Beck's Minor League Threecap: 8/12/2024
Sore thumbs in a crowd of otherwise completely normal thumbs
Hey folks! Welcome back to the Threecap. I’ve been handling some life stuff (mostly a stretch of long hours at my day job) and taking a beat to relax, but I did start my August rank update and it’s coming along nicely. Let’s talk about some recent minor league standouts.
Yes, Moore Parties in LA.
For the hitters section I’m covering the last seven days or so instead of just Sunday – I think that’ll bring you more utility than one day of games – so these lines are largely cumulative from August 4th to August 11th.
You can’t really write a hot sheet covering early August without including Christian Moore (LAA). He’s been incandescent from the moment he hit the field as a professional and has compiled a truly absurd .543/.579/1.114 line through his first eight games split between Single-A and Double-A. People half heartedly joked that Moore would be the fastest player from the 2024 draft to debut, following in the footsteps of future teammates Zach Neto and Nolan Schanuel, but it looks like he could get a call to Anaheim as soon as September. There’s never been any question about his ability – he was one of the best hitters in the SEC last year – but character concerns held me back from pushing him too high in my initial FYPD musings. He’ll settle in around the fifth player off the board in FYPDs in my top 100 update.
I’m really glad to see that very few people reflexively dropped Samuel Basallo (BAL) after his slow start. April and May were fine; he’d been recovering from a stress fracture in his right elbow that left him unable to throw and certainly impacted his ability to hit with any amount of consistency. July was tough, too, but was largely impacted by a .261 BABIP and devoid of real strikeout issues. Since the calendar turned to August he’s been one of the hottest hitters in affiliated baseball, ultimately collecting 16 hits in ten games (six extra-base hits, four doubles and two homers) and posting a .432/.450/.703 slash. He’ll feature in the top 20 on my next update.
Welcome to Worcester, Roman Anthony (BOS). The young lefty has slugged his way to Triple-A to close the year and is likely trending for an early debut in 2025. He’s carried an OPS north of one thousand over the last month while going hitless just once in that span. He’s an explosive hitter with max and 90th percentile exit velocities well above the major league average at just 20 years old and he pairs that damage with an excellent eye at the plate. His chase rate has hovered around 18% and has helped contribute to a 12.8% walk rate in 2024. You can quibble with his ability to handle breaking balls, particularly same-side spin, but he’s a top-10 prospect in the sport with many placing him top-5 for fantasy (myself included).
Parker? I Barely Know Her.
I am on the precipice of clairvoyance. I wrote in the beginning of the year that Quinn Mathews (STL) could close the season as the top pitching prospect in St. Louis and our very own Chris Clegg ranked him just six spots behind Tink Hence in his August update. Spoiler: I’ll have Mathews ahead. He’s one of my favorite arms in minor league baseball presently; his fastball is special (and I’m a sucker for a good fastball) and he has great command and I’m not sure you can ask for all that much more.
Nobody is carrying water for Parker Messick (CLE) and I’m not sure why. He doesn’t have loud stuff – I’ll admit that – but the command is firmly plus and he’s a surefire starter getting excellent results in Double-A. He’s tossed 39.1 innings for Akron since being promoted in June and has allowed just eight earned runs (1.83 ERA) while striking out 54 and walking just 11. He’s way undervalued for the production he’s put up this year paired with his relative proximity.
Jhancarlos Lara (ATL) was a bit of a personal cheeseball (stealing some Baseball Prospectus vernacular here) entering the year. He has lethal stuff headlined by a high 90’s heater that occasionally touches triple-digits, and while even I will admit there’s a healthy amount of reliever risk in his profile, the ceiling is really exciting. He got off to a poor start after missing all of April with an oblique strain but he’s been ridiculous over his last three starts. In that time he’s struck out 43.5% of batters faced and walked 9.7% while holding hitters to a .089 batting average against, ultimately culminating in 0.51 ERA over 17.2 innings.
Like Kevin Durant at the YMCA.
These guys stood out. Here are other notable performances from the last two weeks:
Hitters
Bryce Eldridge (SFG): .415/.536/.707, 17 H, 2 HR, 13:10 BB:K
Edgar Quero (CHW): .395/.442/.684, 15 H, 3 HR, 4:8 BB:K
Spencer Jones (NYY): .375/.469/.700, 15 H, 3 HR, 8:16 BB:K
Tre’ Morgan (TBR): .405/.421/.676, 15 H, 2 HR, 1:2 BB:K
Gabriel Rincones Jr. (PHI): .349/.404/.674, 15 H, 3 HR, 4:14 BB:K
Pitchers
Travis Sykora (WSH): 11.0 innings, 0 ER, 1 BB, 18 K
Yoniel Curet (TBR): 9.2 innings, 0 ER, 4 BB, 17 K
Kohl Drake (TEX): 10.1 innings, 2 ER, 4 BB, 17 K
Jarlin Susana (WSH): 10.0 innings, 2 ER, 1 BB, 17 K
Cory Lewis (MIN): 10.0 innings, 0 ER, 5 BB, 14 K