danr
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Post by danr on Jun 26, 2016 0:45:51 GMT -5
My bad. I meant drafted. Not traded. His history and game,so far, reminds me of Bubba Bell. Hopefully the injury bug will allow him to continue to develop. Bubba Bell was one of my favorite non-prospects once upon a time. He tore up the lower minors but he had trouble at AAA and by the time he started to hit well there he was 27. He hit better than Ramos in the lower minors but Ramos is hitting better than Bell did in the upper minors. That probably means he is a better prospect.
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danr
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Post by danr on Jun 22, 2016 23:19:46 GMT -5
Why did Shaw leave the game early?
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danr
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Post by danr on Jun 18, 2016 22:45:44 GMT -5
Benny with another bomb. Certainly looks like he's made the adjustment to AA. June - 19/64, 6-2B, 3HR, 8/4 K/BB, .297/.338/.531/.869 Tavarez is 5-for-5. He's quietly having a nice season (but I'm sure hitting in front of Benintendi helps). Benny's last 10 games: AB: 41; R: 5; H: 14; HR: 3; RBI: 9; BB: 3; SO: 7; BA: .341
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danr
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Post by danr on Jun 14, 2016 11:10:27 GMT -5
I got my second self back when I logged in just now with Chrome instead of Safari.
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danr
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Post by danr on Jun 12, 2016 1:28:56 GMT -5
Thank you guys at SP for consistently making this one of the most interesting and enlightening times of the year.
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danr
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Post by danr on May 14, 2016 9:52:25 GMT -5
I understand Norm's point and agree with its philosophy. I also agree with Eric's argument. What I would do with Barnes, if he is going to be on the major league roster, is pitch him in less important innings until he shows that he has the command to pitch in high leverage situations.
Norm is right that to become a quality major league pitcher he has to pitch in the major leagues. But I know from many years of managing and developing people that you can do damage to the development of a person if you put them in a situation for which they are not ready unless, of course, you have no choice. Farrell had lots of choices, as Eric points out, and it was just dumb to put Barnes in instead of one of the others.
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danr
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Post by danr on May 12, 2016 3:13:47 GMT -5
Vazquez is a significantly better catcher defensively than Swihart. He is a weapon on defense. He makes the Sox a much stronger team. It really doesn't matter what he hits but I think he will hit decently. Swihart should not be a backup to him. He has to play regularly. I think Swihart's value to the Sox will be realized in a trade. I have no idea when that will happen. The first thing that has to happen is for Swihart to start hitting again. If he does that, then he will be a prize for some team. I don'[t think he will catch for the Sox.
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danr
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Post by danr on May 9, 2016 23:21:55 GMT -5
Buchholz is not the pitcher he one was. In order to get away with throwing low 90s fastballs he has to have great command and most of the time now he doesn't have it. This is what could have been stories. The sooner he is out of the rotation, the better.
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danr
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Post by danr on May 8, 2016 9:30:02 GMT -5
One of the announcers on NESN yesterday said that Price has started previous seasons with lower velocity and it has picked up aftxer about a month.
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danr
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Post by danr on May 6, 2016 0:53:11 GMT -5
"He has been wrong a lot" says " the Lavarnway guy". When it comes to rating prospects everyone is wrong a lot.
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danr
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Post by danr on May 5, 2016 0:39:53 GMT -5
Just when there almost was a consensus that Buch should go he pulls this heartbreak performance tonight. Baseball is the world's greatest sport.
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danr
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Post by danr on May 3, 2016 10:05:27 GMT -5
As much as I would like to see the Sox acquire a stud pitcher and get Buch out of the rotation, I think it could be a huge mistake to trade JBJ. We have seen enough glimpses of the kind of player he may well become. It would be very painful to see that kind of player in a different uniform.
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danr
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Post by danr on May 2, 2016 0:10:27 GMT -5
My God it was fun to read the ebb and flow of the posts over the last half dozen pages of this topic. Folks, this is a very good team. Don't get down on brief episodes of bad.
The fact is that the Sox are a much better team than the Yankees and they still don't have all members of the "A" team in place. This is going to be a great season.
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danr
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Post by danr on May 1, 2016 18:43:13 GMT -5
The tarp is off and the grounds crew is applying drying agents. Game supposed to start close to its scheduled time - all according to WEEI.
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danr
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Post by danr on May 1, 2016 18:22:11 GMT -5
I'm on the left coast now but I just looked at weather.com and there is a steady stream of rain running towards and over Boston. Looks like if there is a game that it could be delayed.
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danr
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Post by danr on May 1, 2016 18:20:28 GMT -5
OK, I misunderstood. You make a good point. I have more faith in professional scouting reports than I do in projections.
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danr
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Post by danr on May 1, 2016 15:02:45 GMT -5
This has been discussed a lot, but Cecchini's lack of power is what did him in. He couldn't walk by being passive anymore while moving up so he changed his approach and tried to sell out for more power. That ruined his swing, but his tools were never going to translate to the majors without some combination of power and contact. He didn't have enough contact to cover for the lack of power. I guess I missed that discussion because I was not aware of what he did, just of what his stats show - a real drop-off after some pretty decent performances. and I also remember some analysts saying he had outstanding hitting potential.
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danr
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Post by danr on May 1, 2016 14:58:07 GMT -5
I am somewhat leery of absolute projections of minor league players, especially young ones. I don't think the projections for Travis Shaw were anywhere close to what he is doing in the majors. He was not a highly ranked prospect and many people up to the time he reached the majors - and even after - did not believe he could be a regular, to say nothing of being an exceptional hitter and generally a quite good all around player.
I don't dispute that years of experience and correlating data and performance should yield projection results that turn out to be reasonably accurate for most players. But there always are notable exceptions, both ways.
Any list of top 100 prospects in any year five to 15 years ago will have many highly ranked players who never made it, or barely made it and others who outperformed their projections.
Some individuals have the ability and the drive to improve as they gain experience and move up and they become much better than anyone expected. This is not just true in baseball. It is my experience that it is the case with most occupations. Shaw certainly has. Betts has as well. From what I have read about Travis he may be another with that ability and clearly his rank on this board shows a lot of people believe that could be the case.
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danr
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Post by danr on May 1, 2016 11:09:05 GMT -5
I don't think Anderson and Cecchini are comparables. Anderson's best year was at Lancaster and it wasn't a lack of power that sunk his career. He just couldn't hit the better pitching at the higher levels. Cecchini is a bit more of a mystery. He seemed to have the hit tool and then lost it. Again, lack of power was not his downfall. He simply stopped hitting at all.
On the other hand, Travis has been very consistent right up through the minors. If he can hit .300 in the majors with a +.800 OPS, and there is no reason to believe that is unlikely, the odds are very good he will play somewhere.
However, I think it is more likely that Shaw will be the starting 1B when and if Sandoval comes back and can play reasonably well, or if Moncada can play 3B.
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danr
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Post by danr on May 1, 2016 10:16:17 GMT -5
Let's see. Travis is 22 and has gotten to AAA in his third season and where he is one of the best hitters on the team. His .289 BA is the lowest average he has had so far as is his .760 OPS. His BB/K ratio in his career so far is much better than the SSS at Pawtucket this season. At Scottsdale last fall he hit .344 with a .900 OPS, 9 BB and 19 Ks in 102 ABs. He has been an exceptional hitter at every level against every type of competition and he works hard to improve. That's why he is highly regarded, particularly within the Sox organization.
According to various reports I have read he has real power but hasn't developed the lift in his swing yet.
Also, the scouting report on him on this site seems considerably out of date. It concludes he could move quickly through the low minors. He did that real quick. On the other hand, the roster projections for 2017 have him the starting 1B for the Sox.
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danr
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Post by danr on Apr 27, 2016 16:06:11 GMT -5
Who could have ever guessed that Shaw would be playing as well as he is based on his minor league numbers? What a revelation for the Sox!! Can anyone recall another Boston player being such a surprise based on minors vs majors? Not only at the plate but his defense has been pretty good also. John Valentin hit way better in the majors than he did in the minors. So has Hanley.
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danr
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Post by danr on Apr 26, 2016 18:07:15 GMT -5
When does the moratorium on arguing the value of the Kimbrel trade kick in? I know a lot of people who work in the State Department, so if we need someone to negotiate cease fire conditions, I can probably find someone. Good post. I am very bored by the argument. It should be postponed until the end of the season.
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danr
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Post by danr on Apr 25, 2016 0:48:35 GMT -5
What is it with weird hair styles among major league players? Owens looked ridiculous. I have been a fan of him for a while but tonight he did not impress. It has been my experience over many years that great opportunities seldom come more than once or twice and those who succeed take advantage of them when they occur. He certainly did not tonight. However, Hembree did. Very impressive performance.
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danr
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Post by danr on Apr 24, 2016 18:41:46 GMT -5
That Greenville team is showing signs of being better than expected. The lower levels of the system have a lot of talent.
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danr
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Post by danr on Apr 24, 2016 16:21:45 GMT -5
The Sox don't have a hitting problem. At .273 they have the third highest team BA in both leagues. They could use more HRs with only 13 so far. They are scoring nearly five runs a game. Unfortunately, they also are giving up five runs a game.
There is no replacement for JBJ unless they trade for one.
If they make any trades almost certainly pitching is what they will go after. With a team ERA of 4.83 they are 26th. That has to improve considerably if they are to go to the post season.
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