Red Sox promote one of hardest throwers in system to Portland
With the MLB Draft and the trade deadline now in the rearview mirror, the baseball season is full speed ahead towards the end of the year. While the trade deadline may have been on the quiet side in Boston, there were a handful of promotions that took place. Among those promotions was pitcher Alex Hoppe.
Hoppe was a 6th round pick taken just last year in 2022 draft. He made quick work of High-A, where he carried a 3.93 ERA over 31 games. To go along with the good ERA, he had a 12.6 K/9. He struck out 48 batters over 34 innings of work. The Iowa native also has one of the hardest fastball velocities in the Red Sox minor league system.
SoxProspects.com has this to say of his fastball:
“96-98 mph. Tops out at 99 mph. Strong pitch characteristics. Pitch has carry and shows bat-missing ability up in the zone. Command and control need refinement. Potential plus offering.”
The velocity fared well in Greenville, which resulted in Hoppe only spending 31 games at the level. He regularly touched 100 MPH this season and at times, touched 101 MPH. He joins the likes of other high velocity guys in the Portland bullpen like Luis Guerero and Ryan Zeferjahn.
The Red Sox have shown to be rather aggressive this season in promoting prospects. Hoppe becomes the third player from the 2022 draft class to be promoted to Double-A following Chase Meidroth and Isaac Coffey. With a high velocity fastball and successful results paired together, Hoppe should be a quick mover.
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Ask Rob Dibble what happens to a 99+ mph fastball that has Zero movement.
Don’t worry Sox fans our Bloom N Idiot will get rid of him for another teams rejected POS infielder who can’t hit and has more strikeouts than putouts.