It's Monday morning, meaning it's time for our weekly roundup of fresh and stale Reds prospects of the week. SInce this was the first week of rookie ball, we'll start to keep track of how those guys are doing here too. Here we go...
Dontrelle Willis
He's back off the DL and back to pitching his ass off. In the 26 innings he's pitched since being on the DL, D-Train has a 2.77 ERA and 24 strikeouts to only 5 walks. That's livin', and if the current starter woes continue in Cincinnati, I'd find it hard to believe that he couldn't help us out eventually.
Neftali Soto
Look who's back on the list! Soto got off to a nice start to the season, but really tailed off in the beginning part of June. He's put up a .997 OPS in his last 10 games, including 3 homers in his last 4 games. Let's hope this is a sign of more to come, he's still only 22 and has time to develop into the prospect we all expected a few years ago.
Juan Perez
Not a lot was known about the Reds' 26th round pick from this year, but he's starting to show the Reds that they made a good decision based on his first week of rookie ball. The shortstop out of the College of the Canyons, Perez is putting up an absurd .643/.706/1.000 line so far in the AZL (with 3 stolen bases in 4 games). That's production.
Zack Cozart
It may be a bit of a surprise to see the guy that Reds fans have been clamoring for in this list, but his bat has seriously tailed off lately. His line from the last 10 games is a paltry .227/.261/.364. Even though he's still probably a better option than the Reds are currently employing, maybe the pressure of the speculation regarding his callup is starting to get to him?
Donnie Joseph
The season from hell keeps getting worse for DoJo. He blew another save over the weekend, and has lost his spot as the Mudcats' closer. His ERA on the year is up to 8.80. Hopefully this new role will take some pressure off and he can put together some good innings, but this is a pretty bad sign for the 23 year old.
Junior Arias
The kid who put up a .819 OPS in the AZL last year hasn't translated to Billings. The player that you all ranked as our 21st ranked prospect is hitting .125/.176/.184 so far this year, with just 2 hits in 16 AB. Slow start, let's hope he can get moving in the weeks to come.
And now on to this weekend's games:
- Louisville took 2 of 3 from Toledo. They won Friday night 5-4 behind another good start by the D-Train. Dontrelle Willis went 8 innings and gave up 4 runs with no walks and struck out 7, and Nick Christiani pitched the 9th for his 5th AAA save. Jeremy Hermida went 3-for-4 with a homer, and Yonder Alonso and Todd Frazier also went deep for the Bats. On Saturday, they won 9-2 behind homers from Daniel Dorn and Juan Francisco. Chad Reineke had a good start, giving up 2 runs in 6 innings, and Tom Cochran and Justin Lehr retired the final 9 batters to seal the win. Sunday's game wasn't as good, as they lost 4-2 on Travis Wood's first start in AAA of the year. Wood went 5 innings and gave up 3 runs with one walk and 8 strikeouts. Up next: Daryl Thompson takes the hill at noon.
- Carolina lost 2 of 3 against Huntsville over the weekend. On Friday, the Mudcats took a 5-1 lead into the 9th inning, but lost 6-5 thanks to a blown save by Donnie Joseph. DoJo gave up a hit and walked 3 without recording an out, and all of them scored. James Avery had a good start, going 6 innings and only giving up 1 run. Jose Castro and Denis Phipps had 2 hits each, and Neftali Soto hit his 7th homer of the season. On Saturday, it took 10 innings but the Mudcats were able to get a 6-4 victory thanks to a walk-off homer by Neftali Soto. Denis Phipps was 4-for-4. Tim Gustafson got the start, giving up 2 runs in 5 innings. Another blown save was to blame for Sunday's loss too, this time at the hands of Tim Hamulack as the Mudcats lost 10-6 in 10 innings. The top three Carolina hitters (Phipps, Henry Rodriguez, and Mike Costanzo) went a combined 9-for-17 with 3 RBI. Kyle McCulloch started the game and gave up 5 runs in 5 1/3 innings. Up next: Pedro Villarreal takes on Huntsville at 7:15.
- Bakersfield won 2 of their 3 games over the weekend. They lost 15-7 on Friday, mostly due to a forgettable pitching performance. Didi Gregorius was 3-for-5 with a triple. Saturday was better as the Blaze recorded a 6-1 win. J.C. Sulbaran was awesome again, pitching 6 1/3 of 3-hit, shutout ball with 10 punchouts, making it 19 in his last 2 games. Alex Buchholz was 2-for-4 with a homer. Sunday's game was a wild one, as our guys pulled out a 6-5 win. It was a 2-2 game going into the top of the 9th, when Mace Thurman gave up 3 runs. All looked lost, but Alex Buchholz got thing started with a solo shot (his 5th) and pinch hitter Stephen Hunt came up with 2 on and a 2-run deficit and homered for the walk-off win (his 6th of the year). Up next: Josh Ravin takes on Stockton at 10:05.
- Dayton won 2 of their 3 games against Bowling Green over the weekend. They lost 5-2 on Friday, despite a decent start by Daniel Renken. Renken went 5 innings and gave up 2 runs with 7 strikeouts. Theo Bowe and Billy Hamilton had 2 hits each. On Saturday, they won 4-3. Kyle Lotzkar got the start, and went 5 2/3 innings of 2 run, 5 strikeout ball. Italian lefty Luca Panerati made his class-A debut after that and pitched 2 1/3 shutout innings to earn his first win in Dayton. Drew Hayes pitched a hitless 9th for his 9th save. Billy Hamilton went 2-for-4 and stole his 54th base. The Dragons overcame a 4-0 deficit on Sunday to win 5-4. Josh Smith gave up 4 runs in 5 innings, and Ronald Torreyes went 2-for-4 with 2 RBI. Up next: Daniel Corcino takes the hill against Lansing at 7.
- Billings won 1 of their 3 games against Helena over the weekend. They lost 7-6 in extras on Friday. Devin Lohman was 2-for-5 with a 3-run homer, and Juan Silva had 3 hits. Ismael Guillon had a rough start, giving up 4 runs in 2 1/3 innings with 6 walks. Saturday was even worse, as Wes Mugarian got tagged for 5 runs (4 ER) in 5 innings in an 8-5 loss. Nick O'Shea had his first professional homer, as he and Dayne Read both had 2 hits. Sunday's game was better, as the Mustangs won 7-1 behind a masterful pitching performance by Stalin Gerson. Gerson went 6 innings of 1 run ball, with 5 strikeouts. Carlos Contreras and Brooks Pinckard combined for 3 hitless innings of relief. Drew Poulk hit his 2nd homer on the offensive side, and Dayne Read was 3-for-5 with 3 RBI. Up next: Mustangs take on Missoula at 9:05, starter is TBA.
- The AZL Reds won 1 of their 3 weekend games. They beat the AZL Padres 5-3 on Friday, behind a good start by Daniel Tuttle, who gave up 1 run in 5 innings while striking out 5. Juan Perez was 3-for-4. They lost to the AZL Mariners 8-6 on Saturday due to a rough start by Abel de los Santos. Juan Perez was 3-for-3. They lost to the AZL Giants 6-5 on Sunday. Oak Hills grad Joel Bender gave up 3 runs (2 ER) in 4 innings in his start, and Xavier's Phillip Bauer hit his first homer of the year. Lucas O'Rear gave up 3 runs in 3 1/3 for the loss. Up next: Off day today, they'll be back in action on Tuesday.