Notes from the Field: Scouting the Pitchers in the Spring Showcase Games

The Spring Breakout event is one of the best ideas to showcase the game's next wave of stars MLB has done in years. This spring, the Red Sox roster was seen as one of the best in the league with the Big Three of Roman Anthony, Kristian Campbell and Marcelo Mayer anchoring the lineup, with a strong group of arms including Hunter Dobbins, David Sandlin, Connelly Early adding intrigue. Making things even more interesting, after traveling to Port Charlotte to play the Rays in MLB's event on Thursday evening, the Red Sox arranged to play a second prospect showcase game, the "Futures at Fenway South," with the majority of the Spring Breakout roster on Friday at home against the Twins. This allowed for an even better look at many of the hitters and a chance to see even more of the talented arms in the Red Sox system. Here are my thoughts on some pitchers from the two-game look and for more thoughts on some hitters check out yesterday's piece.

- Of all the pitchers the Red Sox used across the two showcase games, the most impressive was 18-year-old Juan Valera. Valera burst onto the scene last year showing mid-90s velocity, but was on the raw side. Based on this look, while he is currently ranked 19th in our prospect rankings, when we do our preseason update, he will definitely be rising. Valera showdd a four-pitch arsenal, with his velocity up across the board. His fastball sat 97-99 mph and hit 100 multiple times. He mixed in two breaking balls: a slider at 89-92 mph and sweeper at 86-88 mph. He also showed in a changeup at 91-94 mph. The 94 mph changeup was perfectly captured by Baseball America's Josh Norris and, as you can see, it has a ridiculous amount of horizontal movement for a pitch thrown so hard. Valera's arm is so quick it can get a bit out of sync and cause him to lose the zone, as was the case in his third inning, but for the first two he was absolutely dominant. 

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Notes from the Field: Scouting the Hitters in the Spring Showcase Games

The Spring Breakout event is one of the best ideas to showcase the game's next wave of stars MLB has done in years. This spring, the Red Sox roster was seen as one of the best in the league with the Big Three of Roman Anthony (pictured, right), Kristian Campbell and Marcelo Mayer anchoring the lineup, with a strong group of arms including Hunter Dobbins, David Sandlin, Connelly Early adding intrigue. Making things even more interesting, after traveling to Port Charlotte to play the Rays in MLB's event on Thursday evening, the Red Sox arranged to play a second prospect showcase game, the "Futures at Fenway South," with the majority of the Spring Breakout roster on Friday at home against the Twins. This allowed for an even better look at many of the hitters and a chance to see even more of the talented arms in the Red Sox system. Here are my thoughts on some hitters from the two-game look. 

- There were several incredible moments in Thursday's Breakout game, but none stood out more than Roman Anthony's home run. In his third at-bat, Anthony went up against Rays pitching prospect Santiago Suarez (ranked seventh overall in the strong Tampa system by Baseball America and ninth overall by MLB Pipeline). After a couple of takes, Anthony got a 96.7 mph fastball up and on the inner half of the zone and absolutely demolished it, sending it 435 feet out to right field (a number that seems conservative, as both me and Chris thought it completely left the ballpark) with an exit velocity of 111 mph. The ease with which Anthony accesses his power is remarkable, and the way he fired his hips and was able to clear that fastball out were remarkable. He is the consensus top prospect in baseball (taking Roki Sasaki out of the equation) and this swing showed why. 

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