danr
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Post by danr on Jul 24, 2014 13:20:52 GMT -5
Didn't the Sox say they were going to keep him at Pawtucket for a while? He's not exactly tearing up AAA pitching, has only 2 HRs in 75 ABs, and 22Ks to 5 BBs.
And where would he play on the Sox now?
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Post by ctwebb on Jul 24, 2014 13:32:18 GMT -5
Do you think they're just going to hold him in Pawtucket for the rest of the year and try again next spring? Obviously Drew's offense has been underwhelming at best (albeit with improvements lately) and Bogaerts is still going through growing pains at 3rd.
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Post by James Dunne on Jul 24, 2014 13:40:30 GMT -5
This next sentence makes me sad to type, because I've been watching him develop and I really wanted it to work out for him. Will Middlebrooks can't identify a breaking ball until after it breaks.
He turns 26 in a month. He's behind Brock Holt on the depth chart. He's a Triple-A third baseman right now.
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Post by thelavarnwayguy on Jul 24, 2014 14:06:44 GMT -5
Man, I just don't think that's the case essentially. He will have a career in the majors. He is not a bad fielding 3rd baseman and he has some pop. He will still be a starting level mlb player somewhere for a decent amount of time.
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Post by Chris Hatfield on Jul 24, 2014 14:29:47 GMT -5
Help a brother who is at work and has tried both Google and Twitter: what exactly is this thread in reference to? Did they say he was being activated or something?
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Post by amfox1 on Jul 24, 2014 14:32:11 GMT -5
ctwebb asked when WMB was going to be activated. Not sure whether he deleted his original post.
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Post by jrffam05 on Jul 24, 2014 14:44:54 GMT -5
WMB is still technically rehabbing (right?) so he still has not been optioned yet. Barring another setback it would be interesting to see if he is optioned when his rehab clock ends. No reason for him not to be on the roster in September, and only reason now is Drew.
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Post by Chris Hatfield on Jul 24, 2014 14:45:27 GMT -5
ctwebb asked when WMB was going to be activated. Not sure whether he deleted his original post. Ah. Thanks.
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Post by ctwebb on Jul 24, 2014 14:53:35 GMT -5
Sorry, I'm not entirely sure what happened to the original post.
Has Middlebrooks always had the breaking ball issue? Surely that could be something that could be corrected. He's down to his last option year correct?
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Post by jrffam05 on Jul 24, 2014 15:14:05 GMT -5
Sorry, I'm not entirely sure what happened to the original post. Has Middlebrooks always had the breaking ball issue? Surely that could be something that could be corrected. He's down to his last option year correct? 1 option left yes, but as I stated (unless someone can correct me) he is still rehabbing, so he is getting his MLB salary and has not exhausted an option yet.
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Post by ctwebb on Jul 24, 2014 15:17:55 GMT -5
Doesn't he have to be officially optioned relatively soon? In which case this would be his last option year. Do you think they're close to giving up on him?
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Post by moonstone2 on Jul 24, 2014 15:47:47 GMT -5
Doesn't he have to be officially optioned relatively soon? In which case this would be his last option year. Do you think they're close to giving up on him? August 7th. They could just sit him down and bring him back September 1.
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danr
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Post by danr on Jul 24, 2014 17:05:57 GMT -5
Sorry, I'm not entirely sure what happened to the original post. Has Middlebrooks always had the breaking ball issue? Surely that could be something that could be corrected. He's down to his last option year correct? He always has had pitch recognition issues, but he seemed to be improving each year until he got to the majors. For a long time I thought he was going to become a solid .280 25 HR 3B, but now that seems less likely. Unfortunately, once a player's weakness is discovered it is not kept secret. Look what they did to Bradley right off the bat last year when he couldn't hit high inside hard stuff.
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nomar
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Post by nomar on Jul 24, 2014 19:56:50 GMT -5
With power guys like WMB often it clicks for them when they're around 27 years old, by which time their days as a highly touted prospect are basically forgotten.
I still think he could be an all star in his prime. I don't think it will be in Boston however, seeing as we likely will be looking to compete every year and not willing to have him in the lineup nightly while he adjusts.
Miami makes a lot of sense for him IMO. A young team with time to give. If it was a hitters park in Miami it would be just about perfect. Just saying this because he's always rumored in Stanton deals, not saying that is likely.
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Post by grandsalami on Jul 24, 2014 20:47:33 GMT -5
Another HR... HE should be up soon
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Post by jmei on Jul 24, 2014 21:37:57 GMT -5
Even if he doesn't improve one lick from where he is now, he's a useful player (somewhere in the neighborhood of a win and a half at third base-- slightly below-average production), especially if he adds LF or 2B to his defensive repertoire (it would make him at least an ideal NL bench guy/platoon starter). He still has an option left (as alluded to above, if Boston moves Drew or Gomes or Carp and brings WMB back to Boston when his rehab clock ends in early August, he won't burn it this year), so there's no rush to trade him, and I'd need to get real value in return to think about moving him.
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Post by larrycook on Jul 24, 2014 22:04:02 GMT -5
Every day he is producing at Pawtucket is another day his perceived value increases.
But beware, he turns back into a pumpkin on August 1.
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Post by thelavarnwayguy on Jul 25, 2014 5:16:16 GMT -5
He still has had a lot of injuries which probably have effected his performance in my view. I'd like to see what he could do over a year if he can stay healthy. Sluggers often need a while to get going each year, as in 100 AB or so. I'm not saying he ends up what he looked to be his rookie year but anything remotely near that would be great.
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Post by sibbysisti on Jul 25, 2014 7:22:06 GMT -5
Seems to have more pop in his bat since he popped the Q to Jenny.
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Post by ctfisher on Jul 25, 2014 11:08:29 GMT -5
I think they probably call him up pretty soon. Honestly if nothing else there's no way he should be in the minors when we're still carrying Mike Carp. At the very least give him ABs against lefties and sit Drew, let him try to establish some kind of trade value. Even if you don't think he's a good player, it can't be denied that he could very well go on a tear and give us 10-15 homers in the 2nd half and wind up being really overvalued by some other team this offseason. But I'd rather give him his shot now- as others have said, theres a lot of value in a decent to better defensive 3b who can hit 25 bombs even if he doesn't hit much more than .230 or so. If Oakland didn't have Donaldson, they would have given us a middle reliever for him by now and it would wind up being a terrible trade.
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Post by jdb on Jul 25, 2014 11:45:21 GMT -5
With this season lost we need to use it to get our ducks in a row for 2015. Trade Drew to see if Xander can be your SS. Bring up WMBs and put him in a position to succeed. Platoon him vs LHPs with the occasional RHP in there and let him build confidence and value going into the off season.
I'm afraid the front office doesn't see Xander at SS though.
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Post by Guidas on Jul 25, 2014 11:47:31 GMT -5
I agree with our front office. I see Xander as a 3rd baseman or a Left Fielder.
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Post by thelavarnwayguy on Jul 25, 2014 12:38:33 GMT -5
I completely disagree. As much as I like a defensive oriented SS, Xander can potentially be a slightly below average defender at SS ( over time ) and a top 2-3 offensive performer there, cheap for several years to come. It's not like he has set the world on fire defensively at 3rd and the guy has never played the OF ever. If the slot is open at 3rd maybe we can boost the offense even further in that slot with Middlebrooks or someone else. Mookie/Holt maybe for a while?
As much as we rave about Stephen Drews defense it wasn't THAT great. He started out a negative defender for a long time as well. Maybe over time Xander can even be a better defensive SS that Drew ever was. We forget just how young Xander is, and how athletic he is as well. The guy wants to be a SS. What have we really got to lose if we give him a year or so more to see how it goes?
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Post by godot on Jul 25, 2014 13:21:51 GMT -5
He is young in more ways than the obvious, no doubt here and rather obvious, but if you look at his foot work and coordination, you have to wonder about his athleticism. Your view is pure speculation and wishful thinking, bordering on the silly ( gee, he wants to be a shortstop, so let's let him play there for a few years and see how he does, duh.)
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