The Cincinnati Reds selected Cassidy Brown in the 12th round of the 2016 draft out of Loyola Marymount University. In his first two seasons at Loyola Marymount he struggled to hit in part-time action. A mechanical change at the plate really turned things around for the catcher in his junior season. After hitting just three doubles (with no triples and no home runs) in 210 at-bats between his freshman and sophomore seasons, he went out and hit 17 doubles, a triple and six home runs in 209 at-bats as a junior. His slash line would come up at .325/.394/.502 and help get him noticed and drafted by the Reds.
Cassidy Brown was sent to the Pioneer League to join the Billings Mustangs after the draft. In his first game as a professional he went 1-3 with a solo home run, a walk and he was hit by a pitch. He hasn’t looked back since. Last night he went 4-5 with a double, pushing his line on the season to .371/.452/.448 to go along with as many walks, 15, as strikeouts over the span of 126 plate appearances. He’s also held the running game in check behind the plate, throwing out 38% of attempted base stealers this season.
Aristides Aquino obliterates a baseball
Last night the Daytona Tortugas were down 3-0 in the 9th inning with a runner on base for Aristides Aquino. The outfielder smacked a home run to make it a 3-2 game. Daytona would tie things up later in the inning and eventually win the game in 12. The home run, thanks to the Trackman system in place at all of the Reds minor league parks, came off the bat at 111 MPH. Here’s the list of Cincinnati Reds Major Leaguers who have hit a baseball harder than that this season, home run or not: Jay Bruce. That’s the entire list.
The home run last night gave Aquino 20 for the season. Last year Phillip Ervin led the system with 14 home runs. The year before Marquez Smith hit 30, but he was also 29-years-old and spent a majority of his time playing in Advanced-A Bakersfield where it’s 354 feet to dead center. No one else that year topped 17. We’ve got to go back to 2013 to find players under 29 in the system who hit 20 or more home runs, when both Kyle Waldrop and Juan Duran hit 21 and 20, also for Bakersfield that season.
Speaking of Aquino, I wrote a little bit more about him earlier today over at Redleg Nation. I also uploaded some video of him from my trip to Daytona, which you can watch below.
Bea Amaral wins IL Player of the Week
It’s been a tough season for Beau Amaral, who had to undergo Thoracic Outlet Syndrome surgery to have a rib removed that was causing bloodclots and extreme swelling in his arm. He would miss nearly two months before returning to the field. He would go out and hit .387 on the week to go along with two doubles, a triple and a home run. His line for the week was .387/.441/.613.
Other Notes
Dilson Herrera made a pinch hitting appearance last night, striking out. It was the first time he has played in a week, and only the second time in 11 days.
The Billings Mustangs were on MiLB.tv last night as they took on the Idaho Falls Chukars. I didn’t get to catch all of the game, but did see the final six innings. I had my stopwatch out for every T.J. Friedl at-bat and he bunted for a single in one of them. The time? 3.40 seconds from home to first. To put that in perspective, that’s Billy Hamilton kind of fast.