Boston Red Sox brothers facing off in minors

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A sibling rivalry in the Boston Red Sox’s farm system and a hot-hitting White Sox shortstop headline today’s minor league notes.

Boston Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts’ rise to the top of the world has all the hallmarks of a great baseball story. He showed promise at a young age, becoming a top-5 prospect at 21-years old. He had an instant impact upon reaching the majors by starting all six games of the 2013 World Series, even though his debut was that August. He also has overcome early growing pains such as the season-long slump of 2014.

Now, Bogaerts is one of the best shortstops in all of baseball and is working on a 25-game hitting streak. But an interesting footnote in his story is that he has a twin brother, Jair, who was also signed by the Red Sox. Jair never made it out of the Dominican Summer League, but that detail adds depth to Xander’s narrative. It also gives us a point of reference to look at another pair of twins in the Red Sox’s farm system.

Meet Luis Alejandro Basabe and Luis Alexander Basabe. (If the names don’t make it difficult enough to distinguish between the two, then their pictures should do the trick.) They’re currently playing for the Greenville Drive, the Red Sox’s Class A affiliate. They were signed out of Venezuela in August of 2012 by a Red Sox scout named…Jair Bogaerts.

Like most twins, they share a lot of similarities—both are switch hitters, for example—but they also have some key differences. Luis Alexander, an outfielder, is the more highly regarded of the two as the Red Sox’s No. 8 prospect according to MLB.com. He is listed as being two inches taller than his brother and hits for more power, finishing third in the New York-Penn League last season with seven home runs.

Luis Alejandro, a second baseman, is more of an on-base threat with a career .373 on-base percentage entering play Wednesday, but he isn’t ranked by either MLB.com or Baseball Prospectus.

So far in 2016, Luis Alejandro has been the more productive hitter. He’s slashing .289/.389/.437 with three home runs entering Wednesday after hitting .260/.387/.310 with zero home runs last season. He’s also cut his strikeout rate from 26.6 percent of plate appearances to 18.3 percent.

Luis Alexander, on the other hand, has struggled this season. Even though he has five home runs, he is slashing just .201/.270/.396 and his K rate (from 26.2% in 2015 to 31.2% in 2016) and walk rate (12.5% to 8.3%) have gone in the wrong direction since last season.

Considering they’re just 19 years old, it would be silly to make a prediction about which brother is more likely to be a successful major leaguer. We’ll let baseball decide as we hurtle into another week of minor league notes.

Next: Triple-A

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There have been a lot of rumblings surrounding an impending position change—and a major league promotion—by Chicago White Sox prospect Tim Anderson. As an error-prone shortstop with foot speed to spare, there were rumors the White Sox were going to move Anderson to the outfield.

The advanced analytics used to evaluate a minor league player’s defensive value aren’t as readily available as those of a major leaguer, but what is available suggests Anderson has made improvements. According to Baseball-Reference, he has improved his range factor per game from 4.50 to 4.89 and his fielding percentage from .952 to .969. He’s on pace for between 16 and 17 errors, which would be an improvement from last season’s 25.

While the defense is coming around, Anderson has been himself offensively, slashing .305/.330/.405 entering Wednesday. Since May 9, Anderson is hitting .392/.421/.569. He doesn’t draw a lot of walks—he has eight in 219 plate appearances—but he could be a steady table setter in the near future depending on how Jimmy Rollins and Tyler Saladino play in the coming weeks.

Baltimore Orioles outfield prospect Mike Yastrzemski was promoted to Triple-A Norfolk on May 16. He was hitting .268/.361/.449 in Double-A, and he’s gotten even hotter since his promotion. After a 1-for-5 performance Tuesday night, he was hitting .321/.393/.566 in the International League.

New York Mets outfielder Brandon Nimmo really knows how to draw a walk. He has a 11.6 percent walk rate, which is actually one of the lowest rates of his career, and it’s led to a .297/.383/.455 line entering Wednesday. Tuesday he hit his second home run of the season.

Next: Double-A

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The Atlanta Braves and White Sox each have a prospect in the Southern League who is walking an ungodly amount of batters.

The Braves received Sean Newcomb in a trade with the Los Angeles Angels. Armed with a high-90s fastball, Newcomb has all the potential in the world, which is why he was a first round draft pick in 2014. Newcomb is eighth in the SL with a 9.00 strikeouts-per-nine innings, but that would be a lot higher is he didn’t walk 5.29, third most in the league.

Right behind Newcomb in K/9 is the White Sox’s Jordan Guerrero. Entering Wednesday’s start, Guerrero had an 8.63 K/9 but was second in the league in BB/9 (6.19). This should be cause for concern, because entering this season Guerrero was a reliable strike thrower, walking only 2.25 batters per nine innings from 2013-15. Last night, he pitched seven innings and gave up four earned runs and walked two batters with no strikeouts.

Kansas City Royals pitcher Alec Mills is scheduled to start today and he is looking for a rebound. Not that his last start—six innings, three earned runs on nine hits—was bad by any means, but considering Mills has been one of the Texas League’s most consistent pitchers, it wasn’t his best outing.

Mills is third in the league in strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.73), second in fielding independent pitching (1.81) and sixth in earned run average. He also made his major league debut May 18 in the nightcap of a doubleheader.

San Francisco Giants outfielder Austin Slater is getting a second crack at the Eastern League. In 54 games there last season, Slater slashed a respectable .296/.350/.362. This season he’s constantly on the base paths, leading the league with a .321 average and .416 OBP entering Wednesday. The biggest difference is in walks, as he’s improved his walk rate from 6.4 percent to 13.9 percent and cut his K rate from 22.0 to 20.5.

Next: Class A Advanced

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Fans of the Lynchburg Hillcats have witnessed some impressive talent over the past few years. Outfielders Bradley Zimmer and Clint Frazier, the Cleveland Indians’ No. 1 and 3 prospects according to BP, were there for 78 and 133 games last season, respectively, and Lucas Sims and Jose Peraza played there in 2014 when the franchise was a Braves affiliate.

This season, fans get to watch Bobby Bradley muscle his way to the top of Carolina Leaguer leaderboards. Bradley, the Indians’ No. 5 prospect, leads the league with 12 home runs and is fifth in slugging at .489. He’s also second in the league in walk rate (16.5%) and third in K rate (29.7%) entering Wednesday, meaning he is the league’s prototypical slugger.

Over in the California League, Sam Howard is making it hard for hitters to even get out of the batter’s box. The Colorado Rockies prospect is second in the league with a 10.30 K/9 and leads the league with 66 strikeouts. He led the South Atlantic League in both categories last season, meaning the Rockies may have gotten a steal with Howard as a third round draft choice. He has a combined 3.10 ERA and 3.28 FIP since the start of 2015.

New York Mets outfielder Wuilmer Becerra is building off his strong first full professional season. Last year, in the SAL, Becerra hit .290/.342/.423 with nine home runs. This season, he’s second in the Florida State League with a .333 average and has cut his K rate nearly four percentage points. His batting average on balls in play is an astronomical .397, so he will come down to earth, but even then he still should put up big numbers.

Next: Single A

Last week, neglected farm systems were the focus of my minor league notes column. One franchise which ironically was left out of that post was the Toronto Blue Jays. The Blue Jays have had a lot of movement in their farm system since the beginning of last season because so many prospects either graduated to the majors or were traded away. But two prospects the Blue Jays kept are doing well in the Midwest League.