When Major League Baseball took over Minor League Baseball one of the under the radar changes that they made was the elimination of the All-Star games in the minors. Only the Dominican Summer League holds an actual game these days. The other leagues simply announce All-Stars at the midseason, end of season, or both. This week the A-ball leagues announced their end of season All-Stars and those teams included multiple Cincinnati Reds prospects.
In the Florida State League two players from the Daytona Tortugas were named All-Stars. Ichiro Cano was named as the league’s All-Star third baseman. Drew Davies got the nod as one of the three outfielders named to the team. One level up, the Midwest League gave the nod to Alfredo Duno as the All-Star catcher. He spent the first half with Dayton. Duno was also named as the league’s Top MLB Prospect.
Ichiro Cano finished 2nd in the league with a .297 batting average, a .412 on-base percentage, and 6th in the league with an .834 OPS. The season was one that began slow and finished strong. In the first half Cano had an OPS of .696 while playing in 50 games. During the second half he hit .343/.451/.484 in 59 games played.
Drew Davies finished 4th in the league with a .278 batting average, led the league with a .414 on-base percentage, and his .829 OPS was the 7th best mark in the league among qualified hitters. His season was also one of ups-and-downs. He hit well in April and May, but then struggled some in June and got out to a very tough start in July before he was sent back to Arizona after just seven games. He returned to Daytona in early August and went on a tear. Over his final 29 games of the season with Daytona he hit .337/.458/.614.
During the first half with Dayton, Alfredo Duno hit .260/.390/.512 with 13 doubles and 16 home runs. Over his 65 games played he scored 46 runs, drove in 47, and had 49 walks in his 295 plate appearances. The catcher was promoted to Double-A on June 30th and spent the rest of his season there (minus a nearly 4-week stretch when he was on the injured list).
The All-Star teams for Double-A and Triple-A have not yet been announced. The Dominican Summer League saw three prospects make the All-Star game back in July and two pitchers named to the All-Star team after the season ended.
Didn’t realize Davies and Cano had such nice years. Solid plate discipline from both too. Need to work both into my top 40 list somehow…
Would have thought Carter Graham was the Midwest League MVP for the first half and this should have gotten him end of season recognition there. If their answer is he was there only a half season then let’s go back a few years when CES was League MVP for a similar first half only at Cedar Rapids in the Midwest League. Carter spent the same amount of time in Dayton as Duno.
That’s what I like to see in minor leaguers. Both Cano and Davies progressed as the season went on. Both are now ready for the next level, and hopefully, go there with confidence.
To all the people in the know- can Davies keep up the power he showed in the last month or so. I seem to remember him being maybe 6’3″, does he have the build to add and keep some weight? Can he be more than a piece? Thanks to any help.
Others have written here about Davies improvements in making contact, plate discipline, etc., and that has lead to the thought that his next step will be getting to his power more while keeping that contact and batting eye.
He is listed as 6’3″ and 185. He doesn’t really have a super large frame but he’ll play next year at just age 21 so, sure, he can probably add strength.
His HR power will need to improve to be more than ‘a piece.’ My first thought was it might do so once getting out of the FSL ballparks. But then I saw that his 7 HRs were 13th best in the league with about 50 other players having more (the lead was 27 HRs). If you look at his doubles power, he had 18, which was 10th best with about 20 others with more (teammate Bernard Moon lead the league with 28).
Going into 2027, then, one thing to watch is whether Davies’ power continues to improve. His history has done that.
His first year in the ACL he slugged .316; his second year, it was .406.
His first year in the FSL, he slugged .320; his second year, it was .415.
Next stop, Dayton.
Thanks for the knowledge.
I am not sure I can be confused with those actually having knowledge. But you are welcome anyway.
I think that it’s certainly possible he’s got more power than he showed in the earlier part of his career, but also that he’s not the same kind of power hitter he showed in the final 5 weeks of the season.
The minor league baseball is juiced this year. Doesn’t seem likely that it was on purpose, but regardless, it is. It’s flying further and it’s helped just about everyone hit for more power.
With Daytona’s home park not having public hit tracking data things do get a little less confident when looking at his hit-level data. That said, when looking at the 130 batted balls he did have on the road in 2026, he doesn’t hit the ball all that hard. His EV50 on the road was 97.4 MPH. MLB average is 100. His hardest batted ball was just 106.3 MPH. He only had one other batted ball over 104.4 MPH (again, road only).
So when it comes to his power, specifically, I just don’t think he’s got a bunch of upside there. Not that he couldn’t hit some home runs, of course, but I don’t think he’s a 20 HR guy down the line, either.
unusual question, does a juiced ball have the same ability to ‘break’ and spin as a ball considered to be normal. weight is probably the same,but not the density
That’s a question that I don’t have an answer to. As far as I’ve seen we don’t even know *why* the ball is flying further this year in rookie through Double-A (Triple-A uses the MLB ball, which is not juiced).