Yeah, the traditional scouting and the advanced metrics guys had a completely different opinion about Dustin Pedroia.
Again, look at his MiL stats. Sometimes guys are good.
Noted on Lansford.
After being converted to a reliever at 35 years old and prior to coming to Boston, Koji posted a 2.36 ERA, 11.1 K/9 and 10.3 K/BB in 145 appearances over three seasons. He was already a stud when he got here.
I mentioned Jefferson on the first page. The only thing that might prevent him is that the year prior to joining the Sox, he hit .327 / .392 / .543 (935 OPS / 138 OPS+).
Being undrafted is definitely a point in his favor for this exercise. My issue with including him would be that once he was in the system he very quickly became a known prospect. He started strong in A ball and advanced to AA Bristol in his second year. He was second on the team in AB's and games played. That was no small accomplishment for a 19 YO in his second year of pro ball. He advanced to AA the next year, was the primary catcher and got a cup of coffee in Boston later in the year. He improved the next year in Pawtucket and when Allenson went down basically took over as the primary catcher and hit in line with his minor league progressions. When he broke into Boston he was viewed as the catcher of the future. No one was expecting him to be Fisk, but I don't recall anyone being shocked that he was a solid hitter.
His 2018 season was totally in line with everything else he did. If you want to nominate him solely for his hot 2018 WS performance over 4 games, you'd have to nominate JBJ for his 2018 ACLS performance.
That's why I didn't add him. They signed him as a FA because Seattle had Edgar Martinez - there was no question he was a good hitter.
I thought of Adair also. There was a game on August 20, 1967 that was kind of "his game." The Sox fell behind the Angels 8-0 early. They came back in the middle innings until Adair singled in Dalton Jones in the bottom of the sixth to tie it at 8. Adair homered in the bottom of the eighth and they won it 9-8. Interesting that Yaz followed Adair in the lineup and was HBP after Adair's home run. Back then, superstar or not, you got drilled if the pitcher gave up a big HR.
Holy shit! I posted that on the way out the door and haven't been able to check in since then. Thanks for starting this thread (I actually forgot all about it). I'm overwhelmed with all this, but definitely fun to check in all these guys that were all easy to root for. Some are definitely amongst my all time favorites: Wakefield, Gordon, Oki. I'm still unsure about Ortiz but I get it... he still had a pretty good pedigree, just his stock took a dive before he got here.
Both Youk and Boggs got late starts in the majors not because they weren't well regarded prospects or because they weren't performing in the minors. Both - and particularly Boggs - were simply kept in the minors for too long.
Boggs was certainly kept down for far too long. I don't know that I agree about Youk. He debuted at 25 after spending three seasons in the minors (1434 PA through the 2004 season). For contrast, Dustin Pedroia spent a similar amount of time before his debut (1216 PA). Youk's start was only "late" because he was drafted after his senior year of college rather than his junior year like many top prospects (such as Pedroia). He debuted in 2004 because Bill Mueller went on the DL for a couple weeks and did well enough to make the post-season roster. But because he had Mueller and Millar blocking his path, he was forced to ride the Pawtucket shuttle for the first couple years before he became a full time big leaguer.
Doesn't virtually everyone who gets to the majors have a strong minor-league track record?
Not really. A lot of players improve in the minors so have a few terrible years prior to 1 or 2 good ones. Do Christian Vazquez and Travis Shaw have good minor league track records? I don't think so, though I guess one could argue yes. Michael Chavis was also terrible for awhile before busting out.
Wasn't Fossas basically a LOOGY those years? Maybe I should look this up but by memory, Fossas was always able to get lefties out.
His first season less so. The following 3, very much so. His 2nd season he had 60 appearances and 29.2 ip.
He was. Four seasons with the Sox, 239 appearances, 160.1 innings.
