Red Sox sign Juan Apodaca, Catcher

[Jayhawk Bill]

Originally Posted by Rob Bradford

This just in: The Red Sox have acquired a player, scooping up catcher Juan Apodaca from the Reds for cash considerations. Apodaca was selected by the Reds from the Dodgers in the Triple A portion of the Rule 5 Draft. He played for the Dodgers’ Double A team last season.

http://www.bostonherald.com/blogs/sp...e-gagne-watch/

Hmmm...Juan Apodaca is a 21-year-old catcher from Venezuela. In 229 MiLB games he's hit .254/.322/.397, and he was about that good this year in Single A.

BP has a PECOTA card for Apodaca. He didn't surprise in 2007, so it may still have merit. His top comparables include Giovany Soto (4th), Yorvit Torrealba (6th), Russ Martin (14th), Josh Phelps (17th), and John Buck (18th). He's got pretty good IsoD for a Venezuelan prospect. BP considered his defense to be significantly below-average through 2006, though.

Juan Apodaca isn't a bad acquisition for an organization short on catchers. He'll probably wash out at AA/AAA, but he might develop into a power-hitting catcher over the next few years.

[scaffolds]

For those who don't know how the minor league drafts works, each organizations gets to protect 100 players out of their minor league system, every other one is draft elegible, which means any player who gets drafted in the minor league draft isn't a top prospect, however in Apodaca's case he was one of the better players draft elegible which explain why the Sox made the deal with the Reds for them to draft Apodaca for the Sox.