MWL Dayton Dragons

Dayton Dragons 2024 Preview, Part 2: First Basemen

March 7, 2024 - Midwest League (MWL)
Dayton Dragons News Release


Dayton Dragons first baseman Ruben Ibarra
Dayton Dragons first baseman Ruben Ibarra
(Dayton Dragons)

This is part two of an eight-part series previewing the 2024 Dragons. Players listed here are candidates for positions on the Dragons season-opening roster.

This preview is an unofficial projection of possible roster candidates. Minor League rosters are not established until April 2. Spring training variables including performance, injuries, trades, and additional player acquisitions will impact the roster accordingly.

The First Basemen

Candidates: Ruben Ibarra, Jack Moss, Carter Graham.

Each year, we project the Dayton roster with the assumption that many Dragons players from the previous season will move up one level, to Double-A Chattanooga. And each year, there is often a bottleneck of players at one particular position, causing a hold-up (often temporary) of the players working to move up the ladder. The Dragons opening day roster last season included four relievers who most observers (and the players themselves) would have expected to advance to the Lookouts in the Southern League, but those four players all started in Dayton. They were Donovan Benoit, Braxton Roxby, Vin Timpanelli, and Jake Gozzo. All four did eventually reach Chattanooga at some point during the season. This season, with so many veteran players signed to start in Louisville, it may cause a few situations where players repeat a level. One player who could be in that group is the Dragons jumbo first baseman and fan favorite from 2023, Ruben Ibarra.

Ruben Ibarrais listed in the Reds media guide at 6'4", 290 lbs. He is an enormously large human being and might possess the best pure power of any player in the Reds organization. To steal a baseball cliché, when he hits one, it stays hit. Ibarra was drafted by the Reds in the fourth round in 2021. He was a college superstar at San Jose State University, where he finished second in the nation in slugging percentage in the spring of his final season (.855), batting .381 with 14 home runs in 35 games. The friendly, always-smiling Ibarra brings a level of toughness to the game; his grandfather and uncle were professional steer wrestlers. Ibarra is extremely popular with the fans at Day Air Ballpark, partly because of his energy and enthusiasm.

Ibarra opened his first full season in pro ball at Daytona in 2022. He got off to a slow start with the Tortugas before catching fire and winning the Florida State League Batter of the Week award in his final week with the team. In his final 14 games at Daytona, Ibarra hit .467 with four home runs, 13 runs batted in, and an .822 slugging percentage before earning a mid-season promotion to the Dragons. Ibarra's final numbers at Daytona, in 42 games, included a batting average of .286 with seven home runs.

With the Dragons in 2022, Ibarra played in just 25 games before his season came to an early end due to a broken thumb suffered in a collision at first base where he tried to come off the bag to take an errant throw and make a sweeping tag on the batter/runner. He started the 2023 season on the injured list but joined the Dragons about three weeks into the season. He got off to an excellent start in Dayton and was a true difference maker to the Dayton offense, hitting four home runs in his first 11 games while batting .353. He continued to hit home runs on a consistent basis and finished the year with 18 homers in 98 games, ranking tied for fourth in the Midwest League. He finished the season with a .238 batting average and an OPS of .787. His biggest home run of the season came on July 25 at Great Lakes. In that game, the Dragons trailed 2-0 in the ninth inning and were one out away from defeat with the bases empty. But a double by Edwin Arroyo and a walk to Austin Callahan brought Ibarra to the plate, and he blasted a ball halfway to the moon to give the Dragons the lead and an eventual win. The home run was estimated at 450 feet, one of the longest of the year by a Dayton player. But Ibarra actually hit one farther on May 30th when he knocked a ball completely out of Day Air Ballpark. It was estimated at 466 feet, but many observers felt it went much farther. Minor League home run estimates are only approximations, based on a mathematical formula taking into account the launch angle of the ball off the bat as well as the exit velocity. So when distances are given, they are locked in by the time the ball has traveled just a few feet off the bat. They do not take into account wind, humidity, or any other factor after the ball has left the infield. Many of Ibarra's home runs are hit so far that it is very clear by the time the ball does leave the infield that the result of the play will include Ibarra stepping on home plate after circling the bases.

Ibarra, 24, bats right-handed. He is also a good defensive first baseman who moves well for his size. His assignment coming out of spring training may hinge in part on the make-up of the other rosters in the organization. Ibarra video here: https://twitter.com/DragonsBaseball/status/1664437149746319362

Jack Moss was an 11th round draft pick by the Reds in 2023 out of Texas A&M. He hit very well in his first half-season at the professional level in the Reds organization in 2023, a difficult challenge for most players who are often inactive for two months from the time their college season ends until they are drafted, signed, and get back in shape to play in games. But Moss was able to shake off any rust and then handle the transition to the wood bat very well late last summer.

Moss came out of Cherry Creek High School in Greenwood Village, Colorado, where he was selected as the Colorado Player of the Year in 2020 as a senior. He was highly-regarded as a pro prospect coming out of high school, ranked by Baseball America on their list of the top 300 college/high school players entering the draft in 2020, but he instead elected to enroll at Arizona State University. He played one season for the Sun Devils in 2021, seeing plenty of playing time as a freshman and batting .299 with six home runs in 48 games. He transferred to Texas A&M after his freshman year and went on to play two seasons there in 2022 and '23. He had an outstanding sophomore season in 2022, starting all 64 games for the Aggies, and batting a robust .380 with six home runs and a fine .957 OPS. He led the Southeastern Conference in hits and missed winning the conference batting title by just three points. He had a particularly strong post-season as he earned SEC All-Tournament honors and then hit .643 in the College Station Regional to earn the MVP of the tourney. He helped Texas A&M to the College World Series, where they finished tied for third. As a junior in 2023, Moss improved his on-base percentage but could not quite duplicate his other numbers, finished the year by batting .355 with four home runs in 65 games. He was again named to the SEC All-Tournament team as well as the All-Regional team. Moss did not play any position other than first base in his three years of college baseball, batting a combined .352 with 16 home runs in 177 games. He played in many, many big games and was at his best in key contests. There is much to be said about Moss' success at the college level.

After Moss signed with the Reds in 2023, he initially was assigned to the Arizona Complex League (ACL) Reds and played in 12 games in his first experience as a professional. He was promoted to Single-A Daytona and hit extremely well with the Tortugas, batting .333 in nine games with more walks (9) than strikeouts (7) in 27 at-bats. Moss was used exclusively as a left fielder with Daytona, a new position to him, but he is expected to compete for the Dragons first base job in spring training. Moss, 22, is 6'5", 205 lbs., and bats left-handed.

Carter Graham was taken in the same draft as Moss, and chosen three rounds earlier, but he did not enjoy the same level of success as a professional as Moss did in 2023 in an admittedly very small sample size. Graham was an eighth round draft pick out of Stanford.

Graham is a Los Angeles native who played high school baseball at Chaminade College Prep in West Hills, California, where he was the school's Male Athlete of the Year all four years. He went on to Stanford and played three seasons in Palo Alto. Like Moss, Graham's best year came in 2022 as a sophomore, when he was named by Baseball America as a Second Team All-American and led the PAC 12 in home runs with 22, fourth most in a season in Stanford history. He also finished second in the conference in RBI while batting .331 in 64 games. He led Stanford to the College World Series, but the CWS had a disappointing outcome for his team, which began the tournament as the #2 ranked team in America. They lost both their games and were eliminated. Graham had another good season as a junior in 2023, batting .315 with 15 home runs in 64 games. He combined for 37 home runs in 128 games over his final two seasons at Stanford while batting .323. He was selected All-PAC 12 First Team both years and to the PAC 12 All-Defensive team at first base in 2023. He was also named to the PAC 12 All-Tournament team in '23.

Graham signed with the Reds and played in four games in the ACL before moving on to Daytona, where he played in 11 games and batted .194. Graham played exclusively first base at Daytona and mostly played that position at Stanford as well, though he did have brief time in right field in college. Graham, 22, is 6'2", 228 lbs., and bats right-handed. Like Moss, Graham has enjoyed a lot of success at the upper levels of college baseball and would be an interesting player to watch for the Dragons in 2024 if he is with the club.

Next up: Second Basemen

Check out the Dayton Dragons Statistics




Images from this story

Dayton Dragons first baseman Ruben Ibarra
Dayton Dragons first baseman Ruben Ibarra
   



Midwest League Stories from March 7, 2024


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central