Blake Swihart, Redux

And if he does then I will be completely wrong. Til then, what is known is he was converted to LF taking away a year of work behind the plate and, while playing that position, he ran and slid full speed into a wall, seriously damaging his ankle. Everything else - whether he'll be moved back to catcher, whether he will shake off the lost year of work, as well as the "he could've gotten just as hurt at catcher" is speculative.

The comment was "But if you're saying here that the Sox have screw-up Swihart's development more than any other player in their system in the last 15 years, sure, I'll agree with that."

You don't even know if his development is screwed up at all because you still have no idea what he's going to turn into.

And no, I don't blame Farrell for Wright getting hurt. There was literally no one else to run unless you want to leave Papi in when his feet were really hurting. Pomeranz was the only other possibility, but he could have pitched if it went to extra innings because it was his throwing day and he hadn't thrown yet. Imagine if Papi got hurt instead of Wright because he didn't PR for him.

I do blame the team for how they dealt with injuries. They really screwed up bringing Wright back before he was ready and without a rehab start while Buchholz was pitching well. But if you're going to figure out how to blame the team for every injury, you're going to be pretty unhappy all the time. Did anyone blame the Yankees for Mariano Rivera shagging fly balls in the outfield when he tore his ACL? They shouldn't have.

Yes, and Vazquez missed more than a year because of injuries behind the plate.

All of you are missing the point. Swihart is a well above average hitting catcher, with average defense, and fringe average framing at the moment. He also is 24, and has very little experience catching or hitting at a level above AAA, and was unfairly demoted and told to move positions.

As a former top 10-15 bone fide superstar prospect, Swihart hasn't just been the most screwed up Red Sox asset the last 15 years, he's probably the biggest screw up in the entire league. To bench AND tell a superstar prospect, who succeeded IN THE MAJORS at a young age when rushed, to move positions from the most valuable position in the league to the least to accommodate a player who will never be a starter because he can't hit is both mind boggling and unprecedented.

The person who threw up projections for Vazquez based on his minor league numbers is completely misusing projections. Scout the player. There is no way Vazquez comes even close to his minor league numbers. When pitchers realize that you have no ability to hit a fly ball or hit any mistake in the zone for power, they start pounding you in the zone and the BB rate plummets and the K rate rises. AA and AAA pitchers don't have the command to punish Vazquez for that. In the Majors, it's a whole different world for him. If Vazquez ever hit for over .240/.300/.320 in a season ever again, I would be shocked.

That's the problem... Swihart doesn't need to develop or prove he's an MLB catcher, he already has. After returning from his thumb injury, he was statistically a top 5 catcher in the entire league as a rushed to the majors rookie.

I've already advocated for Swihart to play other positions when he doesn't catch. 3B and 1B make the most sense given the relative weakness the Sox have at those positions and Swihart's familiarity with the infield.


Saying that Swihart had an equal chance injuring himself in LF compared to anywhere else is just wrong. Throwing a career catcher and infielder into the outfield after less than 1 month of learning the position is just asking for trouble. Add in the fact that Fenway left field and its contours make it arguably the most difficult corner outfield to play in the majors, the move had all of the warning signs for disaster. Just ask Hanley Ramirez and his shoulder from 2015.

And like I said before, it's all moot. Swihart was a top 5 catcher post-injury as a rookie. Moving to LF shouldn't have even been a thought process.

Leon had a great year and the Sox wanted to see what they had in Vasquez. That and the fact that LF was a waste land in 2016.

And the Sox wouldn't of had the kind of outstanding production that Leon brought in the middle of last season...no way does anyone do or come close to what Leon brought when he was called up to the big leagues. The Sox believe in Vasquez, I think he's a backup catcher too but he was definitely worth a long look to see if he was anything more than that.

Most of that is based on his .391 BABIP during that time, which is not sustainable.  And 40 games of defensive stats is too small of a sample to even pay attention to.

Leon is not going to play in Pawtucket next year because he has no options and would have to be waived.  Vazquez has no options either.  You're in for disappointment.

Yeah, arguing that Swihart established himself as a proven top 5 catcher based on 44 games is really reaching for anything to confirm your opinions.

So with that same line of thinking, Derek Norris was in a similar position on that list (including a high babip). Norris should have been great this year after establishing himself as a proven top 5-10 catcher in the game after a strong showing in his final 62 games last year, right? Norris hit .186 this year and had a negative WAR.

Do you seriously need to respond to every single person who makes the non-controversial comment that baseball players get hurt at every position? We get it! You think he got hurt directly because he was playing left field! Some disagree! And it's okay to disagree, but if you're not going to bring the conversation forward then just let it go.

You're right. Too bad he has to hit and run too, which he can absolutely hurt a ankle with.

Did he get hurt when he was hitting or running the bases??  Nope.   It's very rare that a player would hurt his ankle as badly as Swihart did running bases or hitting.  When playing outfield you run distances that are much longer than running the bases.  Add that he has hardly played the OF, thus he hasn't come close to mastering the technique to slide, dive and read how close things like the walls are safely.  We got a first hand lesson last year with Ramirez that learning how to play the OF isn't easy.  It takes a lot of time and skill.