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    Christian Encarnacion-Strand’s hot hitting grabs some attention

    Doug Gray 14

    Christian Encarnacion-Strand has only played in seven games this season, but he has announced his presence with authority in ways that Nuke Laloosh only wishes he could have. The corner infielder missed the first three-and-a-half weeks of the regular season as he dealt with a slight herniation of one of the discs in his back. Since returning he’s been nothing short of incredible at the plate. Over his 32 plate appearances he’s hitting .448 thanks to 13 hits in 29 at-bats. Nearly half of those hits have gone for extra bases, slugging four home runs and adding in two doubles. That’s led to a .931 slugging percentage. A walk and two hit by pitches has also given him an on-base percentage of .500.

    All of that caught the eye of the crew over at Baseball America, who has Christian Encarnacion-Strand at number two on their prospect hot sheet today. One fun note that they had in their paragraph write up for the Reds prospect was that his four home runs are second on the team to Matt McLain despite playing in just seven games.

    The week also landed Encarnacion-Strand on MLB Pipeline’s Prospect Team of the Week. But he wasn’t the only Reds prospect to make that team. Carlos Jorge also made the team for his performance down in Florida with Daytona. The second baseman hit .500/.524/.750. He played in five games against Fort Myers this past week and picked up multiple hits in four of them. The 19-year-old left-handed hitter went 10-20 with two doubles, a home run, a walk, and he went 4-for-4 in stolen bases.

    Ever since signing, Carlos Jorge has been one of the top hitters in each of the leagues he has played in. That’s holding true once again this year. Through 18 games played he’s hitting .323/.409/.532 for the Tortugas. He’s in the top 10 in average, and top 5 in the league in both slugging and OPS.

    Surprisingly not on either list was Blake Dunn. He was named the Midwest League’s Player of the Week yesterday. All he did last week for Dayton was hit .550/.667/1.050 for the Dragons. Seems tough to believe that there were three outfielders who did better than that, or that somehow that performance didn’t warrant making the hot sheet, but here we are.

    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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    14 Responses

    2. Carlos Jorge from a size, position, production and skills standpoint seems very similar to Alejo Lopez at the same spot in his career.Hopefully this does not diminish Carlos’s future in people’s eyes.

      1. I think Jorge hits with more power than Lopez has, or can. He’s also has a couple of inches on Lopez.

        Of the top prospects, I think CES is the 1st to get the call up. The need is there for a 1B, and he’s crushing AAA pitching (short sample size) this year.

    3. CES catching the attention of everybody…..except the Reds FO. Maybe they’ll call him up or maybe they’ll trade him for a 35 year old journeyman outfielder.

      2. You’re so right, I love the reds been a fan for 70 years, but this front office is the worst I’ve seen. Big fan of Vada Pinson should be in the hof but the reds fo did nothing to help get him in,so sad.

      3. Interesting that people are thrilled with the performance of CES can be critical of the front office that brought him, Steven Hajjar and Spencer Steer here for Tyler Mahle.

        Makes sense that you can be disappointed about the performance of CES/Steer and critical of the front office or excited about the performance of CES/Steer and excited about the post-Williams front office.

        Being excited about CES and critical of the team that brought him here makes no sense to me.

        1. I’m critical for the slow drag the FO is doing with its prospects. If you’re going to rebuild then rebuild, not swap this year’s 30-somethings for last year’s 30-somethings. FO is to be commended for the trades but even a blind pig finds an acorn.

        2. “swap this year’s 30-somethings for last year’s 30-somethings”

          Can you give us examples of what you mean by this statement?

          1. I’m guessing he means to just play the young guys this year instead of bring in guys like Newman, Ramos, Vosler, Myers, Casali/Maile, Reynolds types.

    4. Let’s rate some of the Reds trades by the current FO:

      Mahle to the Twins for CES, Steer and Hajjar: A+

      Steer has held his own and could turn out to be a regular in the majors. Worst case scenario he fills a role as a quality bench bat. CES looks to be a star in baseball. Hajjar was traded to Cleveland to complete the Benson trade.

      Mahle was injured a month prior to the trade and has been injured for the most part with the Twins. He becomes a FA at the end of the year and has provided little to no value thus far.

    5. Andrew Abbott Watch.

      5 IP, 2 hits, 0 runs, 2 BB, 8K’s

      79 pitches, 47 strikes.

    6. Tyler Naquin to the Mets for Hector Rodriguez and Jose Acuna: A

      Six months ago this was my favorite trade by Reds management last summer. CES has changed that though. Still this was a fantastic haul for Naquin.

      Hector Rodriguez: Rodriguez has struggled in Daytona since the first week of the season. It seems like he got power hungry and that has led to far too many K’s. I have him ranked #14 on my prospect list as of YE 2022.

      Jose Acuna: Acuna has been one of the three best starting pitchers in Dayton thus far this year (Julian Aguiar, Hunter Parks). I have him ranked #19 on my prospect list.

    7. Brandon Drury to the Padres for Victor Acosta: C

      Like Naquin, Drury was a soon to be FA. Acosta for two months of Drury is fair. But I am not overly thrilled with Acosta. I have him at #31 on my prospect list. His line of .200/.323/.327 has not moved him up any. I am hoping Doug’s ranking of the #16 prospect is better. If so I would make this trade a B.

    8. It’s amazing the power that EDLC and CES generate with completely different body types. Elly is tall, lean, and quick (Randy Moss, young Michael Jordan). CES is like a wall, low center of gravity, could play a live-action clone trooper.

      I’d probably bring the latter up in a month or so. I think McLain might get the call sooner than CES. Abbott is really knocking at the door all the sudden.

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