Prospect Profile: Brandon Waring

[RedLegsToday]

Waring wears out Snappers' pitching
Homers twice, drives in five runs in Dragons' 9-2 victory
By Eric Justic / Special to MLB.com

Brandon Waring hadn't homered in six games coming into Wednesday's game against Beloit. For the Dayton Dragons slugger, that's a slump.

Waring broke out in a big way, homering twice and driving in five runs to power the Dragons to a 9-2 romp over the Snappers at Pohlman Field.

After going 1-for-14 in his previous three games, the 22-year-old designated hitter crushed a grand slam in the third inning, singled and scored in the fifth and launched a solo shot in the seventh.

"I didn't have too good of a series coming into today, so I was trying to establish something tonight," Waring said.

Waring is beginning to establish himself as one of the Midwest League's top sluggers. Selected by Cincinnati in the seventh round of the 2007 Draft, he shares the league lead with five homers and 15 RBIs.

Last season, he led the Pioneer League with 20 homers, including a stretch in which he homered twice in three of four games from Aug. 26-29.

"Last year was kind of up and down," Waring said. "It felt really good to have a really good season and take the mentality into this year. It's my first full season, so I just wanted to stay healthy and consistent. I don't let one day's performance affect the next."

With a shot at his first professional three-homer game, Waring struck out in the ninth. He settled for a 3-for-5 night that left his batting average at .373.

"I know what I can do. I know what I've done in the past, so I don't really worry," he said. "You just try to put together quality at-bats."

Denis Phipps fell a double short of the cycle for the Dragons (8-5), collecting three hits and three RBIs.

Dayton's Luis Montano (2-0) won his second straight start, yielding two runs -- one earned -- on five hits and two walks with a strikeout in five innings.

Snappers starter Michael Tarsi (0-3) was charged with eight runs on 11 hits and two walks with three strikeouts in 4 1/3 innings.

Jair Fernandez went 3-for-4 for Beloit (5-9).

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/n...milb&fext=.jsp

After last night's outburst, Waring is at .373/.411/.686 with 5hr and 15rbi

[krm1580]

Hmm a right handed, power hitting, corner infielder. Now there is something you don't see everyday. Certaninly not in Cincinnati.

I do have some long term concerns about him though. He has really good production so far but also has 17Ks in 51AB. Now I, like everyone else would gladly live with that type of K rate if he is going to OPS at 1.100. The problem is at 22yo playing in low A I would expect that number would be better and am not confident it will improve as he moves up and sees better pitching.

If you go to MLB.com and look up the 2007 draft, there is some pretty good video footage of him in college. It looks like he has one of those long swings which leads to big power but a lot of Ks