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    Esmith Pineda (Photo: Aldrin Capulong/Daytona Tortugas)
    Photo: Aldrin Capulong/Daytona Tortugas

    Esmith Pineda named Florida State League Player of the Week

    Doug Gray 5

    Esmith Pineda has been named the Florida State League Player of the Week for his performance against the St. Lucie Mets. It’s the third week in a row that a Daytona Tortugas player has earned the award as Pineda joins Sammy Stafura and Trey Faltine in taking the honors home with him. Teammate Nestor Lorant also won the league’s pitcher of the week award this week, but he’ll get his own article and recognition tomorrow.

    It goes without saying, but I’m going to say it anyways – Esmith Pineda had a heck of a week. He played in all six games of the series, had a hit in all of those games, walked in four of them, and had three multi-hit games.

    When all was said and done, St. Lucie pitchers were running to get on the bus to head home on Sunday thankful that they wouldn’t have to face Pineda again this week. The Tortugas outfielder hit .524/.615/.762 by going 11-21 with two doubles, a home run, four walks, five runs, and seven runs batted in during the series.

    It’s been a tough year for Esmith Pineda. He hit just .121 in April and had a .376 OPS. He was a little better in May, but still had just a .569 OPS in the month. June got a bit better as he had a .659 OPS during that month. Last month saw him push his OPS in 16 games to .804, but he still hit just .241 (which was a season best). Once again he’s improved this month. Through his 15 games played in August he’s hitting .400/.508/.620 with as many walks as strikeouts (10).

    The last two months have pushed his season OPS to .692. While that doesn’t feel like it’s all that good, it’s 14 points better than the league average in the Florida State League – which continues to be the toughest league in baseball to hit in. After such a slow start he’s really turned things around. Hopefully he can carry that forward for the final three weeks of the regular season.

    Here are the other Cincinnati Reds players to win a Player of the Week Award in 2024:

    PlayerLeagueTime Frame
    Ricardo CabreraFlorida State LeagueApril 15-21
    Rhett LowderMidwest LeagueApril 22-28
    Carson SpiersInternational LeagueMay 6-12
    Tyler CallihanSouthern LeagueMay 6-12
    Juan MartinezFlorida State LeagueMay 13-19
    Jonathan HarmonMidwest LeagueJune 3-9
    Nestor LorantFlorida State LeagueJune 24-30
    Francisco UrbaezSouthern LeagueJune 24-30
    Ryan CardonaMidwest LeagueJuly 1-7
    Rhett LowderSouthern LeagueJuly 22-28
    Gabriel AguileraMidwest LeagueJuly 22-28
    Carlos JorgeMidwest LeagueJuly 22-28
    Cam CollierMidwest LeagueJuly 29-Aug 4
    Trey FaltineFlorida State LeagueJuly 29-Aug 4
    Sammy StafuraFlorida State LeagueAugust 5-11
    Esmith PinedaFlorida State LeagueAugust 12-18
    Nestor LorantFlorida State LeagueAugust 12-18

    Doug Gray
    Doug Gray is the owner and operator of this website and has been running it since 2006 in one variation or another.

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    5 Responses

    2. Right after the draft when I was daydreaming about what the 2025 teams were going to look like, I had written Pineda off to repeating at Daytona again since he was a toolsy 19 year old so repeating wouldn’t be that bad. Given his performance I’m now tending to think he’ll move up along with Almonte and Confidan who are 1 and 2 years older than Pineda respectively. They’ll likely have to fit Mike Sirota in there as well, but juggling 4 outfielders is something Dayton did quite successfully this year with Jorge, Allen, HRod, and O’Donnell, so I see no reason why they can’t do it again.

      Pineda is a corner OF who could grow into a 20+ HR kind of player, so it will be exciting to see if he can carry this momentum through the end of this season and into next season at the next level up. He could possibly become the breakout hitting OF the system so desperately needs to step up.

      Looking at his K rate by month if he can maintain what he is doing in terms of contact rates what he has done in July and August, he is going to get noticed on a national level very quickly.

      April: 37.5% (64 PA)
      May: 23.4% (77 PA)
      June: 25.5% (94 PA)
      July: 20.6% (68 PA)
      August: 16.4% (61 PA)
      Season: 24.7% (364 PA)

      And he has sported a solid walk rate this year too at 12.4%. Not quite at Sal Romano levels, but not that far off either. If he can keep that K rate below 20%, then he is going to be very dangerous at the plate.

      1. It’s a good 2024 story. Pineda, being a higher profile international signing but scuffling HARD, then pushing forward nonetheless. I agree, he goes up to Dayton next year. I’m eager to see what that outfield can do out of the FSL.

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