Hugh2

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.

I agree, but the market for relievers has been absolutely ridiculous the last few years at the deadline. Heck the Yankees practically built the leagues best farm system from dealing 2 top relievers. So if those are 2 of the three guys (depending on who the 3rd is) I'd say this is a pretty good deal for the Sox. (The two according to Mayo, not me)

Jonathan Mayo ✔ @JonathanMayo Another @Redsox relief prospect, Jamie Callahan, is another apparently headed to @Mets for A. Reed. Red Sox top 30: http://m.mlb.com/prospects/2017/?list=bos … Jonathan Mayo ✔ @JonathanMayo It appears that reliever Gerson Bautista is one of the prospects heading from @RedSox to @Mets in A. Reed deal

And just like that I'm hearing rumblings from sources on twitter that it's Jamie Callahan and Gerson Bautista.

If this is true along with your last post I'd like to throw my hat in the ring and guess that Beeks/Shawaryn are the guys.....maybe some other lower level DSL guy putting up good number who we haven't heard of yet too.