Here’s a look at Saturday’s top Minor League performers from each team’s Top 30 Prospects list:
Tigers: Riley Greene, OF (MLB No. 13), Double-A Erie
Reese Olson, RHP (No. 11), High-A West Michigan
Adinso Reyes, SS (No. 16), FCL Tigers
Greene’s three-run homer not only sparked an eight-run third inning for Erie, but it was his fourth straight game with a dinger as the Tigers’ No. 2 prospect continues to swing a hot bat. Greene extended his hit streak to eight games and has recorded at least one base knock in nine of his past 10 contests and has driven in at least one run in eight straight games, giving him a torrid .442/.489/.953 slash line with six home runs and 17 RBIs over that stretch. He also added a walk and scored two runs in Erie’s 14-1 blowout of Altoona.
Olson has been phenomenal in recent weeks, but his latest start was his most dominant yet. The 22-year-old tossed five scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts, the first time he eclipsed double-figure punchouts in a single game as a professional. Olson, who was traded to the Tigers from the Brewers in exchange for LHP Daniel Norris, hasn’t allowed an earned run since July 20. In Olson’s last five starts, the right-hander has allowed just four runs across 26 1/3 innings with 30 strikeouts (1.37 ERA), dropping his ERA on the season from 4.86 to 3.71.
Reyes notched a couple of career highs in the FCL Tigers’ win on Saturday. The 19-year-old slugged two homers and recorded three hits in a game for the first time in his pro career, adding four RBIs to his final line. Reyes, a member of the 2018 international signing class, raked at the Dominican Summer League in 2019, batting .331 with 20 doubles and seven dingers in 62 games. This season, he has gotten off to a colder start than anticipated but his bat has started to come alive recently. Over his past four games, Reyes is 7-for-15 with two doubles and two homers. Tigers prospect stats »
Braves: Bryce Elder, RHP (No. 11), Double-A Mississippi
Joey Estes, RHP (No. 28), Low-A Augusta
Over the last couple weeks, Mississippi can pretty much pencil in Elder for at least six innings of quality work, and Saturday was more of the same. Elder pitched six shutout innings with nine strikeouts to no walks. For the right-hander, it’s the seventh straight start in which he’s gone at least six innings. During that stretch, Elder has a 2.87 ERA across 47 innings with 50 strikeouts to 10 walks. The right-hander navigated himself out of a bases loaded, no-out jam in the third inning, striking out three consecutive batters to escape the inning unscathed.
Estes is a couple months away from his 20th birthday, but the California kid already has a professional complete game under his belt. After his mother threw out the first pitch, the 19-year-old put together a flat-out dominant performance, throwing a two-run complete game with a career-high 14 strikeouts and no walks. Prior to Saturday, Estes’ longest professional outing was seven innings, a mark he’s only touched one time. Estes, who has a 2.69 ERA on the season, is quickly earning a reputation for his strikeout ability. Across 87 innings, Estes has racked up 116 punchouts, or 12 per nine innings. Braves prospect stats »
Brewers: Freddy Zamora, SS (No. 8), Low-A Carolina
Zamora fell a triple shy of the cycle, but still collected four hits and two extra-base hits in Carolina’s 5-2 win. On the first pitch he saw, he belted a solo homer for the first run of the game, his fifth dinger of the season. He added an RBI double, a pair of singles and a stolen base to round out his day, and the 2020 second-rounder is slashing .279/.376/.385 with 35 RBIs, 36 walks and eight stolen bases in his first professional season. Brewers prospect stats »
Dodgers: Miguel Vargas, 3B (No. 9), Double-A Tulsa
Vargas’ season has been defined by a drastic uptick in his power numbers, and that strength was on display Saturday as the third baseman clubbed two home runs, his third career multi-homer game. With those two long balls, Vargas now has 19 home runs on the season with a .526 slugging percentage. In 2019, by comparison, Vargas had seven home runs in 124 games with a .440 slugging percentage. That power has especially been on display in what has been a scorching hot August; in 12 games this month, Vargas is slashing .391/.453/.717 seven extra-base hits (four homers). Dodgers prospect stats »
Indians: Daniel Espino, RHP (No. 6), High-A Lake County
Espino has put up big strikeout totals all season long and continued that trend with his third consecutive double digit strikeout outing and fourth of the season. The 20-year-old fanned 11, walked one and allowed one hit over five innings, with his lone blemish coming on a solo home run in the third inning. Over his last three games, Espino has fanned 33 over 14 innings, but has allowed eight runs over that span. The Panamanian is prone to getting hit around and has allowed 30 earned runs in 65 2/3 innings this season, but with 110 strikeouts, a K/9 of 15.1 and a K-rate of 39.6 percent, Espino’s live arm is full of potential. Indians prospect stats »
Mets: Jose Butto, RHP (No. 14), Double-A Binghamton
Since being promoted to Double-A, Butto has done one thing: shove. Butto threw six shutout innings with eight strikeouts on Saturday, lowering his ERA with Binghamton to 1.86 across 29 innings. If that line sounds familiar, that’s because Butto threw six shutout innings with eight strikeouts in his last outing as well. In each of his last three starts, Butto has gone six innings in each and did not surrender a single earned run. Mets prospect stats »
Nationals: Evan Lee, LHP (No. 30), High-A Wilmington
Since the calendar flipped over from July to August, Lee has been just about perfect, a trend that carried into Saturday. Lee threw five innings of scoreless ball with eight strikeouts, only allowing one hit in the process. Over his last three starts, Lee has allowed no runs, no walks and two hits with 16 strikeouts across 10 innings. It’s been a nice stretch for Lee, who is coming off the worst singular month of his professional career, allowing 15 runs across 16 innings (8.44 ERA) in July. Nationals prospect stats »
Rangers: Glenn Otto, RHP (No. 25), Triple-A Round Rock
Otto spun six one-hit innings in his third start for Round Rock, striking out six and allowing no runs for the first time in over a month. Otto, acquired from the Yankees in the Joey Gallo trade, is a strikeout machine, totaling 130 strikeouts with three teams this season — 103 for Double-A Somerset, 12 for Triple-A Scranton-Wilkes Barre and now 15 for Round Rock. Saturday’s outing was his best since he tossed six scoreless on July 10 and the second in which he’s only allowed one hit. He lowered his Round Rock ERA to 3.60 through 15 innings. Rangers prospect stats »
Yankees: Randy Vasquez, RHP (No. 25), High-A Hudson Valley
Vasquez was the bright spot for Hudson Valley, working around a pair of hits and walks to strike out seven over a career-best seven innings of work. The 22-year-old struck out three of the first four batters he faced before a slew of groundouts carried him through the next few innings. He struck out a pair in the fifth before running into some trouble in the sixth, in the form of a two-on, two-out threat. Vasquez struck out the next man on four pitches and worked around similar trouble in the seventh before inducing back-to-back groundouts to keep Jersey Shore off the board. In five High-A starts, Vasquez owns a 2.10 ERA with a 45-to-7 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Yankee prospect stats »