Quote:
Originally Posted by scaffolds
Its very well known that Clay Buchholz and Mike Bowden are the top staring RHP in the Red Sox system, but what's after them?
Coming into the 2007 minor league season the Red Sox brass expected someone from the group of Daniel Bard, Justin Masterson, Jorge Rodriguez, Devern Hansack or Caleb Clay to jump out, well Bard really struggle in lancaster and while he has pitched a lot better in Greenville he has been less than dominating, Clay couldn't make a full season squad out of Springtraining and has pitched well in Lowell, but again he hasn't been overpowering, Rodriguez was able to make the Greenville roster out of Spring training, but has pitched as a middle reliever and not very well, Hansack has pitched well in Pawtucket, but not like a top propect and who knows how old he is, which leads of to Masterson. Any baseball person will tell you that Masterson future is a set up reliever, however he has pitched as a starter the whole season first at lancaster where we all lnow that the park isn't healthy to pitcher and while it took a while he was able to get a grip of the California league to the point where he earned a promotion to AA.
The next group of prospects which includes Jimmy James, Emilis Guerrero and Pedro Perez while talented, the jury still out on them and there's some questions. The more mature group of Chris Jones, David Pauley, Chris Smith and Matt Goodson are less talented and have taken a step back in 2007.
This lead to the future, and the Sox drafted a large group of Talented RHP and have signed pitchers like Brock Huntzinger, Thomas Pressly and Hunter Strickland plus more who may be on the way and the addition of Anthony Alvarado with also the DSL prospects like Solmy Pimentel, Anataner Batista, Javier Jimenez, Charlie Rosario and Yeiper Castillo the fure isn't bleak.
|
Great status report Scaffolds. Do you think their lack of top-tier RHP prospects besides Buchholz and Bowden is a reflection on a weakness of the system, or of how good Bowden and Buchholz could be?
How does this compare with other teams, in terms of overall talent?
My sense is that Buchholz is about as good as any pitcher in minor league baseball right now. He seems to have separated himself. So at the very top the Sox have to be up with any other team in terms of just pure RHP talent. My guess is that there are a number of teams who believe they have a pitcher like Michael Bowden near the top of their prospect list, and that Bowden hasn't separated himself nearly as well as Buchholz has.