I figured there has been enough talk of him this year that he should be given his own thread.
When would you promote him to AA?
Would you want to move him to a new position since he's "blocked?"
I figured there has been enough talk of him this year that he should be given his own thread.
When would you promote him to AA?
Would you want to move him to a new position since he's "blocked?"
Originally Posted by Old Red
Now that he is in Portland, I think they will eventually have (key word here is eventually) to move him from second to somewhere else if they intend to keep him. Third and an outfield position look like the best bets.
It's a pretty substantial jump to AA (as we are seeing with Benintendi) so I'd prefer to just leave him at 2b until his bat adjusts. Even then, I'd probably just leave him at 2b for the rest of the season. If they want to move him off of 2b, the offseason is a great time to do it.
Benintendi has been in AA for a month now. He struggled his first couple weeks but has succeed in the last couple. Through his last 14 of 29 games in Portland he is batting .291/.333/.564 And his BABIP has actually been a decent amount lower throughout this time as well.
Although I do agree the jump to AA is one of the hardest, and I also agree that Moncada shouldn't be moved off of position until his bat is more MLB ready. However I think it looks like Benintendi has made the adjustment in Portland to date.
Last off season was the right time to do it.
We're never trading Pedey, so 2B is just about as blocked as any position on any team in MLB can possibly be.
We keep being forced to play people "out of position" due to lack of insight and forethought. We should prepare ourselves for a great prospect to rise quicker than we anticipate or some major injury or falling off a cliff by a regular occurs. Here are some recent instances of lack of forethought by Sox management on preparing players for positional chances (some worked out okay- others did not):
Swihart in LF: It was obvious he would need to play other positions with the Sox once vaz got healthy, especially if he hit like he was projected to do. We knew e had potential weaknesses at LF, 3B and 1B. he should have been given a few reps there in the minors over the last year or two. (Note: I said this 2 years ago.)
Betts in the OF: he should have been given OF reps long before he did. He ended up adjusting amazingly well, but what if he didn't? Everybody knew he'd never play 2B in Boston unless Pedey got hurt.
HanRam at 1B. They should have given him a 1Bman's mitt last summer, when we were out of it.
Bogaerts at 3B: he played 10 games at 3B in the minors, then was playing 3B in the playoffs for us! Inexcusable. (Note: this is not hindsight bitching on my part, I was calling for him to be at 3B that whole minor league seaons.)
Now, it's Moncada.
I'd also start playing Benintendi in LF at least 30-40% of the games, so he gets used to it.
No last offseason was not the time to do it, because you don't change a top prospects decision based on what the team needs might be in 1-3 years. You make those decisions when a guy is MLB ready.
So, you're fine with throwing these guys out there at the ML level with just 10 games at their new position?
Something might need to change. Either we might have to move their positions earlier, or we keep them on the farm longer. We might be playing with fire. We're lucky we didn't get burned.
Yes
I'm a thousand times more ok with it than saying "hey player xyz might not be able to play position w in 2 years so we should move him here now because that might be a hole in a year or two"
No team in baseball operates that way. If 1/2 the teams out there conducted business like that I'd say you have a point but the fact that all 30 teams do not should tell us something right there.
Actually, his defense at 3B wasn't all that terrible in part because he definitely has the arm to play 3B. What we have seen as of September 12, however, is that he definitely has trouble with a curve. And he may have a problem staying focused because he was picked off 1B by a mile and more recently couldn't remember how many outs there were and so kind of stayed close to 1B on a pop fly to RF with two men out.
I had no problem with calling Moncada up with about a month to go because the kid is really talented. It made less sense--I think I have this right, but maybe not--for Farrell to announce Moncada had the 3B job locked and that Shaw needed to work on his outfielding skills if he wanted to keep playing.
I think Moncada going like 1 1/2 years with no baseball at all affected him more than we thought. I still think the FO would be crazy to trade him, however. There's a reason he was thought to be the #1 prospect in MLB.
His arm is very impressive. I can't understand why he was a second baseman, basically letting that tool go to waste.
Benintendi is .350/.400/.675 in his last 10 games (small sample, but effectively the second half of his month there.
Obviously prospects take time and such, but if he puts something good out in the next month or so, moving him into Holt's position is still very much on the table.
They are being slower with Moncada just because of the comparative lack of experience. But yes, 3B or an outfield corner start to look likely for him.
Ultimately I don't think we should see Benintendi this year, but if he's still mashing his way through the system and LF is still a huge hole I think the kid will end up just forcing the issue.
just to confirm....Moncada has been moved up to AA, correct?
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Yup, he makes his debut tonight.
awesome. thanks hugh. looking forward to you updating us occasionally on how he is faring at that level.
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