mvp 78

Houck seems to be a bulk innings guy. He's not quite a starter and not quite a reliever. Hard to figure out what he is. Crawford and Winckowski didn't show that much last year. Kelly was ok. Ort is a DFA candidate. Bello seems to be a mid-rotation guy going forward depending on health. Everyone else is a question mark at the moment.

And Mata as a reliever isn't a "middle reliever" either. I'd see him as a late inning guy. He's the potential closer of the future IMO.

He did the minimum.

https://www.mlb.com/gameday/red-sox-vs-astros/2023/03/01/719327/final/box He's pitched in 2 outings. Against HOU, he gave up 1 run over 2 innings.

Mata just doesn't stay healthy enough to be a starter. Innings 16 61 normal DSL year 17 77 started off at extended ST 18 72 ended season early due to injury 19 105 missed a large chunk of the early season due to injury 21 TJS 22 83 rehab from TJS season He's just never carried a starter's workload.

Bleier?

Duvall, Yoshida, Turner AND Verdugo would all need to do really well for the Sox to wait until 2024. It seems like there will be an injury or underperformance somewhere.

He would play catch sporadically. It wasn't part of a strict routine.

@PeteAbe Rocky outing for Tanner Houck, who has walked 4 of the 8 batters he has faced, including three of the last four. 1.2 INN, 4BB, 2K, 0ER so far (bases loaded with Feltman coming in to close out the inning)

Well, he didn't report to flight school until June 2020. Maybe he was still throwing off a mound up until that point. Should we discount that as well? 2.75 years

What should he be trying to do? Who really knows?

This is what was reported after his first bullpen on Tuesday: “It’s a work in progress, for sure,” Song said of the session watched by Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski and manager Rob Thomson. “It’s far from perfect, and I’m just hoping for an upward trajectory. Just trying to continue to get some improvement everyday.” “I feel like I’m trying to be a baseball player again, I guess,” Song said. “It’s hard when you’re around the competition level these guys are. I’m just trying to keep my head above water right now.” “He looked like he’s got a feel for all his pitches, but he’s still building up,” Thomson said. “So really, there’s no evaluation other than he’s healthy. Not commanding his pitches but just a feel for them, being able to throw strikes and spin the ball. He looks like he can do that.” “I think that it’s definitely just way too early to tell,” Song said. “There’s so much that needs to get done for me right that it’s not something I could really project.” If you see the video that was posted, he's not throwing 99 for sure.

@ChrisCotillo The Jorge Alfaro opt-out mystery has been solved. Per source, Alfaro has an upward mobility clause on 3/25. If a team wants to add him to its MLB roster, Red Sox must either let him go or add him themselves. With his k rate, I think he's just in camp in case someone gets injured. He's not even catching. Most likely just another guy we all forget at some point.

Yeah. He has no impact on the current state of the farm system.

Rubes.

24? Way to shoot for the stars there.

But if he was inserted into a Spring Training game today, he'd get outpitched by Ort and it wouldn't be close.

I'm hoping by the '23 trade deadline.

Being in shape and being in pitching shape aren't necessarily the same thing though. Maybe he can do more pushups and be in better conditioning, but that doesn't mean his velo is where it needs to be or that his pitching form hasn't deteriorated.

It's not even clear how much he was even throwing for the past 3.25 years!

Not really. He's 28 and in AAA. 2022 OPS by month: APR 1064! MAY 803 JUN 571 JUL 439 AUG 800 SEP 531 If he was consistently OPS'ing 800+, maybe he'd be interesting, but those bad stretches are absolutely brutal and dragged down his season OPS to 702. He had 10 HR through May and only 6 afterwards. 524 OPS vs LHP, 234 OBP.

Materiality only matters in real life, not on here!

It's definitely 3 years, but the argument was kind of amusing to me.

There's lots of games to play and the starters aren't ramped up yet. I don't see the issue.

My personal opinion is that they are somewhere 10-15. AAA - Aside from Bello, the pitchers that have made it to BOS haven't been very successful (Crawford, Winckowski). Mata has potential, but is probably just a reliever. Rafaela is most likely the only impact bat. I'm not sold on Duran, Hamilton or Abreu. AA - Lots of hitters to watch (Kavadas, Scott, Lugo, Abreu), but the only guy with a clear carrying MLB tool is Yorke. Unfortunately, he had a terrible season last year and has an injury history. The current projected pitchers for AA are rough. This is the 2020 draft class that was restricted to only 4 rounds for the Sox. Maybe it'd look better if there was a normal draft that year? IDK. A+/A - The strength of the organization with Bleis, Mayer, Hickey, Romero, Bonaci, Paulino, Blaze, Roman, Perales, ERC, Winkelman. Most of these guys are just years away. The only guy who could make a short term impact would be Mayer. I'm not sure anyone else would be in BOS before late 2025. FCL/DSL - These guys are really far away. Who knows? Includes Brannon, Coffey, Freili, Alcantara, Fraymi, Yoeilin. It is a very heavy, bat first organization. Is that a guiding principal for Chaim? We've seen lots of high ranked prospects go down with arm injuries recently. Some high drafted arms can't even get out of AA. There's just a lot of variance. Maybe it's just circumstance because other organizations have gone heavy with arms (Cleveland, Angels)? The Dodgers only drafted one pitcher in the first 10 rounds last year and they are one of the best organizations in baseball year in and year out (only 4 pitchers taken in all 20 rounds).