Hugh2

Imagine if we moved Bogaerts off of SS because Iggy was there and people thought he'd end up there anyways???? I mean we could find examples one way or the other all day, the fact remains this is player development gold standard for a reason.

Teams don't switch a players position while they are developing, they do so when they are or close to MLB ready. This means you won't see Moncada move until either he reaches AAA or he's had at least a month or two in Portland with success.

So you hypothetically disagree with this but you just made the case against it? I'm not going to go against what is widely held to be best industry practices by everyone in baseball because something could go wrong. Something could always go wrong even with the most optimal sure fire strategy. I trust the Sox now what they are doing.

Well, I personally wouldn't tinker with the Sox player development philosophy. I think they are doing an excellent job, you don't move guys for a reason as been stated by me, others, the Red Sox, scouts, and more. We can repackage the argument any way we'd like but player development just doesn't work like that.

I understand your concerns but that's not how player development necessarily works. I can see how it makes sense from our perspective as a fan as we try to imagine a star studded home grown team down the road but you let guys play their natural position and let them outplay it. It was the right thing to do to develop Swihart as a catcher, and perhaps the team has made a mistake (I'd say they did) in switching him too soon but they did so out of necessity. There are just as many times were a player easily makes the transition to another position too though however. And as I said before it's not optimal to put the burden on a player of learning a new position while also developing his bat. Teams put players where they believe they profile best, not where they may fit the team better several years down the road. It's a similar argument in terms of drafting for need. You don't draft a catcher if you need a catcher when there is a much better pitcher at your pick...you can always trade one for the other down the road. Once a guy like Moncada has moved up the later and has a bat more developed it is much less detrimental to his development to move him to another position. Also, a ton could happen in a year and going ahead a few more years can be much more unpredictable. A player could severely decline or get injured or even become a trade chip. Us as fans often look at player development from the top down, but in reality in should be much more from the bottom to the top. Not that it couldn't work out great to move a guy like Moncada now, but I think the Sox system of player development as they do it as good if not better than any other team (with position players at least)

A player should never have to learn a new position and a new level at the same time. Teams almost always let a player establish himself at one position first before moving them, a team will never move a guy like Moncada because of a guy like Pedey until they have too....right now they don't have too. The Sox are also notorious (as are most teams) for waiting for a guy to reach AAA to switch positions. At other times it happens at the MLB level.

Yup, he makes his debut tonight.

Ultimately I don't think we should see Benintendi this year, but if he's still mashing his way through the system and LF is still a huge hole I think the kid will end up just forcing the issue.

Benintendi has been in AA for a month now. He struggled his first couple weeks but has succeed in the last couple. Through his last 14 of 29 games in Portland he is batting .291/.333/.564 And his BABIP has actually been a decent amount lower throughout this time as well. Although I do agree the jump to AA is one of the hardest, and I also agree that Moncada shouldn't be moved off of position until his bat is more MLB ready. However I think it looks like Benintendi has made the adjustment in Portland to date.

As of right now the max bonus the Sox could reasonably sign Groome to is 4,065,670. I suspect they will make a run at at least someone past the 10th round like Nick Quintana so if the Sox are going to offer at least 4 million they will have to save some more money and the rest of their top 10 guys certainly do look like slot signings to me. But we shall see.

You also don't blow up your whole draft with a guy like Groome, you also don't go over your bonus pool and lose out on top draft picks for the next 2 years just to sign one guy. I have zero doubt the Sox will offer a guy like Groome an over slot deal. But they just don't have the bonus pool money to offer him the $5 million plus he was initially seeking.

Got to give DD and the Sox brass credit. They are demonstrating they understand the concept of a sunk cost this season. Between Clay, Pablo, and Castillo they aren't afraid to take away guys jobs regardless of their salary. I suspect Hanley would be benched too if he was performing horribly.

http://www.soxprospects.com/dh.htm Here is a good link for those following the signings.

I meant no one as talented as him has fallen to the Sox before, at least not in my recent memory. Guys fall all the time though. Reportedly he had a price tag of 4-5 million. With the underslot signings the Sox have already made + the 5% overage they could offer him 4 million right now. Perhaps I'm a bit optimistic but I wouldn't be surprised if they could sign him for even lower than that. 3.6-3.8 million. I'm sure the Sox have a price in mind, and will tell him take it or leave it at the deadline. They aren't going to blow up their draft for the next 2 years for one kid.

In the draft overall or the Sox top choices? Well, I suppose it doesn't matter because the answer is generally the same. Top draft picks almost always sign and I can't remember the last time the Sox failed to sign a top draft pick. There is a level of communication between teams and the guys they draft. I don't think they draft a guy with a top 10 pick unless they are sure they can sign them. Perhaps Groome is different because this is a very unique situation. I don't think anyone as talented as him as even fallen before so perhaps this is a rare case where they draft him regardless of the sign ability because the ceiling is so high? Worst case scenario is they get pick#13 next year in what is supposedly a very deep draft. And they did sign a bunch of top 100 guys past round 10 presumable as back up guys to throw money at if Groome doesn't sign. Still.....I think they will and should sign Groome.

There's a lot of different angles to look at "perspective" in the minors. Benintendis OPS was lower a few weeks ago in what will of amounted to a few bad weeks at the end of the year. He's doubled his numbers the past couple weeks. Yes it's a SSS but everything is in the minors because you can never hit too well at a level to have a very large sample size because you will inevitably be promoted. Age, making adjustments, fatigue, slumps...there are so many factors to consider. Numbers are the end game, but sometimes you have to throw the numbers out the window and look at the player. That's what you do with a guy like Benintendi, unless he ends up busting the numbers will come and we see that time and time again with elite prospects; given enough time they adjust and start owning a level.

Well I've always thought that you can't seriously consider a guy into your future plans until he is performing in AA but I happen to find everything in between the GCL and Portland interesting as well. From Greenville, to Salem to Lowell. It's pretty nice to be able to go watch a ball game too and pay $15 where it would cost $250 at Fenway and see some guys who are future all stars play, guys who are hungry and not overpaid.

I'm sorry guys, I just always assumed that people that actually enjoy watching and following prospects understand the caveat is these guys all have differing degrees of risk associated with them from being raw and far away.

Well that's because he is batting a respectable .725 vs RHP and absolutely destroying LHP.

No one

He's tipping his pitches, I think that has a lot to do with it.

Well guys.....this is a draft thread in a minor league forum, so that's what we're talking about here.

It's "teams believe" he was upset, not directly coming from him. Remember this is a kid who has had every rumor in the world float around about him this spring including that he was dead. When he was drafted one of the first things the life long Red Sox fan said was the money wasn't important If you watch the video of him being drafted his family is genuinely excited. You can hear them talking about how happy they are for him to be staying on the east coast and close to home. One thing to consider too is his agent is very new and inexperienced and rumor has it he's trying to make a name for himself and has rubbed a lot of teams the wrong way. This could easily be a stupid inexperienced agent running damage control from his client running around talking about money not mattering to try and increase his clients payday. It's also

Me too, something tells me that won't last for too much longer. Brentz strikes me as the type of guy who inevitably gets released, maybe MAYBE he's a throw in in a trade in the sense that a team just needs another body and perhaps they think they can fix his swing. But if we were taking bets, I'd wager he's not on the 40 man by the end of the year.

Sox have also signed Steve Nogosek for 250K, which is about 31K below slot. All together the savings from Chatham + Nogosek + the 5% overage means they could sign Groome for a max contract of 3.7 million. Reportedly the lower range of his asking price was 4 million so we shall see. The Sox will likely sign a few more underslot guys but I was also hoping to be able to sign a few 200K guys after round 10. I did guess Groome would sign for 3.8 but admittedly I'm very optimistic.