|
|
Post by steveinma on Aug 9, 2013 0:12:40 GMT -5
No doubt, I love reading these. But how can Ian Cundall call it a scouting scratch when he only covers half of each prospect's performance? Defense still matters.
For instance, we all know that XB can hit. Most of us by now have read DiSarcina's explanation of why XB is not ready for a call up. It has to do with his approaches/angles in the field. Yet Ian completely ignored XB's defense, upon which his progress to the next level really depends. If he was a DH, he'd have gotten the call up already.
I don't want to seem ungrateful. I was thrilled to learn that XB is maturing at the plate, adjusting to pitchers and pitches within at-bats and within games. But where is the analysis of his approach at 3B? At short? Right now, those are the most pressing issues with regard to XB.
|
|
|
|
Post by honkbal on Aug 9, 2013 10:06:28 GMT -5
I want my money back!
|
|
|
|
Post by jmei on Aug 9, 2013 10:19:01 GMT -5
More than likely, Xander didn't get enough chances on defense to get a good scouting look.
|
|
|
|
Post by jmei on Aug 9, 2013 10:28:22 GMT -5
Also, I would check the entitled attitude. These guys work hard to get out to the games and this is a free resource. It's fine to ask how Xander looked on defense. It's not fine to imply that Ian doesn't know what he's doing out there.
|
|
|
|
Post by Ian Cundall on Aug 9, 2013 10:52:06 GMT -5
No doubt, I love reading these. But how can Ian Cundall call it a scouting scratch when he only covers half of each prospect's performance? Defense still matters. For instance, we all know that XB can hit. Most of us by now have read DiSarcina's explanation of why XB is not ready for a call up. It has to do with his approaches/angles in the field. Yet Ian completely ignored XB's defense, upon which his progress to the next level really depends. If he was a DH, he'd have gotten the call up already. I don't want to seem ungrateful. I was thrilled to learn that XB is maturing at the plate, adjusting to pitchers and pitches within at-bats and within games. But where is the analysis of his approach at 3B? At short? Right now, those are the most pressing issues with regard to XB. The reason there wasn't any mention of Bogaerts defense is I wrote about it in the June 12th edition of the Scouting Scratch when he was with Portland. Since then, nothing has changed, thus there was no need to rehash what I already wrote. Here is a link to that piece Scouting Scratch: Xander Bogaerts and Michael Almanzar in which I mention both the angles he takes and his approach in a detailed breakdown of his defensive ability. Since he has been promoted to Pawtucket I've only seen him play 3B once and in that game he did not have any ground balls hit to him. He did have some trouble with his footwork covering the base on a steal, which I mentioned on the latest edition of the SoxProspects Podcast, but it wasn't something that was a big enough deal that it warranted being mentioned in the piece. |
|
