There was a lot of movement on the farm on Tuesday as teams get set to begin a new series for the week. Daytona and Dayton are both set to begin their final series of the regular season. Daytona is out of the playoff hunt, but Dayton is still alive for a second half birth, though they will need to do plenty of winning and get some help to qualify in this final week.
Both teams, though, are getting some new additions this week. The biggest name on the move is infielder Ricardo Cabrera. Cincinnati’s 7th rated prospect, Cabrera hit .350/.469/.559 with 21 stolen bases in 23 attempts as an 18-year-old in Goodyear with the Arizona Complex League Reds. Now he’s going to spend the final week of the year with Single-A Daytona as the Tortugas hit the road to take on St. Lucie.
Cabrera isn’t the only player moving up from Arizona to join Daytona for the series against the Mets. Infielder Carlos Sanchez and right-handed pitchers Juan Martinez and Ben Brutti are also with the Tortugas. Sanchez hit .281/.468/.445 with as many walks – 44 – as strikeouts on the season. Brutti made 10 appearances with the Reds out in Arizona, starting six games and coming out of the bullpen for four others, and posted a 4.18 ERA in 28.0 innings with 36 strikeouts and 16 walks. Martinez pitched in one game with Daytona earlier this season, but has thrown 26.2 innings with the ACL Reds where he had 17 walks and 27 strikeouts to go with a 6.75 ERA in 26.2 innings.
Luis Mey has also been activated from the injured list for Daytona. St. Lucie is one of the two teams who broadcast their games on MiLB.tv, so if you have a subscription for that service you can tune in and watch the games this week.
Daytona is also losing two players to promotion. Starting pitcher Johnathan Harmon and reliever Brody Jessee are heading up to Dayton to join the Dragons. Harmon has pitched 88.1 innings this season with the Tortugas – mostly as a starter – and has a 3.97 ERA with 92 strikeouts and 33 walks on the year. Jessee has been stingy when it comes to allowing runs this season – he’s posted a 1.84 ERA in 29.1 innings for Daytona. But he hasn’t been stingy with the walks, handing out 21 of them. He has countered that with 43 strikeouts.
Dayton is gaining two pitchers, but they are losing one as well. Reliever Jayvien Sandridge is heading to Double-A to join Chattanooga. The lefty has posted a 3.81 ERA in 59.0 innings out of the Dragons bullpen this season. He’s walked a lot of guys – 47 of them to be exact – but he’s also struck out 84. His walks have dropped off over the last two months. Since July 19th he’s walked just 10 batters and had 42 strikeouts in 24.0 innings as he’s found more consistency within the strikezone.
Chattanooga is also picking up free agent signing Danis Correa, who was released by the Chicago Cubs a week ago. He split his season between Double-A with Tennessee where he had a 3.44 ERA in 18.1 innings and Triple-A Iowa where he allowed 14 earned runs in 9.0 innings. The Lookouts are losing pitcher Teddy Stankiewicz to promotion. He’ll move up to Triple-A and join Louisville. In his last five games he’s allowed seven runs in 21.2 innings (2.91 ERA) with five walks and 16 strikeouts.
Reds looking for a hitting coordinator
A job posting is now up for the Cincinnati Reds Minor League Hitting Coordinator. Cincinnati is one of the organizations who has moved into having multiple pitching and hitting coordinators. This season the Reds had Dave Hansen and Jim Rickon as their minor league hitting coordinators. Both joined the club in that role prior to the 2022 season. It is not clear if either have been let go, won’t be returning, promoted, taking another job within the organization, etc.
Most important item in this writeup may be the hitting coordinator news. It seems like there has been great progress across the board, and blog commenters are probably the last to make sense of it, but how much is simply player work, how much indirect organizational help, and how much direct hitting coach/coordinator effort? Finally, how much of this goes back to the changes DW made vs. more recent hires/drafts/player development?
Don’t want to necessarily argue for the status quo, but something is working well and they need to maintain and expand on that.
I’m hoping there is a promotion in this story, and not one to another org.
Victor Acosta to the 7-day IL. Cabrera up and leading off at 3B (23 draftee Pitelli) at SS).
Cabrera HBP first two Lo-A at bats …
Judging from Jessee’s ERA, walks don’t haunt very much. Same appears true of Sandridge.
What hurts here is they need to mature in STRIKE ZONE just because you throw HARD doesn’t mean success. Must hit the corners to successful in older leagues.
Not necessarily. Most guys can’t hit the corners all that often. You just can’t be in the middle of the zone all that much.