Red Sox GM Ben Cherington chatted with reporters just minutes ago and it’s no surprise to hear his admission that the club was not expecting Xander Bogaerts to struggle to this extent in 2014 (via Tim Britton of The Providence Journal on Twitter). Still just 21, Bogaerts has slashed .226/.293/.339 in 472 plate appearances this season. Earlier this week, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe wrote that the struggles of Bogaerts and Jackie Bradley Jr. have left many around the game wondering how good each player truly is. Here’s more out of Boston..
- Peter Gammons (Twitter links) cautions not to read much into waiver trade bites on Bogaerts, Clay Buchholz, Brock Holt, Joe Kelly, Yoenis Cespedes, Christian Vazquez, Burke Badenhop, Mike Napoli, Will Middlebrooks, Daniel Nava, Junichi Tazawa, and Koji Uehara.
- Cherington said that he won’t be resistant to trade prospects this off-season, “for the right guy,” tweets Jason Mastrodonato of The Springfield Republican. He added that the club has never been opposed to dealing prospects, but such decisions are “contextual,” tweets Alex Speier of WEEI.com.
- The GM wouldn’t give much on the team’s interest in Rusney Castillo. “We are one of many teams interested. That’s all I’ll say,” the GM said, according to Joe McDonald of ESPNBoston.com (on Twitter).
Organizations and FO’s often build an image with prospects, and the national mindset follows for all their young players. I see that with both the Red Sox and Cubs at the top of the current list.
Meanwhile a guy such as Rizzo with the Nationals scouts and FO that have done a superb job with players other then the gimme’s of Strasburg and Harper – who aren’t even their best home grown players – are often overlooked. You can add the Braves organization as well, which like the Cardinals drafts low year after year, but spits out quality players regularly. The Marlins, Royals, Mainers, (now) Twins……..
I couldn’t agree more. Twins, Nats and Cards (in no order) have the best systems to me, I love their systems overall but especially their arms. Royals, Mariners, Cubs, Pit, Mets, Astros, Rays, Orioles and Sox all have great building blocks. The Braves though historically are better than most of the teams I mentioned at developing talent. I value quality and quantity young flame throwing arms in the minor leagues.
Or wondering how good Boston’s farm and prospects truly are.
Cue the “all Sox prospects are overrated” and “But I thought JBJ was supposed to be the next TED WILLIAMS” snark comments.
I had a guy try to tell me that Red Sox fans thought Felix Doubront was supposed to be the next Pedro and I didn’t really know what to say.
“No” would be a good starting point
I wanted to say, “I think you mean Rubby de la Rosa,” but I didn’t want to encourage him.
Doubrant has a lot of talent, you don’t stay with a guy as long as thre Red Sox did if he wasn’t talented. His problem is between his ears and I would hardly be surprised if he figured it out at some point and became a solid middle of the rotation guy.
I dont know one Red Sox fan who ever thought that. They looked at him as a 4-5 starter in the rotation
OK, he’s not.
Not just the Sox. People outside of the east coast think all east coast prospects are hyped.
People are generally surprised to learn that the Yankees even have minor league affiliates, I think.
Red Sox prospects overrated? No way!
Yeah I’m sure every scouting service is wrong about them having a consensus top-5 system.
The Sox snark isn’t what bothers me. It’s the laziness of it. JBJ and Boegarts have been up for awhile now. Let’s not lump them into the same snark category as the plethora of actual prospects who haven’t had the chance to fail yet. Let’s snark right people.
I saw the national rating services with Boegarts rated as a Top 5 prospect
And that was of all minor league prospects, not just the Red Sox.
“Cherington will trade prospects for the right guy” uh oh here come the Stanton trade proposals.
So, hopefully a bit of a different angle on the question:
Does Bogaerts’ being in the Majors and struggling like this help him or hurt him moving forward?
Meh. Bogaerts will probably explode next year. Too many scouts said too many good things about him. He’s got every talent you need. Just needs to settle down. And also maybe move off of SS. Bradley, on the other hand, people were at least a little mixed on offensively.
“Too many scouts said too many good things about him.” That’s one of the reasons why people think he’s overrated.
Not just Red Sox scouts. Everyone. It’s possible they’re all wrong, but very very unlikely (much less likely than he’s just having a little problem adjusting to MLB).
He’s rated so highly in the eyes of scouts because he dominated virtually every stop in the minors, while often playing against guys 4 or 5 years older than him. He might not become the player scouts expected him to be, but he absolutely deserved his #2 ranking entering the season.
While doing an Orioles game earlier this year, Jim Palmer referred to Bogaerts batting technique as “a right handed hitting Robinson Cano”.
Xander will be fine. He showed last year that he has all the tools necessary to succeed. He needs to adjust to the way pitchers have been approaching him, and more importantly, ignore that big wall in left field. He’s admitted that his infatuation with the Monster has made him try to pull the ball. Once he gets back to using all fields his should be ok. The big question is… what position will he end up at? He hasn’t been great at SS, but he was pretty awful at 3rd. IMO he should stay at SS as long as it isn’t a total disaster.
The reason you’re giving is the reason most prospects fail. Because they cannot adjust to the big league pitchers’ adjustment.
You can’t just dismiss it lightly. It will decide whether he is a regular major leaguer, or a failed prospect.
That’s a fair point, but few busts start and play well on a world series team at age 21. All the tools are there and so is the makeup. He could be a bust, sure, but IMO he will figure it out.
Sure, but my point wasn’t if he will be a bust or a superstar… it’s just the reason to decide that will be him adjusting to pitchers that have adjusted to him in the bigs.
I remember projections prior to the year for Bogaerts to be a top 5 SS this season. Those were the days.
It’s not just Bogaerts and JBJ…..
Exactly what is all the fuss over Middlebrooks?
And lets see how that Iglesias guy that went to Detroit performs when he comes back from that injury.
Iglesias was always billed as an all defense and no offense guy. He will never be much more than a .250 hitter in majors
So we are criticizing a 21 year old rookie based on 3/4 of a season? If my memory serves me, didn’t Pedroia struggle big time when he first came up? Calm down people Xander will be just fine.