Is It Roman Anthony Time? (4/17/25 Minor League Standouts)

We're almost to the weekend. There is a ton of good Minor League Baseball in store for me this weekend, but first we have to recap what happened yesterday. I have been around the ballpark regularly since the start of the Minor League season and will continue with my Live Looks reports.

But first, let’s recap what happened across the entire landscape of pro baseball yesterday. If you are unfamiliar with the Dynasty Digest, it is a daily newsletter covering the previous days’ action. While the main focus is usually Minor League Baseball, I will also be hitting on MLB performances to know as well. 

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Each day, I will pick a hitter and pitcher who stand out and deserve the top spot on the sheet. Those players’ reports will be free for all to read. The rest will be paywalled for Dynasty Dugout Subscribers. The article is around 3000 words, giving you detailed player reports to encapsulate everything you need to know.

Daniel Eagen, RHP, Arizona Diamondbacks, 22, A+

Eagen was shelled in his first High-A start of 2025, allowing four earned runs across three innings of work. He took it personally and has dominated since, and arguably had the best start of his pro or amateur career on Thursday. Eagen struck out 12 batters across six scoreless innings with zero walks and three hits allowed. He generated 21 whiffs and landed 69 percent of his pitches for strikes.

Eagen relies heavily on his four-seam fastball, which works 92-94 mph but plays up as it has over 20 inches of IVB. Coming in from a high 6’5” release height, the IVB is good but not an elite mark, as it seems based on the raw number. It has 10 inches of arm-side run regularly and a VAA of -5.5. The fastball plays quite well, and five of his strikeouts came on the offering.

The curveball is his most-used secondary, and boy, was it working on Thursday. Sitting around 80 mph with -13 inches of IVB and five inches of horizontal movement, Eagen got seven of his strikeouts on the curveball, and the whiff rate on that pitch was astronomical.

Eagen rounds out his arsenal with a gyro slider that sits in the mid-80s. It is an effective pitch, but Eagen just opts for the curveball much more often. The development of a changeup could be huge for Eagen’s long-term outlook as a starter, but he will dominate hitters at the lower levels thanks to his plus curveball and unique fastball look.

Roman Anthony, OF, Boston Red Sox, 20, AAA

Is he ready? Yep, he sure is. Despite nursing a sore shoulder on his throwing arm and having to DH, Anthony blasted two home runs in game one of Worcester’s doubleheader. The first inning shot left the bat at 108 mph, and the third inning home run at 106.7 mph. Anthony ended the day with four batted balls north of 102 mph.

He is hitting the cover off the ball. Anthony currently has an average exit velocity of 102 mph on balls hit in the air, and his 90th percentile exit velocity is an elite 109.7 mph, slightly up from last year’s 109 mph.

Sure, the knock to keep him down right now is a sub-70 percent contact rate, but his in-zone contact rate sits near 86 percent. The chase rate is an impressive 16 percent. The shoulder soreness does not help, and unfortunately, Anthony is looking like a May callup at this point. Personally, he would be in Fenway with the team tonight if I were in Breslow’s shoes.

But, I understand the non-baseball reasons to keep him down as well at this point. Also, don’t let people on Twitter tell you Anthony can’t play defense. He is very good in the outfield and gonna play a great corner spot in a park that is hard to play defense in.

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