Connor Phillips threw six shutout innings and Miguel Hernandez homered in a 3-hit day during Louisville’s win, Julian Aguiar set a career high with 12 strikeouts in Chattanooga’s victory, Edwin Arroyo and Ruben Ibarra homered in Dayton’s win, and Ethan O’Donnell had three doubles in Daytona’s split of a doubleheader.
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The Louisville Bats won 5-4. Box Score
- Jacob Hurtubise went 3-5 with a double, steal (36), run, and an RBI.
- Drew Mount went 1-3 with a walk and 2 runs.
- Eric Yang went 3-4 with a run.
- Miguel Hernandez went 3-4 with a home run (4) and 3 RBI.
- Connor Phillips threw 6.0 shutout innings with a walk and 6 strikeouts.
- Silvino Bracho threw a shutout inning of relief with 2 strikeouts.
Game Notes
Jacob Hurtubise continued to just embarrass pitchers in the International League. He extended his hitting streak to six games. He’s now hitting .484/.619/.548 with 10 walks and just 4 strikeouts in 15 games with the Bats this season. Between his two stops this season he’s hitting .326/.473/.498 with 58 walks and 53 strikeouts in 98 games.
Eric Yang hasn’t gotten much playing time since joining Louisville in mid-June, playing in just 13 games, but he’s made his opportunities count and on Thursday night picked up three hits to raise his average to .364 with Louisville. He’s got 14 hits in 13 games with Louisville. He only had 9 hits in 22 games with Chattanooga in the first half.
Miguel Hernandez had been in a bit of a slump before Wednesday night’s pinch hit single. He was 2-10 in the previous week – all with Louisville. But Thursday night he rode his pinch hit from the night before to a 3-hit night that included his first homer with the Bats (4th on the season in 24 games since returning from injury).
Connor Phillips put together an outstanding start and he needed it in the worst way. He had not gotten out of the 2nd inning in any of his previous three starts (he did throw 2.1 shutout innings of relief behind a rehab start by Ben Lively in the middle of this). He had also walked6 batters with just 4 strikeouts in those three starts. Thursday night he pounded the strikezone, throwing 52 strikes on 83 pitches as he breezed through six shutout innings and had six strikeouts. His fastball got five of the six swings and misses he had in the game.
Top Pitch Velocity: Connor Phillips – 97.3 MPH (ball)
Top Exit Velocity: Jason Vosler – 98.3 MPH (flyout)
Furthest Hit Baseball: Miguel Hernandez – 395 feet (home run)
The Chattanooga Lookouts won 7-1. Box Score
- Tyler Callihan went 1-4 with a home run (9), steal (25), 2 runs, and 2 RBI.
- Rece Hinds went 1-4 with an RBI and a steal (19).
- Quincy McAfee went 1-4 with a home run (12).
- Austin Callahan went 1-4 with a run.
- Nick Northcut went 1-4 with a home run (10) and 2 RBI.
- Ivan Johnson went 1-4.
- Julian Aguiar allowed a run in 7.0 innings with 12 strikeouts.
- Ryan Meisinger threw a shutout inning with a strikeout.
- Eddy Demurias threw a shutout inning with a strikeout.
Game Notes
Blake Dunn‘s hitting streak came to an end at 14 games. But he did walk and steal a base, giving him 49 steals on the season. He now needs just one steal to join Gary Redus in the 20 homer – 50 steal club in the history of the Reds farm system (back to 1960 when we have full data).
Tyler Callihan extended his hitting streak to seven games. He’s hitting .419/.526/.710 in his eight games since joining the Lookouts.
Rece Hinds has not had a strikeout in five of his last eight games.
Julian Aguiar put together arguably the best start he’s ever had. He matched a career high with seven innings pitched (which also came against Pensacola on August 8th). He set a new career high with 12 strikeouts. His previous career high was 9, which he had done twice – once this season (April 8th for Dayton earlier this season and July 12th of 2022 when he was with Daytona). Over his last five starts, Aguiar has allowed six runs in 29.2 innings (1.84 ERA) with just two walks and 33 strikeouts. His ERA is down to 2.54 on the season in 117.0 innings with 129 strikeouts between Dayton and Chattanooga.
The Dayton Dragons won 2-1. Box Score
- Edwin Arroyo went 1-5 with a home run (12).
- Sal Stewart went 2-4.
- Jack Rogers went 2-3 with a walk and a double.
- Ruben Ibarra went 1-4 with a solo home run (15).
- Cade Hunter went 1-4.
- Justice Thompson went 2-4.
- Jose Acuna was charged with an unearned run in 3.0 innings with 2 walks and 6 strikeouts.
- Brooks Crawford threw 2.0 shutout innings with 3 strikeouts.
- Jayvien Sandridge threw 2.0 hitless innings with 2 walks and 4 strikeouts.
- Zach Maxwell threw 2.0 shutout innings with 5 strikeouts.
Game Notes
The Dragons pitchers combined for 18 strikeouts on the day and the only run given up was unearned and came in the 1st inning. Ruben Ibarra’s 15th homer of the year broke a 1-1 tie in the 6th inning and Dayton held on for the win. They have nine games remaining in the season and are now 3.5 games out of a playoff spot. There’s almost no wiggle room for them the rest of the way.
Jack Rogers had been 1-20 in his last five games before picking up two hits and a walk on Thursday night to break out of his slump.
Justice Thompson was used as a pinch hitter on August 29th. In the two games prior to that he had two hits in each game. On Thursday he had two hits as he remained hot.
Brooks Crawford continued to pitch well, tossing two more shutout innings. Since the start of July he’s thrown 37.0 innings with an ERA of 2.19. He’s walked 12 batters and struck out 42 during that run. His ERA on the season is down to 3.42 in his 76.1 innings with Dayton.
Zach Maxwell added five strikeouts to his total on the season and now has 91 of them in 57.2 innings pitched (and 35 strikeouts). Between his time in Daytona and Dayton his ERA is down to 3.12 (2.05 with Dayton in 22.0 innings).
The Daytona Tortugas split a doubleheader
Game 1: 2-1 win. Box Score
- Jackson Miller went 2-3 with 2 doubles and a run.
- Ethan O’Donnell went 1-2 with a walk and a run.
- Johnny Ascanio went 1-3 with an RBI.
- Dominic Pitelli went 0-1 with a walk and a steal (4).
- Jared Lyons allowed a run in 5.0 innings with 4 walks and 5 strikeouts.
- Arij Fransen threw 1.1 shutout innings with 3 walks and a strikeout.
Game 2: 6-4 loss. Box Score
- Jack Moss went 2-4 with a run.
- Cam Collier went 1-2 with 2 walks.
- Ethan O’Donnell went 2-3 with a walk, double, run, and an RBI.
- Allan Cerda (MiLB rehab) went 1-4 with a home run and 2 RBI.
- Carter Graham went 1-3 with a walk.
- Frainger Aranguren allowed 1 earned run in 3.1 innings with 2 walks and 3 strikeouts.
Gameday Notes
Ethan O’Donnell extended his hitting streak to seven games with a hit in each game on Thursday. He’s now hitting .340 through 14 games with Daytona.
Jackson Miller remained hot, picking up two hits in the first game of the doubleheader (he did not play in the second game). He’s now 12-31 (.387) in 10 games this season between Arizona and Daytona.
Cam Collier finished up August hitting .333/.439/.483 with 15 walks, 18 strikeouts, 7 doubles, and 2 home runs in 25 games played. His .922 OPS was easily the best he’s had all season in a given month, topping the .744 he put up in April.
Since returning from the injured list on July 19th, Jared Lyons has a 2.30 ERA through seven starts. He’s struck out 38 batters with 16 walks in 31.1 innings while giving up just 20 hits.
Brody Jessee only threw 0.2 innings in game one, but that lowered his ERA to 1.48 on the season in his 18 games/30.1 innings pitched this year.
Top 25 Prospects Rundown
9/1 Game Preview
| Team | Record | Time (ET) | Probable | Box Score | Listen | Watch |
| Louisville | 66-61 | 7:35pm | Stoudt | Here | Here | Here |
| Chattanooga | 67-55 | 7:35pm | Spiers | Here | Here | Here |
| Dayton | 62-61 | 7:05pm | Parks | Here | Here | Here |
| Daytona | 52-67 | 6:35pm | Pelio | Here | Here | N/A |
| ACL Reds | 28-28 | Season | Complete | Here | N/A | N/A |
| DSL Reds | 28-26 | Season | Complete | Here | N/A | N/A |
Has the switch.turned on for Tyler Callihan? Given previous season injuries and a so-so 2023 season at Hi-A (.236/.312/.373, a Hi-A K rate around 25% and walk rate of about 9%), is he now the hitter anticipated in the draft? I recall him being a bat first infielder when drafted, but of the times I’ve seen him at 2B, I’d say he’s really improved. He’s still relatively spot on for age compared to level being played, so maybe he’s finally healthy and figuring things out. Another middle infielder on the rise, who’d have thought?
I get the Super Callihan bros. confused with each other. We can use all the infield talent we can get. You just never know what will happen tomorrow.
Jose Acuna at 97 innings this season after pitching 65 in 2022. Seems like his mound time may be winding down. That’s a pretty steep increase in one year these days.
For comparison, Aguiar is at 117 innings, up from 96 last year. Makes Petty even more of an outlier.
He only has two starts to go in his season so he should be OK.
Pretty good prospect performances last night.
O’Donnell began slow his pro career but get hot after 7 games played… I think he Is not considered a top prospect right now..
Zach Maxwell and Brooks Crawford have been good. Are they the near future relievers have been Reds waiting for?
Louisville lower OPS of the last night lineup was .824 (Vosler as cleanup hitter). It is insane..
Nice rebound from Phillips after two rough outings recently..
What do we expect from Jacob Hurtubise? Wow…
Brett Butler (ironically, given his spring training oresence with the Reds) may be a good comp for Hurtubise. Or Kenny Lofton. I’m not sure how retro baseball will go with speed and defense, but if it goes full-80’s Hurtubise could find a niche.
Doug, around where do you envision Hurtubise landing in your top prospects list post season? Or does he make it? TIA
I am not sure if he makes the top 25 but he sure has been impressive. I have moved him ahead of Siani but Siani did not make my top 25 either.
If somebody grabs Siani off of DFA, it’ll be moot.
He’s in the conversation for the back end of the list. We’ll have to see how everything shakes out between now and Halloween (I usually update the list the first week of November – it allows me to put in the time to do all of the research, see/hear what happens in instructional League, and see a little bit of fall ball – that stuff doesn’t usually change much, but every so often it can).
The Reds have recent graduations with Greene, Lodolo, Ashcraft, Abbott and Williamson.
Add to that the breakout seasons by Connor Phillips, Lyon Richardson and Chase Petty.
Add to that the drafting of college pitchers Rhett Lowder and Ty Floyd.
That is 10 pitchers. 8 of them are under team control thru at least 2029.
Very impressive.
But don’t forget Julien Aguiar. His last 5 starts in Chattanooga he has a 30.3% K%, 1.8 BB% and a 28.4% K%-BB%. 69% of his pitches have been for strikes.
That makes 11pitchers who have a chance to be SP in the majors.
Carson Spiers is a sleeper in this context as well. He’s impressive the way goes about business. Really attacks hitters and is Sonny Gray-like competitive. Levi Stoudt needs another full season before he’s downgraded to the bullpen, IMO, too.
This depth is one reason why the losses of Gutierrez, Dunn, Antone, etc are not that significant over a few seasons. Though it’s a little hard to put Petty and Acuna at a AA level of experience (and innings), this stable of AA and AAA arms is full of young talent and fellows eager for their chance.
Kyle Boddy had a really big thread on Spiers a couple weeks ago on Twitter. He’s a big fan.
Matt, thanks. I’ll check it out. I’ve been impressed.
Link to Boddy post on Spiers
https://twitter.com/drivelinekyle/status/1691508715374178304
You really trust this? It looks like fools gold.
Maxwell with first save at High A, Jessee with 3rd save at Low A. Both could be future BP pieces in Cincy.
With Jacob Hurtubise’s performance last night (went 3-5 with a double, steal (36), run, and an RBI) his OBP in 15 games in Louisville FELL to .619. Absurd.
Jackson Miller seems to be trying to make up for lost time.
With Nelson promoted, Cade Hunter might get a few reps catching, which would be nice given this run of catchers not catching
Hayden Jones at Dayton went from July 23 to August 30 without playing.
That’s got to be discouraging.
Next year might be interesting with Hunter, Tanner, And Burns looking at Dayton assignments. I wonder if they’ll keep Burns in Florida. One thing about Tanner is he can really throw,
It’s an interesting tactic that the Reds organization is doing. I don’t recall so many C’s not being C’s. They seem to be picking the more offensively minded C’s for this hybrid role. We’ll see if it bears fruit in a few years.
Aguiar has really seemed to find a grove in AA. He had a bit of a transition time, but is looking good now.
AA 2024 will be stacked with pitchers, hopefully there will be enough offense on the team to keep up with them.
With September and the thought of fall have to wonder who might be the Reds representatives to the Arizona Fall League. Don’t know if Hurtubise works off any of his military obligations in the offseason but he would be a good candidate.
I’ve wondered about some of the AA infielders such as Johnson, Urbaez, Quintana if healthy and now Callihan. They’ve all missed a fair amount of time in the last year or so. If the Reds do move on from Alejo Lopez, Senzel, or even Reynolds, AAA will need depth while the next wave of kids goes to AA and Hi-A. Plus guys like Johnson can be add ins in trades if they show enough to be a decent utility player.
I also think about getting a catcher out to the AFL, given the depth in the organization. It’s probably too early for Burns but it may not be for Trautwein or Tanner. Even Hunter.
Jackson Miller – needs as much playing time as possible.
Wonder what the story is with Ty Floyd. If the development staff thought it was beneficial for Rhett Lowder to be assigned to the Dragons and the Developmental list, why wouldn’t it be just as beneficial for Floyd to be sent somewhere?