The Dynasty Digest: August 26, 2024

Chris Clegg breaks down live looks plus all the top performers from Sunday's action.

Transactions

Dylan Crews, OF, WSH: Promoted to MLB

Griffin Conine, OF, MIA: Promoted to MLB

Ty Madden, RHP, DET: Promoted to MLB

Samuel Basallo, C, BAL: Promoted to Triple-A

Andrew Pinckney, OF, WSH: Promoted to Triple-A

Mikey Romero, SS, BOS: Promoted to Double-A

Termarr Johnson, 2B, PIT: Promoted to Double-A

Cam Smith, 3B, CHC: Promoted to High-A

Michael Kennedy, LHP, PIT: Promoted to High-A

Boston Baro, SS, NYM: Promoted to High-A

Ronald Hernandez, C, NYM: Promoted to High-A

Joshua Kuroda-Grauer, INF, OAK: Promoted to High-A

Theo Gillen, INF/OF, TB: Promoted to Single-A

Live Looks Report

I was back out in Greenville for another game between the Drive and Rome Emperors. Still not a ton to see but Elmer Rodriguez had a good showing and Riley Frey of the Braves continued to perform despite sitting in the upper 80s with his fastball. Let’s break them down plus some bats!

Elmer Rodriguez, RHP, BOS, 21, A+

After getting off to a stellar start to the game, striking out two and generating five whiffs in the first inning, Rodriguez allowed a solo home run to EJ Exposito to start the second, which was just one of the two that Exposito tagged him for in the start. Rodriguez allowed just four hits and two earned runs on the start, with both runs being via home run.

In his five innings of work, Rodriguez landed 65 percent of his pitches for strikes and struck out four batters. He generated 10 whiffs, the majority of which came early on the outing.

The profile is interesting and surprisingly he has not missed more bats in High-A. Rodriguez runs his fastball up to 98, but routinely sat 95-96 during the start. The pitch shape does not standout for a sinker, and he needs to locate it better down in the zone, as he was missing with the pitch yesterday and allowed a ton of fly balls, including the two home runs. The fastball is up three ticks as it averaged 92 mph last year.

Rodriguez mixed in a cutter that often blended into a slider. The cutter touched 91 a couple of times, but was very similar to his slider that sat in the upper 80s. The changeup plays pretty well off the fastball having good separation sitting in the 86-88 mph range. His final offering is a low-80s curveball which has a longer break to it. He commands it well and gets whiffs out of the zone with it.

There is still some projection on Rodriguez’ frame, but he is certainly bigger than his listed 6’3”/160. The athlete is good, and he moves well on and off the mound.

Rodriguez is likely to gain a ton of offseason helium due to the good stat line, but he really needs to prove he can miss more bats with his deep arsenal. The talent level is there, and the progression of an arm that has just turned 21 years old is impressive. Let’s see what another offseason with the Red Sox pitch development can do.

Riley Frey, LHP, ATL, 22, A+

While his name looks like it would be pronounced “fray,” it is actually “fry.” Aside the point here, but I always like to get pronunciations right. The 2023 19th-rounder is a Chris Sale lookalike. His delivery and release point are way outside, creating some tough angles for hitters.

On the surface, Frey looks really good, having a 2.21 ERA across 77.1 innings this year, with the majority of those innings coming in High-A. Sure, he has only struck out 65 batters in 77 innings and has walked just 19, but Frey does a good job keeping the ball in the yard and on the ground.

The bad news is that Frey sits 86-88 on his fastball, touching 89 once in yesterday’s start. The slider sits in the upper-70s with long horizontal movement. Frey will also mix in a changeup that sits in the low-80s.

This is a case where the surface numbers don’t matter all that much. If you see the results, you may be interested in pushing Frey up in rankings. The fastball will really need to tick up for him to become a relevant pitching prospect.

E.J. Exposito, 2B, ATL, 23, A+

Exposito was one of the hottest Minor League hitters to start the season and one of the first to reach ten home runs and ten stolen bases. A solid athlete who moves well, Esposito had 11 home runs and 24 extra-base hits on June 15 to pair with a .289/.352/.537 slash. Things looked really good, but getting some live looks at him to that point, there were apparent whiff issues against breaking balls.

Leading up to Sunday’s game, it was a 52-game home run drought for Expositio until he mashed two against Elmer Rodriguez in the second and fourth innings. Since June 15, Exposito has had a .181/.263/.298 slash.

I wrote that I did not think there was much dynasty appeal back when I saw him in May and June, and that has remained true. But when you have a two-home run performance, you deserve a spot in the write-up.

Mikey Romero, SS, BOS, 20, AA

Romero is off to Double-A after a strong stint with Greenville. In likely my final time seeing him in the Minors live, Romero did not collect a hit, but I did want to highlight some expectations moving forward.

Becoming Aaron Judge for a couple of weeks, Romero slashed .453/.500/1.019 with eight home runs and six doubles over a two-week stretch between July 20 and August 4.

Romero missed the early part of 2024 due to lower back issues, which still gives me some pause when players deal with persistent back issues this young in their career. But, it is hard to argue with what Romero has done to this point as he seems to be fully healthy.

What are the expectations though? Having seen him live quite a bit, Romero does have a tendency to expand the zone and is hyper-aggressive. He is not likely to take a walk, given how he jumps early in counts. There is even whiff against breaking balls in the zone. The contact rates are slightly above average, but I would grade the hit tool near average.

The power is still closer to average as well. I think it is important to note how the balls really flies in Greenville in the summer. Romero is capable of hitting the ball hard and has registered an exit velocity near 110 mph, but the game power is near average, and I would expect home run outputs between 18 and 20 in the long term.

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