To say that the last few days have been incredibly hot for Rece Hinds would be an understatement. Going back to Saturday the outfielder is 10-16 with a double and four home runs. That’s a .625 batting average. His double and four home runs have led to a slugging percentage of 1.438. His OPS is 2.122. The four home runs he’s hit have gone a combined 1,781 feet. One of them was a walk-off in extra-innings – the first one of his career.
Rece Hinds has always hit for power. But with that power has come plenty of strikeouts. From the start of the season through June 8th, Hinds had 88 strikeouts and just nine walks in 206 plate appearances for Double-A Chattanooga. That is nowhere near enough walks and it’s entirely too many strikeouts. Last season saw Hinds also get out to a rough start, striking out nearly 50% of the time early on before adjusting and while still striking out more than you’d like to see, really cutting down on the strikeouts.
Going back to Saturday’s game, Rece Hinds has walked three times. He also has not struck out. He’s had 19 plate appearances in that time frame. For some players that might just be a good run of making contact, but for Hinds it’s something he’s never come close to doing before. Prior to this past weekend, Hinds had never gone more than two consecutive games without a strikeout. And he had only done that twice in his entire career.
Ricardo Cabrera carries it forward
After being the biggest international signing by the Reds in over a decade (non-Cuban professional) in January of 2022, Ricardo Cabrera got out to as bad a start as you could likely imagine. During his first month as a professional he hit .120/.274/.200 with 19 strikeouts and five walks in 62 plate appearances.
But when the calendar flipped to July it seemed like everything changed and he hasn’t looked back since. From July 1st of 2022 through today he’s played in 36 games between the Dominican Summer League and the Arizona Complex League and he’s hit .307/.414/.472. That’s come with 16 walks and 27 strikeouts in 153 plate appearances.