sk7326

Salem. They rushed him past Lowell already. I'd say there is no need to hustle him. At the same time, there might be a push to get him to play 3B more, and if that is the case, he's fighting Devers and Chavis for PT in Greenville and moving somebody to Salem would alleviate some of that.

The guy to also kick tires on is Jordan Zimmermann. The Nats are obviously good, but they also have a surplus and a probably not going to re-sign him. Could there be a match there? But I think a Leake, Kazmir, Gallardo flavor guy is likelier.

Other way around - if we were higher in the standings there would a basis to go all in. I don't think Cherington has ever thought this rotation was good enough to win 11 games in October. I think he felt confident this rotation was good enough to win 52 or more games out of 100. If the latter materialized more, then thinking about how to win the October games would be more relevant.

Depends on what you call front of the line ... but I think yes. FO gave this team 2-3 weeks to present a credible case ... largely they have. That said, I imagine a case like Gallardo will be more likely than a Cueto or Hamels.

Not really an omission if i read correctly: #13 - Aaron Judge I think he has noted he usually tries to see the guys once a year at least ... and that his rankings favor upside because that's what front offices do and that seems more informative for readers.

good approach ... takes good at-bats (especially from the left side)

I think you are right in some respects here. After all, I've always noted that Potential as a function of Age, Level and Performance is very useful. 22 is not old for AA, and Hernandez has played quite well. Now compared to his A-stats, this is a tremendous jump. Now, what the principle of regression to the mean says is that the guy he showed earlier (the guy with a below .700 OPS) is the real him, and that he will turn into that pumpkin eventually. However (to answer your question - and I am only repeating what the Law or Baseball America sorts say, I have no special talent here), what scouts and FOs want to see is did Hernandez do something (or did he physically grow) where this uptick in performance is bankable and real. If he has had a hot 300 PAs, but is still the same guy ... then that is one thing. If he has done something with his body or swing which has come out in the results? That is a different matter, and one which you start taking very seriously. Minor league stats are always constrained in their usefulness, just because the games don't count and you don't know what notes the farm director has passed on about stuff the kid should be working on. I have not seen excitement for Hernandez match his performance, but that doesn't mean you are wrong in appreciating the performance.

It is hard to dream of a #1 when a guy's virtues are his changeup and his feel ... that doesn't mean that you wouldn't take ... say Bruce Hurst's career ... but you wouldn't confuse it with Clayton Kershaw either. That said, the larger point is - even is Owens only projects as a #2/#3 sort, that is an extremely useful pitcher, and nothing to sleep on.

Small disagreement here. Rodriguez was always the ceiling guy between the two - but you are right, due to control leaps and bounds behind Owens in terms of probability. His ceiling has been higher, but you had to dream more too. His improvement since coming to Boston changed his "likelihood" considerably - one of the things which had to go right did. Of the Red Sox 3 pawsox arms, I looked at Rodriguez as the upside guy, Johnson as pure probability and Owens as your "a bit of both"

Keith Law Updated Top 50 ... http://insider.espn.go.com/blog/keith-law/insider/post?id=4096 #8. Rafael Devers #11 Yoan Moncada #14 Manuel Margot #37 Henry Owens #48 Javier Guerra

Keith Law Updated Top 50 ... http://insider.espn.go.com/blog/keith-law/insider/post?id=4096 #8. Rafael Devers #11 Yoan Moncada #14 Manuel Margot #37 Henry Owens #48 Javier Guerra

Pooh pooing? Who's doing that ... now his .832 OPS for the first half in Portland is almost 100 points higher than his OPS at any level of full season baseball to date, so the Fluke Rule is very much in play. But he deserves to be an Eastern League All-Star, without a doubt. It does not speak to his prospect value of course, as Rick Lancellotti would attest.

He has long been projected as a #2 or #3 sort (since he does not have the power of Rodriguez who has actual ace potential). But that's not nothing, as this season has proven. Even if his ceiling is Hiroki Kuroda - that is still immensely valuable for any rotation, especially as cheap as he'd be in his pre-arb years. If this team had a rotation of mid-rotation starters (guys pitching like mid-rotation starters), nobody would be sniffling about the quality of the pitchers.

It would be considerable - although I think it is a price that the Red Sox could pay. The prospect and young big leaguer heft is there.

Obviously the white whale is Chris Sale - and that would be worth a premium price. Chicago probably should cash it in too - but it would take guts on a lot of parties.

One of the funny ideas about the approach to the rotation was that there was a magic alternative strategy. If the team started 2015 with Owens and Rodriguez as two of the starters, the bleating would still have been there. The FA pitching market had two impactful starters - should Boston have signed either? It's easy to say now - and certainly it would have helped in 2015, but that clearly was only part of the ROI calculation. But then you have the trade market. The market for impactful starting pitching was going to very hard to come by in the offseason - because of the health of the baseball industry as well as the Kansas City Royals almost winning the World Series - the market was going to reveal itself during the season as teams got voted off the island. There is little chance a team with a premium starter was going to punt the season in December. (except for the Phillies which is another issue entirely) The question becomes - what to do until then - would they have been better off with James Shields than Porcello? This year, yes - even though Shields has not actually been especially good. (even the normal plain jane ERA in a very pitcher centric world) What you got was trading for guys who were young and had a track record of durability and decent stuff. Masterson was a flyer which didn't work but was a reasonable lottery ticket if you did not want to press a kiddo into duty.

I could see the Red Sox doing BOTH at the same time. Maybe move Koji. But still put themselves in the Cueto conversation - knowing they have the money and chance to resign him. As UN notes, there are so many players in the pipeline who look blocked ... Cecchini, Merrero, Guerra, Margot, Chavis ... that dealing some of the heft is inevitable. Given the relative buyer's market for pitching, Cueto should be gettable and the Red Sox have enough prospect currency to "overpay" a little bit. That is, something which might feel like an overpayment in absolute terms, but not really to the Sox because of blocked prospects. I could see the Sox dealing Ramirez - or looking into it - because he is on a very reasonable deal, and he would immediately be the best bat on the market.

Great, great everyday players who held up a largely disposable pitching staff (Gullett and Nolan were good, Darcy was OK ... so it's not a monolithic statement).

or be the 2nd best team in baseball in a division which happened to have the 1st

Certainly they did over those 4 to 7 games ...

6th, 3rd and 4th in offense in those title years 13th and 4th in the other ones 3rd, 10th and 12th in pitching respectively Power pitching helps in October - but you need a lot more for the other 6 months. Giants have been able to catch the ball consistently throughout - and that clearly has been a help.

Who didn't say Lynn wasn't extraordinary? I just giggled at the "sniff, sniff, it's not like they're producing Fred Lynn's" - almost nobody else is either.

Because it fits on a needlepoint throw pillow in your house doesn't make it correct.

With the rotation, aside from Masterson there was not really a reason to be truly pessimistic about the guys being terrible. And since 1/3 of the innings pitched would be with the bullpen, you'd expect a good bullpen would provide some help also. Also since pitching is not 100% of run prevention - there was not much evidence entering the season the Red Sox would be bad defensively. The run prevention has failed - but to think it was preordained doesn't make much sense either.

Pitching and defense are not remotely sufficient to make the playoffs - which is the one iron clad requirement for teams to win the championship.