moonslav59

Yes, and what level they are playing in. Some are playing against guys older or younger, and that makes a difference. Here are the ages of our top prospects and their levels: 18: A Flores XST, DDiaz XST, Jimenez XST 19: Casas Greenville, BMata Salem, Howell Greenville, Northcut XST, Bello Greenville 20: J Groome IL 21: Scherff Greenville, Castellanos Salem 22: D Hernandez AA/MLB, T Houck AA, Feltman AA, Duran Salem, DReyes AA, Netzer AA 23: M Chavis MLB/AAA, Schellenger AA, Ockimey AAA 24: Lakins AAA/MLB 26: Poyner AAA/MLB 24: Chatham AA, Shawaryn AAA

Nice story, harm. My fist game was at Wrigley Field. It was a class trip from my school in Milwaukee. All I remember was Ernie Banks hitting a homer. (That was before the Brewers arrived from Seattle (the Pilots).)

2B not likely going to get any better, soon. Red Sox infielders Dustin Pedroia and Eduardo Nunez are set to embark on rehab assignments, manager Alex Cora said Sunday. Meanwhile, fellow banged-up infielder Brock Holt was scratched from his Triple-A rehab game Sunday because of right shoulder soreness (links via Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com). Pedroia landed on the IL on April 18 with yet another left knee injury, but he’s “a lot better” now, according to Cora, who announced he’s likely to play with Double-A Portland beginning May 2. Nunez, down since the 19th with a mid-back strain, will go to Triple-A Pawtucket on Monday and could be back in Boston by May 6, Cotillo writes. Holt has been on the IL since April 6 with a scratched right cornea, and there’s no word on how serious his shoulder problem is. When healthy, Pedroia, Nunez and Holt have posted pitiful production this year, which helps explain why Boston second basemen have recorded the AL’s worst fWAR (minus-0.9). Athletics first basem

They don't have to wait until mid May. We could go 10-5 in our next 15.

That's what I tried to argue way back when.

Did you notice he's not catching with AZ? We did him a favor by letting him learn other positions. He was never going to be our catcher. Either it was LF or DFA.

I'm not sure a team trading for JBJ is thinking that an extension is very valuable. To me, the biggest downfall of trading for JBJ will be his arb contract cost for his final year.

I've never been for trading JBJ, but I'll listen to any deal. We have no OF depth, and we will likely have a very limited spending budget, so maybe trading his salary will be part of the plan. Make me a suggested trade, and I'll respond.

Our next 15.... 3 v OAK (Velazquez, ERod & Porcello) 4 @ CWS (Price, Sale, Velazquez & ERod) 3 @ BAL (Porcello, Price, Sale) 3 v SEA (Velazquez, ERod & Porcello) 2 v COL (Price & Sale) (Then, we play 6 v HOU & 4 @ TOR.) Time to shine, guys!

He was hitting 92-94 pretty consistently, and he has looked improved, but you are right: he needs to do even better.

Player's trade stock does not rise and fall as much as you think based on one hot streak (or cold one).

I want him hitting more as well, and I said that. My point was that he has not been a total black hole the last 7 games he's played.

2 sucky losses in a row. I keep waiting for this team to "show up," but it hasn't happened... YET!

JBJ's OBP the last 7 games, counting today's... .357 He needs to start getting more hits, but the BBs are helpful.

I doubt we fall that far behind, but if we do, then this season just wasn't ever going to be the one. I'm far from giving up on this season, and I'm not saying you or others have, but we have almost the same team as last year. I think we have a lot of wins coming soon.

I thought you said once you lost velo, you could never get it back.

Well said. Maybe JBJ will break loose soon.

I thought we paid too much for Pearce, but the signing was not justified only by his WS performance. 2014-2018 (250 players with 1500+ PAs in this 5 years sample size) Pearce ranked... 47th in OPS at .818 39th in wRC+ at 123 His .865 OPS vs LHPs those 5 years places him 26th out of all hitters with 550+ PAs vs lefties. (24th in wRC+ at 134) He's had some up and down years in those 5 years, but he's been pretty good for more than just the WS. It's early. I'm hopeful he and JBJ will snap out of their funks...and soon!

Yes, but that is Moreland's domain (when healthy).

I thought he'd get 2 years and maybe $9-10M. He's a short-side platoon player.

It's way too early to call it a mistake, but it doesn't look good, so far. Most of the free agent signings this winter look as bad as the Pearce signing, so far, as well.

I agree, and my point is that Swihart got way more chances than the average prospect hitting under .700 almost every year at whatever level he was at. To choose this case as the one to blame management is, to me, about the worst choice one could make. Most teams have moved away from the tradition of giving the athletic type of prospect more leeway and chances, and for good reason. Athleticism is not always a good criteria to use for a prospect, and probably less so for a catcher. Swihart's first full season was at age 19 at Greenville. He hit .702 in 378 PAs. He improved at A+ ball in 2013 (.794 in 422 PAs), but that was not really eye-opening numbers. His best moment was in 2014, when in AA, he hit .840 in 380 PAs, and this is when all the hype and hope began. I was one of the many Sox fans with high hopes at that time. He had a strong arm, a quick release time and even showed some power with 12 HRs in 347 ABs. That year, at age 22, they called him up to AAA for 71 PAs (.659 OPS). His .810 overall OPS in 2014 remains his brightest season. We all know what happened in 2015. Surely, a catcher with just 18 games in AAA and just over 300 in all of his years in the minors is not usually called up to the bigs, especially as a catcher for a team thought to be a contender at the start of the year. I can see how a .712 OPS that year in 309 PAs looks encouraging, considering the circumstances, but it is not great. What is often forgotten is the fact that we sucked with Swihart as our starting catcher, and I think management had serious doubts about his ability to handle a staff. Here are the CERA numbers for 2015: 4.51 Swihart (35-43 in his starts) 3.47 Leon 4.58 Hanigan (43-41 in starts by Leon + Hanigan) Swihart also hit just .714 in AAA that 2015 season (80 PAs) The 2016 season began with Swihart as our starter, with Vaz maybe not quite over his injury. Swihart was yanked as the starter very early that year, and that's when all this debate started. I feel they knew Vaz was going to be the starter all along. While Swihart had a respectable .720 OPS that year in just 74 PAs, his CERA was a distant last place out of the 5 catchers we used that year: 5.71 Swihart (224 PAs) 4.27 Vaz (1860) 3.90 Leon (2502) 3.72 Holaday (357) 3.55 Hanigan (1130) This was the season Leon hit .845, so there was no way Swihart should have been catching more. BTW, he hit .655 in AAA in 2016 (122 PAs) 2017: .539 at AAA (212) and .575 in Rk league 2018: .613 in BOS (207 PAs) 2019: .581 in 40 PAs I could post the CERA numbers over these last 3 years, but I've already done that over a dozen times. They were not good. In short, Swihart looked very promising was back in 2014 at Portland. He hit okay when called up early to Boston. Other than that, he did absolutely nothing to distinguish himself as a keeper, and yet we kept him on board.

He was far from inconsistent when compared to the average pitcher in MLB. His injuries and suspensions are what made him unreliable, and some of his poor performances were partially a result of those injuries or rustiness upon returning from those injuries and the suspension. I'll use ERA as my stat of choice, because it's easier to research. Wright started off slowly in the minors, and ended up with about the same ERA as his career MLB number (3.77 to 3.79). His first 5 years were a bit "all over the map:" 5.67 (114 IP as a SP'er) 4.14 (148 as SP'er) 2.48 (87 almost all as RP'er) 4.91 (JUST 7 IP, so I don't count this) 5.02 (75 IP almost all as RP) 6.19 (134 back to mostly a SP'er) Then, we see a lot of consistently good numbers from 2012-2018, except for injury or shortened seasons: 2.54 (142 all as SP'er/ traded to BOS in 2012) 4.26 (135 IP all as SP'er with 13 IP in MLB at 5.40) 3.42 (100 IP all as SP'er in 2014) 4.09 (73 IP with BOS as SP/RP) and 3.81 in AAA (52 IP all as SP) 2015 3.81 (157 IP with BOS aa in 24 starts) 8.25 (JUST 24 IP in 5 starts- injured most of 2017) 2.68 (54 IP mostly in relief in 2018) and 4.86 in just 17 IP at AAA. If you throw out the 24 IP season of 2017, Wright had 6 straight seasons of remarkable consistency and positive production. His worst season was a decent 4.26 season way back in 2013.

It's not that hard to run the bases. It was a freak injury. Yes, inexperience might have been part of the issue, but asking a faster player to PR, desspite less experience, is not an absurd idea.

Maybe not you, but some Swihart supporters think he should have been allowed to play only catcher as well as be handed many more starts than we gave him.