MWL1 Dayton Dragons

Dayton Dragons Team Preview: Part 2: First Basemen

Published on March 4, 2016 under Midwest League (MWL1)
Dayton Dragons News Release


Dayton Dragons First Baseman Avain Rachal
Dayton Dragons First Baseman Avain Rachal
(Dayton Dragons)

This is part two of an eight-part series previewing the 2016 Dragons. Players listed here are candidates for positions on the 25-man Dragons season-opening roster.

This preview is an unofficial projection of possible roster candidates. Minor League rosters are not established until April 4. Spring training variables including performance, injuries, trades, and additional player acquisitions will impact the roster accordingly.

The 2011 Dragons posted a franchise-record 83 victories, going 48-22 in the second half with an offense led by power-hitting first baseman Donald Lutz. The friendly German also spent time in the outfield that season, but over the second half, he settled in as the Dragons everyday first baseman following an injury to Dominic D'Anna. Lutz had a huge year, one of only two players in Dragons history to bat at least .300 and belt at least 20 home runs (Austin Kearns is the other). In the playoffs that season, Lutz blasted a titanic home run in game one of the first round, and rarely saw another strike from Lansing pitchers the rest of the series. Lutz delivered production at a position typically thought of for offense, and specifically, power.

Since 2011, the Dragons first base position has primarily been filled by players who have converted from another position. Notably, the Reds best player and long term answer at the Major League level, Joey Votto, is a first baseman, the likely reason that few natural first basemen have been targeted in the draft in recent years. Avain Rachal moved to first base from second base for the 2015 season. In 2014, Sebastian Elizalde moved from left field to play first base. In 2013, Seth Mejias-Brean moved across the diamond from third to first due to an injury. In 2012, it was Sean Buckley who moved to first base from third. While many of those players were productive, the Dragons have not had the big home run power at the first base position since Lutz in 2011. They have a strong contender to fill that role in 2016.

Candidates: James Vasquez, Kevin Franklin.

To say that James Vasquez had a big year in his first half-season as a professional in 2015 would be a huge understatement. Vasquez came within a whisker of winning the Arizona League triple crown and quite possibly would have won it if not for the fact that his season came to an end nine days early as he returned to the University of Central Florida for the fall term to complete his degree. As it turned out, he won the batting title (.359) and led the league in home runs (9) while finishing second in runs batted in (36). He also led the league in slugging percentage by a whopping 128 points over the second place finisher (.669). As you might imagine, he was selected as the Arizona League Most Valuable Player.

In the interests of full disclosure, it must be pointed out that Vasquez was 22 years old in 2015, playing in a league with an average age of 20. He was a product of a Division I college program, competing against players that were less experienced. But in the words of one key member of the Reds player development system, "he still had to go out and do it."

Vasquez was the Reds 25th round draft pick last June out of Central Florida. Once he signed with the Reds, with the first base picture on the Billings roster pretty well filled, Vasquez was assigned one level lower, to the Goodyear Reds in the Arizona League. It was the same team that 2015 Dragons Gavin LaValley, Narciso Crook, Luis Gonzalez, Jake Paulson, Jake Ehret, and others had played on the previous year before making the jump to Dayton.

Vasquez eventually played in 42 games at Goodyear, and he actually started out very slowly. After the first 13 games of his professional career, he was batting just .132. But over the remainder of the season, Vasquez went an amazing 46 for 102, a .451 batting average. Nearly half of his hits, 21, went for extra bases. He had at least one hit in 26 of the 29 games he played in after the slow start, and had at least two hits in 15 of them. His slugging percentage over his final 29 games was .824.

When Darren Bragg, the former Dragons hitting coach who now serves as the organization's base running and outfield instructor, visited Dayton to work with Dragons players after a trip to Goodyear, he described Vasquez this way:

"He can flat-out mash."

How did Vasquez last until the 25th round? He had a huge season at Central Florida, but it did not come in the year he was drafted. As a junior in 2014, Vasquez started every game at UCF and batted .340 to finish second in the American Athletic Conference. He also finished third in the conference in RBI and added eight home runs. Strangely, though Central Florida had seen 89 players drafted over its history, Vasquez was not selected at all that year. He returned for his senior year and saw his average drop to .270 with seven home runs. The Reds took Vasquez with the 745th pick of the 2015 draft.

Before college, Vasquez had been selected as the "Treasure Coast" Player of the Year as a high school senior in Palm City, Florida, located about 20 miles north of Jupiter.

Kevin "K.J." Franklin was the first baseman at Billings in 2015, playing one level higher than Vasquez. Franklin, 21, was the Reds second round draft pick in 2013 out of high school in Cerritos, California. Franklin was drafted as a third baseman but began the move to first base in 2014. He has spent three seasons with Reds Rookie-level clubs, playing at Goodyear as an 18-year-old in 2013, then spending the 2014 and '15 seasons at Billings, playing both seasons under new Dragons manager Dick Schofield.

Franklin struggled at Billings in 2014, batting .211 with four home runs, though he did come up big in the playoffs as Billings won the Pioneer League championship. He batted .438 with a homer and two doubles in four playoff games. Franklin returned to the Mustangs last summer and had his best pro season. He batted .267 with four home runs and 25 RBI in 49 games, primarily serving as the Billings cleanup hitter. He batted .303 with runners on base.

Franklin was born in Lexington, Kentucky. After moving west, one publication called Franklin the top high school third baseman in all of southern California in 2013. He planned to play at Arizona State before signing with the Reds.

There is always a possibility of a Dragons player repeating at this position from 2015. Avain Rachal showed tremendous defensive improvement from the previous year and had some solid games at the plate. He finished at .239 with four home runs and 39 RBI in 110 games with the Dragons. Paul Kronenfeld also saw action at first base for the Dragons in 2015, appearing in 74 games and batting .249 with six home runs and 33 RBI. Kronenfeld had a knack for the big hit, delivering numerous last-inning key at-bats, especially in home games at Fifth Third Field. He was a major factor in many of the Dragons 12 "walk-off" wins and the club's 8-0 home record in extra inning contests. Both Rachal and Kronenfeld will be battling for jobs with the Reds Advanced-A club at Daytona.

The Dragons will open their 17th season in the Midwest League on Thursday, April 7 in Bowling Green, Kentucky when they battle the Bowling Green Hot Rods at 7:35 p.m. (hear the game on WONE 980-AM and at DaytonDragons.com). The Dragons annual home "Opening Day" game is Saturday, April 9 at 4:00 p.m. at Fifth Third Field, also against Bowling Green.

Next up: The second basemen

Check out the Dayton Dragons Statistics

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Dayton Dragons First Baseman Avain Rachal
Dayton Dragons First Baseman Avain Rachal
   



Midwest League Stories from March 4, 2016


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