Ronald Torreyes began 2011 as one of the most hyped prospects in the system, but was still a bit of an unknown quantity. The 17 year old hit .390 in Venezuela during the 2010 season before getting called over to the US where he would hit .349 for the AZL Reds in 89 plate appearances before getting 24 trips to the plate for Dayton in the last week of the season. For his age, the numbers were flat out incredible (though they would have been pretty incredible even if he weren’t among the youngest player in each league), but the reports on him were scarce and no video existed of him on the internet. So the mystery remained a big one over the offseason heading toward 2011 as to exactly what to expect out of this guy that 99.9% of us hadn’t had a chance to see in action. Most expected him to be in Dayton to begin the season, but he was held back in extended spring training in favor of Devin Lohman.
In June the time had come to bring Torreyes to Dayton. He arrived with two games left in the first half of the season and almost instantly provided a spark to the offense that had been lacking. The short second baseman played nine games in the month and hit .395/.425/.447 to help the Dragons start off the second half of the season on the right foot.
When the calendar flipped to July, the native Venezuelan continued his hot hitting ways as he would post a line of .386/.426/.518 over 114 at bats where he walked 7 times and only struck out in four at bats. He would score 27 runs in 28 games during the month and drive in 17 out of the number two spot in the line up as the Dragons went 19-9 on the month to begin to pull away from the rest of the league.
Down the stretch of August and September as the Dragons were not only pushing for the playoffs but pushing for several team records for most wins in a half and season Torreyes went out and continued to help set the table for the middle of the line up in Dayton. With a .317/.365/.405 line over 126 at bats he went on to lead the Dragons to the best record in the Midwest League.
Overall Thoughts
To consider the 2011 season as anything but a big success would be crazy. Torreyes was one of only three players in the league under the age of 19 on the offensive side of the ball (along with teammate Yorman Rodriguez and Cheslor Cuthbert of the Royals) and he had the second best average in the entire league for anyone with at least 140 at bats in the league. He has a little bit of pop in his bat and its a surprising amount of pop when you look at his size. Defensively he has the ability to be an above average second baseman as well. He is an elite contact hitter and despite the low number of walks, does seem to have a good grasp of the strikezone. He needs to work on his base stealing as he was only 12 for 19 on the season.
Stats
| PA | AB | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | CS | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS |
| 306 | 278 | 9 | 5 | 3 | 41 | 12 | 7 | 14 | 19 | .356 | .398 | .457 | .855 |
Splits
| Splits | AB | 2B | 3B | HR | BB | SO | AVG | OBP | SLG | OPS |
| vs Left | 86 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 10 | .349 | .411 | .500 | .911 |
| vs Right | 192 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 9 | 9 | .359 | .392 | .438 | .830 |
| Bases Empty | 160 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 9 | 14 | .350 | .395 | .431 | .827 |
| Runners On | 118 | 7 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 5 | .364 | .402 | .492 | .893 |
| Scoring Position | 86 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 5 | .326 | .372 | .465 | .837 |
Spray Chart
| Total | % | 1B | 2B | 3B | HR | AVG | SLG | IsoP | |
| P | 10 | 3.8% | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| C | 3 | 1.1% | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| 1B | 6 | 2.3% | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| 2B | 32 | 12.0% | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .063 | .063 | .000 |
| 3B | 30 | 11.3% | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .100 | .100 | .000 |
| SS | 48 | 18.0% | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .125 | .125 | .000 |
| LF | 39 | 14.7% | 25 | 4 | 2 | 3 | .872 | 1.308 | .436 |
| CF | 53 | 19.9% | 26 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .538 | .596 | .058 |
| RF | 45 | 16.9% | 20 | 4 | 2 | 0 | .578 | .756 | .178 |
Torreyes spreads the ball around very well, as he actually goes the other way with the ball more than he pulls the ball. His power is mostly to the pull side which is to be expected for someone of his size. He just has a rare ability to control the bat that a lot of guys simply don’t have that allows him to spread the ball to all fields so well.
Video
Available in 720p