4/13 Gameday Thread: Murphy & A Young Jedi

I know it's only been four games, so it's the smallest of sample sizes, but at what point does my irrational excitement about Meidroth become rational? His start would be way easier to dismiss as SSS noise if he didn't hit the ground raking last year, too. Which on one hand you can pass off as him being a college guy but he's still only 21, he's probably younger than the average age of High-A if I had to guess. With his smaller size and defensive inflexibility I don't know if I'll ever get to a point this year where I'm calling for him to be a top 100 prospect but I think he's a top 20 guy in the system right now and if he pushes for a mid-season promotion and still hits in AA I'm not sure how he doesn't end up top 10 despite the limitations.

There's a chance he can really hit. It's a weird profile, but all aspects of the hitting tool are there - great plate coverage, pitch identification and selection, willingness to work a walk, contact skill, ability to drive the ball (at least gap to gap). There's some level of Kevin Youkilis-ness there, where he doesn't look the part but if he keeps hitting it's obviously not going to matter. He's also very advanced - like it's clear that he's a guy who has gotten very good coaching all the way up, he's simply just less raw than his peers. At that point the question becomes whether he's ahead of the others or just more advanced in terms of getting to what he can be. Extending the Youkilis comparison, he's a better athlete than he looks, and he's got pretty good hands - very solid at second second base and was even playing shortstop adequately. Nothing close to Youkilis's pop though, I don't foresee .250 iso's coming out of him. He's the type of profile where he probably needs to hit at Double-A before I get really excited, but there's a real possibility that happens. I don't have him in the top 20 in the system yet but I don't think that's wildly unreasonable.

EDIT: Not getting too deep into the weeds on the ranking side of it, but headed into spring training there was a lot of discussion among the staff about how the system was really hollowed out in the 21 to 35ish range. Meidroth is part of a group that has taken a step forward that makes that really not the case anymore - he's with Alcantara, Guerrero, Ravelo, and Castro as a group that's really helped fill in that gap.

Do we know that he had surgery? His issue was an ankle - he wasn't a TJS guy.

Honest question - I may have missed or forgotten that.

I hear you, though the gap between what he's done and how the rest of the team is hitting (not at all, with the exception of Jimenez) is kinda striking. And it's only his age-21 season, so he's on the young side for a college pick.

It is also four games.

A bunch of good tests for the lineups tonight. Worcester gets Tanner Bibee, Portland gets Ricky Tiedemann, and Salem gets Jacob Misiorowski.

Carolina's pitcher is hitting 101. Bleis made loud contact on the fastball for a flyball the CF had to retreat on to catch but no camera angle.

Some of you are alright, don't look at the WooSox box score tomorrow.

Been really impressed with a Cutter Coffey’s plate discipline and whiff rates so far. BB rate around 30% now and swinging strike rate is well under 10%.

Rosier off to a nice start in AA