Fire Frogs' Acuna collects career-high four hits

After htting .311/.387/.432 in his full-season debut last year and tearing up the Australian Baseball League, expectations were high for Ronald Acuña Jr. entering 2017. The 19-year-old outfielder has had an up-and-down campaign with Class A Advanced Florida, but Friday was definitely an "up" moment.
The Braves' seventh-ranked prospect set a career high with four hits as the Fire Frogs rolled to a 17-11 victory over Clearwater at Osceola County Stadium. Acuna contributed three RBIs, the third time this year he's plated at least a three runs.

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"With him, it's being consistent at this level," Florida hitting coach Carlos A. Mendez said. "Today we talked to him, watched some video and tried to keep him short -- sometimes he gets long with his stride, and when he gets long he misses fastballs he should hit. He's at that age where he thinks he needs to hit the ball really hard; we try to keep him calm and at 80 percent effort, and he can do damage at 80 percent."
Acuna did his first damage against Threshers starter Alberto Tirado, singling to right field in the opening inning and coming around to score on Austin Riley's three-run homer. He came up again with two outs and seven runs in and roped a double to center against reliever Ranfi Casimiro to score Ray-Patrick Didder and Tyler Neslony.
"We faced these guys a couple weeks ago and [Tirado] has a good arm," Mendez said. "We just were aggressive and hit the fastball early -- he threw the fastball and the kids were ready. We had a couple hits and, next thing you know, everybody is getting hits and we had five or six runs with two outs. When we hit well, we're hitting the fastball. That was our approach today and we did a good job early."
The 6-foot, 180-pound outfielder struck out twice in three at-bats against Tirado (1-2) on April 22, singling to right in his other at-bat. Acuna fanned three times overall that night, the third time this season he's had at least three strikeouts. After going down on strikes 25 times in his first 15 games of the year, however, Acuna has fanned 12 times in his last 10 contests.
"I think it just comes with pregame routines and practice; he has to keep applying what he does there in the game," Mendez said. "He's a kid who can hit the ball out of the park and use the whole field for power -- he's that talented -- and sometimes you take that for granted and every swing wants to be a home run. ... He can hit any fastball with that bat speed and what he can do with his hands. He knows the strike zone."
Acuna struck out in the third before another single to right plated Neslony in the fourth to extend Florida's lead to 16-2. He flied to center to end the sixth, then delivered another single to right in the eighth to complete his four-hit night, the third time he's had at least three hits in a game this season and the 11th time in his 122-game Minor League career.
As with most talented teenagers, Acuna has his share of bad games -- he's gone hitless eight times with the Fire Frogs. He also has eight multi-hit games, and the Florida staff is looking to turn his high-level flashes into more consistency.
"This game will humble you and you've got to stay afloat," Mendez said. "When you're not feeling good, what you have to do is battle: don't get too high or too low, it's an up-and-down season. ... You don't need to get a hit every time, but you need to keep that level of concentration. It's a long season, there's going to be good and bad times and the only thing you can do is prepare yourself."
Acuna was compared to Andruw Jones by Braves manager Brian Snitker, and Jones was on hand for the Fire Frogs' recent series in Palm Beach. Acuna didn't record a hit and struck out five times in the three-game set, and Mendez feels like his young outfielder may have been pressing in front of an idol.
"Jones was watching us play last series and that's one reason Acuna got wild -- Jones is one of the guys he likes and he reminds me of Andruw," Mendez said. "He had a rough series and got long and pull-happy. It's part of the process he's learning. He's 19 years old and being a kid sometimes he wants to do a little too much. Ronald can hit the ball out of any park, he can throw and he's already good in the field but will get better. He's got a high ceiling."

Neslony reached four times and scored four runs for the Fire Frogs, while Braves No. 12 prospect Austin Riley went 2-for-4 with a homer and three RBIs. No. 23 prospect Alex Jackson continued his bounce-back season with two hits including his Florida State League-leading eighth homer, two RBIs and three runs scored.
Clearwater's Drew Stankiewicz was 4-for-5 with a homer and two RBIs, while Damek Tomscha and Jose Pujols both had two hits, including a homer.
Ricardo Sánchez (2-3) allowed two runs on six hits with six strikeouts over five innings for Florida.