Hugh2

Beeks gets guys out in the minors. We don't know how his stuff will play up in the majors, and scouting reports aren't glamouring. That aren't bad either, they just don't look like he's going to be a superstar. Guys who lack a tool, third pitch, control, command, velocity or just one of these in access can have success in the minors and falter when they get to the big leagues and they face hitters who can expose those weaknesses. Think about Henry Owens. Most scouts saw a BOTR arm, possibly better if he could hone in his control and command. He didn't, but he was able to get by in the minors but struggled at the MLB level. I think Beeks can carve out a position on the MLB club, but it will probably be as a middle reliever.

That is true, but chain promotions happen throughout baseball, there are players coming up to Greenville from short season A. But I think consistency is a hard thing to get from a pitching prospect who is 1 year removed highschool baseball. The minor leagues are littered with pitchers who don't have great stuff but they know how to pitch and they can get away with that at a lower level. I think of a guy like Roniel Raudes, or a Brian Johnson who pitched really well in the minors but scouts never saw more of a BOTR/Swing man type out of him. Guys who pitch well in the minors get exposed all the time when they move up the ranks. You also have the opposite, you have guys who have all the tools but they can't put it all together. Maybe they can't repeat their mechanics, find their release point, or various other things but they are young enough that if they put it all together they can be absolutely dominate. I'm not worried about Groome, even if he laid an egg all season, but when a guy is supposedly MLB ready I do think you're right to expect more consistency (otherwise I'd argue he's not even ready). The thing about raw skill and tools is you can't really teach them. I mean, you teach a guy to pitch but you can't teach a guy to throw 99 MPH. Just like you can teach a guy to hit but you can't teach 425 foot HR. This is true in other sports too, think Basketballl; you can teach a guy who to shoot but you can't teach him to jump and dunk it. Either you have these raw abilities or not. This is the mystery behind player development and the suspense between trying to figure out who will boom or bust. You can't predict how guys will develop because in essence we're trying to predict the future and know one can do that. What we do know, is the guys who have raw tools put it together, we can generally know how good they can be. A guy like Jason Groome could be a top of the rotation starter, but he could also be the next Trey Ball too. I'm not worried about Groome, I have faith that he will develop into an above average MLB pitcher but if he doesn't I will not be surprised either.

It really is, but I was never too concerned, even if he pitched sub par for the whole year. Young guys take a while and to develop and put it all together and that's the path most guys take. Just look at what Michael Chavis is doing this year?!? He might not ever win an MVP but the guy could become a contributing regular on an MLB team and that type of path is much more common than the Bryce Harpers of the world. I think he's under a larger microscope because he was a highly regarded and drafted pitching prospect. It will be interesting to see what he does next year if he starts to take off.

Jason Groome had another outstanding outing last night. Groomes numbers over his last 2 games 11 IP, 14 K's, 3 BB's, 4 H, 0 ER's.

I agree I like it much better than an international draft. It is fairer, but it still allows some teams such as the Sox who scout and invest heavily in the area to come out better than other teams.

Yup, that's the way I understand it as well. Now I could be wrong about this but I believe there are still a few teams that spent big the last two years who were under a weird restriction where they had their hard cap and also couldn't sign anyone for more than 300K but I'm uncertain. It seems like the Red Sox were ok with signing a few extra guys by trading for extra pool space. The Sox invest heavily in South America and Latin America, and they've seem to of done better than most teams over the past decade, so lets hope that trend continues.

I'm still waiting for the HUGH inflation in my paycheck.

lol OOOOK. Whats the point of a farm system? to supplement the major league team. You develop prospects to play for you, or you trade them for pieces that you don't have. I never said this team hasn't had a hard time developing pitching lately, I just said they have a better track record than most. This team is in first place, and they look like they have a decent shot of going somewhere in the postseason. Their entire lineup except for 1B is homegrown players who have been developed by this team. 8/9 in your lineup, that's sick. They've used their prospects to trade for Sale/Pomeranz/Kimbrell. They just didn't get those guys because of blind luck they did it because they had an abundance of prospect due to their ability to develop players. So.....again.....The Red Sox have a great record of developing players and if it makes you feel better, particularly position players.

The thing is, every team has Henry Owens and Trey Balls, and Lars Andersons, and Will Middlebrooks. We just aren't aware of them, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. In 3 years from now we'll still now who Henry Owens is but 99.99% of other teams fans will not. Again, the overall track record of this team on developing young talent is superb.

Most first rounders don't even make it to the majors.

Most people Benintendi's age were drafted last year and are in A ball right now. In the beginning of the year, I suggested batting AB lower in the lineup because he was certain to have ups/downs as the league adjusted to him and he learned to become an everyday MLBer. It helps to have perspective and foresight and not just look at what a guy has done the past month.

I bet I can find two top draft picks on every MLB team who is laying an egg somewhere in the minors. The Sox larger overall track record of drafting is pretty good and better than most teams.

Exactly, it's his first start back, as long as he can let it fly without pain it's all good. He will have time to try and get his mechanics back on track.

I don't, the organizations overall draft record is superb.

Trey Ball still has a substantially better chance at contributing to a MLB club as a pitcher than he does a catcher. People want to salvage the pick value, that is a poor perspective to have on things. It is what it is, prospects bust, but this is all a result of his draft slot which we really really really need to drop. Why not take 1/2 the hitter in the minors under performing and switch them to pitching? why not take the worst 50 pitchers in our system and convert them to hitting.?

Oh please, it's semantics. This isn't that serious.

That system also had a good draft that year too with college players, guys who got the token A ball assignment then flew up the system in no time. Ellsbury and Buchholz were contributors in 2007. Also, consider that they came in a system where the Sox had 4 1st round picks just like the team built now came from a 2011 draft in which team team drafted large contributors to this team. They also boasted a system in 2005 that brought in the likes of Beckett and Lowell and still had Papelbon, Lester, Pedroia, Delcarmen, Ellsbury, Buccholz, in it. The uncertainty to me comes from the mechanism a team uses to bring talent in. The drafts in 2005 and 2011 saw the team bring in talent with 4 first round picks. Not only are the Red Sox no longer going to receive additional picks like that but for a few years now they've been unable to spend heavily after the first round and just throw cash at everyone. International pools are becoming more restrictive as well. The parellels from 2005 to 2016 are pretty big actually, that's a good comparrision. But to me, the uncertainty comes from the mechanism to replenish that system have been stripped away from baseball. I'm not saying it can or can't happen, I just don't see how right now. Some might not care about that, but I do.

key word there is AAA, and yes he has 7 HR's this year in over 450 PA's 5 of which he's had in AAA and if I'm correct here I believe the Pacific Coast league is a hitters league, they are filled with hitter friendly parks with short porches. I like Dubon, but I still think his most likely best case scenario is a good utility player.

I don't think we see Chavis until 2018, mid year to end of year. If he continues to stay hot this season and has a great spring, perhaps he could break camp with Boston. But who knows.

One reason for having a strong farm system is to trade from strengths to improve weaknesses. There's nothing wrong with that, Dombrowski has made a lot of moves to improve this team now. My only problem with many of DD's trades is they mostly seam to be 3 for 1's or 4 for 1's. This is partially the cause of the depth problem the system has, but to be fair it's kind of hard to critisize DD TOO much because he's pretty much won ever trade. Won ever trade with the caveat of the Shaw/Thornburg trade, however that is mostly due to the fact that Thornburg has been injured. If he was healthy and formed a 1-2 punch with Kimbrel I don't think too many people would be complaining about that trade. I still think a guy like Espinoza could turn out to be a stud, but he doesn't have to flop for that trade to be good for the Sox. It was a classic trade now at the expense of tomorrow move and as long as Pomeranz excels you can't be too upset. I mean you can....it's a free country.....but really you can't.

Baseball certainly is a funny game.

I was trying to pump the breaks big time with Leon last year. Some people just can't seem to see more than the present. I got no problem riding hot hands, and Leon is fine as a backup.

If we assume best case scenario for every player then sure, there ain't no cliff. While I've been a "cliff" in the past, I think that is a very poor way of putting it. I think uncertainty may be more accurate. As in, there is more uncertainty who play 1B next year than RF, but that doesn't mean 1B will give us less production than 1B.....but I'd bet on it.

Not sold on Barfield, also I don't think Chavis sniffs the MLB this year. He probably barely sees any time in AAA, maybe an end of season promotion. Mata goes today, with Smith beginning his rehab.

Michael Chavis is getting some time in at 1B for the rest of this year, which is very interesting. If he breaks with the team you have an entire homegrown defense. Vaquez/Chavis/Pedroia/Bogaerts/Devers/Benintendi/JBJ/Betts.