The Cincinnati Reds had a duo of prospects make the Baseball America Prospect Hot Sheet for their performances over the last week. Outfielders Aristides Aquino and Scott Schebler both made the cut after torrid weeks of play.
Aristides Aquino cracked the list at #3 after hitting .650 and slugging 1.250. His game last night, going 5-5 with a double and a triple helped put him over the top of an already outrageous week. As I wrote earlier this week, he is passing the eye test with flying colors right now. I will have a ton more video of him when I get back to Cincinnati and have a chance to edit it all together, but here’s a video of his home run from earlier this week.
He’s been tearing the cover off of the ball for the last two months. Since the start of June he’s hitting .333/.371/.655 with 11 walks and 28 strikeouts. His 11 doubles, nine triples and nine home runs in that span is incredible. The Florida State League as a whole is slugging just .355. That means in that span the Daytona Tortugas outfielder is slugging .300 points higher than the average player. I’m not Branch Rickey, but I’m decent enough at math to know just how impressive that is.
Scott Schebler comes in on the list at #7 this week. The Louisville Bats outfielder hit .600 and slugged 1.280 for the week. Much like Aquino, Schebler has been ripping the cover off of the ball for more than the last week. He also had a 5-5 game this week, though his included hitting for the cycle. Since the start of June, Schebler has posted a .362/.426/.678 line for the Bats in 223 plate appearances. That’s an OPS of 1.104. I wrote a little more in depth on Schebler earlier this week and how he may be ready to step in for Jay Bruce if the team decides to move him before the upcoming trade deadline, particularly in the short term.