2024 Portland Sea Dogs (AA)

[JM3]

ROMAN on MARCELO:

“He leads by example,” Anthony said. “He leads by the way he plays and by the way he carries himself. His character is what stands out the most. He’s a great clubhouse guy and a great guy to live with.”

“I consider him my best friend,” Anthony said. “We pretty much do everything together. We help each other get better and kind of build off of each other.”

https://beyondthemonster.substack.com/p/red-sox-star-prospect-roman-anthony

I was going to quote a bit more stuff, but the formatting makes it almost impossible on my phone.

 

[Heating up in the bullpen]

View: https://twitter.com/SoxProspects/status/1780968692227989834

A couple years ago Matthew Lugo was a Sox Prospects Top 30 prospect. Stalled last year at Portland and SP dropped him out of their Top 60. He's mashing so far this spring, and still just 22 (well, 23 on May 9). Development is not necessarily linear.
Anybody know what's going on with M Lugo this year? I hope the answer isn't chemical.
I saw him play once in 2022; looked like he had a gap-to-gap line drive swing. Reminded me of Santiago Espinal.
Would love to see him push his way back into prospect status, if only as solid trade bait.

 

[Montana Fan]

JM3, am going to the Yard Goats-SeaDogs game Friday night. Any idea who will be throwing for the Dogs? Anyone I should keep an eye on for the Goats?

 

[JM3]

JM3, am going to the Yard Goats-SeaDogs game Friday night. Any idea who will be throwing for the Dogs? Anyone I should keep an eye on for the Goats?

It appears that barring weather issues or injury, everyone has settled into their own day of the week, & Friday would be Helcris Olivarez.

Tuesday - Wikelman
Wednesday - Coffey
Thursday - Penrod
Friday - Helcris
Saturday - Dobbins
Sunday - Bastardo

The Hartford Yard Goats are the Rockies AA affiliate, so you wouldn't expect a ton (Rockies have the #21 system per Pipeline).

However, they do boast 4 Top 100 prospects, 2 of whom play for the Yard Goats.

Adael Amador (#28) - Amador is a 21 y/o middle infielder who signed for $1.5m as an IFA. He has had 163 walks to 137 strikeouts in his professional career. His primary level last year was A+ where he boasted a 145 wRC+ & .905 OPS.

He has struggled so far this year due to a .115 BABIP in his 1st 40 PAs, but he has 10 bb to 4 k.

View: https://twitter.com/NaeNaeTakes/status/1696738389205106864


https://www.mlb.com/prospects/top100/adael-amador-691182

Yanquiel Fernandez (#72) - Fernandez signed for $295k in the same IFA year as Amador ('19-'20). Fernandez's primary tools are his power & his arm. The lefty hit 25 home runs last season. He was great in the half of the year he played in A+ (148 wRC+) but nearly doubled his strikeout rate from 18% to 33% when promoted to AA & struggled (69 wRC+). His power tool & arm could be fun to watch, though.

View: https://twitter.com/blakestbanter/status/1671328208036265984


Bonus footage of Luis Guerrero striking him out in the Futures Game:

View: https://twitter.com/tylermilliken_/status/1677852255519748101


https://www.mlb.com/prospects/top100/yanquiel-fernandez-692585

I would expect Chase Dollander (#52) to be in Hartford soon, but he only has 3 A+ games since being drafted 9th overall.

Zach Kokoska & Zac Veen have been raking so far this season. Kokoska is 25 & not a top 30 prospect in the org per Pipeline, but Veen is their #6. The lineup also includes Sterlin Thompson, their #5.

Almost all their top prospects are hitters. Their highest rated pitcher in Portland is #15, Carson Palmquist...who has been ridiculous this season.

3 starts
16 IP
0 runs
8 hits
7 bb
25 k

View: https://twitter.com/MiLB/status/1781566018701119928


He last pitched Friday, but has been pitching every 6 days, so he'll probably be the Thursday starter.

 

[Montana Fan]

JM3, you are one of the best sources on the whole site. Thank you for the details!! Looking forward to the game more now.

 

[JM3]

JM3, you are one of the best sources on the whole site. Thank you for the details!! Looking forward to the game more now.

Have fun! Feel free to post pictures & about your experience either here or in the game day thread.

Unfortunately no Red Sox affiliates make it out here to Vegas.

 

[JM3]

Matthew Lugo continued his bounce-back campaign with a double and home run in the Portland win to take home SoxProspects Player of the Day honors. The 2019 second-round pick struggled in his first exposure to Double-A last season, hitting just .242/.297/.381 in 83 games. He is already 60 percent of the way to his home run total from last year, with an outstanding 22 total bases in eight games.

View: https://twitter.com/SoxProspects/status/1782063955243851899

 

[JM3]

View: https://twitter.com/christophtroye/status/1781083421508321793

 

[JM3]

View: https://twitter.com/PortlandSeaDogs/status/1782457531811459185

 

[TheYellowDart5]

Lugo is Rule 5 eligible in December, so he pretty much has to show out this season in order to keep his career going with the org (or to get himself selected by a new one).

 

[JM3]

Lugo is Rule 5 eligible in December, so he pretty much has to show out this season in order to keep his career going with the org (or to get himself selected by a new one).

He has another year after that until he's a Minor League Free Agent, & he would have to crush the rest of the season to end up on people's radars for R5 or 40-man protection (which would of course be the best case scenario), so I think it's likely he's here at least 1 more year after this one.

Here's the full list of Rule 5 eligible guys this off season:

December 2024

Angel Bastardo
Alex Binelas
Brainer Bonaci
Bryce Bonnin
Taylor Broadway
Zach Bryant
Allan Castro
Brendan Cellucci
Juan Chacon
Nathanael Cruz
Theo Denlinger
Kelvin Diaz
Hunter Dobbins
Juan Daniel Encarnacion
Albert Feliz
Max Ferguson
Richard Fitts
Michael Fulmer
Grant Gambrell
Jhostynxon Garcia
Bryan Gonzalez
Luis Guerrero
Francis Hernandez
Nathan Hickey
Gabriel Jackson
Blaze Jordan
Niko Kavadas
Robert Kwiatkowski
CJ Liu
Eduardo Lopez
Matthew Lugo
Elih Marrero
Tyler McDonough
Tyler Miller
Wyatt Mills
Yordanny Monegro
Juan Montero
Wyatt Olds
Eddinson Paulino
Ronald Rosario
Corey Rosier
Cody Scroggins
Reidis Sena
Chase Shugart
Phillip Sikes
Karson Simas
Nick Sogard
Noah Song
Luis Talavera
Christopher Troye
Tyler Uberstine
Miguel Ugueto
Brian Van Belle
Diego Viloria
Jacob Webb
Jeremy Wu-Yelland
Nick Yorke
Ryan Zeferjahn

https://www.soxprospects.com/rule5.htm

 

[byAndrewParker]

He has another year after that until he's a Minor League Free Agent, & he would have to crush the rest of the season to end up on people's radars for R5 or 40-man protection (which would of course be the best case scenario), so I think it's likely he's here at least 1 more year after this one.

Here's the full list of Rule 5 eligible guys this off season:



https://www.soxprospects.com/rule5.htm

The only guys who really stick out to me that are more than likely to be taken if not added to roster are:

Dobbins
Fitts
Yorke
Zeferjahn

 

[JM3]

The only guys who really stick out to me that are more than likely to be taken if not added to roster are:

Dobbins
Fitts
Yorke
Zeferjahn

I think there are some other guys that have a chance to get there this season, even if they aren't to that point, yet, including...

Bastardo
Castro
Guerrero
Jordan
Monegro
Paulino
Troye

 

[JM3]

View: https://twitter.com/ByAndrewParker/status/1782813777089474894


The craziest part to me is going from a 19.6% walk rate last season to a 3.4% walk rate.

While it’s a very small sample size of only four games, Zeferjahn has shown great promise with limiting the walks that he has had trouble in years past. After having his BB/9 skyrocket to 8.4 last year in Portland, it’s good to see only allowing one walk out of 29 batters faced.

Zeferjahn is Rule 5 Draft eligible at the end of the year and as we saw with Ryan Fernandez, teams will take a chance on a guy with that kind of velocity. It would make a lot of sense to bring him up sooner rather than later and see how he reacts to Triple-A hitting.

https://beyondthemonster.substack.com/p/ryan-zeferjahn-piling-up-good-outings

 

[JM3]

I think there are some other guys that have a chance to get there this season, even if they aren't to that point, yet, including...

Bastardo
Castro
Guerrero
Jordan
Monegro
Paulino
Troye

I just realized 5 of the 7 players on this list have last names ending in the letter "o".

 

[byAndrewParker]

I just realized 5 of the 7 players on this list have last names ending in the letter "o".

I also made a huge mistake and didn’t include Guerrero in my list. Feel like he’s a no brainer to be added to 40 man by end of the year.