Three former first-round draft picks highlight the 25 players who will begin this season with the Chattanooga Lookouts, the Class AA affiliates of the Cincinnati Reds.
The 2019 Lookouts will practice at AT&T Field for the first time this afternoon before hosting Chattanooga State Tuesday at 6:15 in the annual seven-inning exhibition. They will begin their 140-game Southern League schedule Thursday night at 6:15, when they host the Montgomery Biscuits.
Outfielder Taylor Trammell (pronounced truh-MELL) is the highest-rated prospect on Chattanooga's opening roster, with the 6-foot-2, 215-pounder from the Atlanta suburb of Kennesaw ranked No. 3 on Baseball America's list of Reds prospects behind infielder Nick Senzel and pitcher Hunter Greene. Senzel, a former University of Tennessee standout, is nursing an ankle injury but will start this season in Triple-A Louisville, while Greene is coming off an elbow injury that shut down his 2018 season with the Single-A Dayton Dragons.
Trammell was Cincinnati's second first-round pick in 2016 - Senzel was the first - and hit .281 in 129 games two years ago with Dayton. He hit .277 last season in 110 games with Daytona Beach in the high Single-A Florida State League.
Lookouts catcher Tyler Stephenson, the first-round pick of the Reds in 2015, also hails from Kennesaw and played for Kennesaw Mountain High School, while Trammell competed at Mount Paran Christian. Ranked the No. 6 organizational prospect, the 6-4, 225-pound Stephenson hit .250 in 109 games last season at Daytona Beach and led the FSL with a .996 fielding percentage.
Stephenson was a Florida State League all-star last year and a Midwest League all-star in 2017.
Lookouts outfielder Courtney Hawkins was a first-round pick of the Chicago White Sox in 2012. He has played 273 games the past four seasons with Birmingham in the Southern League, hitting for a .209 average.
Chattanooga has one player, outfielder Jose Siri, who is currently on Cincinnati's 40-man roster. Siri hit .293 at Dayton in 2017 and was named the top hitter in the Reds' farm system.
The No. 9 organizational prospect according to Baseball America, Siri split time last year with Daytona Beach and Double-A Pensacola, hitting .261 in 30 games with Daytona Beach and .229 in 66 games with the Blue Wahoos.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.