Louisville starts Justin Nicolino in its bid to get to 19 wins. They play at Geinnett at 6:05. I'm intrigued by the machinations of the Louisville acquisitions and how that might play in Cincinnati moving forward. Juniel Querencuto and Cristian Santana were both added over the winter. Both are hit-first older prospects. I wonder if that might be an inequality in a game wherein the three true outcomes dominate rosters. I'd love to see what Santana or Qurencuto could do at the major league level, but that's unlikely. What is interesting is that Max Schrock is a pretty close approximation of those guys. He's one I'm keeping my eye on, as I believe he'll get enough PAs to see what can happen with a bat-first plus hit tool guy without tons of power. That might point the Reds toward valuing the hit tool a bit more.
Chattanooga plays two today. Connor "No, Not Phillips" Curlis and Carson Spiers start for the Lookouts. Should they win both games, they'll be within a whisker of first place in the Southern North League. Speaking of hit tool, Francisco Urbaez has gotten a bit warmer lately. Over the last 28 days, he's gone .323/.353/.548, but only in 8 games. His May and June combined (13 games) show a kid who's OPSing around .850 with a BA hovering at .300. I wonder where he's going to play, with Matt McLain and Ivan Johnson on the infield. Ditto Jacob Hurtubise, who's come back from injury and put up a .320 BA and .414 OBP in 17 games. Might be one reason Chattanooga has been able to withstand the struggles of TJ Hopkins over the last month to six weeks.
Dayton plays the Baby Cubs. Christian Roa takes the mound for the Dragons. Here's the argument for developing three true outcome platers and depending on power as the carrying tool. The Dragon's three best BA all come from power-dependent sluggers-- Alex McGarry (.298 and dropping like a stone), Elly De La Cruz, and Rece Hinds. Both De La Cruz and Hinds had massive concerns about their swings and propensity to K. Both have seemingly found success doing so. One guy who's struggling to adapt seems to be Jose Torres. He's been on the schneid for about a month, but it's not like he's alone. The Dayton team BA is .234. Not exactly dominant. Yet, the OBP is .325 and the slugging is .421. And that's before the humidity sees balls carry. It'll be interesting to see how the Reds move up players in High A and whether they'll feel sanguine about promoting guys who are near the Mendoza Line or not.
Daytona turns to Hunter Parks to earn win #20 for the 'Tugas. After a pretty massive skid, they're now 10 games below .500, at 19-29. Parks has been their best starter so far this year. He's carrying a 3.00 ERA in 30 innings. I think he's piggybacking with Juliuan Aguiar. If so, that's good too-- aside from being a bit too hittable, he's showing solid peripherals. You know what's not solid? The Daytona offense. How does a .211 team BA grab you? Gus Steiger leads the team (.287). Has anyone seen Yerlin Confidan lately? The kid was showing just fine (.280/ .368/ .440/ /808), but hasn't played in a month. Sigh. Tyler Callihan has played, and he's looking interesting. More walks than Ks in nearly 50 PAs augers well. The low K rate is nice too. Not much pop, but this is the Florida State League. I'm guessing he might get hot soon.