Has Swihart Staked A Claim on LF?

[billge]

should be brought back up in the next couple of weeks if Hanigan and Young don't start to hit. Also Benintendi and Moncada need to move up to Portland

[mvp 78]

Castillo can't hit in AAA right now. How would he hit here?

[Maxbialystock]

Young is used sparingly. Castillo should return when he is better than Holt. Swihart was apparently a liability behind the plate. Right now neither can help Boston.

[sk7326]

should be brought back up in the next couple of weeks if Hanigan and Young don't start to hit. Also Benintendi and Moncada need to move up to Portland

 

Swihart should keep playing at AAA in the current alignment - he needs reps behind the plate. He has shown signs of being a good defender, but he needs time - catcher is the slowest developing position of them all. It's a good path to the bigs due to low supply, but it has the oldest average rookie age.

 

Young is what he is - he is not hitting, but he is not hurting anybody either.

 

The kids will be in Portland soon enough. They are not old for the level - so relax.

[Slasher9]

Castillo can't hit in AAA right now. How would he hit here?

 

He's a .265 hitter in the minors. and a .268 hitter in the Majors. not great but not terrible.

if you want to look at sss and his .234 minor league numbers so far this year? then lets look at his sss Major League numbers this year .500.

young sucks. was a terrible signing. let's see if DD "man's up" like he so easily does with previous GM signings......

[a700hitter]

Swihart should keep playing at AAA in the current alignment - he needs reps behind the plate. He has shown signs of being a good defender, but he needs time - catcher is the slowest developing position of them all. It's a good path to the bigs due to low supply, but it has the oldest average rookie age.

 

Young is what he is - he is not hitting, but he is not hurting anybody either.

 

The kids will be in Portland soon enough. They are not old for the level - so relax.

If Young isn't getting it done, he is hurting us.

[sk7326]

If Young isn't getting it done, he is hurting us.

 

Too early to conclusively say anything ... he has not been good yet

[billge]

Castillo would hit better than Young and play better outfield, You would only catch Swihart one or two days a week and use him in the outfield one or two' You can't leave the Castillo investment in Pawtucket too long. Need to play him if only to trade him. Maybe Hanny will come around but right now his bat is exactly as bad as Young

[mvp 78]

He's a .265 hitter in the minors. and a .268 hitter in the Majors. not great but not terrible.

if you want to look at sss and his .234 minor league numbers so far this year? then lets look at his sss Major League numbers this year .500.

young sucks. was a terrible signing. let's see if DD "man's up" like he so easily does with previous GM signings......

Don't be a goober please.

 

Castillo isn't very good. I'm not sure how anyone could see upside with him. Young may not be better, but I think the Sox would have a better shot of trading for someone outside the organization.

 

Castillo has a strong arm and is fast. However, he fields like Wily Mo and runs the bases poorly. He's not a MLB guy right now.

[mvp 78]

72 PA's at Pawtucket vs 4 at Boston. Can't compare.

[FredLynn]

Don't be a goober please.

 

Castillo isn't very good. I'm not sure how anyone could see upside with him. Young may not be better, but I think the Sox would have a better shot of trading for someone outside the organization.

 

Castillo has a strong arm and is fast. However, he fields like Wily Mo and runs the bases poorly. He's not a MLB guy right now.

 

Young has been useless. Its not quite time yet to pull the plug on him, but if he remains useless over the next month or so, then he should be excised. Dombrowski has shown that he is willing to do whatever is necessary to win. If that includes removing Young and giving Castillo a shot at the job, I believe he will do just that.

[illinoisredsox]

Castillo would hit better than Young and play better outfield, You would only catch Swihart one or two days a week and use him in the outfield one or two' You can't leave the Castillo investment in Pawtucket too long. Need to play him if only to trade him. Maybe Hanny will come around but right now his bat is exactly as bad as Young

 

1) Do we even know if Swihart can play the OF? The factual answer is no, we don't. The majors is not the place to be learning that on the fly, or did the Hanley experiment last year teach you nothing.

 

2) Hanigan's job on this team is back-up catcher. Right now, he's catching Wright (no easy task), babysitting Owens (and Kelly before that) and mentoring Vazquez.

 

Swihart has enough catching issues without having to worry about trying to catch Wright's knuckler and trying to learn a new position. Oh, and he's hitting all of .230 at Pawtucket. Would he hit better than Hanigan? Yeah, but a catcher's job is handling the pitching staff and defense first.

[Slasher9]

72 PA's at Pawtucket vs 4 at Boston. Can't compare.

so just so i know. 72 PA's is enough to confirm? (obviously 4 is not).

and i dont think name calling is necessary?

is a .265 hitter considered "not hit MLB pitching?"

[illinoisredsox]

so just so i know. 72 PA's is enough to confirm? (obviously 4 is not).

and i dont think name calling is necessary?

is a .265 hitter considered "not hit MLB pitching?"

 

Well, there is Castillo's stellar line of .253/.288/.359/.647 in 80 games and 289 PAs last year. He also struck out 1 out every 5 PAs and murdered multiple worms while grounding into 11 DPs.

[sk7326]

Castillo would hit better than Young and play better outfield, You would only catch Swihart one or two days a week and use him in the outfield one or two' You can't leave the Castillo investment in Pawtucket too long. Need to play him if only to trade him. Maybe Hanny will come around but right now his bat is exactly as bad as Young

 

Sunk cost - that money is gone. Has ZERO impact on the decision now - just do what is right for the team.

[illinoisredsox]

Given the historical excellence of the position, it's hard to believe that LF has become somewhat of an offensive black hole for the Red Sox.

[Slasher9]

Well, there is Castillo's stellar line of .253/.288/.359/.647 in 80 games and 289 PAs last year. He also struck out 1 out every 5 PAs and murdered multiple worms while grounding into 11 DPs.

 

+2 points for "murdered multiple worms".

he very well may never be the answer for LF in Boston. but i would rather see him being given the opportunity then Chris Young.

[sk7326]

1) Do we even know if Swihart can play the OF? The factual answer is no, we don't. The majors is not the place to be learning that on the fly, or did the Hanley experiment last year teach you nothing.

 

2) Hanigan's job on this team is back-up catcher. Right now, he's catching Wright (no easy task), babysitting Owens (and Kelly before that) and mentoring Vazquez.

 

Swihart has enough catching issues without having to worry about trying to catch Wright's knuckler and trying to learn a new position. Oh, and he's hitting all of .230 at Pawtucket. Would he hit better than Hanigan? Yeah, but a catcher's job is handling the pitching staff and defense first.

 

Swihart's defensive issues are overblown - it looks bad compared to Vasquez, but so does everybody else. Swihart needs to catch and it makes more sense to do it often at AAA than rarely in the bigs. His pawtucket BA means nothing - we know he can hit in the bigs, no proof needed there.

[Dojji]

If we call up blake swihart again this year, it will cust us a year of control. Besides, he doesn't have a regular position to play at the moment. He is not taking over the starting catching job from CV *anytime* soon.

[mvp 78]

so just so i know. 72 PA's is enough to confirm? (obviously 4 is not).

and i dont think name calling is necessary?

is a .265 hitter considered "not hit MLB pitching?"

 

All I'm saying is that so far, he's looked poor this year. There's no reason to suggest he'd be an upgrade over Young.

 

Also, 72 PA's in AAA is almost 20% of a season in Pawtucket, rather than his 1 game in Boston.

[mvp 78]

Sunk cost - that money is gone. Has ZERO impact on the decision now - just do what is right for the team.

 

AKA, find someone not currently in the org to be the 4th OF.

[Slasher9]

Swihart's defensive issues are overblown - it looks bad compared to Vasquez, but so does everybody else. Swihart needs to catch and it makes more sense to do it often at AAA than rarely in the bigs. His pawtucket BA means nothing - we know he can hit in the bigs, no proof needed there.

 

completely agree. his value is as a catcher. he shouldnt play 1 single inning of LF. we currently do not have a "hole" on the MLB roster for a catcher. Vaz and Han are doing fine. let Swihart get defense/game calling experience daily in AAA. his focus should be 100% on that.

[mvp 78]

If we call up blake swihart again this year, it will cust us a year of control. Besides, he doesn't have a regular position to play at the moment. He is not taking over the starting catching job from CV *anytime* soon.

 

Blake needs to stay in Pawtucket for the entire season.

[Slasher9]

All I'm saying is that so far, he's looked poor this year. There's no reason to suggest he'd be an upgrade over Young.

 

Also, 72 PA's in AAA is almost 20% of a season in Pawtucket, rather than his 1 game in Boston.

 

i have not seen 1 inning of pawsox baseball so i cannot debate whether or not Rusney looks poor this year. i have seen every inning of Boston's season so far and can debate that Young has looked absolutely dreadful at the plate.

i guess my thought process is all things being equal i will go with the younger guy that we have more $$$ invested in.

[mvp 78]

I don't care about $$$ investment. That's a terrible way to run an organization and would have been the only reason to play Pablo. I don't see how Rusney is a step up from Young. A 4th OF platoon guy should be easy to find on the market.

[Dojji]

Blake needs to stay in Pawtucket for the entire season.

 

I wouldn't be that rigid. There are scenarios where having his bat in the lineup might be worth a year of control. but they are limited, niche scenarios that involve injury replacement or needing one more good young bat to put us over the top somehow. Most likely we'll see him in the bigs next year at the earliest.

 

After Papi retires it'll be a lot easier to find at bats for Swihart while CV is the starting backstop anyway I can see a year in which Swihart does a little C, a little LF and a lot of DH, perhaps splitting the DH position with Pedroia to keep Pedey healthy for a full 162.

[billge]

Barring injury Vaz is our catcher so why spend a lot of time with Blake at catcher. His future is either on another team or at another position here if he can hit as well or better than he has

[Slasher9]

I don't care about $$$ investment. That's a terrible way to run an organization and would have been the only reason to play Pablo. I don't see how Rusney is a step up from Young. A 4th OF platoon guy should be easy to find on the market.

 

i said all things being equal. i did not say play rusney over young if young was actually playing halfway decent baseball. he's 4 years younger and we have much more invested in him. those are 2 reasons to play 1 guy over another "all performance related things being equal".

if it's so easy to find a 4th OF platoon guy then DD seems to have done a terrible job this past offseason. because he seems to have overpaid for 2 years of a terrible 4th OF platoon guy. who did we outbid for those 2 years @ 13MM? who do you recommend we get for 4th OF platoon guy if not Rusney?

[Dojji]

When all performance related things are equal and awful,I don't think I'm alone in wanting a third option -- a guy like Gregor Blanco with some offensive upside in all situations and the ability to play 3 positions would be a very good get right now.

[Emp9]

1) Do we even know if Swihart can play the OF? The factual answer is no, we don't. The majors is not the place to be learning that on the fly, or did the Hanley experiment last year teach you nothing.

 

Swihart has enough catching issues without having to worry about trying to catch Wright's knuckler and trying to learn a new position. Oh, and he's hitting all of .230 at Pawtucket. Would he hit better than Hanigan? Yeah, but a catcher's job is handling the pitching staff and defense first.

 

Factual answer: Kinda'

Swihart played OF until being moved to the catcher position early on. He needs more reps there of course, due to not playing the position for a few years but it's not a huge stretch to think he'd be fine out in LF after a sufficent amount of reps.