Collier in the midst of a full-fledged power surge at High-A

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CINCINNATI -- It didn't take long this season for Cam Collier to find his power.

A third baseman for High-A Dayton and ranked by MLB Pipeline as the Reds organization's No. 7 prospect, Collier has already been clearing fences at a rapid pace.

On Saturday in Dayton’s 7-5 loss to Fort Wayne, Collier connected for his fifth home run over his last seven games.

Collier, who is still only 19 years old and the son of former Major League player Lou Collier, has six homers over 54 at-bats in 13 games this season. That's after he had six homers over 390 at-bats in 111 games all of last season at Single-A Daytona.

"He's been really aggressive," said Jeremy Farrell, the Reds' player development director. "It's carried into the season what he started doing at Spring Training coming off of a really good offseason. What he's done defensively and at the plate has been really fun to watch. He's in a really good spot right now."

Selected at No. 18 overall by the Reds in the 2022 Draft, when he was a 17-year-old playing at Chipola Junior College after graduating early from high school, Collier's first full professional season last year showed mixed results, as he batted .246 with a .705 OPS.

For much of the early portion of last season, Collier was prone to hitting grounders. Eventually his left-handed swing started getting lift, which allowed him to the barrel the ball -- and it left the club optimistic. He previewed that power during camp this year when he hit a home run in Cincinnati's first Spring Breakout game.

"He's still a young kid," Farrell said. "A lot of it is still learning himself and maturing as a player and learning the professional game. His ability to make adjustments in this early part of the season is really good."

Collier entered Sunday batting .333 with a 1.061 OPS and 18 RBIs for Dayton during the regular season.

Here is a look at what some other prospects have been doing for the Reds organization lately:

Triple-A Louisville
A 6-foot-8 left-handed reliever, Evan Kravetz has a 0.96 ERA and a 0.75 WHIP through six appearances and 9 1/3 innings.

Kravetz, 27, was a fifth-round selection by Cincinnati in 2019 and is not one of the Reds’ Top 30 prospects (per MLB Pipeline). After being moved up from Double-A Chattanooga last season, he had nearly the same amount of walks (23) as strikeouts (31) over 30 2/3 innings in 19 appearances (two starts) for Louisville.

Double-A Chattanooga
Right-handed reliever Zach Maxwell is hard to miss considering he stands large at 6-foot-6 and 275 pounds. For opposing hitters, Maxwell has been missing their bats quite a bit.

Ranked as Cincinnati's No. 27 prospect, Maxwell began the season with three straight three-strikeout games. Through four games entering Sunday, he has nine strikeouts over four innings, with one hit and two walks.

Maxwell, 23, was a sixth-round pick by the Reds in 2022, and was in big league camp for the first time this year at Spring Training. He has the ability to bring triple-digit velocity, but can be prone to control issues and walks. However, he was able to lower his walk rate from 9.8 per nine innings over three levels in 2022 to 5.6 per nine innings in 2023.

Single-A Daytona
Left-handed starter Adam Serwinowski, who is ranked as the No. 30 prospect in the organization, threw up more zeros in the run column during his latest outing on Friday. Against Bradenton in a 4-1 win, Serwinowski pitched four scoreless innings with one hit, two walks, a hit batter and three strikeouts.

Through three starts, Serwinowski has pitched 12 scoreless innings.