Standout Minor League Performances from Thursday's Action

Last night gave me a great live look at Caden Scarborough, who dominated in his High-A debut. A full breakdown is below on that. There were also a ton of great performances across the minors that I broke down.

If the rain holds off, I will be heading to Augusta to cover some new Braves draftees. But before we hit the road, let’s break down everything you need to know from Thursday’s action.

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Each day, I will pick a hitter and pitcher who stand out and deserve the top spot on the sheet. Those players’ reports will be free for all to read. The rest will be paywalled for Dynasty Dugout Subscribers. The article is around 3000 words, giving you detailed player reports to encapsulate everything you need to know.

Caden Scarborough, RHP, Texas Rangers, 20, A+

Scarborough has been a major up arrow prospect all season and was finally promoted to High-A after dominating with Hickory all season. A former basketball standout in high school, the Rangers nabbed Scarborough in the sixth round of the 2023 draft, giving him an over-slot bonus of $515k. There is a ton of athleticism in Scarborough’s 6’5” frame, and he added good weight this offseason.

Tossing five innings in the rain last night, Scarborough struck out nine batters without allowing a run. He walked just one batter and allowed one hit, while generating an impressive 18 whiffs. The command was good as well, despite the rain and the struggle to grip the ball. Scarborough works the fastball in all four quadrants efficiently and landed over 71 percent of his pitches for strikes on the night.

Scarborough’s fastball sat 96 in the first two innings of work but settled closer to 94 as the night and rain wore on. It is a two-seam shape, and it just jumps out of his hand from a deceptive release point. He worked it around 14 inches of horizontal movement all night and got up to 17-18 inches at times.

The sweeper was devastating, a pitch that he used to front-door righties and back-door lefties. It worked 82-85 mph with up to 19 inches of sweeping action. Some had more depth than others, almost reaching curveball range with negative seven inches of IVB.

There is a splitter in the arsenal that Scarborough used sparingly, but it worked 84-86 mph. He threw some with late depth and nine inches of arm-side. But others were closer to four inches of fade. It could be a pitch that is further refined to give him a deeper arsenal.

Given the movement profile of Scarborough’s three pitches, I would love to see him add a cutter or a gyro-slider. Regardless, this is an impressive 20-year-old arm that has a very bright future.

Aidan Miller, SS/3B, Philadelphia Phillies, 21, AA

A lot of people have faded Aidan Miller due to his surface stats. The interesting thing is, he was steadily improving his underlying data from what we saw last year. Through the end of June, Miller was slashing a modest .234/.346/.367 with a 26 percent strikeout rate and six home runs in 58 games. After last night’s two-homer game, Miller has six home runs in his last 39 games with 12 doubles and a .270/.381/.480 slash line.

Last night’s home runs traveled an impressive 419 and 435 feet in his first multi-home run game. There could still be time to buy low on Miller in dynasty leagues, given the season-long surface stats look average.

The positives in the profile are that Miller has a strong 106 mph 90th percentile exit velocity and solid launch angles on hard-hit balls. The contact skills and approach are impressive, as Miller has a contact rate near 78 percent overall and a low chase rate.

Throw in the fact that Miller has stolen 47 bases and shown respectable speed despite a stronger frame. He is presently an above-average runner and is highly efficient at stealing bases.

This is a profile that is a buy for me in dynasty. Miller has remained high on real-life prospect evaluators’ lists, but fantasy people seem to be off him. The underlying data screams buy.

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