Dojji

The premise us Ortiz falls off the face of the planet, so I'd take a wild guess and say... DH?

But he hadn't done it yet, and there was hope he wouldn't. Now he has, and he just isn't worth it at all. Anywho, unrelated news. http://news.soxprospects.com/2010/02/sox-claim-gaby-hernandez-off-waivers.html Not much to it really, except that the kid's problems are more with his head than his arm. you never know when someone like that might get it back together and start progressing again. Still, there's probably nothing here that will ever show up in a Red Sox uni.

With the huge proportional difference between the 3 and 2 when you're talking about a percentage or ratio spread over multiple samples, I figure that you might want to be a bit careful about arbitrarily forcing the standard down another run. A season full of traditional quality starts would net a starter a 4.50 ERA. Your stat holds them up to a Cy Young caliber standard. May want to think about that -- unless you think that the "quality start" stat is too inclusive anyway.

Two years ago I'd have been all for Ordonez.

http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/S/Adam-Stern.shtml

The more likely you are to have players in your division with big league ambition, the more you should probably use wood IMHO.

I'd like Downs, if the price is good. He's been somewhat more consistent than Frasor over the last couple years anyway, and he'd take some pressure off Oki.

He won't be a 4th OF. If he's called up, it's as an injury replacement. But he is the closest thing to a MLB-ready offensive player we have, and I have no doubt that whether or not he SHOULD see MLB time this season, he in fact will. At the moment the Plan B guy at DH is Mike Lowell anyway, and that holds true until he's taken off the roster.

What the hell are you talking about? At least 4 times in the last 15 minutes of posting I've said I'm open to the possibility that Reddick will fail. My whole point is that Reddick should be given the chance to fail before we go outside the organization for replacements. Boggles the mind that you'd have any problem with that. I know that we're both starting to repeaet ourselves a bit, but it isn't that much to ask you to read what I say before you respond to it. Someone who doesn't read what people say and still engages in an argument is called a "troll." You don't want to be one of those.

Sure, because he's a FREAKING PROSPECT. It GOES WITH THE TERRITORY, you smug twit. You can say the same about any prospect in the game, from your beloved Mike Stanton on down. So get off your high horse before you fall and sprain something.

Reddick has shown all the evidence that you could expect of him at this point that he is going to hit for power at the big league level. Take several of his sample sizes in the minors and expand them to 500 AB's and you start seeing 20-25 HR power. There is no reason right now to doubt his ability to translate that to the big league level. Combine that with the several scouting reports that praise his power as solidly above average and note that his pitch selection has shown consistent improvement throughout his rise, and I have no particular reason to curb my enthusiasm for the guy. Now is there a bust potential, sure, but going through life assuming you'll fail is a great way to wind up a statistic in someone's suicide report, so I try to avoid it if I can. Unless he's at least a partial bust at the big league level though that power is going to come through, and it's going to be non-trivial power.

As soon as you stop being the Sox version of Gom.

So everyone who isn't Manny good at the minor league level has no chance at all to hit for useful power. Good thing we knew that before we had that schlub loser Kevin Youkilis batting cleanup for us these last couple seasons. If you ever tell me again that Adrian Beltre hits for power, I am going to laugh, right in your face, Mr. Double Standard.

Yes, you're grasping at straws. You're looking at the words "contact hitter" and reading about a billion times too much into that. Just because he is a contact hitter -- and he is, a pretty decent one -- does not mean he is not a power hitter. Most players have skillsets that don't fully vanish into this or that pigeonhole. Chone Figgins and Vlad Guerrero are both great contact hitters. It says nothing about how much power you can or cannot have. Since the reviews of Reddick's power and power potential are both quite positive, and he's young and has a good chance to fill out as he reaches his mid to late 20's, and his pitch selection has measurably improved as he's raised through the ranks, I'll continue to be quite high on Reddick's power prospects until I have an actual reason not to be, thank you very much.

Agreed, you are. Certainly you're abusing the term "contact hitter" if you think power-hitting and hitting for contract are opposed. As long as the power's there, good contact hitters tend to be able to enhance it. Good power and great contact skills is a pretty decent description of pre-injury Nomar Garciaparra after all. A contact hitter doesn't need huge natural power to be a good powerhitter. Look at Youkilis for a prime example. He took what was originally a line drive skillset and became one of the best hitters in the American League, and one of the better sluggers. Reddick's offensive potential is strong, and he's close to ready. If we lose a hitter, he's on tap. Only if he fails to capitalize on his chances do we go outside the or looking for a bat. Although actually I should have mentioned Lowrie too. Not exactly the guy you'd look at to be called up in Ortiz's place if he goes down, but definitely due a callup at some point in the season. If he can put his health problems behind him until midseason, we probably waive Hall, who costs us nothing anyway, in Lowrie's favor.

http://www.soxprospects.com/players/reddick-josh.htm

Always a possibility at this time of year. 3-4 years down the road, this quote might come back to haunt you lol. Reddick's got legit power, if his pitch selection improves the sky's the limit.

Well, I'm just thinking of finding a bat. Honestly, if we had Reddick up, the temptation would probably be to slide Drew into the DH spot, or maybe to rotate Drew and a couple other players through it, in order to keep them healthier.

Couple directions I'd go before Helton. I'd actually look to the farm first, if we can get Reddick or Anderson a chance.

http://www.prospecttube.com/video/kyle-weiland-vs-jason-castro

The heck does that have to do with anything? We acquired him as a prospect, not as a finished product. Over 25 innings. Wee. Oooh, you mean you're one of those people who Watch The Games, rather than say Check The Numbers, Read The Scouting Reports, or Know what The **** You're Talking About. OK. You're dead wrong. But OK. 1: He didn't. He spent a significant portion of the season with the Portland Seadogs. 2: It doesn't make him bad, either. Especially based on only a 25 game sample. That's good money considering that, again, Tazawa is a prospect and NOT a finished pitcher. He's been fine with playing most of last season in Portland. And with the talent he's put on display, I'm not convinced it'll take "a couple years." It's a given that Tazawa will pitch at least a few innings for the Sox next year, as an injury replacement if nothing else. Besides, it's not like he's got a choice. He's under contract. Actually, the success rate as a percentage of pitchers brought over is probably much higher for Japanese than it is for Dominicans. It's just that the busts are less public, since they tend to die out in the minors.

I get it, freaky talent, lots of early intervention and training needed, but at some point you have to point out that most big league players are already genetic freaks of some kind or another. I think at least part of the reason you don't see it more, beyond the obvious stuff you guys point out, is that people just don't realize it's possible. I'm still at a loss for why there's no LHT catchers in the bigs though. Probably not the thread for it, but we're talking about freaky handedness, so what the hey.

He's a pioneer, blazing a trail for others to follow. Seriously, I understand why they'd be extremely rare, but why don't you see more switch-pitchers? It's like the lefthanded throwing catcher, there's some hurdles that a few good athletes might be able to overcome, but beyond a certain point it's not done simply because it's not done. You see more than a few off-hand pitchers (such as Kason Gabbard throws with his left, I remember reading that as a kid he always wrote righthanded), why would it be that crazy to try a few of them on both hands when they're young (like Little League young, obviously by the time they even hit High School it's probably too late), and then if they reach the point where one hand isn't working, just make like failed switch hitters do and learn to focus on only one?