Spring Training News
- Thread starter staz
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Well, sure, but in the context that he's a young, highly regarded prospect with expectations to be an everyday MLB first baseman at some point soon, I think the spring training start is, at the very least, allowing us to "be excited" a little earlier than we might otherwise. He's not giving anyone any reason to think he'll suddenly stink.
Killjoy!!
Part of what makes Spring Training fun is when a touted hitting prospect launches a few out of the yard, especially when said prospect had his promising first AAA season cut short due to a freak injury. Sure, the predictive value is very low, but that doesn't make it any less interesting or exciting.
Looking forward to seeing what he can do at McCoy.
He's also a fairly important piece of the team's decision-making going forward. The best-case scenario for the team involves a) Mitch Moreland and Pablo Sandoval being decent options for 2017 and b) Sam Travis and Rafael Devers being ready to hold down 1B and 3B, respectively, as early as Opening Day 2018 (with what's left of Sandoval in the mix, as well).
If b) doesn't look likely, it probably means dipping back into free agency for another expensive long-term contract. But if we can consider the corners taken care of cheaply for a few years, it really opens up our ability to spend on pitching and lock up our young stars.
Also, the only real flaw in Travis' offensive game is ISO, unless the K spike in his short 2016 AAA stint lasts. He walks, he makes contact, he hits line drives.
The hope was that he'd mature into power in his mid 20s, which would turn him into a respectable corner IF bat. We may be watching that happen.
The hope was that he'd mature into power in his mid 20s, which would turn him into a respectable corner IF bat. We may be watching that happen.
Nobody should have any reason to expect that he'll suddenly stink.
But his performance in ST still means nothing and doesn't warrant excitement...or do I have to bring up Grady Sizemore again?
I would disagree that excitement isn't warranted. As long as it's based in reality and not on single-game events, and I believe most here are basing their excitement on Travis's past performance and bounce back from ACL surgery, which is reality. His home run is just the most recent data point, and further evidence that he's closer to being fully recovered and back on the road to being the starting first baseman for the Boston Red Sox in the near future.
The move to sign Mitch Moreland to a bargain-basement deal also adds to the excitement, because lets face it, Mitch Moreland is kinda boring. If Travis mashes AAA pitching for half a season in Pawtucket we could easily see him in the lineup come July or August, and that is exciting. It's why we watch, or why I watch anyways.
And I hope I don't come off as piling on. I totally get where you're coming from. There are Grady Sizemores every spring, and I'm sure we'll see our fair share this year. Gary Sanchez is a great example from last year, but in the other direction. Spring training doesn't really mean anything, it's just practice. But I think each step in Sam Travis's recovery is worth getting excited about.
ETA: Yeah, I know, Sanchez isn't a perfect example, it was just the first thing that came to my mind and I didn't feel like doing research.
Sam Travis is not a flash in the pan. Thanks to the BTN I was able to watch a number of games during the 2 year World Series run (I am an alum).
Highlights from his Junior year:
2014 - JUNIOR
Second Team All-America selection by Baseball America, Perfect Game, Louisville Slugger and ABCA/Rawlings ... Big Ten Player of the Year ... First Team All-Big Ten ... among B1G players, ranked first in hits (85) and RBI (58), second in runs (55), home runs (12), total bases (141) at bats (245) and slugging percentage (.576), third in total plate appearances (275), fourth in batting average (.347), tied for fifth in doubles (16) and sixth in on base percentage ... hit .500 during 10-game hit streak (3/26-4/12) with five home runs, 18 RBI and 13 runs ... delivered game-winning double in eighth inning vs. MSU (4/20) ... went 4-for-5 with career-high three doubles against Louisville (3/19) ... hit two home runs at Iowa (4/5), his first career multi-HR game ... second two HR game came vs. Morehead State (4/11).
He was Big Ten player POY over his teammate Kyle Schwarber.
Started all 65 games and batted third in each despite a broken hamate bone his Sophomore year.
Big 10 freshman of the year and first team Freshman All American.
I've been excited since they signed him.
Highlights from his Junior year:
2014 - JUNIOR
Second Team All-America selection by Baseball America, Perfect Game, Louisville Slugger and ABCA/Rawlings ... Big Ten Player of the Year ... First Team All-Big Ten ... among B1G players, ranked first in hits (85) and RBI (58), second in runs (55), home runs (12), total bases (141) at bats (245) and slugging percentage (.576), third in total plate appearances (275), fourth in batting average (.347), tied for fifth in doubles (16) and sixth in on base percentage ... hit .500 during 10-game hit streak (3/26-4/12) with five home runs, 18 RBI and 13 runs ... delivered game-winning double in eighth inning vs. MSU (4/20) ... went 4-for-5 with career-high three doubles against Louisville (3/19) ... hit two home runs at Iowa (4/5), his first career multi-HR game ... second two HR game came vs. Morehead State (4/11).
He was Big Ten player POY over his teammate Kyle Schwarber.
Started all 65 games and batted third in each despite a broken hamate bone his Sophomore year.
Big 10 freshman of the year and first team Freshman All American.
I've been excited since they signed him.
I don't see the Grady Sizemore comparison. Sizemore had microfracture surgery and back surgery within a 7 month period and was 31 years old when he signed with the Sox. He had already logged almost 10 years as a MLB player when he debuted for Boston in 2014. No doubt, he sucked. Travis is 23 and had ACL surgery, which does not compare to microfracture surgery, let alone having microfracture surgery 7 months prior to back surgery and attempting a comeback from both in an old body.
Anyway I, too, find myself excited about Travis and wonder what might happen with him if Hanley can't throw a baseball more than 60 feet before the end of camp. Might the Sox need another first baseman, or would they let Moreland have the position, platoon be damned?
Anyway I, too, find myself excited about Travis and wonder what might happen with him if Hanley can't throw a baseball more than 60 feet before the end of camp. Might the Sox need another first baseman, or would they let Moreland have the position, platoon be damned?
Listen, there's no reason not to be excited about a young prospect. However, that's not the point.
Also, picking apart the differences between Player A off injury in ST and Player B off injury in ST is the pure essence of nitpicking. We all know the Travis and Sizemore situations aren't the same. The point is to not get excited over spring training results in games where you don't know what players are giving 100%, if any pitchers are experimenting/rehabbing/working on something specific, any and all kinds of strategy isn't a factor, and the games literally do not matter.
Be excited because Sam Travis looks like he's recovered and he could fill a spot of potential need soon. Don't be excited because he hits .330 with power for a month where the results have been proven hundreds of times over to be completely irrelevant.
While I appreciate your position, I disagree that there isn't a difference between the two players. You can continue to say the same stuff over again, but it's not going to change my position that there are not fundamental differences between Travis and Sizemore - age and injuries. And I'm gonna go ahead and be excited about him for whatever reason I feel like being excited, because that's part of the joy of watching and following the sport for me. He's hitting ropes in ST. That's exciting, because that's what I am seeing right now. It doesn't mean I have him penciled into Cooperstown.
To be fair, while we shouldn't allow ourselves to get carried away by a handful of spring ABs, it is not true that the results of spring training have been shown to be "completely irrelevant." It has been shown repeatedly that some very specific numbers could have some slight predictive/inferential power even in small samples:
http://www.espn.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/77800/which-spring-training-stats-actually-matter
http://www.fangraphs.com/plus/a-few-cases-where-spring-training-stats-might-matter/
http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/spring-training-stats-that-matter/
A big thing that these articles tend to have in common is, not surprisingly, that they look at stats that have relatively low sample size requirements for stability, which tend to be rate stats around plate discipline. Here you can refer to one of my all-time favorite baseball resources:
http://www.fangraphs.com/library/principles/sample-size/
While the fact that Travis has hit one or two home runs in a handful of plate appearances doesn't mean much, if his 3/2 BB/K ratio holds for the rest of spring training, that WOULD be something to potentially get excited about.
Do you want to show us where people are quoting Travis' specific stats and projecting them to success at the MLB level in 2017? Because I've missed it if it's happened here on this thread.
I'd imagine even there we wouldn't see Travis in Boston till summer. Still got Brock Holt in a pinch if needed.
Did you hear? Sam Travis showed up in the best shape of his life.
"Noticeably larger biceps," it says.
"Noticeably larger biceps," it says.
I think now's a good time to discuss his 140 wRC+ with puny arms from Lowell through Double-A in various stages of age-advancedness. A dumbass scout called him "the next Paul Goldschmidt" (he did steal 19 bases), and observers at Indiana claimed he could outslug Kyle Schwarber in BP. He is the Greek God of Comps, and I'm rooting for him.
Do you want to make more irrelevant responses, or are you okay with just this one?
No, it was a bad example. And it was pointed out that it was a bad example. That's all. I'm sure we all got the point of it, though, and I'm sure we could all name plenty of valid examples given a moment to think about it.
I don't think there's anyone here that really thinks that a spring training boom is necessarily evidence that the player is going to be great, either. The guy is doing well, it's getting noticed and it's worth talking about what his future may or may not hold. This seems like the appropriate place for that.
I think everyone here understands the very limited utility of ST numbers. It seems unnecessary though to get in someone's junk about noticing a guy is doing well.
Performance can be some solid indication that someone is over a particular injury.
Since Travis is a highly regarded prospect coming off a serious, season ending injury, I'm happy to limit my happiness to his apparent good health, which restores him again to highly regarded prospect. Just as Sandoval appears to be healthy, so while his ST numbers themselves might not mean anything predictive, his health means he might return to being a useful baseball player. Similarly, Rodriguez and hopefully Pomeranz and Wright.
That's more than nothing.
Not quite.
Performance can be some solid indication that someone is over a particular injury.
Since Travis is a highly regarded prospect coming off a serious, season ending injury, I'm happy to limit my happiness to his apparent good health, which restores him again to highly regarded prospect. Just as Sandoval appears to be healthy, so while his ST numbers themselves might not mean anything predictive, his health means he might return to being a useful baseball player. Similarly, Rodriguez and hopefully Pomeranz and Wright.
That's more than nothing.
I'm really interested in the fact that our entire outfield is a) listed between 5'9" and 5'10", and b) has a good chance to be the best unit in the game, health permitting.
Looking around the league, they are really challenged only by the Angels (Trout, Calhoun, Maybin) and Pirates (Marte, McCutchen, Polanco). I guess the Marlins (Stanton, Yelich, Ozuna) could be pretty great, as could the Nats (Harper, Werth, Eaton), if an elderly Werth can bounce back at all.
This is more of a question than news. I have been looking in box scores to see whether Wright has begun pitching in a game yet. So far, I have not seen him make an appearance.
The latest article I could find (3 weeks old now) said he might pitch off the mound in "one week" (i.e. two weeks ago). Has anyone heard anything more recent than this?
The latest article I could find (3 weeks old now) said he might pitch off the mound in "one week" (i.e. two weeks ago). Has anyone heard anything more recent than this?
If you google "Stephen Wright Red Sox" and click News, you get a bunch of articles: https://www.google.com/search?q=stephen+wright+red+sox&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#q=steven+wright+red+sox&tbm=nws&*
Thanks everyone. Yes indeed, Wright did pitch today and did quite well.
Two innings with no hits, runs, walks, or strikeouts. Did anyone see the game?
http://boston.cbslocal.com/2017/03/13/steven-wright-makes-promising-spring-debut-for-red-sox/
Two innings with no hits, runs, walks, or strikeouts. Did anyone see the game?
http://boston.cbslocal.com/2017/03/13/steven-wright-makes-promising-spring-debut-for-red-sox/
The MLB app just sent me an alert saying Owens, Johnson and Workman were optioned to Pawtucket, but I don't see a corresponding news story posted anywhere?
Edit: it's on twitter. Devers, Procyshen and Lake also headed to minor league camp.
Edit: it's on twitter. Devers, Procyshen and Lake also headed to minor league camp.
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He made the change about a month back.
Buckley: Jackie Bradley Jr. changes number from 25 to 19 but won’t alter hard-working attitude
That's too bad. I was a big fan of last year's Killer B math.
2 x 25 = 50
This was a fun read: NYT collects reaction to Chris Sale.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/21/sports/baseball/chris-sale-red-sox-yankees.html?hpw&rref=sports&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/21/sports/baseball/chris-sale-red-sox-yankees.html?hpw&rref=sports&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well
I liked this part the best...
"If the Yankees had four everyday impact players, under age 27, making less than $10 million combined — as Boston does in Mookie Betts, Jackie Bradley Jr., Xander Bogaerts and Andrew Benintendi — they could have sacrificed budding stars for Sale.
They don’t. Instead, the Yankees have a center fielder, Jacoby Ellsbury, making $21 million a year as a reward for winning championships in Boston."
Mine was:
"...the All-Stars Steven Wright and Drew Pomeranz; and the promising Eduardo Rodriguez..."
Sounds like Benintendi may end up batting 3rd, per a tweet I saw this morning, in order to break up Bogaerts and Betts. But the lineup yesterday (against a RHP) was:
2b Pedroia
LF Benintendi
RF Betts
DH Ramirez
1b Moreland
SS Bogaerts
CB Bradley
3b Sandoval
C Swihart
That seems like a good L-R mixture. R-L-R-R-L-R-L-S-S
I think that lineup makes a lot of sense, and should produce a ton of runs, even without Ortiz. (I can't believe Ortiz isn't playing anymore....)
2b Pedroia
LF Benintendi
RF Betts
DH Ramirez
1b Moreland
SS Bogaerts
CB Bradley
3b Sandoval
C Swihart
That seems like a good L-R mixture. R-L-R-R-L-R-L-S-S
I think that lineup makes a lot of sense, and should produce a ton of runs, even without Ortiz. (I can't believe Ortiz isn't playing anymore....)
I'm hopeful that Moreland will be productive, at least against RHPs. But it's not exactly heartening to see him batting ahead of X, regardless of the pitching match-up. I'd prefer Pedey-X-Ben10-Betts-Hanley-Moreland, etc.
During the Franconia Administration, it came out that Pedey HATES to bat leadoff.
His stats batting leadoff last season say, "Bring the hate."
Clarification: Bat him 1st and let him hate it.
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Lifetime stats in the leadoff spot: .300/.354/.423/.777
Not as good as his numbers from spots 2-4, but still, pretty solid for a leadoff guy.
Scott Lauber ESPN Staff Writer
Xander Bogaerts doesn't conceal his preferred batting-order spot -- "I like 2 ... 2 or 3" -- but knows he likely will hit lower for Red Sox, who want a left-handed hitter in the 2-hole between Dustin Pedroia and Mookie Betts. (On Thursday, Bogaerts batted sixth.) "It is what it is," he said. "As long as I'm in the lineup, I guess."
Xander Bogaerts doesn't conceal his preferred batting-order spot -- "I like 2 ... 2 or 3" -- but knows he likely will hit lower for Red Sox, who want a left-handed hitter in the 2-hole between Dustin Pedroia and Mookie Betts. (On Thursday, Bogaerts batted sixth.) "It is what it is," he said. "As long as I'm in the lineup, I guess."
Pedey himself has said he has no idea where that idea came from and it isn't true.
Franconia himself said Pedey hated it, but didn't want to make a change at that point, "because we're winning."
If I were in Pedey's spot right now, I'd claim I was misquoted and wonder where the press got that nonsense story. Because nothing good can come from commenting on it.
If I were in Pedey's spot right now, I'd claim I was misquoted and wonder where the press got that nonsense story. Because nothing good can come from commenting on it.
My only problem with batting Pedroia leadoff is that the #1 guy should ideally be one of the best three hitters on the team, and Pedroia is only one of the best three hitters on the team if Bogaerts has already hit his ceiling and Benintendi isn't as good as he looked last year. In an ideal lineup Pedroia is probably batting fifth, but really the difference between an ideal lineup and the one the Sox are probably going to put out there is pretty minor.
I am worried about Bogaerts' response to being bumped down, though. "As long as I'm in the lineup, I guess"? Hopefully that didn't sound as bad when he said it as it looks on paper.
I am worried about Bogaerts' response to being bumped down, though. "As long as I'm in the lineup, I guess"? Hopefully that didn't sound as bad when he said it as it looks on paper.
Bogie's not a whiner so I do think his comments were more about surprise than grumbling. Why hadn't Farrell addressed this I wonder. He specifically said that Farrell hadn't talked to him yet.
There was speculation on twitter that he was being punished for participating in WBC, but that can't be, right?
2 Silver Sluggers in a row, batting 2nd or 3rd for two year straight <his struggles in 2nd half noted> I just find it a little curious.