Down On The Farm: A Couple of Cincinnati Reds Prospects Are Heating Up

The Dayton Dragons are 14-4 over their last 18 games.

Greg Kuffner | Aug 28, 2024

Feb 23, 2024; Goodyear, AZ, USA; Cincinnati Reds minor league player Cam Collier serves as a baserunner during rundown drills during spring training workouts at Goodyear Ballpark. Mandatory Credit: Kareem Elgazzar-USA TODAY Sports / Kareem Elgazzar-USA TODAY Sports

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Cincinnati Reds

The Dayton Dragons are playing phenomal baseball in the second half of the season.

The Dragons are 35-20 in the second half and 14-4 over their last 18 games.

There are a couple of Reds prospects that are heating up for the Dragons.

Cam Collier, Reds #5 Prospect

Collier, the Reds' first-round draft pick in 2022, is slashing .375/.534/.722 over his last 23 games. In that time frame, he has a wRC+ (Weighted Runs Created Plus) of 240, has six home runs, seven doubles, and is walking in an astronomical 25% of his plate appearances.

The future is bright for Collier and it's exciting to watch him play well on a Dragons team competing for a playoff spot.

Ethan O'Donnell, Unranked

O'Donnell was the Reds sixth-round draft pick out of Virginia in 2023. He was the Reds 23rd ranked prospect coming into the season, but MLB Pipeline recently dropped him off the top 30 list.

Ever since then, he has played well. Over his last 27 games in High-A Dayton, O'Donnell is slashing .364/.408/.636 with 16 extra-base hits, and a wRC+ of 191. He has seven stolen bases to go along with that.

Leo Balcazar, Reds #29 Prospect

Balcazar, still only 20 years old, struggled to start the season after missing almost all of 2023 with a torn ACL in his right knee.

Over the last 29 games, he has shown tons of promise, slashing .345/.367/.552 with 13 extra-base hits and 23 runs batted in over that time.

Balcazar is another exciting young player in the Reds organization.

Jay Allen II, Unranked

Allen II was the 30th overall pick in the 2021 draft. He has struggled with injuries during most of his young career, but this season, he has finally been healthy.

MLB Pipeline dropped Allen II out of their top 30 list at the midway point of the season, but he has heated back up over his last 18 games. Over that time, the 21-year-old is slashing .333/.466/.910 with three extra-base hits and 10 stolen bases.

Allen's rare combination of speed and power makes him one of the most exciting players in the Reds' system.

John Michael Faile, Unranked

Faile finished his five-year college career at North Greenville University as the all-time leader in home runs and RBI for the NCAA Division II level, hitting over .400 two times and winning his conference’s triple crown once.

He went undrafted and played with the Billings Mustangs last summer, hitting ..353/.414/.761 with 19 doubles and 21 home runs.

After the Reds signed him, he played 25 games for the ACL Reds this summer, hitting .333/.457/.561/1.017 before the organization decided to have him skip Low-A and promote him to High-A Dayton.

Since debuting with Dayton, the right-hander has played in eight games slashing .353/.371/.765 with a wRC+ of 215 and six extra-base hits.

Faile has been a fun story and it will be interesting to see how he finishes the year.

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