Cincinnati Reds relief prospect Zach Maxwell was named to the MLB.com Prospect Team of the Week for his performance last week against the Tennessee Smokies.
The big right-hander made two appearances against the Smokies, throwing 1.2 innings while coming out of the Chattanooga Lookouts bullpen. In his two outings he didn’t allow a hit, walked just one batter, and he struck out six of the nine hitters that he faced.
Zach Maxwell’s out to a great start so far in the Southern League. His first outing of the year saw him strike out all three batters he faced against Birmingham. Combined with what he did last week he’s sitting at 3.2 innings pitched on the season, no hits allowed, no runs allowed, just one walk, and now has nine strikeouts. The only two batters who made contact? They both grounded out. It’s early, but Maxwell has been hilariously dominant on the mound to begin 2024.
Previewing the Week
Daytona is playing a road series this week in Bradenton. That’s a bigger deal for those who want to follow along because Bradenton is a part of MiLBtv and that means you can watch the games. The Florida State League has historically only had Bradenton and St. Lucie as the teams who have had their games broadcast on MiLBtv, but several other teams have joined the party this year. Still, it’s the league with the least amount of games you can watch among the Reds farm teams in full season ball so take advantage of it when you can.
Dayton is at home and they will be hosting Fort Wayne. San Diego Padres super prospect Ethan Salas is currently on the club. Salas is still just 17-years-old, and last season he reached Double-A in a late-season call up (he played in 48 games with the Single-A club in Lake Elsinore where he had an OPS of .837 and then nine games with Fort Wayne before his call up to Double-A for nine more games).
Chattanooga is hitting the road to take on Biloxi. The Lookouts, who were the second to last team in the minor leagues this year to pick up their first win has reeled off three wins in a row after dropping their first five games of the season.
Louisville is also hitting the road this week. They are heading to Iowa where presumably they won’t be playing in a corn field against ghosts, but instead against some of the prospects from the Chicago Cubs organization. The Bats are coming off of a series split at home against Columbus.
The Dominican Summer League
Earlier this spring I reported that the Reds would be going back to having two teams in the Dominican Summer League beginning this season. For paperwork reasons, they simply were listed as the DSL Reds 1 and the DSL Reds 2 when the second team was officially added back to the organization. Plenty of organizations have two teams in the DSL, and the Reds used to be one of those, too. But when they acquired the Greeneville franchise they dropped one of their DSL teams. Cincinnati is going back to using the DSL Reds and the DSL Rojos names this year, and the transaction wire is full of moves assigning players to the Rojos team. The roster isn’t full, but 17 players were moved to that roster on Monday.
The schedule for the Dominican Summer League still has not been released. With that said, it’s supposed to begin on May 4th. That’s the same day that the Arizona Complex League gets started, too. So we’re less than three full weeks out from having up to seven teams playing on a given day in the farm system.
4/16 Game Preview
| Team | Record | Time (ET) | Probable | Box Score | Listen | Watch |
| Louisville | 7-8 | 7:38pm | Kennedy | Here | Here | Here |
| Chattanooga | 3-5 | 7:35pm | Parks | Here | Here | Here |
| Dayton | 4-5 | 7:05pm | Hubbart | Here | Here | Here |
| Daytona | 4-5 | 5:30pm | TBA | Here | Here | Here |