Recent Posts

Boy I missed Moncada!! He has a double and homer already today. Move the kid up.

I actually spent a couple of innings talking with Jagger's parents at a GCL game. I asked them about his unusual name......and you probably guessed it......they love the Stones and Mick Jagger. I'm forever grateful to my parents they didn't do that to me. Can you see yourself named Meatloaf because they liked his music?

That is the problem with our perception of Trey Ball.....little swing and miss. 3 K's don't excite anyone at this level. Still he is 21 and has gotten a little better each season. I guess will have an ace by the time he celebrates his 45th birthday. I'd love to know what his weight is now. He is still listed as 185. Love to get that boy at 200 at least.

Any chance Mike for us to get this senior for a lot less than slot?

Steve Nogosek $281,100

I do like this pick, but I would guess his options are few.

Don't know how all of you forecasted this season for Xander, but I was expecting a slight regression. I was actually hoping he would not fall too much, as pitchers figured some stuff out, to say an average of .290 with a small uptick in power to say maybe 12 to 14 homers. Boy do I look stupid now!

The "jump" from 2014 to 2015 was amazing. This year the jump has been even more so! I loved what I saw last year, but there was a lot of soft grounders and pop flys hit primarily to the right side. I figured teams would start to shade him that way and take away some of those "cheap" hits he got. He isn't getting a lot of cheap hits this year IMO. Love how he has made it almost impossible for a team to play him one way. The power has really been impressive with him showing 20 doubles and 8 homers after just 61 games. If you extrapolate those figures over 162, you get 53 doubles and 21 homers.

An amazing thing, his base running sometimes is even more impressive. As several folks have said, he has a HIGH baseball IQ. Sort of scary for the American League to think he may just be scraping the surface. Nomar is my all-time favorite shortstop, but Xander looks like he is already a better all-around SS now.

A Prediction: Beni and Moncada put their pedal to the metal starting tonight. Beni with a double and a run scored on 1st at bat, and Yoan gets a hit to start the game and promptly steals number 34. It has been rough lately with them not going on tears. Hold on to your seats fellows!

Excited as everyone about the upcoming draft, and I personally would love to see us get either Braxton Garrett or Blake Rutherford. Both are already well-developed physically and have solid upside. I like Andersen also.

Swihart is easily one of my favorite prospects also. The situation is complex to say the least for how he can get back to Boston this year in my opinion. I disagree that he can't improve in Pawtucket as a catcher. I'm not, at all, crazy about him moving around position wise at this time. His value is, as you said, behind the plate. Not sure what the outfield experiment is about. To me he needs to put ALL of his time and focus into to being the best backstop he can be.

I have always been a big supporter of Blake, and dream on his potential of being an elite 2-way catcher. Maybe an All-Star! But.....the way this is heading, I think he will eventually be traded for an upgrade in our rotation. That possible trade may not happen until this winter, but I can see things heading that way.

As much as I love Blake Swihart, the Sox and their current success are more important. Vazquez is a real force behind the plate, and it will very difficult for Blake to take the job back as things stand. Christian is also quite young, so the Sox future is still in good hands. I hate predicting a Blake Swihart trade, but it may be the best thing, eventually, for the Red Sox and Blake's career. I just wish they quit screwing around with his playing leftfield.

What's with Trey Ball?? Nice 5 innings of 2 hit ball and zero runs. Who is this man?

Good to see Eduardo Rodriguez pitch better tonight. His final line is skewed a lot because of that bad 1st inning topped of by a 2-run homer, but his final line was
6.0 innings 5 hits 3 runs 3 earned runs 0 walks 3 k's......and his pitch count up to 84. Maybe one more start and he MAY be ready.

Beni has proven in basically 4 months of professional baseball that he has some (very) above level skills. My biggest hope entering this season, minor league wise, was for Moncada and Bennitendi to move fast and swiftly through the system. Both should be in AA now. They need to find out what new adjustments have to be made to keep progressing. A+ is not where either should be at. I was fine with their initial placement at the end of Spring Training, because of the cooler weather in Portland and wanting them to start fast, but the front office, IMO, is dragging their feet now.

I do have some understanding with Moncada with respect to his defense. He is still making too many errors and probably mental errors for my appetite. But these things can be worked on just as easily in Maine as in Virginia. It looks like his base running (base stealing) is going to be a big plus for the Sox once he gets there. I would love for him to cut down on his K percentage too, but this kid has already improved his patience at the plate and his OBP is unworldly. He needs to see better pitching. Bennitendi needs to see better pitching. Portland needs a transfusion of talent (what a difficult team to watch currently).