Fort Report: Major league roster set as Spring Training comes to an end

Here are Thursday's Minor League Notes:

• The SoxProspects scouting team recently wrapped up their annual scouting trip to Fort Myers last week. The team has been hard at work providing content on both the @SoxProspects twitter page as well as their personal accounts. Check out @SPChrisHatfield, @MikeAndrewsSP, @IanCundall, and @JamesDunneSP for loads of video content and observations from the back fields.

• Spring Training came to an end this week, and the final major league roster has been set in preparation for the Red Sox opening series against the Mariners. Right-handed reliever Colten Brewer, SoxProspects.com's 28th ranked prospect, has earned a place with the big league club out of camp. Joining Brewer in the majors is 23rd-ranked first baseman, Sam Travis (pictured). Travis will take the spot of the injured Steve Pearce, who will begin the season on the IL with a calf strain.

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Fort Report: Dalbec crushes two home runs on back fields

Here are Monday's minor league notes:

• The SoxProspects crew has been in Fort Myers on the backfields gathering a ton of content, including video from batting practice, infield work, and minor league games. Be sure to check out the SoxProspects.com Twitter page. Mike Andrews, Chris Hatfield, Ian Cundall, and James Dunne also have content on their own accounts.
• Some highlights from the trip include a couple Bobby Dalbec (pictured) home runs, one to center and one to right, Tanner Houck utilizing his low three-quarters arm slot during a dominant performance, Danny Diaz going yard a few times during batting practice, and 2018 first-round pick Triston Casas taking some batting practice swings. 
• It looks like Marco Hernandez will stay in extended spring training to continue his rehab. Nick Decker, Antoni Flores, and Nick Northcut will also most likely begin the year in extended spring. 

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Fort Report: SoxProspects crew arrives at spring training

Here are Thursday's minor league notes:

• Ian Cundall arrived in Fort Myers on Wednesday, and he has already tweeted his observations on a handful of players. He saw Danny Diaz hit a long opposite field home run in a simulated game, and he saw an impressive splitter from Jake Thompson (pictured). 

• Mike Andrews, Chris Hatfield, and James Dunne will all be joining Cundall on Thursday, and they will be staying until Sunday. Follow along on their Twitter accounts, as well as the SoxProspects.com Twitter account, for the latest from minor league camp.

• The #SP40 Twitter countdown wrapped up this week, with second-ranked prospect Triston Casas and top-ranked prospect Michael Chavis rounding out the list. 

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Fort Report: Feltman debuts & Darwinzon sticks around (for now)

Here are Monday's notes:

• The SoxProspects.com social media team continues their #SP40 rundown on Twitter. Yesterday finished with the third-ranked prospect, left-hander Jay Groome, as the list nears the top spot.
• This season, we will also be offering a new feature to SoxProspects.com Patreon members. If you pledge $2 per episode and up, you can receive short audio recaps of games scouted by SoxProspects.com staff members. Check out this post for more information and details.
• 11 players were reassigned to minor league camp today as spring training winds down prior to opening day on the 28th. Alex Speier of the Boston Glove has the list of players: Catcher Oscar Hernández; Right-handers Zach Putnam, Erasmo Ramírez, Josh Smith, and Domingo Tapia; infielders C.J. Chatham, Bobby Dalbec, and Chad De La Guerra; and outfielders Bryce Brentz, Tate Matheny, and Cole Sturgeon.

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Introducing Patreon Game Updates

Here at SoxProspects, we are always trying to think of new ways that we can bring content to our readers—and to listeners of our podcast. In our most recent edition of the SoxProspects Podcast, we announced our newest feature: Patreon Game Updates.

We'll be introducing this feature next week as a pilot program. The series will feature short audio recaps of games scouted in person by staff members, and it will be exclusive to our Patrons on Patreon.com who pledge $2 per episode and up. As we described on the most recent episode of the show, these short clips will give us the opportunity to provide our Patrons with detailed updates that expand beyond what we feature on the podcast itself. 

For example, on a given night, Chris might go deep into the starting pitcher's pitch count, what was working, what wasn't, details from at-bats, and the like. Or Ian might get into more details on at-bats by a certain hitter or hitters that night, analyzing more minutiae than we have time to do on the regular show.

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Fort Report: Chavis highlights first cuts from big league camp

Here are Thursday's minor league notes:

• The SoxProspects podcast team eagerly previewed their upcoming trip to Fort Myers in their most recent episode. Chris and Ian discussed the prospect standouts so far in major league camp, as well as the players they are most excited to see this spring. The guys will be in camp from Wednesday, March 20, through Sunday, March 24. Be sure to follow their reports here on the News Page, on Twitter (@SoxProspects, @IanCundall, @SPChrisHatfield, @MikeAndrewsSP, @JamesDunneSP), and of course on the Podcast!

• Also included in this weeks podcast was the introduction of SoxProspects newest feature, Patreon Game Updates! This feature will provide exclusive audio recaps of live games attended by the SoxProspects staff, providing unparalleled coverage of the systems top prospects and beyond. For details on how you can gain access to this Patreon exclusive feature see this article, and of course, tune in to this weeks episode of the podcast to hear what you can expect from the staff themselves.

• The  #SP40 social media countdown marched on this week, with number nine prospect CJ Chatham, number eight prospect Antoni Flores, and number seven prospect Bryan Mata all being featured.

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Podcast Ep. #154 - SoxProspects Spring Training trip preview

JetBlue is bustling. There’s new grass on the field. The Sox are playing and getting geared up for the defense of their World Series victory. (It never gets old saying that) And with Spring in the air, Chris, Ian, Mike and the team are getting ready for their annual trip to the Fort. In this preview episode, Chris and Ian talk about the prospect stars from the first few weeks of major league camp, with Michael Chavis and Darwinzon Hernandez off to particularly hot starts. Then they break down the guys they are most looking forward to seeing on the back fields of minor league camp. And to close it out, they break open the mailbag to talk about the highest ceilings in the system.

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Fort Report: Hernandez continues scoreless spring

Here are Monday's minor league notes:

• Darwinzon Hernandez continued his impressive spring on Friday with three shutout innings against the Orioles. He allowed just one hit, one walk, and struck out four to extend his scoreless streak to seven innings. 

• The #SP40 social media countdown has dipped into the top 10. The past four days included Travis Lakins at 15, the powerful Danny Diaz at 14, 2018 draftee Brandon Howlett at 13, right-hander Mike Shawaryn at 12, 2018 second-rounder Nick Decker at 11, and flamethrower Durbin Feltman at 10. 

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Fort Report: Lin homers off Scherzer, Feltman set to debut

Here are Thursday's minor league notes:

• Tzu-Wei Lin (pictured) has gotten off to a great start this spring, hitting .389 with a 1.172 OPS while playing second base, shortstop, and center field. Lin homered off of Max Scherzer on Tuesday as part of a 2-for-4 performance. 

• Lin was part of this week's #SP40 social media countdown, coming it at number 22. Also included were Chase Shugart at number 21, the high-upside Gilberto Jiménez at 20, hard-throwing right-hander Alex Scherff at 19, 2018 High School All-American Nick Northcut at 18, power-hitting first baseman Josh Ockimey at 17, and, this morning, speedy outfielder Jarren Duran at 16. 

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Fort Report: Chavis hits 4th home run, Hernandez impresses

Here are Monday's minor league notes:

• The SoxProspects.com social media team continued with the #SP40 updates. Here they are in case you missed any: #30 Jhonathan Díaz, #29 Josh Taylor, #28 Colten Brewer, #27 Bobby Poyner, #26 Pedro Castellanos, #25 Zach Schellenger, #24 Denyi Reyes, and #23 Sam Travis.

• The Red Sox posted a video of Michael Chavis' (pictured, right) "daily home run". It's said tongue in cheek, but it is almost true thus far. Over the first 17 at-bats of the spring, Chavis has 6 hits and 4 of those have been home runs. The small sample has resulted in a wild .353/.421/1.059 slash line for the top player on the SoxProspects.com rankings.
• Chavis is trying to make his preparation "boring" by going about things the same way every day as The Boston Globe's Peter Abraham writes. 
• Chavis wasn't the only top prospect with a strong recent performance after Darwinzon Hernandez threw another two strong innings on Sunday. He started the game and struck out 3 while allowing a hit and 2 walks. He has now not allowed a run in either of his 2 appearances this spring while striking out 6 over 4 innings.
• You'd imagine Red Sox ace Chris Sale would be hard to impress, but Hernadez has wowed him with his electric arsenal as MLB.com's Ian Browne writes. Alex Speier for The Boston Globe writes that the Red Sox will be patient with the 22-year-old.
  

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