Yoan Moncada

Telson good point about Herb Washingston.  For those who weren't around, in 1975 Charles Finley, Oakland's creative owner hired a world class sprinter to be a designated pinch runner, who hadn't played baseball since high school.  He did get caught a bunch, but stole bases.  My buddy and I thought if given a chance if he trained well with coaches on pitchers moves he may have become a weapon, however other players were derisive about him not being a real player and the experiment ended within a season or so.  We watched him early on, and he was full speed by his second step and was sliding into second as the catchers throw was still going over the mound!

Interesting article on player speed and the limit of "outs..." eventually, someone will come along for whom 90 feet simply doesn't provide enough time to make a play.
www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=22979
Deion Sanders ran 4.21 in the 40-yard at the combine (that's electronic time, but it doesn't take into account reaction time...ie, the clock starts when the player crosses the plane. In track, you have to account for the average reaction time (0.15 sec) when comparing to football 40s. So that 4.27 is really more like 4.42. Usain Bolt runs about a 4.10 (https://www.freelapusa.com/how-fast-can-usain-bolt-run-the-40-yard-dash/) and there are a fair number of world-class sprinters who are probably in the 4.15-4.18 zone. Deion was a 75% success rate guy. Billy Hamilton is clearly a more intuitive base-stealer, he's over 82%. Hamilton isn't as fast as Deion (there's some comparison on ESPN where Hamilton "outruns" Deion on a triple, but it's by an arm, and Deion *really* jogs out of the box on his triple, and doesn't really start trying until right near first).

So, if a legit elite runner (90 speed) could ever learn to steal bases, he might genuinely be unstoppable.

If Moncada settles in as a 20-30 SB threat, I'm going to be very disappointed.

True. But the combined base running and stealing threat of Betts, Bogaerts, Bradley, Benintendi, Moncada, Pedroia, Holt, Swihart, whomever, would unnerve opposing pitchers and teams in a manner not entirely dissimilar from a team of big boppers like the Jays and O's.

The fact that this group seems to be morphing into a high OBP team of big boppers themselves is amazing.

What is the downside of plugging Moncada (assuming Moncada can play left field) or Benintendi into left field for a short stretch?  I mean as opposed to sticking Brentz out there?  It would be a no pressure situation, and what if either of them came in and played very well?  Would anyone he stunned? 

True. I'm thinking that the announced intention is an emergency starter until Holt is back. Basically either of them as opposed to Brentz.

Just to be clear,  what I'm wondering about is either of the two being used as opposed to Brentz.  It would not be a promotion intended to stick. Just a handful of games until Holt is ready. Would it be surprising if either of them filled the temporary need better than Brentz?

The biggest problem to me would be burning their options while they are not ready/required to be on the 40-man roster.

That's easy to say now, but injuries can complicate the situation very quickly-- see, e.g., Dylan Bundy.

Yeah, position players are a lot different ... I can't remember a position player who had that problem and turned out to be anything. Ryan Kalish burned through his options because of injury, but he's absolutely the exception that proves the rule here. If a really talented player has such injury problems they burn through their options recovering, it's a much bigger problem than the options.

Yes but where will Moncada sign ?

OH MY GOD

Moncada with the star turn at the MLB Futures game. a two-run blast in the 8^th to put the World team ahead. That combo of speed and power was in play, with a line single also and a steal. Very likely that the Sox will have two 30/30 guys on the team in the next few years, with Betts and this guy - that's if they keep him around and they probably will. If it happens that will be a very rare thing.

Hard to know what his ceiling is. He seems to be just tapping into the HR swing. This one was from the right side where he looks able to scoop stuff off his knees, not unlike Trout.