2018 Minor League ST thread - featuring the staff trip

Would love to hear reports on Darwinzon Hernandez' new slider and general command. It's hard not to dream on him.

CJ Chatham. Maybe we can find out who he actually is.

Remember, the one at the Town Center is Brahma sushi now. (Pulling back the curtain for folks, Saturday night is always the SP sushi bash, at which we order a ton of sushi and selection of pieces proceeds in a snake-style draft by seniority. I almost literally don't commit to going full vegetarian specifically because of this meal.)

Me, Ian, and Chaz will almost certainly be hitting one of the locations that's still Blu at some point after Mike and Matt leave, though.

Some good things have already been listed. Here are some additional things I'm interested in terms of development:

- Jake Thompson's arsenal, not only in terms of how his stuff looks, but literally his pitch type usage rates. Does he have pitch type tendencies when looking for an out pitch?
- Cole Brannen's power potential (if any): Combo of strength and swing path
- Ockimey's defense. I'm hoping he can make eventual gains to look like an avg defender at 1B
- Castellanos defensive home. Is he seeing time in the OF? If so, does he look like a major liability out there?
- Schellenger's velocity. It sounds like in his prime he was upper 90's but operated more in the lower 90s last year. Not sure thats entirely true, but I'm interested to hear how hard he is throwing.
- Roldani Baldwin's defense. If he eventually looks like major league catcher from a defensive perspective, he becomes a pretty interesting guy with his offensive profile. I think his CS% from last year was solid IIRC.

...and in general, I'm just very antsy to hear scouting reports on any new guys that we would have typically been first exposed to from instructs in the fall. Not having that makes this Spring Training trip even more intriguing.

I think Mata has a chance to become something like a Rick Porcello. I hope the staff here sees him live and agrees to a certain degree.

In his final 80 PA last year Dalbac hit .333/.425/.681 with 9 BB, 9 2B, 5 HR... with a 35% K%. He was awesome all year hitting the ball in the air. Obviously his bat is potent, but major issues to work out.

www.soxprospects.com/players/suarez-kervin.htm
Here's a look at his profile and past stats.

Is there anything to read into the fact that guys like Chatham and Hill are in a lineup that seems to be featuring mostly GCL and Lowell guys? Or is that the way that things are done during the spring training games for minor leagues?

Bad High A lineup, not those guys in a lower lineup.

Here we go!

Ah, les bonnes habitudes!

I swear this is like looking at Playboy. This should be mandatory at school for kids.

Raudes did look pretty good. I really liked the bits I saw, although Chaz sat on the whole start. Might be a riser in the next rankings.

Anyone got questions?

The one giant fail from the trip - we were there for five days, plan being we'd get a whole turn through the rotation. However, Mata didn't pitch while we were down there. Doesn't appear to be an injury - he was otherwise fully participating - so I'm hoping it's more that they're trying to line him up or otherwise just ease into the season with him. But for instance, he threw the same day as Scherff last week, but didn't throw yesterday when Scherff threw. Giant sadface on that one.