sk7326
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Everything posted by sk7326
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Terrific hitter in his Houston prime. St Louis he had a fascinating revival, and he played a principal role in what probably goes down as the current game which is used as "the greatest game since ____". (the Texas-Saint Louis Game 6)
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Well, Drew v Iggy in the 2013 playoffs is confusing their ABILITY to hit with whether they actually hit or not ... Drew's ability far, FAR outstrips Iglesias offensively, well more than the defensive gap. Alas, he had a rough postseason. At the same time, Iglesias pulled a .231/.286/.231 in the postseason while Drew did .111/.140/.204. Both lines were pretty ghastly, certainly close enough to say both sucked it pretty hard at the plate.
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The team needed Peavy - more to get through the marathon than the postseason per se ... and he cost them something meaningful. But Iglesias was a fair price for 2 years of a mid rotation starter. Dreams of Middlebrooks-Bogaerts-Iglesias sound good, but really there are not that many at-bats to go around ... three youngsters with starting ability means somebody is being dealt. So as it turns out - that happened, just a year early.
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No way for the optics to look good, but the girl needs people to care for her. It is good he threw his hat in the ring, and if it works out it works out.
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I will avoid the discussion of "clutchiness" or the correlation between errors and defense - same series he made a catch that literally three or four people alive could make. Since it's a short series - the mistakes are magnified, but in defense there is that "play you should have made" vs "getting to a ball nobody else gets to". Jeter can keep his errors low since ground balls zoom past him so regularly for basehits for example.
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BTW, I will not sit here and say that I could not live with a .680 OPS vacuum cleaner at SS with the rest of our lineup. Iglesias would have been fine to me. But he's blocking a guy who has all of the markers of being "special" - yes, I know nothing is certain - and guys like that make guys like Iglesias trade bait, full stop.
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There is very little you can judge about any hitter from a crappy 16 game stretch - which most players can have. Iglesias could hit .600 during that time and it would have proved just as little. Over a meaningful sample of ABs, Drew was a much more dangerous hitter - that wasn't really close. Drew was 8th among SSs in WAR last year with fewer PAs than anybody above him except for the out of nowhere year HanRam had. A 16 game slump is not dispositive of this.
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And was so good defensively they had to keep playing him despite his horrendous slump.
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He doesn't have to be especially good offensively to be playable with a glove like his ... especially in a situation like Detroit where they have enough pop to hold their nose and endure it. The Iglesias who was here in 2012 whose nearly half of his at-bats were either strikeouts or infield popups was not even that good.
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Well, it talks to the single area where the manager can impact a game the most - the deployment of personnel, especially managing a bullpen. I think those who say they have "none" say it as a response to the sound and fury of things like sacrifices and hit and runs signifying nothing.
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Clemens-Hurst-Boyd-Nipper was probably the best rotation - I'd give Boyd-Nipper the edge over Wakefield-Lowe and Schilling-Pedro 2004 vs Clemens-Hurst was closer than it seems. 1986 bullpen depth was not bad - Schiraldi was great until his meltdown ... but I'd rather have the Timlin-Embree-Foulke or Tazawa-Breslow-Uehara back of the bullpen. The 2003 lineup (with Varitek hitting 27 homeruns as a #9 hitter! And Bill Mueller winning the batting title from the #8 spot) is the best Red Sox lineup I've ever seen. In 2004 - replacing Walker with Bellhorn, and one of Damon's worst seasons with his best, offset by dropoffs from Varitek, I'm not sure where you compare 2004 and 2003. It's pretty close.
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With Iglesias' glove ... an empty .270 or so works ... last year 25% of his bWAR came from defense. In 2012, all of his positive bWAR came on that side too. The caliber of the SS cohort has been shrinking a bit too offensively. He really could be a Mark Belanger equivalent or mid-career Omar Vizquel and be completely effective. (those are still open questions, but you get the idea)
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The jury is out certainly - at the same time Bogaerts is an MVP-level upside ... with a resume to date which historically is a near guarantee of relevance. Trading Iglesias was not a mistake - you have to trade somebody to get help, and Iglesias was not one of your blue chippers. Regarding XB - Guys who can compete - not even be a superstar - in the bigs at his age almost never fail. The only argument is whether he will max out at "starter" vs "someone to tell your kids about".
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LOL - here is the thing. I feel a700 bitterness on one level. But it's the team and season that made me a Sox fan. And honestly, after 2004 - it is hard to get THAT bitter anymore.
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Well Iglesias proved he could hit JUST enough for his glove to play ... and the Red Sox were able to transform him into a proven mid-rotation starter. If you ask me, that'd be a pretty good result for the org.
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Well "the future" is a loaded question. He is some modest hitting ability away from being an everyday starter. Swihart has more upside across more areas than Vasquez. Vasquez has a lead right now being in AAA as opposed to AA (but he's also 2 years older), and the Sox can afford to be patient with Swihart because of Vasquez' presence. That the Red Sox have two potential everyday catchers in their system after letting one walk is pretty impressive considering the deplorable state of catching around the sport.
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Well "the future" is a loaded question. He is some modest hitting ability away from being an everyday starter. Swihart has more upside across more areas than Vasquez. That the Red Sox have two potential everyday catchers in their system after letting one walk is pretty impressive considering the deplorable state of catching around the sport. The 2nd half of Law's list has a number of catching prospects too - though the state of big league catching is awful, the industry clearly is trying to fix it.
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Fun trivia question - What unbreakable record did Dwight Evans set that season? (Hint: Daniel Nava set an unbreakable record in sort of that same spirit).
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I think the offensive and athletic upsides of Swihart are higher. That said, Vasquez is ahead of him right now and could very well be a starting solution as the bat improves. Vasquez' floor is higher (since he probably could be defensive specialist/personal catcher level backup right now if one wanted that). Law noted yesterday in Boston's #5 org ranking that Vasquez not being one of the Red Sox Top 10 prospects is a sincere compliment to what the Sox have been doing on that front. His rankings I've found tend to skew towards athletic ability and offensive approach. Defense matters as you go up the development chain, but defense is generally a skill that gets taught at the professional level - college and amateur just do not provide much grounding there.
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Barnes, maybe for a spot start or so. Webster's star has fallen a bit with his alarming first taste of the bigs (small sample sizes, but a curious lack of feel and a terrible homerun rate for a sinkerballer). Owens less likely, although if he dominates early you never know. Swihart I'd say a clear no. Vasquez at AAA is the first guy coming up for "C", and if Vasquez can hit a bit in AAA this season, I think he takes Pierzynski's ABs. Sox can live with that level of defense if his bat is acceptable.
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Keith Law Top 100 up ... http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/10166140/byron-buxton-tops-2014-ranking-top-100-prospects-mlb Red Sox highlights ... (eligibility = not used up rookie eligibility yet, no Japan/Korea major experience, and no Abreu who is 27) #2. Xander Bogaerts #42. Henry Owens #51 Jackie Bradley Jr #53 Garin Cecchini #56. Blake Swihart . #61. Mookie Betts #89. Matt Barnes
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Keith Law Top 100 up ... http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/10166140/byron-buxton-tops-2014-ranking-top-100-prospects-mlb Red Sox highlights ... (eligibility = not used up rookie eligibility yet, no Japan/Korea major experience, and no Abreu who is 27) #2. Xander Bogaerts #42. Henry Owens #51 Jackie Bradley Jr #53 Garin Cecchini #56. Blake Swihart . #61. Mookie Betts #89. Matt Barnes
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Oh certainly that is a fair call - the margins are pretty close. The Texas-Detroit trade is one of the great something for everybody deals - there were very strong reasons for both teams to do the deals, and both of the principal players have a lot to prove. Fielder in particular is interesting as he had a bad year, but at age 29 and batted ball stats that did not scream decline and moving into a good lefty ballpark, seems like a potential bounceback candidate. And yes, Detroit got shockingly little back for a high caliber #3 starter. And Oakland is not really behind much if at all. I also tend to skew pessimistic on the Sox generally, just how the pre 2004 18 years of fandom conditioned me.
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"If healthy" is a phrase that makes all of our speculation sort of moot, and what the division hinges on. The Red Sox 2013 I've maintained was not a triumph of a "new Red Sox way" so much as a spectacular vindication of the old way (the 2003-2011 one) which Cherington and Farrell had prominent roles in at various times. 2012 was just a massive perceived correction for a 2 year playoff drought which was driven mostly by lots, and lots, and lots of injuries. Between a few free agents doing well, and Farrell largely being able to field the team he wanted all season - we were able to be a wire to wire champ. If we have the same sort of injury luck as last year - and expected performance from new guys (as well as Farrell improving as a tactical manager, and he showed improvement over the season there) ... we will be a contender again ... I have us behind Detroit and Texas in the AL, but not by any huge margin. But a bout of poor injury luck can change things quickly, especially in the hypercompetitive AL East.
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2011 was interesting. What do you prefer the slow burn of 2011, having the rug pulled out from under you (buckner) or something in the middle (the Aaron Boone game), Personally, the season was becoming such torture that I was prepared for a mercy killing to some degree.