Juan Brown signed with the Cincinnati Reds back in January as a part of their 2024 international signing class. The former pitcher from Aruba missed the first two months of the Dominican Summer League season.
Brown made his debut last week, taking the field on August 3rd and he went 1-1 and was hit by a pitch in his professional debut. Two days later he was back at third base and went 1-3. He’s played in three games since then and he’s had two hits in each game, and he’s added two walks, too. To say he’s out to a hot start to his career would be an understatement. He’s 8-for-13 with two walks and three steals. That’s a .615 batting average for those who aren’t a human calculator.
Carlos Sanchez’s on-base streak
Last night Carlos Sanchez went hitless for Daytona, but he walked for the 4th straight game. That walk kept his on-base streak alive and pushed it to 24 games. He’s been on base every game for the last month, going back to July 11th when he was still in Goodyear and playing for the Arizona Complex League Reds. When their season came to an end he moved back up to join the Tortugas, riding an 11-game on-base streak. He’s kept that going in the Florida State League.
Getting on base in 24 straight games is impressive. But this is also one of the more strange streaks in terms of it’s production, too. You would think that given the length of the streak that Sanchez would have an impressive line during it. Instead he’s hitting .247 during the streak and he’s slugging just .309. He’s carried by a .431 on-base percentage thanks to his 27 walks over this 24-game stretch.
Ethan O’Donnell flipping the script
For six weeks between mid-June and late July, Ethan O’Donnell was struggling about as much as one can at the plate. In 26 games between June 14th and July 26th the outfielder went 12-for-83 and hit .145/.260/.241.
On July 27th he went 1-4 with a double and he has been on fire ever since. He’s had hits in 12 of the 13 games he’s played in over that stretch. O’Donnell has had 21 hits and 10 of them have been extra-base hits. All of it has led to his hitting .396/.421/.736 during that span. This stretch has raised his OPS on the season from .633 to .737.