In 2018 Miguel Hernandez hit .301 for the Greeneville Reds. That earned him a week long promotion to the Billings Mustangs to end the season. The Reds sent him to Low-A Dayton to play with the Dragons to start the 2019 season. For the most part, it’s been a struggle at the plate for Hernandez. Through 118 games he’s hitting .245/.286/.335 on the year.
In April and May he struck out 55 times and had just 12 walks in 189 plate appearances. That’s a walk rate of 6.3% and a strikeout rate of 27.5%. Since June began, though, he’s really cut down on the strikeout rate. In 261 plate appearances since the start of that month and he’s struck out just 35 times. That’s a strikeout rate of just 13.4%. While the strikeout rate declined in a massive way, it didn’t immediately start showing up in turning out hits at a higher rate.
In June he hit .247, and that was followed up with a .216 mark in July. But things have really turned around in August for the 20-year-old shortstop from Venezuela. After going 3-3 last night for Dayton he’s now hitting .429 over his last 10 games and for the month of August he’s up to .345/.375/.500.
Connor Curlis keeps getting it done
If you would like a sobering stat about just how poorly the Reds pitching has been from a starting perspective in 2019 at the minor league level, let me hit you with this: There have been 21 pitches throw 75.0 or more innings on the farm this year. Three of them have an ERA under 4.00 – and one of them, Scott Moss, was traded to another organization in July. Packy Naughton has a 3.15 ERA in 145.2 innings between Daytona and Chattanooga this year. The other pitcher is Connor Curlis. Another fun fact: All three of those pitchers are left handed.
The season didn’t begin on time for Connor Curlis. The former Ohio State Buckeye began the year back in extended spring training. His first appearance didn’t come until May 20th and it came in relief. He only threw 0.2 innings that night, but three days later he took the mound as a starter. And that’s where he stayed through July 4th. He was promoted to Daytona to make two spot starts for the Tortugas in the middle of July, but returned to Dayton on July 20th.
That’s when the left-handed starter went on a real run. But his first game back came out of the bullpen, tossing 4.0 shutout innings with six strikeouts. He was back in the rotation the next time through and he’s remained there. Last night he allowed just one earned run over 6.0 innings.
After last night his ERA over his seven games since that July 20th appearance is 1.14. That run has helped drop his ERA on the season between both Dayton and Daytona to 2.27 over his 79.1 innings pitched. Curlis has allowed just 73 hits and walked 31 batters to go along with 73 strikeouts.
Since being called up from extended spring training, Connor Curlis has been rather consistent – with the lone exception coming in June. In May he posted a 2.79 ERA. In July his ERA was 1.78. And so far in August it’s 1.16. June, however, saw his ERA sit at 4.50. He struggled with control int he month, walking 15 batters in 16.0 innings. He’s walked 16 batters in the remaining 63.1 innings he’s thrown this season.