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Post by Canseco on Jun 15, 2022 9:01:18 GMT -5
Gosh… this kid is starting to excite me. If he can play a solid short, second, center, and right (especially in Fenway) as advertised, then we can reasonably dream of a Swiss Army knife sooner than later.
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redsox04071318champs
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Jun 15, 2022 9:26:20 GMT -5
Gosh… this kid is starting to excite me. If he can play a solid short, second, center, and right (especially in Fenway) as advertised, then we can reasonably dream of a Swiss Army knife sooner than later. He could certainly fill the bill at 2b or SS if need be but my guess is that he winds up in CF. I think the only one in the organization that can push him in CF has a longer way to go and that's Miguel Bleis who could down the road give them the kind of scenario the Sox had with Mookie and JBJ, two guys who were really CF, with one going to RF and the other staying in CF, and I could see that happening with Rafaela and Bleis someday down the road. In the nearer future it could be a situation where Rafaela claims CF and pushed Duran to an OF corner...I mean at some point the Sox either have to trade Duran or give him the major league ABs and see what they have in him, but he doesn't necessarily have to wind up in CF, so maybe Rafaela in a couple of years would free him of that if he comes up and hits well enough to be a major league regular but still has the defensive questions/issues. My only concern about Rafaela is that his BB/K issues undermine him offensively and relegate him to being a JBJ type hitter, a bottom of the order guy. I'm hoping he can get more selective and force pitchers to get him out rather than helping them and allow his hit tool and surprising power to develop a bit.
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radiohix
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Post by radiohix on Jun 15, 2022 9:37:15 GMT -5
Can we ever get an update on his height? Is he still 5'8" like when he signed at 16 or 17? The author of the twwet is someone who saw him multiple times
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Post by a2sox on Jun 15, 2022 11:26:18 GMT -5
Not officially a Rafaela thread, but I think the earliest consistent chatter about him on this site came out in the "2019 In-Season Sox Prospects Rankings (National Outlets)" thread. Some good stuff in there. Shout out to Alex Speier (and the scouts he talked to) on that one.
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cdj
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Post by cdj on Jun 15, 2022 12:30:56 GMT -5
Speier has been high on him for awhile
He’s proving why Speier was right
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Post by wcsoxfan on Jun 15, 2022 12:40:59 GMT -5
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Post by nuttyredsox on Jun 16, 2022 3:18:07 GMT -5
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jimoh
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Post by jimoh on Jun 16, 2022 5:41:22 GMT -5
Can we ever get an update on his height? Is he still 5'8" like when he signed at 16 or 17? The author of the twwet is someone who saw him multiple times Thanks, but that 5'11" guess seems a little generous. The 5'10" 175 Hamilton scored on both homes runs yesterday, and as they jog off the field he just looks a little bigger. Perspective can be deceptive, but he seems bigger.
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Post by fenwaydouble on Jun 16, 2022 6:03:40 GMT -5
The author of the twwet is someone who saw him multiple times Thanks, but that 5'11" guess seems a little generous. The 5'10" 175 Hamilton scored on both homes runs yesterday, and as they jog off the field he just looks a little bigger. Perspective can be deceptive, but he seems bigger. FWIW I saw Rafaela in Portland last week and I don’t buy 5-11 either. He stood out as being very small.
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Post by jimed14 on Jun 16, 2022 7:34:36 GMT -5
I bet he's about the same exact size as Mookie.
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jimoh
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Post by jimoh on Jun 16, 2022 7:49:53 GMT -5
Has there ever been a Sox prospect that could both hit at least a little and also play top-notch SS and CF right from the get-go? Not a SS you guess could play CF but a guy who seemed like the best defensive player on the field at both SS and CF, and got innings at both?
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Post by patford on Jun 16, 2022 8:10:43 GMT -5
I bet he's about the same exact size as Mookie. Let's just say he towers over Jose Altuve.
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Post by Chris Hatfield on Jun 16, 2022 8:32:14 GMT -5
Not officially a Rafaela thread, but I think the earliest consistent chatter about him on this site came out in the "2019 In-Season Sox Prospects Rankings (National Outlets)" thread. Some good stuff in there. Shout out to Alex Speier (and the scouts he talked to) on that one. FWIW, Alex randomly put him in an in-season top 20 list, then left him off the BA Top 30 that offseason, so I don't think views were unanimous at that point.
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Post by azblue on Jun 16, 2022 9:36:59 GMT -5
Alex Speier just picked a "random" name of a player in the Boston minors and threw it into that list?
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Post by Chris Hatfield on Jun 16, 2022 9:48:23 GMT -5
Not what I'm saying at all. Random was a poor word choice. Meant it in the colloquial sense as in "out of nowhere".
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Post by adamgregory on Jun 16, 2022 12:09:49 GMT -5
If you were being totally reactive, reaching, but with a plausible argument, how high could you rank "Say-Don" right now (both in the sox system and through all of baseball).
Small sample size, but I think you can make an argument to have him above everyone except Mayer. (The arguments over Casas/Yorke would be defensive value and a firm belief in changes to Rafaela's offensive approach/results.)
The argument over Bello (and any other pitcher currently ranked ahead of Rafaela), would be intrinsic value of up the middle versatile defenders vs. pitching generally.
Nationally, I think that's top 30/40?
I don't necessarily think he should be ranked that way (in either case), but wow, what an exciting break out for this guy. (And it's a fun exercise to let your optimism run wild, within the right confines.)
Realisticly, I would think that this second surge, as it's happening at AA, should push him into the Walter/Duran range in SP rankings. Is that ridiculous?
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ericmvan
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Post by ericmvan on Jun 16, 2022 12:43:14 GMT -5
He was tied for second in wRC+ in all of A+ for hitters 21 and under, minimum 150 PA (he had 207; if 200 is your minimum, he was tied for first).
For 23 and under in AA, minimum 30 PA, he's first; for 22 and under he's way out in front, 206 to Gunnar Henderson's 179. Not a bad start.
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Post by jdb on Jun 16, 2022 12:48:24 GMT -5
I don’t think it’s crazy to put him at 5 either above Duran and Walter.
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ericmvan
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Post by ericmvan on Jun 16, 2022 13:33:52 GMT -5
I don't know if I posted these splits before, but it's worth noting (again).
His numbers last year are really deceptive.
On July 23 he was hitting .219 / .285 / .328 (223 PA). He had 3 HR.
In the last 8 days / 7 games of that month he homered 4 times.
He hit .285 / .325 / .523 (209 PA) starting 7/24.
And this year he's already had 246 PA and is .330 / .370 / .622 across the two levels.
A year ago he was in the midst of putting up a .613 OPS in low-A, and now he's killing it in AA.
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Post by larrycook on Jun 16, 2022 21:19:51 GMT -5
He smacked a triple tonight. His only hit of the evening, but it was nice!
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Post by Canseco on Jun 17, 2022 7:23:59 GMT -5
He smacked a triple tonight. His only hit of the evening, but it was nice! Even more impressive, it was pulled into the LF corner. Kid has wheels.
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radiohix
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Post by radiohix on Jun 17, 2022 9:01:32 GMT -5
He's giving me some serious righty Jazz Chisholm vibes.
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Post by wcsoxfan on Jun 17, 2022 11:56:40 GMT -5
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Post by Oregon Norm on Jun 17, 2022 14:41:55 GMT -5
Not atypical for the Dutch West Indies. Bogaerts speaks four also. English and Spanish come with the territory, literally. And then there are island dialects.
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jimoh
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Post by jimoh on Jun 17, 2022 15:37:04 GMT -5
Not atypical for the Dutch West Indies. Bogaerts speaks four also. English and Spanish come with the territory, literally. And then there are island dialects. Same 4 as Rafaela: English, Spanish, Dutch, and Papiamento
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