Baseball America Prospect Report – August 6, 2018

Sunday's Stars

DJ Peters, CF, Dodgers. Peters combination of speed, power and strikeouts has stayed largely true to form this year with his promotion to Double-A. Yesterday he went 4-for-5 with a double (his 19th), a home run (his 22nd) and a strikeout (his 153rd).

Bobby Dalbec, 3B, Red Sox. With Joey Gallo long gone to the big leagues, the minors needs another three true outcomes (walks, strikeouts and home runs) hero and Dalbec is stepping into the void. He hit his first two home runs for Double-A Portland yesterday and now has 28 for the season. Dalbec strikes out in more than 31 percent of his plate appearances. He walks in another 14 percent of his PAs and homers in 6.5 percent of his PAs. He now has 57 extra base hits and 34 singles.

Brendan McKay, 1B, Rays. McKay doubled and homered yesterday for high Class A Charlotte. It was a very good day at the plate, but it was also a reminder that McKay's bid to be a two-way player faces a significant hurdle--he's much better right now as a pitcher. On the mound, McKay misses tons of bats (12 K/9 for his career) and almost never walks anyone (1.44 BB/9). At the plate so far he's a career .228/.369/.367 hitter, which is far below the standard expected of first basemen. McKay does now have four home runs for Charlotte and is slugging .422 for them. The degree of difficulty of what McKay is doing is extremely high, but his overall .229/.326/.422 stat line for Charlotte is a reminder that his hitting is behind his pitching.

Joey Bart, C, Giants. Bart hit a pair of triples and stole a base yesterday. No, the catcher is not turning into Jarrod Dyson or Billy Hamilton, but it is a good reminder that the Giants first-rounder moves reasonably well for a catcher.

Jesus Sanchez, OF, Rays. Sanchez hit his first Double-A home run in his third game since being promoted. Sanchez is hitting .308 for Montgomery, which keeps up an impressive streak. Sanchez has hit .300 or better at every one of the six stops he's made while climbing through the Rays system.

Juan Soto, OF, Nationals. Soto went 0-for-2 yesterday, but with two more walks, which gives him 46 this season. Drawing walks is a skill that hitters usually improve in the major leagues as they get more experience. Soto has an exceptional batting eye as a 19-year-old. His .424 on-base percentage would be the best by a teenager in the major leagues since 1901. He's now 20 walks away from tying Mel Ott for the most walks in a season by a teenager as well.

Michael Kopech, RHP, White Sox. Kopech has had some ups and downs this year, but he's made strides that have put him much closer to being big league ready. He's improved his changeup and he's tamed his control troubles to an extent. Yesterday he allowed two runs on eight hits in seven innings. Most notably he didn't walk anyone while striking out nine. It was the second time in the past three starts that he didn't walk a batter and he's walked four in his past 31 innings. Before that he'd walked 58 in 82.1 innings this year.