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2015 Official Spring Training thread
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Post by gregblossersbelly on Mar 9, 2015 11:26:21 GMT -5
If Castillo starts in AAA, we could have a home-grown Pawsox Opening Night. When you look at AAA rosters, that seems implausible.
Castillo - RF JBJ - CF Cecchini - 3B Brentz - LF Shaw - 1B Swihart - C Coyle - 2B Marrero - SS Owens - P
No DH at Lehigh Valley
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Post by Chris Hatfield on Mar 9, 2015 11:51:35 GMT -5
If Castillo starts in AAA, we could have a home-grown Pawsox Opening Night. When you look at AAA rosters, that seems implausible. Castillo - RF JBJ - CF Cecchini - 3B Brentz - LF Shaw - 1B Swihart - C Coyle - 2B Marrero - SS Owens - P No DH at Lehigh Valley AL affiliates always play with a DH.
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Post by jrffam05 on Mar 9, 2015 14:07:35 GMT -5
He really should go nowhere this year. He's a lot more valuable to the Red Sox as injury insurance stuffed in AAA than we'd get in a trade right now. I like JBJ as depth for Castillo and Betts a lot more than Sizemore as depth for JBJ and Victorino. Double that. He is excellent depth for us this season, and he has the opportunity to really increase his value by having a good season in Pawtucket....and permitting us to get more in a trade. He probably will be an add on and not the primary piece, but with solid improvement at AAA, were he could definitely use several hundred more at-bats, he will actually be sought after. I really like the depth Ben has accumulated for us in the ML and in AAA (and yes even in the rotation). Unless we are getting a starting pitcher who would bump someone out of our starting rotation (we wouldn't), we shouldn't trade Bradley. It doesn't hurt us to use one of his options, and he is still a high floor and decent ceiling player. He is a great depth option with upside, and we really don't have any holes to fill by trading him. He may be the reason why we trade Castillo in the future, or more realistically he could be a very solid 4th outfielder next year when we lose Vic. Either way, there is not much to gain by trading him and some value to lose. I also agree, this is a very deep team. Bradley makes the 25 man opening day roster on most other teams as a backup.
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ericmvan
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Supposed to be working on something more important
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Post by ericmvan on Mar 9, 2015 15:50:12 GMT -5
Double that. He is excellent depth for us this season, and he has the opportunity to really increase his value by having a good season in Pawtucket....and permitting us to get more in a trade. He probably will be an add on and not the primary piece, but with solid improvement at AAA, were he could definitely use several hundred more at-bats, he will actually be sought after. I really like the depth Ben has accumulated for us in the ML and in AAA (and yes even in the rotation). Unless we are getting a starting pitcher who would bump someone out of our starting rotation (we wouldn't), we shouldn't trade Bradley. It doesn't hurt us to use one of his options, and he is still a high floor and decent ceiling player. He is a great depth option with upside, and we really don't have any holes to fill by trading him. He may be the reason why we trade Castillo in the future, or more realistically he could be a very solid 4th outfielder next year when we lose Vic. Either way, there is not much to gain by trading him and some value to lose. I also agree, this is a very deep team. Bradley makes the 25 man opening day roster on most other teams as a backup. Since Victorino is very likely out of the picture next year, I heartily agree with this consensus: you have to keep JBJ until at least this winter. He may be a better overall player than Castillo, and Hanley may be the 1B or DH within a year or two. Hanley has great career numbers as a PH and DH (in the expected small sample, of course), which is actually somewhat hard to do, so he would probably thrive as Ortiz's successor. There are therefore multiple options for 2016: trade JBJ, trade Rusney, keep them both as starters with Hanley at 1B or DH, keep them both with one starting and the other as a 4th OF, groomed to start in 2017 when it's very likely there will be an opening at 1B or DH for Hanley. Trading one probably only makes sense if Hanley is a plus defender in LF, Ortiz shows little or no signs of decline, and Napoli is so good that you re-sign him for at least one year plus an option (all of which could happen, of course). If Margot puts himself in the OF picture by 2017, you deal with it.
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Post by moonstone2 on Mar 9, 2015 15:55:08 GMT -5
Unless we are getting a starting pitcher who would bump someone out of our starting rotation (we wouldn't), we shouldn't trade Bradley. It doesn't hurt us to use one of his options, and he is still a high floor and decent ceiling player. He is a great depth option with upside, and we really don't have any holes to fill by trading him. He may be the reason why we trade Castillo in the future, or more realistically he could be a very solid 4th outfielder next year when we lose Vic. Either way, there is not much to gain by trading him and some value to lose. I also agree, this is a very deep team. Bradley makes the 25 man opening day roster on most other teams as a backup. Since Victorino is very likely out of the picture next year, I heartily agree with this consensus: you have to keep JBJ until at least this winter. He may be a better overall player than Castillo, and Hanley may be the 1B or DH within a year or two. Hanley has great career numbers as a PH and DH (in the expected small sample, of course), which is actually somewhat hard to do, so he would probably thrive as Ortiz's successor. There are therefore multiple options for 2016: trade JBJ, trade Rusney, keep them both as starters with Hanley at 1B or DH, keep them both with one starting and the other as a 4th OF, groomed to start in 2017 when its very likely there will be an opening at 1B or DH for Hanley. Trading one probably only makes sense if Hanley is a plus defender in LF, Ortiz shows little or no signs of decline, and Napoli is so good that you re-sign him for at least one year plus an option (all of which could happen, of course). If Margot puts himself in the OF picture by 2017, you deal with it. I think we both know what you are hoping.......the Sox sign Jason Heyward somehow next year to be the RF and you work around that. They might have to clear up some payroll room for that but it's an intriguing option. Either way they have two big free agents a year from now and will need some options to replace them regardless of it they are on the current team or not.
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Post by philsbosoxfan on Mar 9, 2015 16:34:51 GMT -5
Boston Globe Sports ?@bglobesports 1h1 hour ago We’ve launched a baseball newsletter by @alexspeier. Sample: bit.ly/1Abv3IM Subscribe: bit.ly/1C2GatC
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Post by rjp313jr on Mar 9, 2015 19:00:03 GMT -5
JBjr could also be this teams starting center fielder at some point for the longterm. Flanked by Betts and Castillo. He has the talent and ability to hit more than enough to go with that glove. Going to AAA and having no expectations and getting at bats will be good for him. He went through AAA and AA quickly and it didn't work out. This year will be good for him to just stay there and learn.
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Post by brianthetaoist on Mar 9, 2015 19:28:15 GMT -5
I'm still kind of skeptical on JBJ long-term. I mean, he was *so* bad last year. The history of guys who do that badly is not good, to put it mildly.
But I've never been a total believer in JBJ's bat, admittedly. I've never liked the toe-tapping hitch in his swing, but I think that may have been missing the point. I think his hips aren't quick enough, so he has to sell out somewhere to catch up to major league pitching. Sure, maybe there's an adjustment he can make that I can't see to make his swing work. I mean, I thought Xander wasn't athletic enough to stick at SS long-term when I saw him in Salem, but it was mostly bad footwork making him look clunky. I'm no professional evaluator. But, for now, I remain pretty skeptical that JBJ will hit well enough to hold down CF for Boston.
Hope I'm surprised, though, because I so love watching him play defense.
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Post by moonstone2 on Mar 9, 2015 19:30:17 GMT -5
JBjr could also be this teams starting center fielder at some point for the longterm. Flanked by Betts and Castillo. He has the talent and ability to hit more than enough to go with that glove. Going to AAA and having no expectations and getting at bats will be good for him. He went through AAA and AA quickly and it didn't work out. This year will be good for him to just stay there and learn. Unfortunately because he absolutely had to be in the majors to start 2013, this will be his final option year. So after this season, you need to decide if he is your CF or not, at least until Margot is ready. If you have to trade him you won't be getting fair value.. In Fenway there isn't much of an advantage to having a great defensive LF, so I think the Sox will try to get more pop in the lineup to replace Napoli as opposed to replacing him with Bradley. One option would be trading Pedroia putting Betts at 2b and signing Jason Heyward. That gives you an OF of JBJ Castiillio Heyward and Margot for years to come.
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Post by James Dunne on Mar 9, 2015 19:38:43 GMT -5
JBjr could also be this teams starting center fielder at some point for the longterm. Flanked by Betts and Castillo. He has the talent and ability to hit more than enough to go with that glove. Going to AAA and having no expectations and getting at bats will be good for him. He went through AAA and AA quickly and it didn't work out. This year will be good for him to just stay there and learn. Unfortunately because he absolutely had to be in the majors to start 2013, this will be his final option year. So after this season, you need to decide if he is your CF or not, at least until Margot is ready. If you have to trade him you won't be getting fair value.. In Fenway there isn't much of an advantage to having a great defensive LF, so I think the Sox will try to get more pop in the lineup to replace Napoli as opposed to replacing him with Bradley. One option would be trading Pedroia putting Betts at 2b and signing Jason Heyward. That gives you an OF of JBJ Castiillio Heyward and Margot for years to come. For what it's worth, by my numbers Bradley didn't actually use an option in 2014 - optioned on 8/18 and recalled on 9/5. So they're still a little ways away from being backed into a corner on a decision on him. Part of the problem, though, is that I don't know how much value he rebuilds even if he hits well in Pawtucket, since he's already shown he can do that. If his swing is truly remade then he might get a scout from some team advocating for him, but there's going to be a great deal of skepticism until he hits in the majors. And the path to getting enough bats to do that in Boston is pretty difficult.
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Post by moonstone2 on Mar 9, 2015 19:56:09 GMT -5
I'm not so sure about that James. Bradley was optioned on March 28th of 2014 and recalled on March 31st. So that would be 21 days 18 days in August/September and 3 days in March, total and thus would constitute a burned option.
The rest of your post I agree with. Edit: Never mind those three days don't count because they occurred before an MLB game in which Bradley was eligible to play. He did however accrue the full year of service time.
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Post by jmei on Mar 9, 2015 20:23:35 GMT -5
For what it's worth, his SoxProspects profile lists him as having two options left: soxprospects.com/players/bradley-jackie.htmI'd also be surprised if the Red Sox front office (which is generally very careful about these things) burned an option by leaving him up one day too many, especially when they didn't really need him in August/September (it's not like they were playing for anything). I also think he can build back a good bit of his value in Pawtucket. Remember, he wasn't hitting even in AAA last year, and his swing was clearly out of sorts. If he can both demonstrate better performance and better mechanics, I tend to think he'll rebuild a good bit of his value.
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Post by brianthetaoist on Mar 9, 2015 21:09:34 GMT -5
Yeah, I agree with jmei ... he can rebuild some quality value with a good year in AAA. It won't be as if 2014 never happened, but his value will be quite a bit higher than it is now. There will be a plausible case to make that he was rushed, got exposed too early, let his swing get out of whack, and never recovered last year. Some folks will still be skeptical (probably including me), but there will probably be enough talent folks in the game that like him to give him solid value because it's a very plausible narrative.
And his defensive value did get demonstrated last year ... he was shown to be not just a good defensive outfielder but a great one.
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art
Veteran
Posts: 382
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Post by art on Mar 9, 2015 21:16:36 GMT -5
If he'd already burned 2 option years and burns another this year, he should be eligible for a 4th in 2016 anyway. You can get a 4th if you burn 3 and have not yet amassed 5 full seasons of professional baseball. 2011 wouldn't count as a full season for him because he was not on a professional roster for at least 90 days.
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Post by moonstone2 on Mar 9, 2015 21:50:15 GMT -5
If he'd already burned 2 option years and burns another this year, he should be eligible for a 4th in 2016 anyway. You can get a 4th if you burn 3 and have not yet amassed 5 full seasons of professional baseball. 2011 wouldn't count as a full season for him because he was not on a professional roster for at least 90 days. [br If you spend 90 days on a pro roster in a year in which you were optioned, you only have three options. So 2013 counts and 14 would have. He has three options total two remaining.
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art
Veteran
Posts: 382
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Post by art on Mar 9, 2015 22:06:29 GMT -5
If he'd already burned 2 option years and burns another this year, he should be eligible for a 4th in 2016 anyway. You can get a 4th if you burn 3 and have not yet amassed 5 full seasons of professional baseball. 2011 wouldn't count as a full season for him because he was not on a professional roster for at least 90 days. [br If you spend 90 days on a pro roster in a year in which you were optioned, you only have three options. So 2013 counts and 14 would have. He has three options total two remaining. Do you have a link for the actual text of Rule 11? I haven't been able to find one. I've been going by the wiki summary on this site and another summary I found elsewhere.
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ianrs
Veteran
Posts: 2,446
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Post by ianrs on Mar 9, 2015 22:37:47 GMT -5
I'm still kind of skeptical on JBJ long-term. I mean, he was *so* bad last year. The history of guys who do that badly is not good, to put it mildly. But I've never been a total believer in JBJ's bat, admittedly. I've never liked the toe-tapping hitch in his swing, but I think that may have been missing the point. I think his hips aren't quick enough, so he has to sell out somewhere to catch up to major league pitching. Sure, maybe there's an adjustment he can make that I can't see to make his swing work. I mean, I thought Xander wasn't athletic enough to stick at SS long-term when I saw him in Salem, but it was mostly bad footwork making him look clunky. I'm no professional evaluator. But, for now, I remain pretty skeptical that JBJ will hit well enough to hold down CF for Boston. Hope I'm surprised, though, because I so love watching him play defense. I definitely understand where you are coming from. I really think Bradley is going to have a bounceback year, though, particularly if he can be consistent with his mechanics. I like what I have seen from his reduced leg-kick/stride in ST so far. Allows him to stay closed longer and wait for the ball to get deeper into the count. Don't get me wrong, I don't think he will be a masher, but all he needs to be is average to slightly below average offensively to be a very valuable player. Let's hope for that surprise.
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Post by philsbosoxfan on Mar 9, 2015 23:05:36 GMT -5
Pablo Sandoval says that he “knew early in Spring Training last year I was going to leave” the Giants, as Scott Miller of Bleacher Report writes. The one-time San Francisco favorite did not mince words, accusing GM Brian Sabean of not respecting his representatives in discussions at that time. “The Giants made a good offer [in free agency],” said Sandoval, “but I didn’t want to take it. I got five years from Boston. I left money on the table in San Francisco. It’s not about money. It’s about how you treat the player.” www.mlbtraderumors.com/2015/03/nl-west-notes-olivera-morrow-federowicz-mccarthy-sandoval.html
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Post by Chris Hatfield on Mar 10, 2015 0:45:51 GMT -5
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Post by mannofsteele on Mar 10, 2015 8:15:47 GMT -5
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Post by jimed14 on Mar 10, 2015 8:21:21 GMT -5
Wow, a 236 and he's not happy with it. Won't be long before he can build his own alley in a big house.
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Post by jmehlum on Mar 10, 2015 9:43:03 GMT -5
He just became one of my favorite players of all time.
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Post by moonstone2 on Mar 10, 2015 21:45:50 GMT -5
[br If you spend 90 days on a pro roster in a year in which you were optioned, you only have three options. So 2013 counts and 14 would have. He has three options total two remaining. Do you have a link for the actual text of Rule 11? I haven't been able to find one. I've been going by the wiki summary on this site and another summary I found elsewhere. On the Biz of Baseball site there is a PDF download of MLB Rules. It hasn't been updated in sometime, but the most relevant rules are likely still in place. Generally the fourth option is given to two types of players..... #1 Drafted players who sign MLB deals with their first professional contract in the middle of the season and are subsequently optioned. #2 Players who are optioned during a year in which they spend most of the year on the disabled list. Neither of those apply here and thus JBJ would only have three options.....I do agree that though he was optioned a grand total of 21 days, 3 of those days don't count because they occurred before the first Red Sox regular season game.
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Post by James Dunne on Mar 10, 2015 23:08:19 GMT -5
I believe the only update to Rule 11 are with regard to the ability to add a 26th player for a doubleheader that is scheduled at least 48 hours in advance.
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Post by awall on Mar 11, 2015 7:20:22 GMT -5
I hope JBJ can show sustained success, but that swing still looks like it's going to leave him vulnerable on the inside. So much extra hip rotation coiling up.
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