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.
  
• WEEI's Rob Bradford asked 2018 first-round pick Triston Casas about his father in this video (which also includes some of his batting practice) and Casas says his dad told him "it's kind of the Red Sox thing to have the beard and the wild hair." Casas was injured in his second game of the season after signing last year, but he still is ranked second on the SoxProspects.com rankings.
• MassLive's Christopher Smith sat down with Casas for a long Q&A and talks about where he gets his work ethic from.
• Smith also continues to churn out some nice video of Red Sox prospects. Recently he posted a video of eighth-ranked prospect, shortstop Antoni Flores, 11th-ranked prospect, outfielder Nick Decker, and 14th-ranked third baseman Danny Diaz.
• Finally, Smith also writes about right-hander Chandler Shepherd and that he should get an opportunity in the age of analytics. Shepherd was drafted in the 14th round in 2014 and has been used as both a starter and a reliever. He made 25 starts last year for Pawtucket with a 3.89 ERA and 1.36 WHIP. He currently ranks 56th on the SoxProspects.com rankings. 
• In her weekly "what I learned in spring training this week" column for the Athletic (subscription required), Jen McCaffrey has a couple interesting minor league notes. The first is that reliever Jenrry Mejia, signed to a minor league deal this winter, had a solid first outing, striking out 3 and walking 1 after throwing 8 appearances with a 2.54 ERA in the Dominican Winter League.

• The second note from the column talks about how third baseman Bobby Dalbec (pictured, left) has been spending a lot of time with J.D. Martinez this spring, and Red Sox Manager Alex Cora wants to see it continue and plans on sending both players on the east coast trip coming up. Browne writes about the learning experience for MLB.com.
• McCaffrey (subscription required) also takes a look at the Red Sox search for the next Ryan Brasier. She mentions some possibilities including Mejia, Hernandez, Travis Lakins, Zach Putnam, and Erasmo Ramírez.
• Also for The Athletic (subscription required), Peter Gammons writes about the Red Sox hitting philosophies, and while it has a lot of the major league level, it also discusses Chavis and Dalbec. Gammons ends on one particularly interesting quote, "The Red Sox believe Dalbec has the makeup, the intelligence, the self-awareness and work ethic to turn all his backspin power into stardom."
• A prospect that draws frequent questions is right-hander Christopher Acosta, who was signed as an international free agent in 2014 and received a $1.4 million signing bonus. He has not dressed for a Red Sox team since he was suspended during spring training in 2016 (save for the club's official/unofficial entry into the Venezuelan developmental program this past offseason), but SoxProspects.com Executive Editor Chris Hatfield notes that he is in Fort Myers this spring.
• If you read this column, then you clearly love Red Sox prospect content. I would strongly recommend trying to make it down to Red Sox spring training to check out the backfields where you can watch games or batting practice on four fields at once. I made my first trip back in 2016 and wrote about the experience. Check it out if you are considering making the trip.
• Red Sox minor leaguers called up from the back fields to appear in major league games from Monday through Wednesday included Jeremy Rivera, Jenrry Mejia, Joseph Monge, Danny Mars, Mike Miller, Trevor Kelley, Dan Runzler, Mark Montgomery, Adam Lau, Dedgar Jimenez, Kutter Crawford, Matthew Gorst, Brian Ellington, Daniel Schlereth, Daniel McGrath, Kervin Suarez, Cole Brannen, and Jordan Weems.

Photo Credit: Michael Chavis and Bobby Dalbec by Kelly O'Connor.

Will Woodward is a Co-Owner and Senior Staff Writer for SoxProspects.com. Follow him on Twitter @SPWill.

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