2002 GCL Red Sox
From SoSH
2002 Gulf Coast League Red Sox Season Ending Report
The GCL season started out abysmally, as the team lost most of the first 12-15 games they played while averaging 4 errors a game. They didn't field, hit, or pitch well. So, the 26-34 record is actually a good indicator of how things went after that.
The executive summary of the GCL season:
The players drew a LOT of walks, even the one's who hit stupifyingly awfully.
The pitchers were generally solid but entirely unspectacular.
Now for the detail:
Unfortunately, not much of the improvement during the second half of the GCL season could be attributed to the 2002 high school draftees. As you can see from Philly's numbers, and as I pointed out in another thread, Charles Spann, our 5th round draft pick, who was significantly overdrafted based on BA's pre-draft rankings and overpaid relative to other 5th round picks, improved significantly over the final month of the season. BA recently backtracked on their pre-draft ranking, claiming that Spann was deemed to be a "tough sign" and that he has a "hitch" in his swing that caused scouts to overlook him, but that the "hitch," "hasn't caused him any problems yet." That's hard to believe given his .222 / .271 / .379 line, even if he did hit .280 / .330 / .440 over his final 82 at bats.
Bianucci, Moss, Cronkhite, and Ciofrone all pretty much sucked both before and after the cutoff point provided by Philly. Devoris Williams, who was a draft-and-follow from 2001 singed by the new scouting director in 2002, also blew chunks. Interestingly, however, all of these players had well above average walk rates, even though they showed no ability to hit the ball with any consistency or authority! Clearly they ready Ted Williams' book, and took pitches, --- perhaps to their short-term detriment, and hopefully to their long-term benefit? The new owners didn't have any more luck with their pitching signees, as their first Dominican to reach the states Olivio Astacio, proved no match for Danny Almonte, let alone GCL hitters.
So, where were the success stories? Well, they were the product of Dan Duquette, the GM who was exiled because his farm system had only been productive enough to land a hall-of-fame shortstop, an all-star third-baseman, a left-handed pitcher who played a major role for the team in 2002, two all-star closers (Urbina, Aguilera), and one of the best pitchers in history (Pedro for Pavano).
