Last night the Surprise Saguaros game in the Arizona Fall League was one of the options you could watch live on MLB.com. There were plenty of Cincinnati Reds participating in the game. All three of their position players took the field with the starting lineup, but two relievers from the organization also took the mound late in the game.
Zach Maxwell threw 2.0 shutout innings while allowing a hit, two walks, and three strikeouts. He entered the game with two outs in the 6th inning and struck out the first batter he saw on three pitches to end the inning. He would come back out and pitch in both the 7th and 8th, completing his outing with two outs in the 8th inning as he reached 36 pitches.
Maxwell walked the final two batters he saw. Teammate and organizational mate Jayvien Sandridge entered to try and bail Maxwell out. The lefty walked the first batter he saw, loading the bases, but he rebounded by striking out the next hitter to strand the tying run at third base. In the bottom of the 9th he allowed a run before completing the inning.
While Sandridge did get charged with an earned run in the game, it was the first one he had allowed in 4.2 innings across four outings for Surprise. The left-handed reliever has given up three hits, walked two batters, and he’s now struck out eight batters. He’s held batters to a .176 average so far.
Maxwell has given up two runs in his 6.0 innings across four outings. That’s a 3.00 ERA. He’s struck out 10 batters, but he’s also given up five hits and walked five batters. The sample size is small, but this is similar to his regular season where he racked up strikeouts and walks (he had 38 walks and 96 strikeouts in 61.1 innings this year).
Speaking of Reds relievers, Baseball America’s Geoff Pontes took a look at the whiff rate leaders in the minor leagues on the 4-seam fastball in 2023. He listed the top 25 pitchers on the list and three of those pitchers are in Cincinnati’s farm system. The article will require a subscription over there to read, so I won’t dive into the data that comes along with it all.
If you’re wondering which of the Reds pitchers was on top of the list, though, it was Pedro Garcia. He came in at the #3 spot overall. He dominated in Double-A Chattanooga in 2022, posting a 2.17 ERA in 49.2 innings with 58 strikeouts while allowing just three home runs and walking 19 batters. But in 2023 his control was an issue as he walked 28 batters in 37.0 innings with the Lookouts and another 12 in 13.0 innings in Louisville. He also wound up allowing 12 home runs in his 50.0 innings, resulting in a 6.30 ERA. Garcia did strike out 78 batters across the two levels.