jacksonianmarch

JBJ got 2 center cut fastballs that he missed then a fastball on the inside corner and he couldn't hit it. It's one thing when a guy is throwing 98 and blows it by someone. Cobb is throwing 92 and JBJ cannot hit it

JBJ cannot hit cockshot fastballs. He needs to be optioned out

Tazawa just got DFA'd.

I have been saying it since he came back and nobody wants to acknowledge it. His FB lost significant velocity and he can no longer sneak it by hitters. When he was sitting 92-93mph, his fastball up was just fast enough to sneak by a hitter looking for the curve. Now, if he goes up, hitters are either fouling it off or hammering it.

Pomeranz is a dumpster fire. He doesn't have the velocity to sneak the ball up anymore so all he has is that curveball and one pitch, pitchers don't do well in this league

But Schoop looked worse. Dumb AB there.

Pomeranz looks pretty bad right now

Florial broke his hamate bone and will have surgery. He's looking at a 6-8 week return

I think people said the same about Doubront. What it comes down to is his ability to repeat his delivery and spot his pitches. He has overwhelming stuff, but he gets into trouble when he flies out of the zone and then starts having to heave it over the middle

This is a list of guys with prospect status who started the year in the minors. There are plenty of guys who show flashes, but these guys actually have big league futures or at least a good chance at them MLB- Gleyber Torres 2B/SS Domingo German SP/RP Jonathan Holder RP Miguel Andujar 3B Clint Frazier 3B Billy McKinney OF-DL Luis Cessa RP-DL AAA Brandon Drury 3B/2B Tyler Wade SS/2B Thairo Estrada SS/UTIL- DL Josh Rogers SP Chance Adams SP Cody Carroll RP Brody Koerner SP Raynel Espinal RP JP Feyereisen RP Cale Coshow RP Justus Sheffield SP- DL Anyelo Gomez RP- DL Giovanny Gallegos RP AA Abiatal Avelino SS Gosuke Katoh 2B/3B Jhalan Jackson OF Trey Amburgey OF Chris Gittens 1B Erik Swanson SP Dillon Tate SP Brian Keller SP Stephen Tarpley RP Domingo Acevedo SP-DL Jonathan Loaisiga SP-DL A+ Estevan Florial OF Isiah Gilliam OF Hoy Jun Park SS Kyle Holder SS-DL Trevor Stephan SP Michael King SP Nick Green SP Freicer Perez SP-DL Philip Diehl RP Trevor Lane RP Nick Nelson SP Albert Abreu SP A Dom Thompson-Williams OF Steven Sensley OF Dermis Garcia 3B Wilkerman Garcia SS Garrett Whitlock SP Dalton Lehnen SP Rony Garcia SP JP Sears SP Glenn Otto SP Alexander Vargas SP These are the guys currently on the rosters of those teams. We will likely be adding to this from SS and when Clarke Schmidt finishes his rehab

You cannot go that route. While the Yanks affiliates are chock full of SP and RP depth, they also have slugs in there too which skew the numbers. You may be comparing slugs to slug rather than prospects to prospects. I'll give you a list of guys to follow

You can carry 2 black holes, but you need to continue to get superhuman performances from the other 7. Your lineup can hum with 5 guys hitting at or above their career norms, assuming you have a good lineup at baseline. Once you start slipping into a minus territory with more guys slumping than hitting, you start to slump as a team. When you have 2 black holes, you need to have 5 of 7 riding high or else you'll struggle. For now, you've had Xander, Betts, JD, Hanley and Moreland flying high with Devers starting off well and being replaced by Beni in the positive territory. You continue to get 5 or 6 guys hitting at or better than their expectations, you'll be fine. But if JD and Betts slump at the same time, your lineup is going to fail

Here is what I have noted about DD. His drafts seem to follow the BA handbook and while that can be a good thing, that can also be a disaster. The major publications are grading players on all around tools and their rankings seem to entail players' ceilings, they very rarely seem to implicate a player's floor. I get that drafting a Greg Bird type player didn't really sit well with BA since he was too big for his position, slow of foot and effectively limited to C or 1b. But the kid was able to mash and had a good eye from day 1. Then they go ga-ga over guys like CJ Henry who can run circles around everyone and when they connect, they can hit it a country mile, but their approach is garbage, pitch selection sucks and they have no discipline. There are times to grab guys with potential but a wide gap between the now and the ceiling, see a guy like Cole Brannen. You draft those guys when your organization is flush with talent in the upper minors and you can wait on the development and can afford the bust potential. The sox don't have that right now. A better approach is a draft that brings in guys who aren't far from their ceiling. Maybe they aren't likely to be an all star, but the likelihood they are a solid starter in the bigs either on offense or on the mound is very high. That isn't DD's MO, though. He drafts guys on ceiling and doesn't seem to care about their bust potential. This has blown up in his face as the 2016 and 2017 drafts have looked pretty miserable to this point

The crunch is already being felt. We lost the most players to the Rule V and every one of the guys selected are going to be MiLB FA's at seasons end. Granted, we got them all back, but that just means we have the most talent available. Eventually, we wont be getting them all back. Our system is very deep pitching wise, almost ridiculously deep. Every level has multiple guys with big league starting and closing potential in it. I can remember year back when we would have a level that was just a cesspool of s*** with nothing there but org fodder. Now, every single level has a pitcher to watch. We are so pitching top heavy that we need to start doing something about it. Even with attrition, we are seeing guys rise up in their place. I am not sure if they actually would do this, but I would consider dealing off top notch pitching prospects for position player prospects if we get tighter. Right now, our best position players prospects are in the majors with only Estrada and Florial in the minors and top 10 worthy.

ERod is one of your starting 5 and you don’t have another guy capable of replacing him right now. When Velasquez returns, he might end up supplanting Pomeranz if he doesn’t get his act straight. If ERod can get his head right, there’s no way you deal him ever. Now if you deal ERod, it’s not in season. If he is moved, it’s a roster reshuffle and those aren’t done for playoff teams in season. Those are done in the off season

He’s currently not a 2 win player

We are loaded with arms. It’s not just Trenton. One of our best arms stayed behind in Tampa in Abreu. Loaisiga jumped some guys and went to AA before going on the DL. It’s really impressive what Cash and Opp have done building our pitching. I’d like to see them re-stock our position player prospects, although I understand the prior direction. Where are we going to play them all?

You clearly need another pen arm. The question is, who can you get and who you give up? I like the EEI argument today. Your #1 prospect had TJS Your #2 was popped for PEDs. Swihart is being held hostage and has no value Johnson has been moved to LHRP and sucks at it. Your gonna have to deal off JBJ to get significant relief help. You can get a reclamation guy or a fringe big leaguer, but who will you get to replace a significant part of your bridge without moving JBJ?

I don’t see him as a .900 OPS guy. I see him topping out in the mid .800s.

I think the sox moved on from him as a catcher just as soon as they started to improve. A team with high aspirations cannot be bringing along a catcher who is still being taught the position. I think Swihart gets snapped up by a team like SD or TB and moves right back behind the dish

So you expected Betts to hit to a 1.2 OPS? I also don't expect JD to keep hitting .344. Moreland's career high in OPS was .812. He's over 200 points over that. He's gonna come down. Hanley and Xander have both come down from their hot first couple weeks as well. Beni is hotter than hell right now and believe it or not, is already 20 points above his 2017 OPS on the season. I expect JD to start hitting more doubles and the drop in his BA will be overcome by his rise in SLG. Mookie is not Barry Bonds on steroids circa 2002, he's going to cool off. I expect Moreland to fall down from his unsustainable season. I think Hanley is what he is, and that's a high .700s OPS player. I think Xander can be the guy he has been. I expect Devers to improve. I do not expect major improvements from your catcher position. I am not sure JBJ will break out. Who knows how Pedroia will be. Overall, I think your offense is playing above expectations and is probably more suited for a drop in production than a rise. So while you are saying they are reaching their expectations from last yr, I would say that's probably not true

He definitely could. I think of Frazier more as a COF kind of player, although he has the ability to play CF. Maybe you are right. Maybe we start to see Hicks get more of the JBJ treatment and sit for awhile and earn his stripes

Oh, lol. Sarcasm is hard to convey on a message board

https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/red-sox/agent-asks-red-sox-trade-blake-swihart Gotta love this. The guy is lucky to be accruing big league service time

Almost one year in, here are some updates on the 2017 draft 1. Clarke Schmidt- his rehab is going well. He is throwing all of his pitches off a mound. He should debut next month 2. Matt Sauer- is likely ticketed for Pulaski or Staten Island. Got into 11 innings last year with no success. We will see how he is come June 3. Trevor Stephan- dominating High A ball right now with a 1.98ERA, 0.78WHIP and a 10.8K/9IP. If we didn't have so many pitchers, I would say he would be getting a callup 4. Canaan Smith- was really good in 57 games in SS last year. Likely headed for SI this year. Had a .430OBP with 5HR in 57 games as a 19 yr old in his debut. 5. Glen Otto- threw 20 dominant innings last yr and moved to the long season this yr. Was wild in first two starts and has been on the DL for over a month with no updates. Concerned for sure 6. Dalton Lehnen- dominating long season debut. 37K in 35.5IP with a 1.01WHIP. Last start was his worst, though 7. Dalton Higgins- got hit around in his debut last yr. Was just promoted to A ball last week. 8. Kyle Zurak- relieving in A ball, holding his own but not dominating. 9. Austin Gardner- dominated GCL ball last year, likely headed to SI this year 10. Chad Whitmer- got hit around a bit, but struck out a bunch and limited walks in SS. Likely headed for SI Other notables: 12. Steve Sensley- dominated short season last yr. Hitting well in A ball this yr with 6HR and a .869OPS. Likely looking at a callup if he breaks out of a recent slump 17. Chris Hess- .413OBP and .900OPS in A ball this year. Looking like a sleeper who can hit. We will see if this continues as he rises 18. Garrett Whitlock- absolutely dominated A ball this yr to the tune of a 0.75WHIP, 9.9K/9IP, 6.3K/BB and a ridiculous 3.2 GO/AO rate. Just promoted to Tampa, he throws low to mid 90s with a heavy sinker and is moving fast