The Pensacola Blue Wahoos opened their fifth season with a road win. Here is a preview of the upcoming season.
The 2016 season begins with high hopes for the Double-A Pensacola Blue Wahoos, who are coming off its first playoff appearance in team history in the Southern League.
Pensacola won the second half of the South Division after finishing in last place in the first half. However, the Biloxi Shuckers beat them in three games to capture the South Division title.
Now Manager Pat Kelly returns for a second season with the Cincinnati Reds affiliate and is relying on some talented but young arms. Three of the starters are ranked in as top 10 prospects in the Reds farm system by Baseball America. Two of the hurlers have won the Reds Minor League Pitcher of the Year award the past two years.
“We’ve got some tremendous arms,” Kelly said. “These kids’ arms don’t come along every day. They’re very young, though, and very inexperienced.”
Kelly said he’s also excited about his offense. “We have some real solid hitters. It’s a good combo.”
The Wahoos begin its season with a five-game road trip that starts at 7 p.m. tonight against the Mississippi Braves at Trustmark Park in Pearl, Miss. It’s first five-game home stand starts at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday against the Jacksonville Suns at Pensacola Bay Stadium.
Here are some top players to watch this year:
Amir Garrett is ranked the No. 3 prospect in the Reds organization by Baseball America after winning the Minor League Pitcher of the Year Award last season. In 26 starts in 2015 for the High-A Daytona, he allowed only two earned runs in two of them. He allowed more than three earned runs in one start. Garrett, a 6-foot-5 southpaw, finished 9-7 with a 2.44 ERA.
Garrett said he believes he has improved since he committed to play baseball over basketball two years ago.
“My progress is taking off,” he said. “It becomes a lot easier when you put all of your potential into one sport. It was the right decision.”
Nick Travieso is the No. 7 Reds prospect, Baseball America reports. He won the Minor League Pitcher of the Year award in 2014 with the low-A Dayton Dragons by leading the Reds’ minor league hurlers with 14 wins and a 3.03 ERA.
Last season, he played with Daytona and fractured his wrist that kept him out of the lineup for six weeks. He said he didn’t feel any pain in the wrist during the Arizona Fall League where he pitched in five games, posting a 2.05 ERA and striking out 20 batters in 22 innings.
Sal Romano finished the end of last season with Pensacola and is rated the No. 9 prospect by Baseball America. He went 0-4 with a 10.96 ERA with the Double-A team after getting called up from Daytona where he was 6-5 with a 3.46 ERA.
Considered the pitcher with the best fastball in the Reds organization, Kelly said that Romano has matured.
“He took his lumps last season when he came up here,” Kelly said. “He has become more of a pitcher. He’s not turning around and looking at his velocity on the scoreboard after every pitch.”
Phillip Irvin enters the season as Baseball America’s No. 12 prospect for the Reds. Ervin worked hard in the offseason to lose 10 pounds, dropping from 215 to 205 pounds. He wants another shot at the Southern League playoffs.
The leaner Ervin showed what Blue Wahoos fans can expect from him at the plate this season. In Spring Training for the Reds, he hit .391 in nine games and clobbered two home runs in 23 at bats. Last year, he led Reds minor leaguers with 14 homers and was second in RBIs with 71 and stolen bases with 34 playing for Daytona and Pensacola.
“I feel really good and can move a lot better,” Ervin said. “I’m excited. I really want to show how hard I worked out in the offseason. I feel like we have a great team. We’ll have a really good run this season.”
Calten Daal reached No. 23 on Baseball America’s top 30 prospects’ list for the Reds. In just his third season, the shortstop attended his first Major League Spring Training in 2016 and got 18 at bats in 12 games. He has a career minor league average of .275. Interestingly, Daal is from the same Netherlands’ hometown as former Blue Wahoos shortstop Didi Gregorious, who now starts for the New York Yankees.
Other players to watch, include center fielder Beau Amaral, first baseman Donald Lutz, who is recovering from Tommy John surgery, outfielder Sebastian Elizalde and third baseman Eric Jagielo, who came over from the Yankees in a December trade for Reds reliever Aroldis Champman.