Minor League Baseball Weekend Recap (Week 1)

If you missed my live look recap from the weekend. I broke down everything I saw from the Greenville Drive(Red Sox A+) and Bowling Green Hot Rods(Rays A+), check it out here. It includes looks at Juan Valera, plus I highlight a couple of potential breakouts that caught my eye.

You can also check out my weekend recap show on YouTube. I would love for you to subscribe there as I look to continue to grow that platform:

At the beginning of each week, I will provide a comprehensive breakdown of everything that happened across the landscape of Minor League Baseball. It might be a little overkill as I wrote far too much on the players that stood out on the weekend, but I hope it helps you better understand why a player performed as they did.

Minor League Baseball Weekend Recap(Week 1)

Standout Minor League Pitchers

Manuel Rodriguez, RHP, Milwaukee Brewers, 19, A+

Rodriguez turned in one of the best weekend performances, tossing 4.1 scoreless innings. He struck out 11 batters and had 23 whiffs in a purely dominant first appearance in 2025. I was at a live game during the start, so I went back and watched and was impressed.

Notably, it seems like every year, somebody takes a jump in the Brewers org, and maybe that's going to be the case with Rodriguez. So here's the concern with Manuel Rodriguez: he doesn't have good fastball velocity. He is, however, one of the youngest pitchers in High-A. So when you're 19 and a half in High-A, a performance like this stands out.

In 2024, Rodriguez posted a 3.23 ERA and a 0.97 WHIP. He did strike out just 20.6 percent of hitters, but the strike-throwing was impeccable. Rodriguez walked just 2.7 percent of batters while being 18 years old in Single-A.

The velocity is the issue here. The fastball sits around 90 mph, and in the later innings of the start, he was down around 88 mph consistently. It does have a strong movement profile, which helps it play up. The changeup works well off of it in the mid-80s. Rodriguez throws two variations of his slider, with one in the mid-80s and the other in the upper-70s.

Can Rodriguez add velocity, and can he make his present arsenal work as he moves up? I still want to see those questions answered before overreacting to his start.

Hagen Smith, LHP, Chicago White Sox, 21, AA

Smith’s first start of 2025 showed both the dominance that can come with his arsenal and the concerns with his command. Tossing four innings of one-run ball, Smith struck out ten batters while not allowing a hit. He did walk four batters and landed just 58 percent of his pitches for strikes, but the pure stuff was so good Smith was able to overcome it.

Smith’s fastball lives in the 94-96 range, generating 14-15 inches of IVB from a 5’7” release height, getting 13 inches of horizontal movement. The pitch is highly effective, even when he does not hit his spots consistently.

Smith’s slider morphs into a cutter at times, with some having -5 inches of IVB, while others having shorter horizontal and 4 inches of IVB. You can see in the video below where some had longer sweeping action, and he used the pitch efficiently against lefties and righties. The slider sat in the lower 80s while the cutter was in the 85-87 mph range.

Smith will throw changeups on occasion, sitting around 90 mph. The pitch shows good carry, having 11 inches of IVB and playing pretty well off the fastball before diving off with 15 inches of fading action.

At the end of the day, you can undoubtedly see the stuff. There has always been a slight concern after he walked over ten percent of batters he faced at Arkansas, and in this start, he was below a 60 percent strike rate.

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