Reds July Game Thread 2024

[CJD]

(07-10-2024, 09:21 AM)TecmoBengals Wrote: It's fun to see Hinds off to a hot start. Let's hope he adjusts when pitching starts to figure him out. It would be wonderful if this dude quickly establishes himself as a capable starting OF with consistent power.

I know this comparison has a horrific connotation nowadays, but this debut feels exactly like when Aristedes Aquino came up and hit 14 home runs in the first month of his career. Every time he came up to the plate, you were waiting for him to regress back to the mean and, for a month, he just didn't. 

Aquino and Hinds have similar profiles as rocket arm outfielders with insane power, but also massive swing and miss in their games. Aquino had more success in AAA, but he also spent more time there than Hinds. I personally think AA stats are more important than AAA stats because of how many "career minor leaguers" end up mired in AAA, which dilutes the pool of major league prospects that you play against while there, whereas AA is where a significant portion of the development of major league prospects occurs, often with just a toe dip in AAA before going up to the majors (see McLain, who spent an entire year in AA, but played just a month or so in AAA in 2023 before being called up), and Hinds showed better in AA than Aquino did (.272/.329/.544/.873 vs .227/.293/.421/..714)

I really hope the Reds learned their lesson from Aquino and help Hinds out in a way that they were incapable of helping Aquino.

It'll definitely help that Hinds does not have that awkward batting stance that Aquino had where he started fully open towards the pitcher and then twisted his lower body 90 degrees as the ball approached.