2017 Prospect Mega Thread

[A Red Sox fan named Hugh]

Spin it any way you want, not in Pitching. Positional excellent, Pitching Development Poor.

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.

[moonslav59]

Outside of Tampa, St. Louis and the dodgers, not many teams crank out tons of pitching.

Finding and developing pitchers remains a difficult task by any metric available.

Very true, but I think very few teams have developed less home-grown(good+) SP'ers than us over the last 10 years.

[Larry Cook]

Very true, but I think very few teams have developed less home-grown(good+) SP'ers than us over the last 10 years.

I have wondered if our team's philosophy of teaching starting pitchers to throw only fastballs, curves and change ups is hurting the development of our pitchers.

[moonslav59]

I have wondered if our team's philosophy of teaching starting pitchers to throw only fastballs, curves and change ups is hurting the development of our pitchers.

I didn't know that was a set team philosophy.

[Larry Cook]

Houck pitched three innings for Lowell today and gave up one earned run with 3k's.

[moonslav59]

The first FT opening for a prospect, not surprisingly, turned out to be 3B. Devers has done a marvelous job so far, since his call-up. I can't imagine any current prospects ever leap-frogging him at 3B, but Rafael might eventually be moved to 1B (see below). HE certainly will not be moved to 1B, so Chavis can play 3B, and I doubt Dalbec ever get good enough to move Devers off 3B. No, I think Devers is our 3Bman for a long time.

1B (or DH, if we can trust HRam to play 1B FT next year- I don't) is the next FT position open for the Sox. My guess is we sign or trade for a big bat FA this winter. I can't see us counting on HRam at 1B/DH and some sort of major input from Sam Travis, Michael Chavis, Bryce Brentz, Jeremy Barfield or Josh Ockimey. (Devers and Dalbec could also eventually move to 1B, if we ever got a 3Bman that blocked them.) It's a nice list of choices, but most are at least a half year away to count on for 2018.

No other FT positions should be open, but there should be some hefty competition for the bench positions:

IF: Holt, Hernandez, Lin and Marrero all have a shot at maybe one 25 man roster slot and 3 forty man roster slots. (I'm assuming Rutledge is toast.) Since Holt is the best in-house solution for our 4th OF'er opening, 2 or even 3 of these guys might be on the 25 man roster for much of 2018. I'd love to see us get a big bat 1Bman and bring Nunez back, but that might be wishful thinking. (Nunez could also DH while HRam plays 1B.)

OF: Holt is JF's pet favorite, so I think he wins this slot over Brentz or Barfield. I doubt they try to move Chavis to LF, unless he bombs at the 1b experiment. I'm not convinced by Castillo's decent season for him to get a legitimate chance due to his high luxury tax cost. Danny Mars and Jeremy Barfield and maybe A Tavarez have an outside chance, but I think it will be Holt. (Swihart remains a long shot 4th OF option.)

C: I think Leon will remain the back-up to Vaz. Swihart has an outside chance and maybe Butler will sign another minor league deal with us. Procyshen is too far away as is Flores.

Our pitching staff likely will lose A Reed, Abad, Fister and Boyer. With Carson Smith and Thornburg on the 2018 radar, we may not seek outside help with our pen. The return of Steven Wright should also allow for a SP'er to begin the season in the pen. Here's how I see our pen shaping up next season, assuming all are healthy:

RP1 Kimbrel
RP2 Smith
RP3 Thornburg
RP4 J Kelly
RP5 Barnes
RP6 Wright
RP7 Hembree (out of options)
RP8 Workman
RP9 Scott
RP10 Maddox
RP11 Taylor
RP12 Martin
RP13 B Johnson
RP14 J Beeks
RP15 N Ramirez, R Elias or H Owens (if they are still on the roster)

Our SP'ers are all set until Pomeranz becomes a FA after 2018, and we might have Wright set to take his place. There's also Johnson, Beeks or maybe Groome as 2019 options at the 5 slot on the rotation.

What are your thoughts?

[A Red Sox fan named Hugh]

Jason Groome had another outstanding outing last night. Groomes numbers over his last 2 games 11 IP, 14 K's, 3 BB's, 4 H, 0 ER's.

[mvp 78]

Jason Groome had another outstanding outing last night. Groomes numbers over his last 2 games 11 IP, 14 K's, 3 BB's, 4 H, 0 ER's.

It is certainly nice to see since he started off the season pretty rough.

[A Red Sox fan named Hugh]

It is certainly nice to see since he started off the season pretty rough.

It really is, but I was never too concerned, even if he pitched sub par for the whole year. Young guys take a while and to develop and put it all together and that's the path most guys take. Just look at what Michael Chavis is doing this year?!? He might not ever win an MVP but the guy could become a contributing regular on an MLB team and that type of path is much more common than the Bryce Harpers of the world.

I think he's under a larger microscope because he was a highly regarded and drafted pitching prospect. It will be interesting to see what he does next year if he starts to take off.

[mvp 78]

"Maybe he was just struggling with all the skeletons in his closet. Once they came out, he's was probably more relieved." - Typical WEEI Caller

[OH FOY!]

Consistency is all I look at in young Pitchers. Remember a lot of the good Players in Low A Players have been promoted this time of year.
But a good outing. Maybe 4 or 5 starts left. Keep building off this, and last start.

[A Red Sox fan named Hugh]

Consistency is all I look at in young Pitchers. Remember a lot of the good Players in Low A Players have been promoted this time of year.
But a good outing. Maybe 4 or 5 starts left. Keep building off this, and last start.

That is true, but chain promotions happen throughout baseball, there are players coming up to Greenville from short season A. But I think consistency is a hard thing to get from a pitching prospect who is 1 year removed highschool baseball.

The minor leagues are littered with pitchers who don't have great stuff but they know how to pitch and they can get away with that at a lower level. I think of a guy like Roniel Raudes, or a Brian Johnson who pitched really well in the minors but scouts never saw more of a BOTR/Swing man type out of him. Guys who pitch well in the minors get exposed all the time when they move up the ranks.

You also have the opposite, you have guys who have all the tools but they can't put it all together. Maybe they can't repeat their mechanics, find their release point, or various other things but they are young enough that if they put it all together they can be absolutely dominate.

I'm not worried about Groome, even if he laid an egg all season, but when a guy is supposedly MLB ready I do think you're right to expect more consistency (otherwise I'd argue he's not even ready).

The thing about raw skill and tools is you can't really teach them. I mean, you teach a guy to pitch but you can't teach a guy to throw 99 MPH. Just like you can teach a guy to hit but you can't teach 425 foot HR. This is true in other sports too, think Basketballl; you can teach a guy who to shoot but you can't teach him to jump and dunk it. Either you have these raw abilities or not.

This is the mystery behind player development and the suspense between trying to figure out who will boom or bust. You can't predict how guys will develop because in essence we're trying to predict the future and know one can do that.

What we do know, is the guys who have raw tools put it together, we can generally know how good they can be.

A guy like Jason Groome could be a top of the rotation starter, but he could also be the next Trey Ball too. I'm not worried about Groome, I have faith that he will develop into an above average MLB pitcher but if he doesn't I will not be surprised either.

[Larry Cook]

Chavis with another tater tonight.

[Larry Cook]

Marrero with a tater tonight.

[bowman]

Yeah, Chavis and Brentz are raking. I know Brentz is 28 but will be interesting to see what he does if he gets a call up. Not sure what the scouts are telling DD, or where he'd play, but would like to see him get some at bats. Stranger things have happened....