Plus historic run-distribution feats, Drew VerHagen on Japan's best pitchers, Ellen Adair on Spencer Howard, A.J. Preller on the Padres draft, and much more.
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Notes
Macko was a 2019 seventh round high schooler who was drafted because of his proclivity for spin and physical projection. His fastball sat 87-90 during his first pro summer but it’s been parked closer to 94, and topping out at 98, so far this spring. The increased velocity has really impacted Macko’s fastball control. He’s got a scaled down version of the Clayton Kershaw build, with a thick lower half and short levers, but Macko’s delivery looks more like Ryan Buchter’s. His sweeping breaking ball is already plus. Macko doesn’t turn 21 until the very end of the calendar year. It’d be impressive if he held this new velo all season long. His delivery is atypical for a starter but he also has impact relief potential because of the quality of his breaking ball, so Macko belongs in an FV tier of impact on the upcoming Mariners list.
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Last week the Texas Rangers announced their “Break Camp” rosters for their Low-A, High-A, and AA teams. The RoughRiders and Crawdads have been touched on already, so now we’ll take a look at the newly Low-A Down East Wood Ducks.
What with the Down East/Hickory level swap, this is a roster full of Ranger ducklings. 27 of their expanded 30-player roster are guys 23 or younger, and of course they all were without a season in 2020.
First and foremost is probably shortstop Luisangel Acuna, who not only has the highest ranking of any of the DEWDs on MLB Pipeline (#6) but is also by far the best-known prospect on the roster, as he is the brother of Braves star Ronald Acuna Jr. Ronald drew some attention to his little brother during the postseason last year when he said that Luisangel has the potential to be better than him, and while that might’ve been some overdone flattery from big bro, Luisangel has certainly flashed some of the premiere athletici