So you type all of that out but then add that it's not a bad thing if he's moved to left field. Way to cover your basis.
Holt to concussion DL and Smith to DL. Swihart and Noe Ramirez recalled.
- Thread starter RedOctober3829
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My problem is that he needs development both behind the plate and with the bat, and his bat is not advanced enough that you need to find him a position. He is projected for something between a .290 and .310 wOBA this year. That's the territory of the bottom 10 full time OF in the league. Fine enough if he's all you got, but not special.
An OF with his minor league track record would not even be a prospect.
So my point is two-fold. First, Blake Swihart as a MLB LF is not a good bet to help the Red Sox win games. Because of that, I would rather have him working on his actual development as a catcher. Second, it's complete nonsense to take the argument of "barely functional breathing major leaguer is better than a prospect." That's fucking stupid because there are lower value players you can find for these roles.
It's not the end of the world but it strikes me as a short-sighted remedy to a roster construction problem of DD's own making. Namely, the roster and immediate depth was built with a heavy RHH bias, but he signed Chris Young anyway because...JBJ? When Castillo was just as much a question mark. Maybe Brennan Boesch becomes the LHH depth OF when he recovers from his wrist injury.
An OF with his minor league track record would not even be a prospect.
So my point is two-fold. First, Blake Swihart as a MLB LF is not a good bet to help the Red Sox win games. Because of that, I would rather have him working on his actual development as a catcher. Second, it's complete nonsense to take the argument of "barely functional breathing major leaguer is better than a prospect." That's fucking stupid because there are lower value players you can find for these roles.
It's not the end of the world but it strikes me as a short-sighted remedy to a roster construction problem of DD's own making. Namely, the roster and immediate depth was built with a heavy RHH bias, but he signed Chris Young anyway because...JBJ? When Castillo was just as much a question mark. Maybe Brennan Boesch becomes the LHH depth OF when he recovers from his wrist injury.
Exactly. If they do believe in him as a catching prospect then they are making some extremely questional moves at the expense of the major league roster, and the added value of that is very debatable.
That's why I feel they just don't believe it's going to happen with him behind the plate, it's the only conclusion that makes sense.
Bases.
It really boils down to this. The time for giving a good goddamn about Blake Swihart's value is over and the time for him helping the big club win games is here. He can do that as a catcher. He can do that as a left fielder. He can do that as both. I think that with a little bit of practice, he could do it at first or third.
Clearly the Red Sox disagree with you on whether he'll help the big club win games. As someone who shares their opinion, I would ask which of the available options you think is better?
Allen Craig is not on the 40 man and even if you think he's going to hit, his ability to cover ground in the outfield is questionable.
The guys who are on the 40 man are Bryce Brentz and Rusney Castillo. Castillo doesn't seem to be able to hit at all and Bryce Brentz doesn't have the approach at the plate that the Sox want. Brentz has one walk for every three strikeouts. With Swihart it's much closer to one walk for two strikeouts. That's minor league careers for both.
And that argument is being made where exactly?
If they've come to this conclusion then the answer is to trade him for someone who has reasonably predictive chance to give them what they need. Not to try to stick a square peg in a round whole and stall his development while offense in LF is not the problem for this team.
Where does your confidence bar come in on him being a positive WAR player in LF? Mine isn't very high and in that case I think this is extremely short sighted. They could go get a replacement level LH bat with a solid glove and let that guy and Young have a strict platoon.
Does the calculus on this change for any of the naysayers of after a couple of weeks on LF getting used to the wall the team feels comfortable with him catching? Enough that we don't have to see a Mendoza Line batting average up in a big spot?
That's where this could make sense from my perspective. It seems possible that Swihart could give essentially the same production in LF that the team got from Holt while replacing the worst bench player with Holt and (eventually) opening the ability to pinch bit for Hannigan or Vazquez if the situation calls for it. I'm not good enough with numbers to attempt a guess of what that's worth, but it's definitely got value as long as Swihart isn't notably worse than Holt.
That's where this could make sense from my perspective. It seems possible that Swihart could give essentially the same production in LF that the team got from Holt while replacing the worst bench player with Holt and (eventually) opening the ability to pinch bit for Hannigan or Vazquez if the situation calls for it. I'm not good enough with numbers to attempt a guess of what that's worth, but it's definitely got value as long as Swihart isn't notably worse than Holt.
For those who were suggesting this was a phantom DL stint, Brock is off to visit Michael Collins again, the concussion specialist in Pittsburg. He was experiencing dizziness after that defensive dive at second base, came in the next day and told the trainers, and when the whiplash symptoms did not ease the nausea and dizziness, they DL'd him.
I wonder what percentage of the times that fans are quick to dismiss a player's slide to simple suckitude the player turns out to have been injured.,
Every single bit of evidence... like "every single at bat" of a guy going 1 for 1 means he's going to the HoF.
This is simply not true. At most its based on recent events that are pretty unusual. one catcher whose defense is seen as generationally good; and another who has the capability to help the team *this* year helping out elsewhere. that says nothing about what they think about his long term prospects at catcher. or it says no more than what the yankees thought about yogi berra or what the Reds thought about Tony Perez as a first baseman while he played 3rd for several years until they moved Lee May; or what they Orioles thought about Bobby Grich until he became permanent at 2B after davey johnson got moved
i think the FO thought the Holt side of the platoon was suboptimal from the get-go. Partly because of his experiences as a 500 PA guy, and partly because it took away one of his biggest tools --versatility. Maybe it should ave been resolved earlier, but it wasn't. DD could sit there on his ass and cry in his cornflakes about how badly he sucks and fucked this up, but instead, he's trying something internal first that dosn;t weaken the team since Vazquez is there. if it fails either beacause swihart sucks in LF or vazquez puts up a 200 OPS, then its probably trade time.
not everything that happens today is a proclamation about 2018. it could actually be about today.
I think the idea that Swihart helps the team as a LF is the pint of contention. As Smas showed his wOBA projection is as one of the 10 worst outfielders in the league, and that's before you consider the probability of him being a subpar defender. If that also comes to fruition, then having him in LF undoubtably hurts the major league team and hurts his development as a catcher, and hurts his trade value, the latter if nothing else by eating up service time. Unless Swihart outperforms his projections, perhaps significantly, this experiment is stupid.
They should have just kept David Murphy Or similar available for free middling AAAA player (occasionally they turn into Troy O'Leary or Kevin Millar) as a 5th outfielder, and let Swihart catch full time in AAA.
They should have just kept David Murphy Or similar available for free middling AAAA player (occasionally they turn into Troy O'Leary or Kevin Millar) as a 5th outfielder, and let Swihart catch full time in AAA.
They have to believe in Swihart's bat. It sucks to see him rushed for the second season in a row (and playing out of position) but they've been right about a lot to begin this season so we can only wait and see. If he OPS's .850 vs. RHP, I assume this discussion, like the Hanley at 1b and Shaw at 3rd questions, will wither on the vine.
I disagree with the last sentence, although do agree that especially considering the service time issue combined with the fact that for this year Swihart is unlikely to be better than some of the other options that are available to the RS.
Considering a future roster that includes Vazquez and Swihart, the former a defensive standout and the latter who potentially is a ++ offensive catcher, it certainly makes sense in the long term to have Swihart play a second position. It is easy to envision a rotation in which Swihart is the #2 catcher and 4th outfielder. Combined with Holt's positional flexibility, the RS would basically be saving at least one roster spot. However, doing that this year with Swihart clearly still developing offensively and defensively while losing a year of player control does seem short sighted. I would have preferred Castillo to face major league breaking balls this unless the RS hand was forced with a catching injury or Swihart destroying AAA pitching.
Swihart's career split vs. RHP (207 AB, 2013-15): .295/.327/.430
Young's 3-year split vs. RHP (603 AB, 2013-15): .211/.269/.381
Castillo's career split vs. RHP (213 AB, 2013-15): .239/.283/.347
Those lines right there are the reason why they're burning Swihart's 6th year of club control at this moment in time. Holt got whiplash, and the best option to replace his offense for the time being against RHP is Blake Swihart.
There's a lot of prior decisions that could have gone differently, but the reality is that the Orioles aren't fading, the Yankees are streaking, and this is Ortiz's last season playing baseball.
This is a win-now decision.
Young's 3-year split vs. RHP (603 AB, 2013-15): .211/.269/.381
Castillo's career split vs. RHP (213 AB, 2013-15): .239/.283/.347
Those lines right there are the reason why they're burning Swihart's 6th year of club control at this moment in time. Holt got whiplash, and the best option to replace his offense for the time being against RHP is Blake Swihart.
There's a lot of prior decisions that could have gone differently, but the reality is that the Orioles aren't fading, the Yankees are streaking, and this is Ortiz's last season playing baseball.
This is a win-now decision.
I still have a hard time believing thatbSwihart catching 50 games and playing 60 games as the 4th outfielder has more value than what A team planning to have Swihart catch 110 games would give up in a trade.
To which the Sox FO says, "We prefer a LF who we think can have some success against major league RH pitchers."
I agree, and thought the plan to convert Swihart to LF was idiotic.
But Holt wasn't injured then, and I expect the team made its decision to convert Swihart as a contingency play in case Holt would be needed as a long-term middle infield sub in case of injury to Pedroia and (especially) Bogaerts. I've come to think of the team's plan for Swihart this season mostly as a no-confidence vote in Deven Marrero.
And really, the time to have traded Swihart, in order to maximize his value in trade as a starting catcher, would have been last winter. However, back in December there were still too many questions to answer, to risk depleting the organization's catching depth so markedly. Some of those magic-8 ball questions have been answered, but now it's too late.
- Will Vazquez recover from TJS and be able to catch? (yes)
- Will Buchholz pitch like a #1/2 starter without a trade? (don't count on it)
- Will Rodriguez pitch like a #2/3 starter without a trade? (ask again later)
- Will Porcello pitch like a #2/3/4 starter without a trade? (outlook good)
- Will Kelly pitch like a #3/4 starter without a trade? (cannot predict now)
- Will Wright be able to fill in for an injured starter? (it is decidedly so)
This is a GFIN decision. And with the Sox' competition playing the way they are, it's a reasonable one. Even if I hate it on an emotional level.
The people that hate this move need to come to grip with some realities, that while not ideal, are the realities at this time.
The team's primary option at LF going into this offseason was Castillo. Unfortunately, it became very clear early on that he is unlikely to ever develop into a major league hitter. Some may disagree, but his career OPS in 300 AAA plate appearances is 0.678. And his struggles against breaking stuff is now well documented and well known throughout the league.
Maybe Dombrowski could have pulled a trade or signed a free agent. But DD instead decided to augment the pitching staff, a decision that nearly everyone here agreed with, and a decision that is turning out to be the correct one. Instead, the team decided to make a minor investment and get a platoon player to at least give the lineup some more oomph against lefties.
When Castillo proved that he was not going to be a competent major league hitter in 2016, the only feasible choice to place in left was Holt. Obviously not an ideal choice, but one that the team was able to live with given the overall strength of the lineup in the early going. Once Vazquez proved himself to be healthy, Swihart was demoted and given some reps at left field, an area where organizational depth was seriously lacking at the high minors.
Once Holt got hurt, the team had one of two choices: bring up the guy they felt was most likely to succeed at the position, or bring up a AAAA replacement level player as a fill in. The Sox decided to go with the latter, unless you seriously believe Castillo or Brentz would be more likely to succeed. Obviously, the Sox disagree with that sentiment.
Being "rushed" is sometimes part of being a prospect. The team's immediate needs will come first, especially when the team is seriously contending for a playoff spot as Memorial Day approaches. Preserving the potential trade value of a player is not as important as winning when you're in contention.
And I cannot believe someone here seriously suggested David Murphy. He did not want to play in AAA for anyone, and decided to retire when it became obvious to him that he could barely keep up with AAA pitching.
Never let the perfect be the enemy of being good enough.
The team's primary option at LF going into this offseason was Castillo. Unfortunately, it became very clear early on that he is unlikely to ever develop into a major league hitter. Some may disagree, but his career OPS in 300 AAA plate appearances is 0.678. And his struggles against breaking stuff is now well documented and well known throughout the league.
Maybe Dombrowski could have pulled a trade or signed a free agent. But DD instead decided to augment the pitching staff, a decision that nearly everyone here agreed with, and a decision that is turning out to be the correct one. Instead, the team decided to make a minor investment and get a platoon player to at least give the lineup some more oomph against lefties.
When Castillo proved that he was not going to be a competent major league hitter in 2016, the only feasible choice to place in left was Holt. Obviously not an ideal choice, but one that the team was able to live with given the overall strength of the lineup in the early going. Once Vazquez proved himself to be healthy, Swihart was demoted and given some reps at left field, an area where organizational depth was seriously lacking at the high minors.
Once Holt got hurt, the team had one of two choices: bring up the guy they felt was most likely to succeed at the position, or bring up a AAAA replacement level player as a fill in. The Sox decided to go with the latter, unless you seriously believe Castillo or Brentz would be more likely to succeed. Obviously, the Sox disagree with that sentiment.
Being "rushed" is sometimes part of being a prospect. The team's immediate needs will come first, especially when the team is seriously contending for a playoff spot as Memorial Day approaches. Preserving the potential trade value of a player is not as important as winning when you're in contention.
And I cannot believe someone here seriously suggested David Murphy. He did not want to play in AAA for anyone, and decided to retire when it became obvious to him that he could barely keep up with AAA pitching.
Never let the perfect be the enemy of being good enough.
At the risk of over-semantic, I don't think the plan is to "convert" Swihart unless they really think he's going to be a ++ offensive force. Otherwise, they have to think that his best *long-term* use is in trade with a team looking at him as a catcher. I'd be really curious to know what they think his offensive ceiling is.
That said, the point about Marrero is a good one I hadn't really thought of. I suppose its one of the things that comes with a new guy heading the organization. DD seemed all the way with JBJ early on, and seems to have made up his mind on Marrero and Castillo.
And if Hannigan gets injured, who catches the cover for catching Wright? CV never gets the call to catch the knuckler and Blake's now one of a group of part time LF bats.
Leon? Butler? If they truly are in GFIN they need viable 3rd catcher, not some part time AAA guy who can't catch one of the stalwarts of the MLB rotation.
I get all that and agree. What puzzles me that almost every prospect "expert" I read pre-season still considered him the best catching prospect in the game coming out of spring training.
What happened in April to have the Red Sox sour on his catching so much?
You adapt.
Even if Swihart is up to be a LF now, if Hanigan's thumb keeps him out a week to get the swelling down, or even hits the DL since it's throwing hand, Blake's going to catch some games.
Hopefully when a LHP starts for the other team.
Swihart caught Wright last year (63.2 of his 72.2 IP). Pretty sure he slides right into the back-up C role should Hanigan get hurt. I think people are over-reacting to Swihart being brought up in place of Holt. Holt is on the 7-day DL. Presumably he won't be out of action for long and there won't be a scenario in which he's still out and Hanigan (or Vazquez for that matter) goes down. But if it happens, Swihart gets more time behind the plate and they go in another direction to cover LF in the meantime (Castillo, Brentz, Hernandez, trade, street FA, whatever).
The epitome of they cross the bridge if and when they get to it.
I don't think this is entirely fair. Going in to the year, the most important bench players were supposed to be Holt and Shaw, two left handed hitters. I don't think Holt replacing Castillo was a complete shock, but it was the injury to Sandoval that took a pretty good and flexible bat (Shaw) off the bench, and suddenly our bench was exposed. And it took an injury to Holt on top of that to get us to where we are now. I don't think many teams could withstand injuries to their starting third baseman and starting left fielder and just keep finding good major league players ready to step in.
Vazquez proved to be healthy, and the immediate need of the club became left field depth. I don't think it was really a referendum on his projected catching ability, just that he needs more time before he's ready to catch in the majors, regardless of his early call up last year.
It's not even that Swihart needs more time to catch in the majors. Blake's proven pretty adept at learning on the job, and is basically ready to provide Saltalamacchia-level defense right now. Which is a step up from Pierzynski-level defense, but certainly still not objectively good. It would be adequate.
But Vazquez proved ready to provide excellent MLB-level defense at catcher, earned the trust of the pitchers and coaching staff, and has done enough in the minors to suggest he's adequate himself at the plate.
Now, Vazquez might still get replaced by Swihart in-season if the offense starts to falter and the team can no longer continue to carry Vaz's noodle bat. To my eye, his framing and throwing skills haven't seemed consistently so godly to be worth keeping him on if his offense slips much below where it is now.
But for now, that potential flaw's being masked by the incredible offensive onslaught showing up game-after-game by the 1-8 hitters. So it's a non-issue.
What is an issue at this moment in time, is that Holt is injured...Young sucks vs. RHP...and Castillo can't hit MLB breaking pitches from anyone.
So, welcome aboard, Left Fielder Blake Swihart.
Hannigan injured. Wonder if Butler/Leon or Castillo will be up. It'll say a lot about what Swihart's long term outlook is in DD's eyes
Will it? I'm thinking a best possible starting left fielder is more important than a backup catcher, so Swihart stays put and we see Leon. My question is who catches Buchholz then; Leon caddied him last year pretty well and it certainly wouldn't hurt to try something new at this point.
I'm guessing you didn't see the games he caught for the Sox. They did and decided he needed more AAA time.
Swihart caught six games. Six games. And the only ones that were actually close-your-eyes horrific were when "catching" Wright insane April knuckler.
There were a few miscues, but he wasn't objectively bad otherwise. He just wasn't objectively great.
Which is what the coaching staff expected Vazquez to be.
There's no way that Swihart's ability to catch will simply disappear if he plays LF for a little while. If Hanigan gets injured, they could always move Swihart back to C to catch Wright. Or if Vazquez gets hurt, Swihart could be a regular catcher.
If you want to completely ignore defense, sure. But that's also exactly the point people are trying to make, albeit some in a roundabout kind of way. (And the argument can be made that they don't even need that since they lead the majors in runs already.)
Young is hitting .148/.179/.296 against righties. That can be pretty easily replaced. They could probably call David Murphy and give him a guaranteed deal at the minimum and easily outperform that. Instead they are taking a very valuable asset -either for themselves or for trade fodder - delaying his maturation at his most valuable position and plugging him into a role where his bat no longer projects as a plus, his defense is a complete question mark and the marginal upgrade the team might see as a result isn't making a difference on the ledger since they have done just fine offensively as a team with the suck we've gotten out of LF as it is.
We all get your POV that you love to pound the table with, "the goal is to win as many world series as possible while we are alive", but part of that requires a longer term vision. If you want to take the stance that the Sox should liquidate the asset they have in him, then the best move isn't to move him to LF. It's to make him a headliner in a package for a SP. Because that's what they need at the moment and while I agree the Sox shouldn't care what his prospect rating is on publications, they should very much care what his valuation as a C prospect means to other teams. Because otherwise they are wasting it.
I think they're thinking ahead by having Swihart up right now. Presumably he is involved with catching/pitching prep, coaching etc.
But, perhaps more importantly, we've long heard the rumblings of him splitting time between catching and playing a position. I think it's a much better idea to have him learning to play the Monster, etc. in May, as opposed to September when the Sox are presumably in playoff mode.
But, perhaps more importantly, we've long heard the rumblings of him splitting time between catching and playing a position. I think it's a much better idea to have him learning to play the Monster, etc. in May, as opposed to September when the Sox are presumably in playoff mode.
I don't think this necessarily means they're down on Swihart as much as up on Vazquez. If his defense is truly generational, or his bat is better than what you think, it's going to be tough to dislodge him from getting a lot of starts at C in the future, which necessitates Swihart learning another position if you want him to be anything more than a backup catcher. Swihart's clearly enough of an athlete to play LF at a decent level; what needs figuring out is his reads on balls and whether his bat can carry him when he's way further down the defensive spectrum.
Now this lets the manager do some cute things like PHing Young for Vazquez, then moving Swihart to C and Young to LF, all while keeping a backup catcher on the bench to avoid an emergency scenario, but I think what this is telling us about the FO's evaluation of things is that
1) Vazquez is at catcher to stay, barring something like injury or a truly disastrous offensive season
2) They're still high enough on Swihart's bat that they think a LF/C Swihart provides more value to the Sox than they could get for him in a trade (to someone who would presumably use Swihart as a C only).
Now this lets the manager do some cute things like PHing Young for Vazquez, then moving Swihart to C and Young to LF, all while keeping a backup catcher on the bench to avoid an emergency scenario, but I think what this is telling us about the FO's evaluation of things is that
1) Vazquez is at catcher to stay, barring something like injury or a truly disastrous offensive season
2) They're still high enough on Swihart's bat that they think a LF/C Swihart provides more value to the Sox than they could get for him in a trade (to someone who would presumably use Swihart as a C only).
I think I recall a botched pop-up or two, and he throwing was pretty bad in Wright and non-Wright games.
That said, your point still holds. It was six games. He was totally decent defensively in a much larger sample in 2015.
Have you watched the games? It's a radically small sample but the eye test says he's completely fine on defense. He still has to get used to wall, I'm sure, but he's fine.
I'm not sure I buy the notion that they are delaying his development as a catcher all that much. This week aside, he's still playing as a catcher. He's still working with pitchers to get hitters out. It's just that he's playing fewer innings there. I mean, sure, I guess it's delaying his development a little, but the team has already trusted him as the starting catcher on the team twice, including this year when they could be pretty sure Vazquez wasn't going to be the guy from the get go. They could have brought someone else in. They could have made Hannigan the starter and used one of the schlubs in Pawtucket back up until Vaz was ready. They didn't. He's not the best defensive catcher. He has room to improve. But you know what? He's okay.
What he has to do is develop as a hitter.
I think it sounds much better as "The goal is to win the world series as many possible before we die." The death has to be right up there and immediate so the stakes are clear.
Also, I am not taking the stance that the Sox should liquidate the asset they have in him. I have not suggested that they move him to left field. If you go back and read, you'll see that I was specifically arguing against the notion that the Sox had abandoned the idea of him catching.
I am not opposed to long term thinking. I didn't want to trade Frankie Rodriguez in 1995 because the Sox weren't ready to really compete. I've been arguing for a couple years now that the best thing to do long term with Vazquez and Swihart is to have Swihart learn another position so we can keep them both on the roster so we have depth at a crucial position that would make every single other team in baseball jealous.
It seems kind of interesting to me that Brentz' name hasn't come up much in this discussion. If the Red Sox are willing to take a chance on messing around with one of their top young players in order to deal with their LF situation, it doesn't seem like there's much point in Brentz, a 27-year-old OPSing .691 in AAA, to be taking up a 40-man spot. Not that there's much urgency to clearing him out since they've only got 39 guys on the roster right now, but it certainly doesn't seem like they think much of him.
This would be the perfect time for Allen Craig to make himself relevant again, but even though he's got a 278/381/556 line (in 6 games) he's apparently got an oblique issue or something and hasn't played since the 19th. Sad!
This would be the perfect time for Allen Craig to make himself relevant again, but even though he's got a 278/381/556 line (in 6 games) he's apparently got an oblique issue or something and hasn't played since the 19th. Sad!
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Also, maybe they just think Swihart is a really good (or at least potentially really good) overall baseball player and figure he can help them in several different ways, depending on the need.
Playing him in LF now does nothing to reduce his trade value. There is about half a season worth of ML games on the record for his current skill level behind the dish. Every team in baseball has scouted the #1 catching prospect at some point recently I'm sure. The only real damage he could do to his trade value would be not hitting a lick, and even then it likely wouldn't be a huge issue within the context of one season, while similar damage could be done by hitting poorly in AAA.
Right now his greatest value to the Red Sox is as a LF who may or may not take some games at C. As we get closer to the deadline and the trade market takes shape I wouldn't be at all surprised if that changes, but for now this is how they put the best team on the field.
I also wouldn't rely too heavily on projection methods for Swihart in trying to assess what the club thinks his future offensive production will look like. Most scouts view him as someone with high end offensive potential when all his tools come together. They did for the month of august last year when he posted a .931 OPS. Some have claimed he'd be an Alex Gordon level LF. If the club agrees with that assessment he's got some pretty serious value as a LF who can also be the 3rd C, giving the team the ability to pinch hit for the catcher spot.
Everything else aside, I finally got to see him play on TV, and Swihart looks like a capable OF. He looked routine on routine flies, and made a couple of non-routine ones. He looks at least as natural and comfortable out there as Hanley does at 1B.
I'm interested in this too. Does anyone have a good link to where Swihart talked about why he transitioned to being a catcher in the pros?
JBJ and Swihart have almost nothing in common in terms of development of their offense.
If Alex Gordon could catch, he would be a catcher.
I'm not sure why this is so hard for people to understand. Catcher is the most valuable defensive position outside of perhaps SS. When you move off of catcher you lose a ton of value. Whether Swihart's bat eventually could be "good enough" to be a LF just means you are missing out on an awesome bat as a C. If you don't see him as a catcher, then you should have moved him already. If you think his bat is high enough potential that you want to extend his career rather than have him catch (the Biggio argument) that's fine, but there is not a lot of evidence that he has that kind of bat and potential. And certainly, if we are defending this move as a necessity in 2016, his bat isn't at a place where we would *expect* him to be much of a contributor with the bat.
Again, I don't see this as some kind of death knell for Swihart's prospect status. But, he's also not particularly young (24 this year) and they also need to find out if he can develop his catching skills enough to be a productive major league catcher. It's possible they have already determined that he doesn't, sure. But the value of him developing in the minors against how much he can help in the majors I think comes out on the side of leaving him in the minors. People seem to be arguing against me on one side ("his present value in LF is needed to compete in 2016!" or the other "losing development doesn't really matter") but when I look at both sides, I just don't see something that was necessary or smart. Again, excepting the idea that there is some extra added value to having as many prospects filling the lineup.
Put another way, if the Red Sox traded for an LHH OF with Swihart's minor league track record, noone would be clamoring to have him on the major league team. Right now, he's an acceptable stopgap. I'm not sure I would have interrupted his development to make him a stopgap. That's my point.
Here's a generic MLB.com write-up from just before the draft.
Of note, it's mentioned that Swihart only started to catch as a junior in high school. Also notable, it mentions there's not a big scouting community in New Mexico.
My best guess is that Blake's conversion to catcher was a strategic decision, like Ryan Lavarnway's was during his Yale days, meant to improve his long-range job prospects by giving his bat a chance to play up at a premium position.
Of note, it's mentioned that Swihart only started to catch as a junior in high school. Also notable, it mentions there's not a big scouting community in New Mexico.
My best guess is that Blake's conversion to catcher was a strategic decision, like Ryan Lavarnway's was during his Yale days, meant to improve his long-range job prospects by giving his bat a chance to play up at a premium position.
In a vacuum, sure, but value is relative and fluid in the real world. The Red Sox might value having a plus hitting catcher who can also be an average bat at another position over what they expect they can get back in a trade.
They might be wrong, but teams are always trying to find new ways to scrape out little advantages here and there. Maybe they see a potential one here with the outside the box thinking on Swihart.
Per MLB.com, Carson Smith will undergo Tommy John Surgery.
Rats.
Wishing him a speedy recovery.
Rats.
Wishing him a speedy recovery.
I mean, it's outside the box thinking in the sense that, if Tommy Layne went down, David Price would be a hell of a LOOGY.
Blake Swihart's appeal isn't that he's a plus hitter, because he isn't. It's that he's a plus hitter for a catcher. If he isn't playing catcher, you are wasting value. Now, due to poor roster construction by Dave Dombrowski, wasting value by having him play LF may be, for the moment, a necessary evil (admittedly more necessary and less evil than using Price as a LOOGY!). But the team's priority should be getting Swihart back inside the (catcher's) box, where he has real value, to us or, more likely, to someone else.
Not a surprise. But still sucks. Sox down two of their perceived 7 best pitchers coming into the season.
DD has some big decisions to make
DD has some big decisions to make
Not suggesting you;ve done this with your post, but it seems to be a theme......Do people really think that his use this season is going to lower his value beyond the "well, that's 50 games he would have had at C that he doesn't right now.'? (which, IMO, is a marginal impact). Aside from what the Sox think -- and other than "Vazquez is a better catcher" I dont think this says much about what they think about Swihart -- other teams either think that Swihart is valuable going forward or they don't. That's how different GMs think. But any GM that downgrades his assessment at C based on what has transpired over the first one-third of this season is a shitty GM.