“The Dynasty Diamond”: September 9th

​

  • By Jeff Clowers

    Last Updated on September 9, 2025 8:55 pm by Anthony Kates | Published: September 9, 2025

    We kicked off last week’s penultimate edition of The Dynasty Diamond’s inaugural season with a Green Day reference (a classic “Wake Me Up When September Ends” bit) and by god, my millennial heart won’t be denied going back-to-back, a la Joe Carter.

    Hey DJ – queue up Good Riddance!

    A graduation staple, it’s an apt tune for our final look through the minor leagues this year as we’ve watched a handful of our favorite specs graduate through the ranks, making us proud parents prognosticators as they rose to each challenge. Plus, as unpredictable as the season was, in the end I was completely right about everything – or whatever it is the lyrics say.

    Okay, not really – but we did have a few significant hits along the way! I’ll also have an article during the offseason in which we examine any trends uncovered this season that we can utilize to our advantage for next year, so I’ll save tooting my horn until that comes out.

    In the meantime, a big thank you to everyone who joined me on our deep, deep dive through the minor leagues over the past few months. It was an exciting project to tackle and I’m hoping to bring even more worthwhile fantasy tidbits to your feeds over the coming seasons. With that in mind, if you have any recommendations or suggestions for improvements of any kind, I’m all ears and can be reached on Twitter by messaging me @Ethos Jeff.

    Both constructive criticism and otherwise are welcomed. I can handle the heat – unlike César Salazar when surprised by Framber Valdez!

    *rimshot*

    Too soon?

    The usual preamble;

    This article will come out every two weeks, highlighting the ten most noteworthy performances for MiLB players during that window. The players discussed will come from a mix of levels (Triple-A, Single-A, etc.) and because of that, I will attempt to contextualize their statistics for both the quality of competition, as well as the player’s own age, to the best of my abilities. In other words, a 25-year old slugger going on a home run binge isn’t going to get my attention if they’re facing off against a 20-year-old pitcher on a daily basis. On the other hand, an 18-year-old holding their own against more advanced pitching is going to skyrocket them towards the top of the rankings very quickly.

    Since we could go as deep into the minors as the Complex and Dominican Summer Leagues, this is intended as more of a companion article for deep dynasty leagues, as opposed to those that shallow enough to essentially just focus on players listed on Top 100 lists. This is more for the sickos who want to be able to brag about having the next Jesus Made or Jung Hoo Lee on their roster more than five years before they make their MLB debut.

    That said, there’s a chance some of our mining leads to some true diamonds in the rough emerging – just look to what Kristian Campbell did last year for example. So with that in mind, I will have a specific section of each article that focuses on how the upper echelon of prospects is performing, in addition to geeking out over the future wave of breakout stars. And as we go through the season, I’ll denote each player written about as one of three categories;

    Golden 🥇 (the best of the best)

    Gems 💎 (exciting up-and-comers)

    Unrefined ⚒ (has tools of interest)

    As the weeks go by, I’ll track each player and how many times they appear in the article under each category in a chart at the bottom. Hopefully by year’s end we’ll then have rough ranking of the most interesting players from each tier as a guideline that you can then use for your own dynasty purposes!

    Statistics are up to date as of September 8th.

    Robby Snelling – SP – MIA 🥇

    Last 14 Days: 13.0 IP – 2.08 ERA/2.74 FIP/1.15 WHIP – 16:3 K:BB – 1 HR (AAA)

    Season: 125.0 IP – 2.66 ERA/2.84 FIP/1.14 WHIP – 152:35K:BB – 10 HR (AA/AAA)

    If you asked me which two players most defined the minor league season for me while completing this exercise, Jonah Tong would be one and Robby Snelling would be the other. Tong kicked off his ascension earlier in the year, earning his way out of weekly contention for mention in this space so Snelling’s second half run has made him the poster boy of my mining the past couple months.

    You won’t be shocked to hear this if you’re a regular reader but the thing that has truly skyrocketed Snelling up my own personal rankings has been his ability to elevate his game upon reaching a new level – in this case, Triple-A. Since his promotion, Snelling has started nine times, averaging nearly six innings per start while tallying a 67:13 K:BB ratio and maintaining a 1.37 ERA. Those rates don’t seem unsustainably high either – they’re backed by just a 70.1% contact rate allowed and a very strong 14.7% swinging-strike rate, all of which come with Snelling about two years younger on average than his competition.

    It’s been quite the rebound year for Snelling after he earned Baseball America’s Minor League Pitcher of the Year award back in 2023 before immediately faltering in 2024 – but hey, that’s truly the essence of life as a pitching prospect isn’t it? His performance may not be enough to win him the title once again in 2025 but he’s earned top honors from yours truly nonetheless.

    Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz – SP – NYY 🥇

    Last 14 Days: 13.2 IP – 3.29 ERA/1.47 FIP/0.80 WHIP – 20:4 K:BB – 0 HR (A+/AA)

    Season: 140.0 IP – 2.38 ERA/2.47 FIP/1.04 WHIP – 166:54 K:BB – 3 HR (A+/AA)

    If there’s an under-the-radar spec I want to stick to your mind like glue, it’s definitely Elmer.

    Up top in the opener, I hinted at further exploring the trends that I felt stood out as defining characteristics for this minor league season and one of those trends is most certainly the Yankees’ success at finding low-to-mid level pitchers in the minors and developing them into exciting farmhands. There’s been slightly less success in then turning them into productive major leaguers but with the volatility of minor league starters, that can be chalked up to statistical noise in certain spots.

    Rodriguez-Cruz stands out in part because he was included as part of the return in the always-rare Red Sox-Yankees trade that was consummated during the preseason, with catcher Carlos Narvaez heading the opposite way. That trade initially looked like a coup by Boston but Rodriguez-Cruz’s late-season surge has suddenly flipped things on their head.

    Like Snelling, the surge came just after a climb in competition – in this case, a jump to Double-A for the first time – where he’s managed a sterling 22.5% K-BB%, 1.01 WHIP and 2.56 ERA (2.30 FIP). Unlike Snelling though, Rodriguez-Cruz has yet to face the stiffest competitors available to him before reaching the majors but that could change by season’s end if the Yankees decide to reward him with a start at Triple-A once the Double-A season comes to a close.

    Want to get access to the rest of Jeff’s article? You’ll need to have a FANTASYPASS membership. Click here to learn more and sign up! Premium Access Required

    Click here to join us on Discord!
    And Follow us on Twitter by clicking here
    Come join us at SportsEthos by filling out an application by clicking here
    Follow Jeff at @EthosJeff

    September 9, 2025, 8:55 pm