In an interesting look inside the Red Sox front office, Tim Britton of the Providence Journal reports on the team’s analytical upgrade efforts. While the organization has long been associated with number-crunching and information hoarding, it has only recently ramped up its full-time staff to launch a new database effort and keep pace with other clubs. It’s an interesting look at the process behind and purposes of the team’s next steps in analytics.
Here’s more from Boston and the rest of the AL East:
- In a look at Red Sox star Mookie Betts, Alex Speier of the Boston Globe delves into the role of off-field earning opportunities in determining the contractual path of Betts and other young stars. “[Getting endorsements] kind of eliminates things I’ve wondered as far as contracts go and the business part of the game,” says Betts. “[But] everything I can ever desire is going to start from me taking care of business on the field.” Whether that precludes a long-term deal — or, at least, drives up the potential price — remains to be seen.
- Sandy Leon seems on track to open the season with the lion’s share of the time behind the dish for the Red Sox, skipper John Farrell told reporters including Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald (via Twitter). But the manager made clear that he doesn’t intend to rely too heavily on any one man at the catching position, suggesting it’ll be a fairly evenly shared platoon situation between Leon and Christian Vasquez — at least to start the season.
- Star Blue Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson took the field in Grapefruit League action for the first time yesterday, as MLB.com’s Paul Hagen writes. All indications were that his calf issue didn’t hold him back, so it seems that Toronto can still look forward to Donaldson’s presence on the Opening Day roster.
- Rays righty Brad Boxberger isn’t going to be ready for Opening Day, but does hope to be contributing in the majors during the month of April, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets. His lat issue will still require at least a week-long layoff before he beings a new throwing program.
- The career of former top Rays prospect Tim Beckham has continued its roller-coaster path, Topkin writes. After a rough end to 2016, Beckham now seems ascendant yet again, with a strong showing in spring and unexpected opportunity at shortstop with Matt Duffy still on ice. Beckham is drawing rave reviews from manager Kevin Cash and veteran players for his commitment and performance, perhaps suggesting there’s still some hope the 27-year-old can turn the corner at the game’s highest level.
“Beckham is drawing rave reviews”
Nothing about defense though.
It…BEGINS
It…PROBABLY WON’T END.
Beckham is no Pete O’Brien with the glove.
p.s. From his quote, Kevin Cash obviously follows MLBTR.
Either that or Jeff Todd is messing with us.
Haha!
He’ll never be a great defender at SS, but if he can play a passable backup SS for short periods of time he has some pretty solid value.
With these long bullpens teams are running out there every night if you have a guy who can be your backup SS, play corner IF, and even emergency OF (they’re trying to get his feet wet in the OF this spring), that buys you some significant roster flexibility.
Especially if that player can actually hit a little bit.
How did the rave reviews joke even start? I saw it referenced many times after but missed the original story.
a post about Peter obrien that said he didn’t draw rave reviews for his defense, and somebody commented 3 times he didn’t draw rave reviews if I remember correctly
The commenting function on here was really buggy for a while, so the comment must have triple posted. Poor guy hasn’t been back since the whole thing started, as far as I know.
The Rays picking Beckham over Posey is what literally caused the Giants 3 titles to happen.
Tampa, where the Giants were doomed to move to in 1992, helped them to their only titles in SF.
Funny how things shake out…..
I am eternally grateful for that missed draft by the Rays.
It may even have caused those 3 titles figuratively.
Yeah not like Bumgarner literally caused any of those titles.
Especially with Posey playing at Florida State just a few hours away…
A lot of people forget just how close the Giants came to going to TB.
Hard to believe Gordon Beckham is only the second most disappointing Beckham to be drafted in the first round of the 2008 draft.
literally laughed out loud at that, very nice
Economically laughed at loud at that
lol
So I played baseball in GA when Tim and Gordon were playing baseball there. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why Tim was drafted so high. It was mind blown. 1st overall? what a joke. With that said, the fact that he hasn’t come close to living up to a 1st overall pick, makes him the most disappointing Beckham in the draft as of today (to me). I mean he hasn’t put up anything fielding or hitting that made any sort of impact for his team. Now don’t get me wrong, gordon wasn’t very good for his pro career. lol Just tim was the worse of the two in my opinion. both, disappointments. .
Gordon Beckham had a strong rookie year but the league caught up to him and he never adjusted back. Tim was probably picked over Posey for the same reason the Padres picked Matt Bush first overall – signability/money issues.
Probably, though it’s fun to see that Posey received just $50k more than Beckham on his signing bonus.