Christian Encarnacion-Strand

[*bengalfan74*]

Is there some hope?

https://www.mlb.com/reds/news/christian-encarnacion-strand-impressing-with-loud-power

[guyofthetiger]

A loud bat is a good thing when making contact. Let's just hope there isn't much air in the swings fanning the fans.

[Emeritus]

(03-04-2023, 12:02 AM)bengalfan74 Wrote: Is there some hope?

https://www.mlb.com/reds/news/christian-encarnacion-strand-impressing-with-loud-power

This kid is having a fabulous spring! 
https://youtu.be/4OlyQGUTtXA

[CJD]

(03-04-2023, 12:47 AM)guyofthetiger Wrote: A loud bat is a good thing when making contact. Let's just hope there isn't much air in the swings fanning the fans.

He's a very young player, both in age, 23, and in terms of actual experience playing baseball. He played in Junior College for 2 years, transferred to Oklahoma State and played there for 1 year and then was drafted in 2021 and played a small piece of 2021 and then 2022 in the minor leagues.

All told, he has had just 144 minor league games and only 56 non-JUCO college games in his career. So he's still got a lot to learn.

In those 144 minor league games, he's hit .317/.376/.588/.965 with 33 doubles, 36 home runs and his strikeout rate of 25.5% is high, but in today's MLB it's only a few points above average. The strikeout percentage leaguewide in 2022 was 22.4%. All he really needs to do is shave those strikeouts down by 1 every 2 weeks and he'd fall right in line with the average (26 weeks in a season, 13 fewer strikeouts over those 144 minor league games, close to a full MLB season, would be a strikeout rate of 23.0%.)

And then he is hitting the cover off the ball in spring training this year. 17 ABs, 11 hits, 3 HR, 10 RBI, 5 R, .647/.611/1.846. Small sample size, weak competition etc etc, but the numbers are pretty astonishing.

It's a long shot, and even more so considering his limited time in the minor leagues, but he has a shot at making the roster out of spring training after being a non-roster invitee. He's playing that well.

[*bengalfan74*]

In 11 games/24 at bats he's batting .625 with 2 doubles, a triple, 4 HR's, and 13 RBI's while only striking out twice. Yes it's way early and I'm sure he's faced some pitchers that won't make teams. But still, lots of promise there.

[Goalpost]

Encarnacion-Strand hit 3 HR's last night in AAA Louisville's 12-10 victory.

In the same game....Matt McLain, another high prospect of ours, hit for the cycle.

[*bengalfan74*]

(05-05-2023, 03:22 PM)Goalpost Wrote: Encarnacion-Strand hit 3 HR's last night in AAA Louisville's 12-10 victory.

In the same game....Matt McLain, another high prospect of ours, hit for the cycle.

Sweet 

[samhain]

These guys are like grown-ups playing vs kids down there. There is zero doubt that they are ready. There is also no doubt that the Reds are playing the arbitration clock game in not bringing them to the majors. There's absolutely nobody blocking these guys at their respective positions right now.

[Forever Spinning Vinyl]

(05-05-2023, 08:54 PM)samhain Wrote: These guys are like grown-ups playing vs kids down there.  There is zero doubt that they are ready.  There is also no doubt that the Reds are playing the arbitration clock game in not bringing them to the majors.  There's absolutely nobody blocking these guys at their respective positions right now.

Ridiculous.

Just bring them up instead of playing this 'extra year of control' bullshit.

[*bengalfan74*]

(05-05-2023, 08:54 PM)samhain Wrote: These guys are like grown-ups playing vs kids down there.  There is zero doubt that they are ready.  There is also no doubt that the Reds are playing the arbitration clock game in not bringing them to the majors.  There's absolutely nobody blocking these guys at their respective positions right now.

(05-06-2023, 12:50 PM)Forever Spinning Vinyl Wrote: Ridiculous.

Just bring them up instead of playing this 'extra year of control' bullshit.

100% agree

It's like with Cessa as well. I mean he gets rocked in every game he starts and he's 31 years old. I could take a 22 year old trying to learn getting rocked a lot better. How long to they continue with the Barrero experiment? And on and on

[samhain]

Alright, boys. It worked for Elly, so here goes:

CES was scratched from the lineup today in Louisville. Could this perhaps signal an imminent call-up?

He's one of the best nine bats in the organization. Might be a good time to get a boost.

[samhain]

He's getting the call. Interested to see the corresponding move.

[cinci4life]

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/07/reds-to-promote-christian-encarnacion-strand.html

[grampahol]

I have a feeling he'll be Votto's permanent replacement before the season is over..That means Speers probably to 3rd, Elly to short, Mac to 2nd and India the odd man out..
When they start hitting again, and they will it's gonna be murderers row..

[CJD]

I am cautiously excited about the prospect of adding CES to this lineup. He has big power, gets a lot of hits and can play 1B or 3B.

It feels like I'd be selfish to expect yet another rookie to come up and immediately become an impact bat, but I think he's capable of providing just that.

The one area of concern in his game is his chase rate. For 2023, his chase rate is 43%. As in, he has swung a 43% of the pitches he has seen that are out of the zone.
The MLB average for 2023 is 31.7%, with the average since 2015 being 28.4%.

It was even higher in May, when he was swinging at almost half of the balls outside the zone (49%) but since June 1st, his chase rate has been 38%. Still high, but it shows that he is swinging at fewer balls than in the beginning of the year. He went through a slump in mid June that he has since broken out of and I suspect that slump was caused, at least partially, by a new approach in which he stopped swinging at so many balls outside of the zone.

The good news is that even with a high chase rate, his chase contact rate was also very high. In fact, on June 12th, Baseball America wrote an article dubbing him "The Minors’ Best Bad-Ball Hitter" due to his high chase contact rate.

I don't have the exact numbers because I don't have a baseball america membership, but I've heard podcasters talk about this as well, so even if he swings at more balls than he should, he also makes contact and gets hits off of those balls as well.

It'll only get harder in the MLB, so I'm hoping he doesn't start slow with a lot of strikeouts, but we'll just have to wait and see.

[*bengalfan74*]

Great, we need a boost for sure.

[samhain]

(07-17-2023, 08:40 AM)Crazyjdawg Wrote: I am cautiously excited about the prospect of adding CES to this lineup. He has big power, gets a lot of hits and can play 1B or 3B.

It feels like I'd be selfish to expect yet another rookie to come up and immediately become an impact bat, but I think he's capable of providing just that.

The one area of concern in his game is his chase rate. For 2023, his chase rate is 43%. As in, he has swung a 43% of the pitches he has seen that are out of the zone.
The MLB average for 2023 is 31.7%, with the average since 2015 being 28.4%.

It was even higher in May, when he was swinging at almost half of the balls outside the zone (49%) but since June 1st, his chase rate has been 38%. Still high, but it shows that he is swinging at fewer balls than in the beginning of the year. He went through a slump in mid June that he has since broken out of and I suspect that slump was caused, at least partially, by a new approach in which he stopped swinging at so many balls outside of the zone.

The good news is that even with a high chase rate, his chase contact rate was also very high. In fact, on June 12th, Baseball America wrote an article dubbing him "The Minors’ Best Bad-Ball Hitter" due to his high chase contact rate.

I don't have the exact numbers because I don't have a baseball america membership, but I've heard podcasters talk about this as well, so even if he swings at more balls than he should, he also makes contact and gets hits off of those balls as well.

It'll only get harder in the MLB, so I'm hoping he doesn't start slow with a lot of strikeouts, but we'll just have to wait and see.

I think India is going to be in trouble if his bat doesn't wake up soon.

The team definitely wants him and views him as a starter, but you can't justify wedging his bat into the lineup as the young studs continue to flow in from Louisville.  

If it were up to me, I'd give him more days off.  He's played more than anyone on the team, and he looks tired.  Give him a breather 2 or 3 times a week and let him take a crack at DH.  He's still a major asset when at full strength.  It would be bad business to let him waste away on the bench for too long and decrease his value.  

[CJD]

(07-17-2023, 11:15 AM)samhain Wrote: I think India is going to be in trouble if his bat doesn't wake up soon.

The team definitely wants him and views him as a starter, but you can't justify wedging his bat into the lineup as the young studs continue to flow in from Louisville.  

If it were up to me, I'd give him more days off.  He's played more than anyone on the team, and he looks tired.  Give him a breather 2 or 3 times a week and let him take a crack at DH.  He's still a major asset when at full strength.  It would be bad business to let him waste away on the bench for too long and decrease his value.  

I think India is great as a locker room presence/leader, but He's never been an elite hitter or fielder. He's generally regarded as the weakest defensive player on the infield and his career OPS is .768. If it weren't for his Rookie of the Year campaign in 2021 (which may not even be a top 5 finish in this year's rookie of the year race), I don't know if we'd feel like he must be a central piece to this team.

I would love to get 2021 India back, but the more he plays, the more I wonder if that was just an one year wonder kind of season.

[*bengalfan74*]

(07-17-2023, 11:33 AM)Crazyjdawg Wrote: I think India is great as a locker room presence/leader, but He's never been an elite hitter or fielder. He's generally regarded as the weakest defensive player on the infield and his career OPS is .768. If it weren't for his Rookie of the Year campaign in 2021 (which may not even be a top 5 finish in this year's rookie of the year race), I don't know if we'd feel like he must be a central piece to this team.

I would love to get 2021 India back, but the more he plays, the more I wonder if that was just an one year wonder kind of season.

Yup?

It seems every game that goes by India gets a little more leaning towards just being "a guy". And this is coming from one of his bigger fans.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying he's a piece of crap, done, washed up, whatever. We could live with his let's say average defense if he continued hitting like he was in April and May, rookie year and so on. But if his real average is closer to .200 than it is .300 it starts getting bad for his long term starting.

I'm not saying pull the plug today. I'm saying give him couple days totally off. Like has been said have him DH a couple times. See if he comes out of the funk

[samhain]

(07-17-2023, 01:23 PM)bengalfan74 Wrote: Yup?

It seems every game that goes by India gets a little more leaning towards just being "a guy". And this is coming from one of his bigger fans.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying he's a piece of crap, done, washed up, whatever. We could live with his let's say average defense if he continued hitting like he was in April and May, rookie year and so on. But if his real average is closer to .200 than it is .300 it starts getting bad for his long term starting.

I'm not saying pull the plug today. I'm saying give him couple days totally off. Like has been said have him DH a couple times. See if he comes out of the funk

Well, like I said, I think he's spent right now.  Benching a guy is never what the player wants, but it's probably what he needs right now.  I don't mean this in a long term sense.  Just give him some days off throughout the week.  He was pressing a lot in the 3 hole trying to hit for power.  He needs to play his game and get back to being himself.  If that happens, there's a place for him in Cincinnati.  If it doesn't, things are going to get real tight when Marte starts looking like he has nothing to prove in AAA.