Fair enough. Seemed like a pretty big deal to me, though. I can't think of a time when anyone thought the Red Sox had the best overall prospect in the game.
It's a huge deal.
Devers surprises me the most. He really hasn't done much this year, but I guess he still looks good despite the numbers? I know he's young, but that's still nice. Apparently Kopech looks amazing but hasn't had much game time at all. Crazy.
Help me out. What do you see? K-rate seems good, walks are up but he's in A+ ball. What else?
Per Speier:
He started the season with a terrible BABIP (unclear how much was bad luck and how much was just not hitting the ball well, but it was down around like .150 or something ridiculous). Since the end of May he's been hitting really well.
Yeah, he isn't putting up huge offensive numbers but he is holding his own in high Single A as a 19 year old and that is pretty impressive (it is sometimes about projection more than numbers). He also doesn't have an excessive number of strikeouts, which can be a red flag.
He dropped from 18th in the preseason rankings to 41st now, so it's true that his 2016 season might be considered a disappointment. As BMHH notes, however, there's some cause for optimism that it was an adjustment period he has worked through (or maybe just a slump). Even if it's more than that, however, it's pretty impressive for a 19-year old infielder to be posting a league-average OPS in his first half-season in High-A ball. Devers probably doesn't have the high-end upside that Espinoza does, but he's significantly more likely than Espinoza to actually make it to Boston and have an impact.
That's 6ish good weeks, but it's all still early and it works for me. Plus he's young, like maufman says. Sounds good!
If the Sox have any intention of bringing Moncada up this year, they're going to have to move him off of 2b soon.
It'll be interesting to see what they do with him this month. In 2014 it seemed like they threw Betts into the OF without a ton of games there, but they weren't going hard at a playoff spot at that point.
FWIW--Bogaerts played only a handful of games at 3B in AAA in 2013 before getting called up. In the end, it's unlikely that a switch like that results in a great-fielding 3Bman immediately. But I bet the coaches *can* tell pretty quickly if he will be adequate/non-disastrous.
It would be shocking, and borderline historic, for Moncada to be traded.
Nick Cafardo was bitching about this all the way back in February, and the Media forum goons were all over him for it:
Not that you're bitching about it, of course.
I'm surprised they haven't started mixing in some games at 3rd, we should have an opening there next year, unless you think Panda gets his act together this off season. Maybe a few games in LF wouldn't hurt also.
The word down here in Greenville is that the douche factor was very high with him upon arrival. They attribute a lot of his turnaround from a horrid first half to Drive coach Darren Fenster.
Apologies to you because my criticism isn't aimed at you, but at the author. That article is garbage. "Trades of highly ranked prospects are super rare! But here's a half dozen that have happened in the last couple years...."
Early in t he season, and I can't find where i had these stats, I'm sure they were on baseball reference but I can't find them. So I'm going by an old post I made.
I disagree. All of the top-10 prospects since 2000 is something on the order of 160 prospects (something like because some guys will have made that list more than once before aging out). I'd imagine that that's a lower rate than, say, all prospects listed in the various Top 100 lists, but I'd love to actually see numbers to see if my intuition is well placed.
He also has Benny Baseball at 38, which is 7 spots higher than Julio Tehran, who Michael Felger types want to trade for him.
I certainly don't think it is a slam dunk trade. Urias will need to be protected for at least a couple more seasons innings wise (yet to break 100IP in a season) during which time Moncada could be putting up significantly higher WAR. Now if you want to talk about Benintendi for Urias (just 2 spots lower) then sign me up.
Pedey hasn't played a full season since 2013 and has missed significant time in three out of the past six seasons. Keeping Moncada at 2B until they are absolutely forced to move him elsewhere isn't the worst strategy.
Why would you stick somebody who's athletic enough to play second over at first? It seems like a waste.
If Moncada continues to develop in the way he has, he's not going to be blocked by Travis Shaw at 3B.
