De Aza traded to SF for LHP Luis Ysla

You had the opportunity to make a Bubba Bell reference and failed to take it? For shame.

Hahaha...I miss Lancaster.

I knew there was someone I was forgetting!

Not for nothing was Lancaster's field called The Hanger. We watched the team play over two years. The best player I saw, hands down, was Josh Reddick. We watched him in San Jose which is not an exceptional offensive environment, and Visalia which has a stronger offensive profile but nothing like those in the Mojave desert. He absolutely killed it, with screaming liners flying all over the park. That was a tightly controlled swing with explosive follow-through that could launch rockets, but one he unleashed at that time on anything near the plate. It took him a while to discipline that swing, but he turned into an asset.

Justin Masterson was very good and it was obvious to me that he had real ML potential. I also liked Michael Bowden 1.0, the version that featured a very slow overhand delivery directly over his head, almost as if he was brushing his hair from back to front. He was very effective in the Cal League that year. Bowden 2.0 was such a vastly different pitcher he might as well been the same guy in name only. I understand why they changed his style - I could have stolen a base off the guy and I had lost a lot of speed even then. But he was never the same after that.

I watched Bell, Daeges and the others. I figured Bubba was largely a flash in the pan, much too old for the league he was playing in and taking advantage of a ridiculous environment. I didn't feel the same way about Nava - he looked like a ballplayer from the get go and he just had a lot of skills. Daeges I thought had potential, but not as a power hitter even though he was quite a big guy. He had exceptional discipline and enough XBH clout to keep pitchers honest. He showed well at Portland, got hurt, and was never the same player either.

Lars Anderson was semi-impressive, but he appears to have been a product of that environment as well. He looked good early in Portland, but was quickly exposed with a long swing and a bat that couldn't quite catch up to hard stuff. The other guys I thought might make an impact were a reliever, Richie Lentz, and a catcher Mark Wagner.

Lentz had a nice pitch mix and looked promising in Portland. He also retired after an injury. Wagner rose to AAA, but got flipped by the Sox and never quite reached the escape velocity to make it to the majors. Really liked his defensive skills, but the hitting never quite matched up.

Watched a lot of others: Argenis Diaz who's still kicking around I believe; Chih-Hsien Chiang who even then had a Taiwanese student reporter following him around; Jorge Jimenez who could hit and draw walks but was an indifferent fielder.

This Greenville crew will be moving on to Salem, though probably not for long if guys like Moncada and Benitendi are for real. Catch them while you can. This is one of the best prospect groups to surface in the Sox system since... well since Betts, Bradley, Swihart, and Owens. And we know what happened to those guys.

Hey man, I know I'm not a mod, but can you please use the quote box when you're copy/pasting from a site?  I was thinking that you just saw this guy pitch last week, and was really thrown off by the may results quoted at the bottom.  Those are in fact from May 2014 btw.  Thanks.

Thanks for the comprehensive historic account. In terms of the huge current wave crashing on the Red Sox Shore I would include XB, Castillo, Vasquez, Workman, Johnson, Shaw, as well as transplants like Brockholt, Rodriguez; plus that final, sputtering, still rideable push before the next set begins, perhaps from Hembree, Escobar, Aro. What a ride. We have a year or more to catch our breaths and paddle out for that next set, being led by whomever survives this trade season.