Things We Love to See: July 19, 2018

With the big boys off one more day for the All-Star break, it was the perfect chance for the young guys in the Marlins system to shine. It was another nice day for the GCL Marlins, but the real story came from Batavia. The Muckdogs put on an offensive clinic, scoring 13 runs on 17 hits. Let’s take a look at the action from around the farm yesterday.

Thursday’s box scores

System’s Top Performance: Christopher Torres, SS (Batavia Muckdogs)—Thursday was a very busy day for Torres at the plate. It was his first game back in Batavia after a short stint with the GCL Marlins and Torres nearly hit for the cycle but came up a triple shy. Here’s his full line: 3-3 2B HR 3 RBI 3 R BB K. Torres played a major part in yesterday’s destruction of Williamsport, and hopefully this performance helps create some momentum at the plate for him going forward.

Honorable Mentions: Jerar Encarnacion, RF (Batavia) and J.D. Osborne, C (Batavia)—Encarnacion has been one of the more under the radar guys that is having a terrific season in the Marlins farm. He went 4-6 last night with a double an RBI 2 runs and a K, bringing his average on the year up to a tremendous .333. Osborne, a 22nd round pick in 2017, had a field day at the plate yesterday going 3-4 with a double a HR a BB and 4 RBI! Osborne’s average is now up to a scorching .361 on the year in 20 games.

New Orleans Baby Cakes (AAA)

Isan Diaz, 2B (Marlins #9)—Diaz went 0-3 with 3 K, but did draw a walk and come around to score in his AAA debut last night. It will be interesting to see how Diaz handles the adjustment to AAA pitching, and if he can continue to show great ability to draw walks and get on base.

Magneuris Sierra, CF (Marlins #6)—2-5 2B 3B R K. Good to see Sierra have a nice night at the plate as it had been a little while. He has shown the ability to hit for power at times and considering his speed he’s always a threat for triples, so it was really good to see him pick up multiple extra base hits in a game. He earned last night’s the top performance for the Baby Cakes.

Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (AA)

Monte Harrison, CF (Marlins #1)—2-5 R K. A two hit night is always a good thing, especially when it’s not paired with a hat trick of strikeouts. I’m not celebrating him only striking out once, but I’ll take a 2-hit one-strikeout performance from Harrison anyday.

Top Performer: Joe Dunand (Marlins #16)—Dunand has been really struggling since being called up to Jacksonville from Jupiter, but broke out last night by hitting his first AA homer. In all he was 2-4 with a run scored and 3 RBI. Homers can sometimes jump-start guys when they get to a new level, so look for Dunand to hopefully string a few nice games together in the coming days.

Jupiter Hammerheads (High-A)

James Nelson, 3B (Marlins #9)—Nelson hit his first homer of the season a week ago today and has been heating up since. His average sat at .188 after that game, and in the week since he’s brought his average up 30 percentage points. Most of that has to do with last night’s 3-4 performance, in which he had an RBI double and scored twice. Clearly getting that first homer out of the way has warmed Nelson up, and hopefully he can add a big weekend to his recent success.

Top Performer: Cameron Baranek, CF—The Marlins 9th round pick from 2017 was the main contributor in the Hammerheads 10-4 destruction of Charlotte. He drove in three runs and scored two more himself going 2-5 with a triple. He was having a really nice year in Greensboro before being called up to Jupiter, and is hitting .245 in 25 games in High-A.

Greensboro Grasshoppers (Low-A)

Jose Devers, SS (Marlins #22)—1-4, his average on the year sits at .272. It was a quiet night for most of the Hoppers lineup.

Co-Top Performers: Marcos Rivera, 3B and Harrison Dinicola, 1B—This is a fun little tidbit from last night’s game: Rivera and Dinicola hit back-to-back in the lineup and both were 2-3 with a double and a strikeout on the night. They were also the two players that manufactured the only run in the game which gave Greensboro the 1-0 win over Delmarva.

GCL Marlins (Gulf Coast League)

Osiris Johnson, SS—Osiris followed up Wednesday’s tremendous performance with a nice 1-3 day at the plate in which he drove in two and drew a walk. Before heading into the weekend the GCL Marlins had a game this morning in which Osiris continued to tear it up at the plate going 3-5 with an RBI and a K. All of a sudden his average is sitting at .295.

Connor Scott, CF—Coming off finally breaking his hitless streak, Connor followed it up with a great 3-5 performance in which he added a triple and a run scored on Thursday. Connor followed that up on Friday with another nice performance going 2-4 with another triple, a walk and an RBI. Looking forward to Scott hopefully continuing the good hitting into the weekend. Scott was also added to the Marlins Top 10 prospects list, according to Baseball America. Those rankings, however, are not reflected in this article. Here’s the full Top 10 that was released this morning:

Thanks for a great first week. I’ll be back on Monday to report on all the happenings in the system from this weekend.