Minor league thread 2021

RoDaddy

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Six shutout 2 hit innings from Groome with 9:1 KO/BB. I did a double take thinking this was the box for his last (and 1st Portland) start. Lots of good things have happened this year in our system and Groome's two great performances after being promoted to AA might be right up there
 

Cesar Crespo

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That’s what I assumed since he’s really gotten no pub for this career year. Thanks
HR #24 yesterday. He is on some type of tear lately. 7 games, 33 PA, .387/.424/1.000 on a .375 BAbip with 2bb/9bb, 1 2b and 6 HR.

Six shutout 2 hit innings from Groome with 9:1 KO/BB. I did a double take thinking this was the box for his last (and 1st Portland) start. Lots of good things have happened this year in our system and Groome's two great performances after being promoted to AA might be right up there
11.0 ip, 4 hits, 0 r, 1bb/19k. 15 of the 19k were via swinging.



In other news, Matthew Lugo stays hot, going 2/3 with a double and a walk. Now at .307/.389/.427 over his last 252 PA.
Last 14 games: .429/.500/.673 in 60 PA/49 AB. 7bb/11k, 5 doubles, 2 triples, 1 HR.

His first 195 PA this season: .228/.273/.278. 10bb/38k. 4 doubles, 1 triple, 1 HR. So yeah, he has 2 more extra base hits in his last 60 PA than he did in his first 195. Only 3 less walks.
For the year: .271/.339/.359 in 447 PA, 36bb/88k, .337 BAbip. 15 sb/4cs.

Vs R: 367 PA, .296/.368/.397, 32bb/67k.
vs L: 80 PA, .164/.203/.192, 4bb/21k.

Players like him and to a lesser extent Nick Decker are interesting and sort of lost in the shuffle. They didn't have the best debut and didn't have a chance to redeem themselves in 2020. Lugo is a raw 5 tool player who was 19 at the start of the season. It looks like it's starting to come together a little bit after a terrible start. If he does add the power as is projected, he could move up some list. Sox prospects has him ranked 20th so maybe not too forgotten. Decker is at 31.

Nick Decker is currently hitting .273/.376/.458 in Salem with 34bb/73k in 266 PA. 25 xbh, including 8 hr. Last 18 games: .309/.400/.588 in 80 PA, 4 doubles, 5 HRs. 11bb/31k. Lots of swing and miss.


Brainer Bonaci (how can he not be everyone's binky with that name) is holding his own in Salem after being promoted a few weeks back. He turned 19 in July. His scouting report isn't the most glowing but sometimes young players develop in unforeseeable ways. Upon looking, it actually looks like sox prospects has updated their scouting report on him. In 35 PA in A ball, he's slashing .281/.343/.375 with 3bb/4k, a double and a triple. I'm not entirely sure why he was promoted to Salem as his FCL line isn't earth shattering (.252/.358/.403, 21bb/37k in 162 PA, 12 sb/0CS). Though in the last 29 games he was better (.295/.397/.473, 18bb/29k in 131 PA, 10 sb/0CS).

He should have at least an average hit tool if not better and should be average defensively with a plus arm. He's an incredibly heady player and plays faster than he is. He's also small and will probably never hit for much power.

2021 3rd round pick Tyler McDonough is off to a good start. Over the last 12 games: 57 PA, .383/.491/617, 9bb/8k, 3 doubles, 1 triple, 2 HR. 3sb/0 Cs.
For the year at A: .310/.408/.464 with 13bb/19k in 98 PA, 3 doubles, 2 triples, 2 HR.

Ronaldo Hernandez last 51 games: 194 PA, .328/.371/.572 on a .372 BAbip, 8bb/36k. 20 doubles, 8 HR.
 

TimScribble

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Boston with 4 on the final BA top 100:
15. Triston Casas
29. Marcelo Mayer
37. Jarren Duran
64. Nick Yorke
 

The Gray Eagle

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Connor Wong homered in the 8th to tie the game, then homered with 2 outs in the 9th to win it for Worcester.
https://www.telegram.com/story/sports/mlb/woosox/2021/09/14/worcester-red-sox-connor-wong-syracuse-mets-eduard-bazardo-raynel-espinal-jeter-downs/8344295002/

Downs also hit a HR.

The Woo Sox have won 17 out of 20.


I didn't realize that Michael Gettys was trying to pitch now:
https://www.masslive.com/worcesterredsox/2021/09/woosox-notebook-michael-gettys-who-hit-35-home-runs-in-triple-a-in-2019-is-trying-his-hand-at-pitching-katie-morrison.html
As a guy who hit 31 HRs in the minors in 2019, if he could become decent as a pitcher, he could become a potentially useful 26th man on the roster as an extra OF and mop up pitcher. Of course he is just starting out as a pitcher a million miles from the majors, but he is still only 25.
 

sittingstill

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I didn't realize that Michael Gettys was trying to pitch now:
https://www.masslive.com/worcesterredsox/2021/09/woosox-notebook-michael-gettys-who-hit-35-home-runs-in-triple-a-in-2019-is-trying-his-hand-at-pitching-katie-morrison.html
As a guy who hit 31 HRs in the minors in 2019, if he could become decent as a pitcher, he could become a potentially useful 26th man on the roster as an extra OF and mop up pitcher. Of course he is just starting out as a pitcher a million miles from the majors, but he is still only 25.
Just saw him in the FCL yesterday: 1 inning, 1 hit, 1 BB, no runs.

 

Cesar Crespo

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Some nice discussion of a couple of Sox prospects (Yorke and Walter mostly) on the most recent fangraphs audio - https://blogs.fangraphs.com/fangraphs-audio-dave-the-cobra-parker-shares-stories-of-brotherhood/
Walter is curious given his age. As a starter, he's at 14 GS, 3.39 era, 66.1 ip, 51 hits, 36r/25er, 15bb/101k. 37.5% K rate, 5.6% BB rate. WHIP of 1.07 (5 HBP) But in 2 starts, he went a combined 7.2 ip, giving up 17 hits, 17r, 15er, 2bb/12k. 1hbp
Ignore those 2 starts and his ERA falls to 1.53 and his WHIP falls to .869.

Kutter Crawford has rebounded quite well in Pawtucket too since his MLB start. 2 GS, 10.1 ip, 8 hits, 4er, 4bb/16k. He's at 86.0 ip, 17bb/119k for the year.

Jay Groome wasn't so hot yesterday, going 4.2 ip, 8 hits, 4r/4er, 3bb/7k. 86 pitches, 58 strikes. Only 9 looking and 9 swinging.

Pedro Castellanos missed a bunch of time but is hitting .476/.520/.857 over his last 5 games, 25 PA. 2 doubles. 2 HR, 3bb/3k. That doesn't include today's game, where he is currently 2/3 with a triple.

Matthew Lugo went 3/5 yesterday with his 4th HR of the year.

I'm exciting to see what he does next year. I've been mentioning him a lot lately. He's been considerably better since a god awful 2 month start to the season, but he's still completely lost against lefties (1 xbh in 74 AB, 4bb/22k in 81 PA, .162/.200/.189). He is now at .271/.337/.362 for the year and flirting with a .700 OPS in 464 PA. Not bad. His season can be defined by 3 "stages" if they are indeed stages and not just noise.

First 195 PA: .228/.273/.278, BABip of .280. 6 xbh, 10bb/38k. 9sb/1cs. Not much to like here. His K% of 19.5% is nice and the 9/10 in SB is too. Everything else is pretty much a disaster.

Next 192 PA: .272/.354/.355, BABip of .346. 12 xbh, 19bb/39k. 5sb/2cs. Ok. He's showing signs of life. In about the same about of PA, he hit twice as many XBH and basically doubled his walk rate while striking out the same amount.

Last 77 PA: .385/.455/.615, BABip of .469. 9 xbh. 8bb/16k. 1sb/1cs. There's a lot to like here. Basically doubled his xbh again (Per PA), while keeping the same BB/K rates from the previous stage.

Went from a 1:4 BB/K ratio to a 1:2 BB/K ratio, and after some success with that, added power. Easy to forget he started his pro career 2 months after his 18th birthday and then missed a year to covid. I see him finishing next season in the Sox top 10. If things go right, top 3. Talent is there anyway.
 

Sin Duda

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Playoffs? Playoffs?!? I was not aware that 2021 will not be a normal postseason for the Minor Leagues. AAA will have no playoffs but play to the end of September. Per an article in NEUSE News, "there will be playoffs for ... Double-A, High-A, and Low-A." "The ... format will feature the two teams with the best record in the entire league in a best-of-five series." G1 (on Sep 21) and G2 are played at the 2 seed. Following an off day, the G3, G4, and G5 are scheduled at the 1 seed.
  • So the WooSox (currently .559 winning level) play out their regular season to Sep 30. They are in 3rd place.
  • The AA Portland Seadogs (.588) finished 2nd in their division but Akron and Bowie, 1st in 2nd place finishers in the league, are playoff bound. Portland's season is finished.
  • High A Greenville (.558) finished 3rd in their division(1-Bowling Green, 2-Greensboro) and are finished.
  • Low A Salem (.592) won their division but finished a game out of the second playoff spot (1-Down East, 2-Charleston), so they too are finished.
All in all, a good summer as all affiliates finished with winning records, but no playoffs.
 

The Filthy One

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Fangraphs reworked their top 100 prospects with a few updates. As a result, they bumped Marcelo Mayer to a 55 FV grade prospect. He leaped Casas in their ratings, though that's basically meaningless, as he and Casas are ranked 16th and 17th overall, respectively. Yorke also entered their top 100 as a 50 FV prospect, ranked 75 overall.
 

The Gray Eagle

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The Red Sox honored this year's minor league organizational award winners before the game at Fenway last night.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/09/22/sports/nick-yorke-named-red-sox-minor-league-offensive-player-year/

The winners:
Offensive Player of the Year: Nick Yorke

Starting Pitcher: Brayan Bello

The 22-year-old came back from the lost 2020 campaign showing a boost in velocity — regularly sitting in the mid-90s and touching 98 — while complementing that with a quality slider and changeup.

“That [velocity jump] came out of nowhere but I continued … to work hard to keep the velo up,” Bello said through a translator. “I’m super happy about [the possibility of pitching at Fenway] and just waiting on the moment for them to give me that call.”
Reliever of the Year: Durbin Feltman
Latin program pitcher of the year: Jedixson Paez

Defensive player of the year: Ceddanne Rafaela
Baserunner of the year: Christian Koss
Latin program position player of the year: Allan Castro


The organization also recognized righthander Kutter Crawford as the recipient of the Lou Gorman Award for perseverance in the face of obstacles.
 

RoDaddy

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Good AAA debut for Winckowski last night (no hits until the 6th) and how bout Zack Kelly?! His SO/IP is around 1.5 this year in AA and AAA (WHIP 1.12) so I wonder if he's come up with a new pitch to put him in the mix for a future Sox callup

In addition to the WooSox, there are still DSL games going on
 

PseuFighter

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Wasn't sure where to put this, but Mexico just reactivated a winter league. Max age is 25 or 26 depending on if the team is in the north or the south. It'll run from mid October to December. I think they're going to try (again) to grow players there as opposed to it being a mostly dreamer league for older players / US player alumns, which is what the regular summer league is.

View: https://twitter.com/LigaMexBeis/status/1443973044733685760?s=19
 

Cesar Crespo

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Great that it’s happening, a shame it took so long. The article notes the estimated cost per team is less than $1 million. Barely more than a rounding error for most franchise budgets.
Probably closed to covered by shrinking the minors. Smart teams should provide a live in cook.
 

Average Game James

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Probably closed to covered by shrinking the minors. Smart teams should provide a live in cook.
Seriously. With all the advances that have been made in training and nutrition and what is know known about optimizing athletic performance, you’d think the richer teams would be looking to invest more behind minor league talent development. Even a small lift probably pays for itself several times over.
 

GB5

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I havent read the specifics of the housing article, by why do I get the sense that it would be long past spring training before we start getting pictures of some of the thriftier teams housing being substandard. 8 players in a unit meant for 4, plumbing issues, etc..
 

nighthob

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I havent read the specifics of the housing article, by why do I get the sense that it would be long past spring training before we start getting pictures of some of the thriftier teams housing being substandard. 8 players in a unit meant for 4, plumbing issues, etc..
It's destiny that the Florida teams are going to be opening trailer parks within driving distance of their minor league affiliates.
 

Jed Zeppelin

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Noah Song could be ready to pitch this year depending on where he is at in his Naval commitment. I guess the short end of the projection could have him theoretically ready for Spring Training.

Who knows how he will look when he does return, but at the end of the day he is a legit prospect waiting in the wings, and if he moves through the system relatively quickly we could be looking at a cost-controlled age 26-32 starter or thereabouts. Seems like a guy who could really boost the system ranking as well and just add to the depth we've been building.