2008 Scouting Report

Dayton Dragons

May Profile

Dayton's April was strong. The Dragons have a very strong offense; while the best pitchers on this team are among the MWL's best, there's almost no depth in the pitching staff. There's enough here to make a very interesting team; how things will work out depends largely on how often the Reds rearrange the pieces. And whether the pitchers develop.

Outfielder Keltavious Jones--oh, what a wonderful name!--is this team's table setter; on other teams he'd be the star. But he's going to be upstaged by the left side of the infield, as shortstop Todd Frazier is an MVP candidate and 3B Brandon Waring is only a half-notch below him. There's not a weak hitter in Dayton's April lineup.

The strong lineup's a good thing, because they'll need to carry most of the pitchign staff. Starter Luis Montano is among the MWL's elite pitchers, and closer Enerio Del Rosario's perhaps the league's best reliever. Middle reliever Joseph Krebs is perhaps not quite so strong, but he's posting similar numbers. Unfortunately, the talent level drops past these three, and fails almost completely toward the end of the bench.

This page will be revised in early June.

Unless otherwise indicated, all statistics are through April 30.

Season Summary

• First Half (through April 30): 14-11, .580 (2nd place tie, 1.0 behind)
• Pitching: 3.41, 14-11, 7 saves, 6 holds, 166 strikeouts, no complete games
• Hitting: .246, 110 runs, 22 HR, 29 steals (74% success)
• Defense: 31 errors (1.24 per game)
• April: 14-11 (.580)

• Position Players used: 15
• Pitchers used: 14
• Pitchers per game: 3.48

Leading Players

• Best Player on the Team: Shortstop Todd Frazier or Starting Pitcher Luis Montano

• Best Starting Pitcher: Luis Montano (1.27, 4-0, 22 strikeouts)
• Bullpen Stopper: Enerio Del Rosario (1.35, 1-1, 4 saves, 14 strikeouts)
• Strikeout Pitchers: Jeremy Horst, Jeff Jeffords
• Control Pitchers: Enerio Del Rosario, Matt Klinker

• Best Hitter: Todd Frazier (.304, 7 HR, 20 RBI)
• Home Run Leader: Brandon Waring and Todd Frazier (7)
• High Batting Average: Keltavious Jones (.333), Kevyn Feiner (.321), Jacob Long (.308), Todd Frazier (.304)
• High On Base Percentage: Keltavious Jones (.400)
• High Slugging Percentage: Keltavious Jones (.556), Todd Frazier (.630), Brandon Waring (.581), Denis Phipps (.451)
• Notable Baserunners: Keltavious Jones, Justin Reed, Brandon Menchaca,
• Notable Batting Eye: Danny Payne

Pre-Season Profile

This is a potentially excellent team. While the pitching staff lacks an obvious star, everyone on the staff routinely throws strikes. The hitters will put up runs; much of the lineup has power, and there's enough other talent to make for an interesting offense. Todd Frazier looks like a keeper; if the Reds leave him in our league, he'll put up some good numbers.

Manager

Scott's a fairly conservative manager in most respects. He lets good baserunners run; if his team doesn't have good baserunning skills, he looks pretty conventional. He's a bit more likely than most managers to call for an intentional pass.

Until he was victimized by Reds' recent dearth of minor league talent, Scott had been very successful.

First Round Draft Selections

• Todd Frazier (2007 sandwich pick; 34th selection)

Team Age Information

• Average Team Age: 22.2
• Pitchers: 22.4
• Hitters: 21.9

• Oldest Player on the Team: Kevin Gunter (11/5/1983)
• Youngest Player on the Team: Justin Reed (11/29/1987)

The average player in the Midwest League this season is 21.9 years old. This information is based on opening day rosters as published on MILB.com and will not be updated.

Where they played last season

This summary is based on the team's opening day roster and will not be revised to reflect roster changes.

The Dragons could be said to be based on last year's Billings Mustangs--but that would be a little misleading, as fully half of them appeared in Dayton uniforms last year. The surest thing about the Dayton team is that April's roster won't look much like August's roster.

Team        League              W/L    Place    Hitters Pitchers
                                      (Teams)
Sarasota    Florida State (A+) 81/59    3(12)       1      2
Dayton      Midwest (A)        78/62    6(14)       6      4
Billings    Pioneer (R+)       37/38    4(8)       11      9
Reds        Gulf Coast (R)     15/41   16(16)       3      3

The Reds believe in moving players around: Thirteen of these players appeared at two levels in the organization last summer and are counted twice in this table. All of the new Dragons spent last season in the lower part of the Cincy organization.