This story was excerpted from Christina De Nicola's Marlins Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
Ride the wave. That's all Double-A Pensacola first baseman Troy Johnston is trying to do, and it helps when the baseball looks the size of a beach ball at the plate.
Miami's No. 25 prospect was named Southern League Player of the Week on Monday after leading the league in nearly every category -- from average (.625) to homers (four) to OPS (1.292). His efforts propelled the Blue Wahoos into first place of the South Division thanks to a 5-1 record during this stretch.
"It's exciting," Johnston said. "This is why we play the game, so that we can go on hot streaks like this and try to do the best that we can every day."
Every Monday, which coincides with Minor League Baseball's off-day, Johnston analyzes how he did over the previous week and sees if there's anything to change. Don't expect there to be much this time around. Until recently, Johnston was slashing .222/.308/.278 across the first 33 games of the season. A notoriously slow starter, he credits his turnaround to a tweak for his timing: Making sure to have a cleaner path to the baseball with his front shoulder and elbow.
The 24-year-old is no stranger to hot streaks, usually catching fire like this at least once a season. In 2021, it was a stretch that included hitting for the cycle at High-A Beloit. This one has rebuilt Johnston's confidence after he participated in last year's Arizona Fall League with top prospects from around baseball.
"Honestly, just have fun with the game again," Johnston said. "When I went there, it was an absolute blast to play with some absolutely fantastic players. I still keep in contact with a lot of them. Half of our team is going to The Show already. A lot of them got called up to the bigs, and so you're playing with current big leaguers, maybe a couple months ago. Probably the biggest thing I learned is that baseball is the same no matter what level. It's still going to be challenging, still going to be hard, but we're all kind of there and we're all kind of grinding. We're all just giving it our best effort."
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