s the bad aspect of the play.
But there’s also something impressive with it. The throw came out of his hand at 100.2 MPH. That’s the top throw this season in professional baseball. It tops the previous high of 99.2 MPH by…. himself. Elly De La Cruz has four of the top 10 throws by infielders this season across MLB, Triple-A, and the Single-A Florida State League (all of which have Hawkeye installed and measure these things). The Reds organization has five of the top 10, as shortstop Leo Balcazar has the 6th spot on the list at 97.4 MPH.
Trautwein is in just his second year of full season ball in his age 23 season, he’s played C, OF and 1B and has looked fine in the OF in addition to !B, and is not your prototypical catcher in being long and lanky. Dayton announcers have described him as having leadership ability, as well., Last week, I threw out the idea of a mid-season promotion to AA, although MK, who has seen him a lot, thought he’d benefit from a full season at Hi-A. Either way, this seems like a case of unforced, more natural versatility. We might have something here, is my thought.
I’m very hesitant to ask this, but, has EDLC ever pitched? Not listed on BRef, but before the DSL?