notin

Frankly I think Hamilton is the biggest question mark. He’s fast and is an excellent base runner. And what else? He’s OK as a hitter and, per Soxprospects, nothing special defensively. I mean, even Jarren Duran excelled at hitting minor league pitching. So what is Hamilton? The next Terrance Gore? I get keeping Brasier and Ort over him. The Sox do need someone in the bullpen…

Maybe Napoleon McCallum?

I don’t think adding Song to the 40 man over Ort would not have been smart. 40 man roster spots are too valuable for fliers with Song’s complete ok ack of a track record. But I’d have given it to Ward over Ort…

I’m sure they’ll try to limit him to low leverage, but every now and then you need a guy because everyone else is spent. Cora didn’t use Kaleb Ort in extra innings against the Yankees because he thought he was the right guy; he did it because Ort was rested (hopefully). It’s like why LOOGY’s were a bad strategy that killed your bullpen. The pen will be expected to pitch maybe 600+ IP. Spreading it out among 8 pitchers is better for everyone than spreading them out among 7. Especially if the 8th guy takes on the low leverage stuff. The last thing any team needs is a “low leverage specialist”. And the IL doesn’t work. It just prolongs his status as Rule 5…

Or Philly could complete a trade with Boston for him. Happens all the time..,

Phantom IL time doesn’t count towards his Rule 5 status. He needs a full season re: 162 games. If the Phillies fake an injury and hide him for 50 games, he will still be a Rule 5 player for the first 50 games of 2024. We saw this kind of thing with Adam Stern (whom the Sox got sick of waiting on and just traded away)…

1. It’s not the hiatus that’s the issue. It’s the fact that it took place after very few IP at a very, very low level. It’s not the same as Chris Sale, an established major leaguer l, missing time. Song not only isn’t an established major leaguer. He isn’t even as established minor leaguer. 2. Of course he stands a good chance to hurt the Phillies. No one knows if he’s any good right now, but they can’t demote him. I don’t think we need to hope he fails. I recommend just waiting for DD to make a trade/financial offer. (Ok the financial offer is less exciting. But it’s a real possibility so I had to mention it. DD I isn’t going to try to bury Song in the back of sn MLB bullpen for a full year, hoping Song can rediscover himself while pitching even less. He really needs the ability to get him to the minors. He very likely will try to make that happen…

And who lists him as a sure thing? Of course, Sale’s past does include an inning or two above low A ball…

Show me the larger sample of box scores that demonstrates why not protecting Song was a mistake… But the point is some fans are freaking out about losing Song and ignoring that he wasn’t as good even back then as a guy the Sox kept and no one cares about. And that guy has kept pitching. Although the bottom line is Philly would be phenomenally stupid to try to keep Song on the MLB roster for 162 games. 26 players isn’t that deep for a team defending a title and Song is much, much more likely to hinder than help in that regard. Expect a deal so Philly can do the smart thing and let Song log a handful of innings in the minors…

Lies. Next thing you’ll be telling me you own a shirt that has sleeves…

Well, he was also in the Navy and doing, you know, Navy stuff that presumably takes a fair amount of time. But even if he got some tossing in, he hasn’t seen any hitters…

Maybe the Navy decided Song could be the poster boy for recruitment. With his Rule 5 status, he’s guaranteed to be in MLB. And his navy career is likely to come up during every broadcast in which he pitches…

But he should still be fired. (This might be sarcasm.)

Murphy and Song were teammates on that 2019 Lowell team. Song three w17 IP with a 1.06 ERA, 0.882 WHIP and 3.8 K/BB. Murphy pitched 33.1 IP with a 1.08 ERA, 0.900 WHIP and 4.86 K/BB. Yet one guy is at the bottom of the 40 man and the other was an egregious error to leave u protected…

Florida has sucked you in. Do you even own shoes anymore?

Restgate II: It’s Nappening!

BA pre-2014 #89

Yep. And they got him for a mediocre relief pitcher left exposed to the Rule 5 draft by Ben Cherington…

Also the highly questionable choice to protect David Hamilton…

More likely they were leaving players exposed they assumed wouldn’t be taken. Ward? I said questionable at the time, but maybe they hoped his injury history would be a deterrent. Song? Frankly I think protecting him would have been a huge question mark since his entire career consists of 17 IP in Lowell that all took place before anyone ever used the word “COVID”. It’s also possible the Sox are not trying to build the farm with pitching, which is a very high risk/high reward method. Teams that do that very often stay “rebuilding” for a long time. Look at Houston - the probable model the Sox want to emulate. They had 3 consecutive #1 overall draft picks. Their choices were Mark Appel, Carlos Correa, and Brady Aiken. They could not have flopped worse on two of them, both of whom played the same position. Correa was a huge success. Ditto Springer. McCullers was a part time success. Bregman and Tucker were huge. Forest Whitley not so much. They absolutely hit on some pitching prospects - mostly IFAs - but did much, much better building their farm on position player talent. I think that’s what the Sox might be doing as well…

Not really sure how Park and Hosmer are relevant. Should the Sox have protected Song and Politi and then jettisoned them for the same transactions in which they released Park and Hosmer? People are freaking out about not protecting Song. Why? He hasn’t pitched since 2019 and barely pitched then. Really that anyone selected him is the bigger surprise (and very likely the more questionable decision). I get losing Ward as a poor decision and said so repeatedly. But Song? His selection was completely unanticipated. Also at some point it might be worth noting the bulk of Rule 5 selections do get returned to their original team. I would expect Ward to be gone; he might even make the opening day rotation for the Nationals. But barring trades, there’s a pretty good chance the Sox get back at least one of Song or Politi, if not both…

And also - no pitching-related injuries in the past 3 years!! I remember when Trey Ball had age and talent on his side. Henry Owens, too. Both of them, unlike Song, were BA Top 100 prospects…

Why? For not predicting a pitcher would be selected after a 3 year hiatus? At any rate, Rotoworld agrees with Notin on this one. https://www.nbcsportsedge.com/baseball/mlb/player/52810/noah-song

But what people are saying is pitching in low A ball, taking 4 years off, and then pitching in MLB is an insane career trajectory that never happens for a reason…

No waivers. If the Phillies or Nats no longer want their respective pitchers, they become property of the Red Sox again. Ditto the oft-forgotten Politi. You know, the only pitcher the Sox lost whose thrown more than 60 IP since 2019…