2024 Minor League Thread

[chop2chip]

Elder was outstanding yesterday...
6.1 ip 2 h 0 er 0 bb 7 k

Dodd on Saturday...
5.0 ip 3 h 0 er 5 bb 7 k

Get the walks down, Dodd

Good for Elder. To go from MLB all star to opening up the season in AAA would be very frustrating and stressful.

[Deester11]

The discussion of Alvarez's defense kind of reminds me of Riley when he was in the minors. The initial take was he would never be fluid enough/have enough range to stick at 3B and LF was his future. Then as he kept getting better at 3B, some never reconsidered the initial take. Despite being one of the better defenders at 3B in MLB, there are some that will still question his defense based upon that initial take. Hopefully Alvarez follows a similar path.

Kinda, and yes. The considerable lengths that Riley went to in order to become not only serviceable, but gold glove caliber was truly a credit to how intense he was about improving. Alvarez has good work ethic too, so it remains to be seen if he could take the same path. One thing I will say about Riley that was evident early, was that he was adamant about playing anywhere the Braves wanted him. His mom even told the Braves that he'd catch if that's what it took to get to the majors. I love that! A Scout told Brian Bridges that taking Riley as a hitter would never work. LMAO. Scouting really is inexact.

From watching Alvarez in the minors, I honestly don't doubt that he'd be a good Third Baseman. As a SS, he's not the wow guy. He has solid actions and average range. Going to the hole never really impressed me, but he can get there. As is, he's a SS that won't hurt you while making most plays that he should. I don't know if his bat would ever profile like Riley's though as far as power.

[cajunrevenge]

To be clear my thoughts on Alvarez are just from the publicly available scouting reports. If Alvarez's weakness at SS is range then thats the thing I expect least to improve. In fact it should peak fairly early in his career before getting worse. So maybe he will be serviceable defensively for several years when he first comes up. As we saw with the last game vs the Phillies a failing in defense to turn a DP pretty much cost us the game. I think we need good defenders up the middle. And if they arent plus defenders they better be hitting 30+ homers a year or getting on base close to 40% of the time. And I dont think he has a bat like that. Imo a good outcome for Alvarez is Martin Prado who can fill in at SS better. Which I think would be great for the team. He could probably get 300+ at bats a year just as a super sub.


Also, about Riley. I dont know that he is a gold glover caliber 3B. He might be in the way that Jeter was a gold glover because he hit so well and had name recognition but it would take a pretty bad defensive year for NL 3B for him to win a gold glove based on last year. If he does takes another leap forward on defense like he did last year though, he is gonna be a perennial top 5 MVP candidate.

[OcalaBrave]

Nitram Odarp that can play some SS? Kid has a better future than I thought.

[CyYoung31]

Nitram Odarp that can play some SS? Kid has a better future than I thought.

Prado came up playing SS.

[CJ9]

Lot of minor league rosters being released today. Braves seem to wait until opening day every year for some reason, so I’d imagine we won’t see anything until Friday.

[CJ9]

Looking at Gwinnett’s probable starters - they’re going with Winans Tuesday, Ynoa Wednesday and then back to Vines on Thursday.

So Smith-Shawver is being skipped the first time through the rotation, hopefully not hurt.

[50PoundHead]

I was looking for the Mississippi, Rome, and Augusta rosters but none updated for opening day yet. Did notice in the various transaction tabs that RHP Cedric de Grandpre, RHP Jason Franks, and C Will King are all on the full-season injury list. JR Ritchie on the 60-day injured list which means he could be back later. Jesse Franklin V also on 60-day injured list.

1B/OF Landon Stephens released. Hit 21 HRs at Mississippi last year, but struck out 37% of the time. He was a UDFA signed out of Miami (OH) after the truncated draft in 2020. Bryon Horne and Ethan Workinger are the only remaining free agents signed from that year.

Addition: 3B/1B David McCabe also on 60-day injured list.

RHP Jorge Bautista released. He pitched okay at a couple of stops but he's 23 and only reached High-A Rome for 9 games (7 starts) last season.

[Carp]

Looking at Gwinnett’s probable starters - they’re going with Winans Tuesday, Ynoa Wednesday and then back to Vines on Thursday.

So Smith-Shawnee is being skipped the first time through the rotation, hopefully not hurt.

It's unlikely that we play in baseball today in Chicago, so it's possible we could be expecting a double header tomorrow and we're just trying to plan ahead with Elder having already pitched a couple days ago.

[OcalaBrave]

Not that it matters, but I don't think he did. I remember him playing a bunch of 2b and 3b and being told to disregard him as a prospect because he didn't hit enough to be an everyday guy at 2b or 3b.

[zbhargrove]

Prado only played 8 minor league games at SS and played only 16 games at SS in his MLB career. Dude was never considered a SS

[zbhargrove]

It's unlikely that we play in baseball today in Chicago, so it's possible we could be expecting a double header tomorrow and we're just trying to plan ahead with Elder having already pitched a couple days ago.

Actually looking at all the latest high resolution models, I’d say there’s a very good chance they play and finish tonight. Most of the rain should be out of the area by 4-6pm CDT…

[CJ9]

Looking at Gwinnett’s probable starters - they’re going with Winans Tuesday, Ynoa Wednesday and then back to Vines on Thursday.

So Smith-Shawver is being skipped the first time through the rotation, hopefully not hurt.

Looks like he's actually scheduled to start for Gwinnett on Friday, so all good.

[CyYoung31]

Prado only played 8 minor league games at SS and played only 16 games at SS in his MLB career. Dude was never considered a SS

I never said he was considered an everyday SS. I said he played SS. As in he could play SS, just like the original poster said about Alvarez.

[50PoundHead]

Not that it matters, but I don't think he did. I remember him playing a bunch of 2b and 3b and being told to disregard him as a prospect because he didn't hit enough to be an everyday guy at 2b or 3b.

When Prado came up, he looked like a slap-hitting utility player, but he made himself into a solid player who could play around the diamond. He was a relatively late signee out of Venezuela because he went straight to the FCL (then the GCL) at age nineteen. Most of the Latin American signees started in the DSL or GCL at 17 or 18. He didn't light up the stat sheet on the way up the system, but he really blossomed when he hit the bigs. Never a star, but a guy who was really handy to have around.

[CJ9]

Some social media comments from players seem to indicate Drue Hackenberg and Spencer Schwellenbach are headed to Rome. That Rome rotation is going to be interesting - lots of solid options.

I'd imagine Owen Murphy, Jhoncarlos Lara, Cade Kuehler and Lucas Braun would all start there, plus Schwellenbach and Hackenberg. So maybe a six-man rotation or they just piggyback some guys. You'd also guess Adam Maier would start there if he's truly healthy, but maybe they take it slow and start him in Augusta similar to how they left Schwellenbach there most of last year.

[zbhargrove]

I never said he was considered an everyday SS. I said he played SS. As in he could play SS, just like the original poster said about Alvarez.

You said he “came up playing SS”

Bit of a stretch.

Nacho’s primary position at this point is pretty much SS. With Prado it was more like “crap we don’t have anyone else.”

But hey Freddie was a third baseman!

[50PoundHead]

Some social media comments from players seem to indicate Drue Hackenberg and Spencer Schwellenbach are headed to Rome. That Rome rotation is going to be interesting - lots of solid options.

I'd imagine Owen Murphy, Jhoncarlos Lara, Cade Kuehler and Lucas Braun would all start there, plus Schwellenbach and Hackenberg. So maybe a six-man rotation or they just piggyback some guys. You'd also guess Adam Maier would start there if he's truly healthy, but maybe they take it slow and start him in Augusta similar to how they left Schwellenbach there most of last year.

I'm a little surprised Schwellenbach isn't in Mississippi. They have to make a decision on him vis-a-vis the 40-man after this season. With clvclv watching from the Great Beyond, I'm one of the few who thinks about that here on Terra Firma and maybe it's not that big a deal. I expect Schwellenbach to get moved up at some point.

[cajunrevenge]

I expect he may be in the pen in Atlanta come September.

[CJ9]

I'm a little surprised Schwellenbach isn't in Mississippi. They have to make a decision on him vis-a-vis the 40-man after this season. With clvclv watching from the Great Beyond, I'm one of the few who thinks about that here on Terra Firma and maybe it's not that big a deal. I expect Schwellenbach to get moved up at some point.

Yeah, I was surprised by that too. And again, it's just me seeing other players comment on their social media posts, so it could very well be wrong.

But he only got 13 inning in Rome last year, so maybe they view this as an AJSS situation, where he got moved up to Mississippi after only three starts. Hopefully he pitches well enough to justify the move because he turns 24 next month. We need to figure out what he is this season, not to mention the 40-man concerns you brought up.