Hugh2

Time and time again we see examples of player development not being linear. People almost expect players to be Mookie Betts or bust. Take a guy like Vaughn Grissom, maybe he’s the next star, or maybe….hes the next Middlebrooks and after a brief stint of MLB success never finds it again.

Agreed, this draft was obviously a glimpse of a change of philosophy the Sox have made and a statement about piliing more resources into pitching. I'm hoping one of these offseasons this also translates into buying a big name FA pitcher. This offseason will be a big test, Breslow will have a full year under his belt, and all things considered the 2024 team will be coming off a very good season in which they performed much better than expected, likely they will fall short of a WS but most fans will feel more optimistic about the future after 2024. They will also have names like Burnes and Fried on the board.

The reason why you never draft for need is because your organziational needs are going to be 100% different by the time these guys get to the majors. You draft, roughly 50% pitchers and 50% hitters every single year. For the most part, little has changed as the Sox drafted 2 pitchers more this year than last year....2. However there is this. Here are the BA rankings of the Sox pitchers drafted in this draft. 82 212 289 124 210 175 Sox took roughly the same number of pitchers in last years draft but here are their BA rankings 474 385 That is all. Its fun to look at the "SS' or the "P" next to their name, but it's the $$$$$ that matters.

Drafting for need? I mean I suppose they needed a new catcher in the low minors. I think you have it mixed up for a few reasons. First off, it's not so much that they draft pitching, but it's how highly those guys are regarded and how much money they put into them. There's a difference between drafting a pitcher in the 2rd round and paying him a million dollars vs. Drafting Dalton Rodgers and paying him $447k Secondly, the "drafting highschool short stops" is insanely misleading. They aren't drafting highschool short stops, they're drafting baseball players. When they draft a SS out of highschool, they're drafting the best player available and moving him to 3B, to 2nd, to LF, to CF, to RF etc etc etc. You literally don't have to go any further back than last year to find a bunch of short stops playing all those positions know. They're not drafting these guys to "flip them" The Sox have two players drafted as SS playing LF/RF/3B in Worcester (Yorke/Lugo/Meidroth), down in Portland Kristian Campbell who was drafted as a SS has been playing mostly 2nd and CF, the list goes on. Thirdly, this draft was considered the weakest in high school position players in years. https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/2024-mlb-draft-class-could-be-among-weakest-ever-for-high-schoolers/ In the end, they drafted only 2 more pitchers last year than they did this year. 14 pitchers vs. 12. You're drafting SS because 1/2 your roster is positions players so natually about 1/2 your draft is going to be position players. So if the best player on your HS/college team is a short stop, then with the caveat of the occasional catcher or outfielder than it makes sense and follows logic that a lot of your picks are going to be short stops. I like the new strategy, and it's something I said I think the Sox might exactly do earlier in the year. Admitedly to get under some skin I said "watch the Sox go position player #1 and then draft primarily pitchers the rest of the way" But I wasn't surprised that was actually the case. If you look at the draft year after year, for the most part, they've always drafted 1/2 pitchers. It's the money and investment that has lacked. 50% of their bonus pool is still going to a position player this year, it's not like Montgomery is going to be a huge underslot pick and they drafted a bunch of highly ranked pitchers afterwards they're going to throw money at is Conrad Cason who guess what?????? is 50% SS

I mean….Soto is on a different island.

They won’t get much more than that from anyone for 1.3 years of a players who’s had one elite year and aside from that is good not great. BTV, values that trade as an overpay for Boston. I figure Boston would have to slightly overpay regardless. If Toronto believes their window is closed, they won’t do much better. Sox trade away one of their best prospects, possibly there best outside the “Big 3” a kid who is a little further away and is likely a 2B anyways. Toronto doesn’t do this deal if they think they can compete in 2025.

I’ve been wrong more times than I’ve been right. But I did speculate the Sox could easily go position player in the first round and predominantly pitcher afterwards. 6 position players. 14 pitchers drafted.

What concerns a ton of scouts is his swing, he's putting up the numbers in the minors but some people question if it will translate into the bigs. MLB pitching might be able to expose the holes in it the minor leaguers can not. But, I'm still loving what he's doing, and I hope he proves the nay-sayers wrong.

Agreed, and even then he pitched for half the year then hit the other half (or maybe it was the other way around). I would like to see them truly develop a two way player.

I mean, Trey Ball????? But that was more of them giving up on him being a pitcher and just saying "well f*** it lets see how he looks in the field"

I get what you're saying here, but I think these things are astronomically different. A player missing a week here and there is so much different than the entire freaking league only playing 1/3 of games. It's not that 2020 doesn't matter, but it comes with a huge asterik. That's just the way it is.

BTV Accepts Yoeilinis Cespeds for Vladimir Guerrero JR. He's the pefect fit for this year. He's right handed, and can play 1B if Casas has a hiccup on the way back, spell Devers and play DH.

You're absolutely right

I mean, who in here can honestly say the've never done that???? Honestly???? Besides me of course.

Puts hands over ears "la la la la la"

] I agree, but develop him on the mound too, that's where he is regarded best. Don't just let him hit like they did with Dalbec, certainly don't want to make that mistake again. It's preferctly plausible that a few years down the line he ends up dropping his development on one side of the ball to focus on pitching and hitting but not now.

Not doing it.....not getting sucked back in

Not actual picutre, it was an actual video of him from that day. I remember seeing that look on his face when he was interviewed at the meetings briefly after Bogaerts had signed elsewhere. Damnit Notin now you're drawing me back in too. Ok I'm down talking about Bogaerts in 3.2.1 no more.

I suppose "bring it up" is subjective. I was being sarcastic and poking fun at Bellhorn, I also thought that was a crazy contract he signed. You didn't have to fall back down the rabbit hole of going rabbid over Bloom, which by the way the money might of not of been there because HENRY wouldn't approve of it, he was als......goddamnit now you have me talking about it again. I'm done talking about Bogaerts.

Yeah, I get that, like me and Bellhorn have said, there's zero need to rehash this for the 10000000000000X time.

no.

We knew what you meant, but you can't throw red meat at us like that and expect us not to joke about it.

HA! we pretty much said the same thing.....ok moving on.

I think they legit tried to resign him, and were taken by surprise by the SD offer, as apparently all of baseball was. Body language reveals a lot, Bloom was bragging about big things happening that day and after Bogaerts signed he had a look on his face like his entire family just perished in a plane crash. Don't want to rehash this, it's been debated almost as much as Mookie on here, but some would come in and say the Sox botched the Bogaerts situation by not extending him further before he got to free agency, and I would be inclined to agree.

Oh I was talking about this year. But yeah you're right, but I still wouldn't want that contract.