Louisville remained hot, picking up another win that saw Elly De La Cruz pick up two hits and another walk while TJ Hopkins and Michael Siani both crushed their 6th home run of the season, Nick Quintana hit a 1st inning grand slam and the Lookouts never looked back in a blowout victory, Carlos Jorge continued to rake for Daytona, and the Dayton Dragons were no-hit.
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The Louisville Bats won 7-1. Box Score
- Elly De La Cruz went 2-3 with a walk, steal (5), run, and 2 RBI.
- Christian Encarnacion-Strand went 2-4 with a double, run, and an RBI.
- Jason Vosler went 2-4 with a double and a run.
- TJ Hopkins went 1-4 with a home run (6) and 3 RBI.
- Michael Siani went 1-3 with a walk and a home run (6).
- Alejo Lopez went 1-3 with a run.
- Brett Kennedy allowed a run in 5.0 innings with 2 walks and 3 strikeouts.
- Eduardo Salazar threw 2.0 shutout innings with 3 strikeouts.
- Ricky Karcher threw 2.0 hitless innings with a strikeout.
The Chattanooga Lookouts won 12-6. Box Score
- Noelvi Marte went 1-4 with a walk, steal (7), and 2 runs.
- Ivan Johnson went 1-3 with 2 walks, a double, 2 runs, and an RBI.
- Alex McGarry went 2-4 with a walk, triple, 2 runs, and 2 RBI.
- Rece Hinds went 1-4 with a home run (3) and 3 RBI.
- Nick Quintana went 1-4 with a grand slam (2).
- Daniel Vellojin went 1-4 with a run.
- Allan Cerda went 1-3 with 2 runs. He was also hit by a pitch.
- Nick Northcut went 1-3 with a walk and an RBI.
- Ashton Creal went 0-2 with 2 walks and a run.
- Carson Spiers threw 3.1 shutout innings of relief with a walk and 4 strikeouts.
- Stevie Branche threw a shutout inning with 2 strikeouts.
The Dayton Dragons lost 6-0. Box Score
- Michael Trautwein went 0-1 with 2 walks.
- Jayvien Sandridge threw 2.0 hitless innings with a walk and 4 strikeouts.
- Myles Gayman threw 2.0 perfect innings with 3 strikeouts.
Game Notes
The Dragons were no-hit.
The Daytona Tortugas lost 2-1. Box Score
- Cade Hunter went 1-4.
- Carlos Jorge went 2-4 with a double, steal (9), and a run.
- Hector Rodriguez went 1-4.
- Victor Acosta went 1-3 with a steal.
- Tanner Cooper allowed two runs in 5.0 innings with a walk and a strikeout.
- Ryan Cardona threw 3.0 shutout innings with a walk and 5 strikeouts.
5/17 Game Preview
| Team | Record | Time (ET) | Probable | Box Score | Listen | Watch |
| Louisville | 18-21 | 11:05am | Aranguren | Here | Here | Here |
| Chattanooga | 15-18 | 11:15am | Boyle | Here | Here | Here |
| Dayton | 15-19 | 7:05pm | Petty | Here | Here | Here |
| Daytona | 14-20 | 6:30pm | Hubbart | Here | Here | N/A |
Hopkins with another blast off a left hander! Wish more people in the reds community were talking about him. Other than Doug and a few other solid reds fan accounts on Twitter I never see Hopkins brought up. Hopefully he gets his chance soon
Agree. This is TJ’s second consecutive good year in the high minors. His future may be as a platoon RH bat with some pop but there is good value in that. The K’s are the main concern I’ve seen. But he’s another guy who has moved up level by level and earned an opportunity.
Time for him to replace Stuart Fairchild?
If Hopkins continues to progress, he might have a MLB career as a 4th OF/platoon type, or if things go really well, he may be able to carve out an Adam Duvall type career. Nothing to get excited over, really, considering all the other pieces in our system that we CAN get excited about.
30% K rate will keep you off the front pages. He has to solve that issue.
Hey Patrick! Don’t look now, but EDLC this seasons is now sporting a 12+% BB rate and 27% K rate.
14% and 21% since the 5 game slump he started the season with. If anything near that continues for another few weeks then there’s absolutely nothing left keeping him down
They won’t move India to the OF mid season but this group is very flexible
India – 2B / 3B / DH
McLain – SS / 2B / OF
Steer – 1B / 3B / 2B
De La Cruz – SS / 3B
Senzel – 3B / 2B / OF
Barrero – SS / OF (probably AAA when all is said and done)
Newman – SS / 2B / 3B ( days are probably numbered)
When either of Votto/CES join in they’ll have to drop the 3 catcher system though.
If they bring EDLC up in the next month or so the Reds actually have a chance to win the division. If so then Bell has to do what is best for the team and that means India goes to LF.
C Stephenson
1B Steer
2B McLain
SS EDLC
3B Senzel
LF India
CF Friedl
RF Fraley
DH (Votto, Myers, Fairchild, Barrero)
Ramos goes when EDLC is brought up. Either Myers or Newman goes when/if Votto comes off the DL.
In 2024 Votto and Myers are gone and the players outside the 8 position players above will include Fairchild, Benson (hopefully), Barrero, Marte???, CES??? and Newman.
@stock, how is putting India in LF the right thing? Have you ever seen India play LF, much less the outfield? Please explain this, because I’m apparently missing something.
I am considering April as EDLC’s spring training. If he can put up stats like he has in May for the next 3/4 weeks he will be in the majors. For May:
1. He has a 17% BB% and a 17% K%.
2. His OPS is 1.215
3. He has increased his YTD OPS in 11 of his 13 games played this month. Very consistent month.
4. He has struck out twice in only two games this month and has yet to strike out more than twice in a game.
5. He has reached base in all 13 games this month.
6. He has reached base at least 2 times in a game in 10 of the 13 games he has played this month (May 2, 7 and 10 he reached only 1 time).
He has to be the favorite to win International League player of the month for May now that McLain is in Cincinnati.
Like I said if he did not improve in these areas he would not be able to hit Major League pitching. He has improved so far. But it is a small sample size.
So I guess he has taken my advice
His whole career is a small sample size. And you didn’t say ‘he needed to improve’ you said the analytics state he WONT succeed and a lot of Reds fans would be disappointed.
Andrew, It is common sense that I did need to say he would need to improve in those areas to succeed in the MLB.
If he stayed at those BB and K rates he would project to fail at the MLB level analytically without change in skill set.
Well his career really is not a small sample size from a statistical stand point.
In analytics projections are based off of 4 things for a hitter
BB% K% ISO and Babip
If there’s one thing you can nitpick about with CES, it’s that his walk rate has dropped with each promotion. We know there are successful players in the bigs with similar profiles, but it certainly puts a lot of pressure on players like that to hit hit hit.
CES certainly has his work cut out for him based upon your analysis. To drop his BB% from AAA to the majors will be a difficult chore. :)
Baseball is a funny game. Lookouts unleash a 9 hit, 12 run pounding and after that the box score shows six players hitting below .200, another at .200, and the other two at .218 and .268.
Eduardo Salazar one of the promotions up to AAA. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see him Cincy by July. The move to the bullpen is a really good example of a guy’s stuff playing up with the move. Sitting 95, touching 99. Works quickly, efficient. This could be a true player development success.
Agree with you on this. He may be next up if injury occur’s after June 15. LOL on your works quickly comment. I think everyone does now.
Haha, yeah. Always read post before hitting send
You make a great point Dave. Everyone on here blasts the Reds player development. I don’t see it, especially on the pitching side. The Reds pulled Farmer, Gibaut, Law and Young off the scrap heap and turned them into quality RP. The Reds development can’t necessarily take the credit for 1st round picks Lodolo and Greene but they deserve credit for developing 6th round pick Ashcraft. Abbott has improved dramatically. The Dayton starting pitching has been fantastic. Did they fix Weaver? Lively has looked great. Herget has looked great. Even Roa looks like he belongs now. It would be nice to have one more SP for right now but in the long term pitching seems to be a strength.
This is Year 2 if the DJ top to bottom pitching development program. I’m not qualified to determine if results are showing up. But I did think we’d see a trickle last year and some more this year, before a larger system wide impact. And to be fair, that impact may or not occur, let alone be positive. We shall see.