First Few Looks at the Greenville Drive

So far this season I’ve seen three Greenville Drive games (4/10 and a Double-header on 4/24), and I wanted to post about how some of the players looked to this point.

Questions/Comments look for me on Twitter @AshevilleSoxFan or you can comment below the article. As always thanks for reading.

Rafael Devers, LH, 3B/DH- Devers has unreal power for an 18-year old. He showed a very quick bat as he turned on an inside fastball and hit a line drive to the right center field gap that just carried with no sink at all, hitting the top of the fence out there and stayed in play (about 400 Feet). He also showed excellent bat control smacking three singles to left, and one up the middle. He’s showing signs of a future plus hitter with future plus power. He only played third base in one game and he looked good in limited chances, and he showed plenty of arm for the position.

Javier Guerra, LH, SS- Guerra’s an aggressive hitter with above average bat speed, and the ball really jumps off of his bat. The first five at bats that I witnessed were all hit’s, two singles to right, a single and a double to center, and a home run down the left field line that just cleared the fence at the 310 sign. He projects more as a line drive gap to gap hitter than a home run guy going forward. Defensively I watched him make two nice plays in the hole and he has plenty of arm for the position.

Nick Longhi, RH, 1B/RF- Longhi is hitting everything in site. I witnessed two singles and two doubles in my limited looks so far, and even his outs are loud. What I like about him is he’s spraying the ball all over the yard. He has a little bit of a long swing and he might struggle getting around on premium velocity. An above average hitter but limited power might make him a bit of a tweener, as he’s probably best suited for irst base going forward.

Mauricio Dubon, 2B/SS- Dubon hits a lot of half swing grounders and some have found holes usually between first and second base. He’s not going to strike out much with that approach, but the ISO will be scary low. I was encouraged however in the last at-bat I saw when he turned on an inside fastball and lined out to left. He’s silkly smooth in the field, I’ve only seen him at second base and I’ve already seen two great plays in the hole. One that started a 4-6-3 double play. I’ve read he’s also an excellent glove man at short stop.. Not sure where Dubon will play once Moncada comes to town (He’s still in extended Spring Training), but from what I’ve read Moncada is a second baseman too.

Michael Chavis, RH, 3B/DH- Chavis sat out both games of the double header on 4/24, so I only saw him for one game. Here are my notes from 4/10.
Chavis didn’t have a good night, three pop ups to second base or shallow right field and a strikeout. Not to worried about the stick though, he showed really good bat speed. He didn’t get too many chances at third base but he had two plays to his left early in the game that I thought he would get to and he didn’t. One right at him that he dropped but he had time to recover and one to his left that nobody would have gotten. You can’t make too much out of one game and he showed a really good arm but I’m wondering about the range.

I expect I’ll be back in Greenville on 5/8 and 5/22, and will likely put out an update after the May 22nd game. Hopefully by then I’ll have seen Moncada at least once.

Thanks again for reading.