Hugh2

The system definitely looks better than it did 6 months ago, but still lacks star potential talent after the top 2 and depth. It will be interesting to see how some of these newer names develop over the next few years.

having younger prospects doesn't make them better prospects. Being further away from the majors also gives them more risk as well.

You have to be a lover of prospects to get excited about some of these guys because of the further away they are they more ways exist for things to go wrong. But Mata is an exciting player who seems to have come out of nowhere in a year our system could really use that.

1.5 Million dollars with good international scouts, the 12th pick in the draft, the 26th pick in the draft, and the 24th pick in the draft.

hey.....how about that inning

I think your trade packages are too light, and I don't trust Brentz at the MLB level.

I was just thinking of another point, in terms of the argument for promoting Devers now, and I think this is the reason why some prospects often make the jump from AA to the majors. Rookie ball thru AA is mostly prospects, and guys with hopes of making the majors but a lot of times 1/2 a teams AAA roster can be up/down career minor leaguers, older players who used to be big leaguers but can't play well anymore. Often times, you are playing next to a guy who you are about to surpass on the depth chart but in HIS MIND he deserves to be playing in the majors. One could argue that atmosphere can be a little toxic, and you don't want a young guy around that for an extended period of time. My best guess is at a certain point if nothing materializes on the trade market the Sox will just bring him up. Even if they don't think his development is done yet if it's towards the end of the season it's not like he will be missing at bats and there's something to be said about gaining exposure at the MLB level. At the very least, it could really help him out next year. And who knows......he might just help us win a world series.

The Sox have a game plan for every prospect (for better or worse). They aren't going to to stray very far away from that plan because of what is happening up on the big league level. All we have is 1/2 a season in AA and 19 at bats in AAA to assess Devers by. Yes his stats look good, but these are minor league stats. A guy can look good in the minors and get eaten up at the MLB level, he could be smart enough to wait for the fastballs but really struggle with offspeed stuff on the corner. A hole like that might not slow down a guys stat line in the minors but could be exploited at the MLB level. Devers gets a lot of praise with the bat, for having a great hit tool, and many see a potential .300 30 guy out of him but there's also been some rumbling that he still looks a little confused at the plate with breaking pitches. Then again, he also hit a curveball outside for an opposite field HR today, so what do I know. But if the Sox were going to rush him, and stray away from the plan I suspect they would have done it by now.

He has 15 at bats in Pawtucket, his time could be soon but it's by no means a crazy idea to tell people to pump the brakes.

It would be nice if a fit existed where we could get a guy to play 3B but could also slide over to 1B if Moreland continues to lay eggs and Devers gets another promotion in a month or so.

No I've heard that the Sox don't think he's ready and aren't ready to promote him yet either as well.

This was my thoughts as well.

If you look at who the top pitchers have been in baseball year after year it's almost entirely all 1st round draft picks, and particularly guys taken in the top half of the 1st round (aside from international guys). There are a few guys who don't fit this discription, guys like Jake Arietta and...oh well...Jon Lester. It's a lot harder to get those guys in the back of the first round and beyond. Obviously, they exist, but it is much much much rarer. Sox had an opportunity picking this high two times and it looks like they are 1 for 2 here....and that's ok. If you have a 50% hit rate of drafting all stars even in the top 10 that is really good. Groome was probably the highest upside arm the Sox have drafted in years, so lets see what with him down the line. An under the radar prospect in the Sox system who is STARTING to get some buzz is Bryan Mata. Apparently, teams did ask for him last year and the Sox refused to part with, he's 18 years old and enjoying a good year in full season A ball.

hug watch 2017

True, but I don't think the Sox have really drafted any high end arms in a decade either....with the exception of Casey Kelly, but then again he busted too. But he did get us Adrian Gonzalez and to be fair a string of injuries may have hampered his development. Dude should have stuck at SS.

Seems like it would be a good exercise to see if there is a stronger correlation between OBP and runs or SLG and runs. I really don't know, but in terms of ratings I think the HR is king. Chicks dig the long ball.

No, they didn't, but this point they have that background and track record. I just don't' think Johnson can fix Owens, they've already changed his delivery and it's only made his command worse. I doubt Johnson, with no coaching experience can come in an fix Owens just because he is a tall lefty that was really good at baseball. Even if he could it took Johnson nearly two decades to fix himself, as he never had good control in his 20's or 30's but when you can throw 100 MPH you can get away with that much eaiser. When you throw 88-89 MPH you have zero margin for error. Henry Owens doesn't have the luxury of an electric fastball to get by while he refines his command, and I doubt he has the stuff to get by until his mid 30's.

Perhaps, but there may be better options out there than Randy Johnson. Good athletes don't' always make good coaches, and Johnson has no experience in this regard as far as I know. I'm not saying it's 100% time to give up on Owens, but there isn't a silver bullet to every prospect, some guys just can't be fixed.....maybe...just maybe Owens doesn't have it in him.

Sometimes tall guys take a much longer time to figure things out, the problem is it is impossible to get the reps needed on a team like the Red Sox who can't wait around for a guy to develop when you play in a market that is trying to win every year. Henry Owens might be a good candidate for a change of scenery. But if he can't improve his control he doesn't stand a chance with an 89 MPH fastball that can't find the zone.

I doubt Randy Johnson is going to fix Henry Owens.

Remember, you always remember your busts but you don't think of another teams busts. Some Sox fans might be familiar with Henry Owens a few years from now but 99.99% of baseball fans will not know who he is. I think there are so many variables at work here and part of it is just pure luck, but we've done much better than normal at developing positional players and that is probably partially due to luck, in this case, good luck as opposed to bad on the pitching side. But part of the reason for having a farm system is to be able to trade them for needs. We might not have developed many of the pitchers on our team but we've deployed assets to build some of the best pitching in the league. Also, just because guys like Henry Owens failed, don't mean that guys like Groome and Mata will fail either. Also, I believe it is worth noting that Henry Owens was never regarded as a high ceiling prospect, to begin with.

I believe that good pitching beats good hitting, but you have to score. If the hitting is too anemic like it was during that extra innings game against NY you will lose in the playoffs with good pitching. We have good pitching, the pitching is good enough to where our hitting doesn't have to be elite......but it has to get better than this if we expect a title run anytime soon.

Owens did change his slot this year.

The majority of prospects bust, and every team has plenty of Henry Owens....we just never know their names.

Pablo Sandoval was an all star once. Sometimes it's good to give up on players.