8/17 Gameday Thread: Devers en fuego.

I guess maybe I expect too much, but to me, if a guy is going to qualify as a top-notch prospect, at some point he has to start really dominating the level he's at. For example, my judgment is that Moncada and Benintendi were/are playing quite well in Portland, but they aren't tearing the league apart by any means. And Benintendi has shown in a few ways since he's come up that he still has lessons to learn, which is to be expected.

Let Devers in Salem to finish the season and perform in the playoffs. Let's see if he truly is getting his legs under him at high A to the point that he's almost impossible to deal with. Then let him go through the big challenge at AA next year. It may well be that he will be challenged there as well, at least for awhile. He ain't Miggy Cabrera.

At the beginning I wanted Devers promoted but the more I read here and his age I actually like the fact that he just stays at high A. I believe this kid is the power in the organization and I will wait. I have more faith in him after what happened to him. He starts next year in AA. I cant wait. I envision a home grown lineup first time I ever saw it and its right around the corner.

totally agree with you. The key I think will be AA next year. Much better pitching how does the young guy adjust. Does he dominate.

Yikes, Workman with a not very good first appearance in Portland. 1 2/3IP 3H 2R 2ER 5BB 0K

They should convert Workman to a reliever. He's always had problems third time through an order, and he'll never get the opportunity to start in Boston enough to raise his trade value.

Pretty sure that's the plan.  He piggy backed tonight in Portland, didn't start.

Good for Dubon, of course.

But what do we make of Aneury Tavarez? He's stuck down in the bowels of the prospect rankings while raking like mad at AA. Age 24, sure, but that just makes him sort of age appropriate for AA. So could he be a utility OF at the major league level?

Tavarez has earned himself a ticket to Pawtucket by his performance at AA. The question, though, is do you put him on the 40 man roster to protect him from Rule 5? I believe it will happen if he doesn't get traded in the meantime while his stock is high.

Ellsbury's .452/.518/.644 in Portland was to start the 2007 season was a 17-game sample after he'd played 50 games there the previous season hitting just .308/.387/.424 (he was also just 16 for 24 - a poor 67% success rate - on steals), after he'd played another 25 games in the AFL during the offseason, and he was age 23. His career Double-A line (which unfortunately includes 4 rehab games later, but I think we can agree that's a negligible number) is .345/.418/.488 over 71 career games at the level. And like I mentioned, that doesn't include the AFL experience he got in the middle of his time in Portland.

Benintendi reached Double-A a year younger than Ellsbury, but we can fudge it and say it's comparable because they both reached the level in their first full season after a promotion from High A. Again, Ellsbury hit .308/.387/.424 in 50 games. Benintendi hit .295/.357/.515 in 63 games. It's not quite exact, but they have different games - Benintendi has more power, Ellsbury was speedier and played better defense. As for the following season, Ellsbury essentially had 75 Double-A level games under his belt as a first-round college pick before putting up that line. Benintendi was called up after 63 Double-A games. I feel confident that while certainly not guaranteed, Benintendi could definitely put up that line if they held him back in Double-A to start next April. If we forget Benintendi's first 50 games and count his final 13, he's .367/.426/.673 in a sample size pretty close to Ellsbury's 2007 time in Portland - note the higher slugging percentage.

Moncada, for his part, has just 36 games in Double-A at age 21. He won't turn 22 until the end of next May. It's not even close to being a fair comparison - and Moncada still compares well to Ellsbury's first taste of the level at .287/.366/.559.

Both Benintendi and Moncada are performing much better in their first taste of Double-A at a younger age than Ellsbury. This is incontrovertible. And I don't think it's even close that they're both better prospects than Ellsbury was. I think you're being a little unreasonable in what you expect a player to do before receiving a promotion.