Minor league thread 2023

TimScribble

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Fun night in Portland:
Drohan: 5.0 IP, 3 ER, 3 BB, 6 K
Yorke: 2/4, 2 BB, 1 HR
Meidroth: 3/6, 2 RBI including walk off
 

AlNipper49

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So they're not calling him up, giving him development time, and bubble wrapping him. They like him as much as we do.
 

Fishy1

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Not much chatter about him, but Wilyer Abreu with some very impressive numbers at AAA. Adjustment is going very well. K rate is down by 5%, as is the BB rate, but posting his highest batting average ever in the minors, so the OBP and SLG are right in line with his career averages. A breakout candidate for sure.
 

RoDaddy

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Yes he is playing well and the organizaiton seems to believe in him, now hitting him in the 3-hole in Worcester.

With all the Meidroth excitement so far, it looks like we have lots of decent second base prospects so I guess chances are pretty good one of them will pan out at the major league level. Hamilton, Valdez (in Boston now), Yorke and Meidroth are already in the high minors with maybe Romero down the line.

Rafaela has been a major disappointment so far this year but has an amazing 5 SBs in today's game so far!
 

AlNipper49

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It looks like one of those was reversed into defensive indifference. If he remained at 7 he would have tied Ricky Henderson’s MiLB mark. Cool!
 

simplicio

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That seemed a given, yeah, but it feels like he's now on track for actually getting to Boston first of that batch as well.
 

Sandy Leon Trotsky

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That seemed a given, yeah, but it feels like he's now on track for actually getting to Boston first of that batch as well.
Mata's been injured and likely was dealing with that before he went on the DL... he's sort of running out of time and needs to be added to the 40-man roster after '23. After Spring Training, it appeared that he'd at least show up mid-season to pitch out of the pen but not sure what will happen to him when he returns. I'm wondering if they should start using him in relief in Woostah..... it's a big loss in the pitching pipeline even with the emergence of Drohan.
 

The Gray Eagle

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The runnin' Red Sox are stealing some bags:
Rafaela has stolen 9 bases in 9 tries in his last 2 games, and is 19 for 22 on the season in 28 games.
Also with Portland, Cory Rosier is 18 for 19. (This guy is fast, he looked even faster than Rafaela when I saw them in April.)
Phillip Sikes is 15 for 17, Christian Koss is 9 for 10, Tyler McDonough 8 for 10.

In AAA, Greg Allen is 21 for 21(!) and David Hamilton is 21 for 25.

Not bad for about a quarter of a season so far.
 

AlNipper49

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Max Ferguson in GVL is stealing a base almost 40% of the time that he gets on base. He's not a "prospect", but it's obviously an organizational mandate.
 

jon abbey

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Mata's been injured and likely was dealing with that before he went on the DL... he's sort of running out of time and needs to be added to the 40-man roster after '23. After Spring Training, it appeared that he'd at least show up mid-season to pitch out of the pen but not sure what will happen to him when he returns. I'm wondering if they should start using him in relief in Woostah..... it's a big loss in the pitching pipeline even with the emergence of Drohan.
Mata is on the 40 man already.

https://www.mlb.com/redsox/roster/40-man
 

RoDaddy

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Great night for the organization as all 4 minor league teams plus the big club win! Not sure how often that happens (maybe 0.5 to the 5th which is about a 3% chance?) but think I'll start to keep an unofficial count this year.

Blaze Jordan anyone? His OPS is a respectable mid-.800s, the power is back after it was strangely down last year, and he looks on track for an AA promotion some time this year at only 20 years old!
 

SouthernBoSox

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Great night for the organization as all 4 minor league teams plus the big club win! Not sure how often that happens (maybe 0.5 to the 5th which is about a 3% chance?) but think I'll start to keep an unofficial count this year.

Blaze Jordan anyone? His OPS is a respectable mid-.800s, the power is back after it was strangely down last year, and he looks on track for an AA promotion some time this year at only 20 years old!
People just aren’t against to believe in Blaze until he hits velocity in the high minors. There are real warranted concerns there.
 

The Filthy One

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Fangraphs, which has previously been what I'd describe as a mild Mayer skeptic, has upgraded him to the top of the 55 FV-tier of prospects. This is based on what he's shown so far this year relative to peers. On the other hand, hit tool risk has moved Bleis down about 20 spots on their top 100 prospects list.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/a-top-100-tweak-and-updated-rays-prospect-list/

Changes to the top of the 55 FV tier buoy the hitters who are performing toward the top of that group. The players from no. 14 to 18 overall (Marcelo Mayer, Brooks Lee, Endy Rodríguez, Brett Baty, Josh Jung) now stack ahead of Jordan Lawlar and Diego Cartaya, who are both striking out a lot at Double-A. The other changes within the 55 FV tier come toward the back of that group. Red Sox outfielder Miguel Bleis and Pirates infielder Termarr Johnson slide about 20 spots (the two of them were stacked at no. 19 and 20 overall), while Rays infielder Junior Caminero (who had been floating among the high-variance hitters in the back third of the 50 FV tier for about a year now) moves up from 110 overall.
 

Jed Zeppelin

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Mayer with dingers 6 and 7 tonight. Hamilton with 10 and 11.

Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz with a nice 10k/1bb line.
 

tims4wins

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LogansDad

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OPS is currently over .950 in Greenville. When do they call him up to Portland?
If I had to guess, I would say sometime in June, if he keeps it up. I've been on the "Marcelo is on the J-Rod track" since the offseason, and I still stand by that. I don't know if he makes the Opening Day roster (and gun to my head I would say "I doubt it"), but I expect him to get a serious look in spring training next year.

Edit: Hell, he might be the best SS the team has in the organization right now.
 

DJnVa

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Armed with data, Red Sox putting prospects in tough situations to make them grow - The Athletic

To that end, they’ve implemented a more aggressive style of player development. Modern baseball’s abundance of data and technology means teams no longer have to wait for a player to fail before implementing evidence-based changes. Whether it’s a swing, a delivery, or a pitch repertoire, the Red Sox can use data to look into the future and determine whether a player is truly developing toward the big leagues, or simply surviving in the minor leagues before an inevitable decline.

They can take a player like Drohan, determine that he’s going to need an actual changeup, find a way to fix his existing changeup, and then help him turn that pitch into an actual big-league-caliber weapon.

“Always challenging and pushing and questioning,” farm director Brian Abraham said. “And being willing to risk — to a certain extent — where the players are for them to be better overall is something we’ve really embraced, and our staff is very aware of. Hey, you’re going to push some of these guys. There’s going to be some failures. There are going to be some struggles. But it’s not going to be from lack of trying to allow these guys to be maybe better than we expected them to be.”

Drohan has become exactly that.
 

LogansDad

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Excellent, outstanding article. Thank you for posting it. I love the idea of transparency and pushing the players to understand that failure can lead to significant growth if it is used the right way. I know fans go to minor league games and want to see their local team be successful, but one thing that I am always telling people who ask "Why is this pitcher still in this AA game even though he is getting shelled" or other things like that is that the primary goal in the minor leagues i not to win games, it is to develop players that can help at the big league level, and learning how to deal with your own failure is a way better lesson at this level than it is in September in an MLB pennant race.

To wit, I love love love this quote:

“That’s probably one of the toughest things about the minor leagues and developing,” Drohan said. “The Red Sox are like, ‘Hey, we want you to kind of put yourself in uncomfortable positions out there,’ and it’s just hard as an athlete when you go out there, you really just want to win and perform well. So, last year was, I think, when they really kind of broke through my hard head and got me to really do it, and we saw all the success.”
Last year they apparently told Drohan that there were certain counts where he was only going to throw his changeup, even though he wasn't totally comfortable with it yet. That is just awesome to me, from a player development standpoint. Being able to tell these guys, "Hey, this is probably the first time in your life that you are going to fail at things related to baseball. Don't get frustrated, learn from it and get better" is just an awesome organizational philosophy to me. I am sure they are not the only club that does this, but it is good to read.

This article also tells me that we can chalk one mark up against the "There is no plan" types.
 

joe dokes

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Last year they apparently told Drohan that there were certain counts where he was only going to throw his changeup, even though he wasn't totally comfortable with it yet. That is just awesome to me, from a player development standpoint. Being able to tell these guys, "Hey, this is probably the first time in your life that you are going to fail at things related to baseball. Don't get frustrated, learn from it and get better" is just an awesome organizational philosophy to me. I am sure they are not the only club that does this, but it is good to read.

This article also tells me that we can chalk one mark up against the "There is no plan" types.
This approach could also lead to prospect-rankers lowering their rankings on prospects for reasons that have little to do with the prospects' prospects.
 

Fishy1

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Hamilton continues to make a case that the power is not flukey. His BABIP is also the lowest in his career despite a career high batting average.

Meidroth also continuing to walk more than he strikes out at AA. 18% BB to 12% K.
 

AlNipper49

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Dalton Rogers promoted to Greenville

Our third round pick last year. 38Ks in 21 innings seems like a pretty good start for this guy.
 

TimScribble

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Drohan roughed up again. 5 ER in 2.2 IP. Old friend Franchy hit a 3-run shot off him.