New Year's Resolution: follow the minor leagues more closely.

dbn

Member
SoSH Member
Feb 10, 2007
7,785
La Mancha.
I'm resolving to follow the minors much more closely in 2014, and invite other SOSHers to do the same. In the past, the vast majority of my prospect-knowledge has come from chatter on the main board and occasional peeks at soxprospects.com. I love watching the young talent break in with the Club, and suspect that it will be even more fun if I've been following their development closely for years. This includes visiting this forum more often, checking daily box scores, and catching games on the radio when I can.
 
How about some advice from the veteran minors-followers? Is www.milb.com the best place to get box scores and radio feeds? Which levels are the most fun to follow? I'm thinking starting my focus on Portland and Salem. I'd also like to get better acquainted with how the MiLB system works; it seems like the Wikipedia is a good place to start.
 
 
 

Pxer

Member
SoSH Member
Apr 16, 2007
1,704
Maine
Box score & media info are typically posted in the daily threads. soxprospects is a huge resource. Pawtucket is going to be really fun to follow this upcoming year because of the potential impact talent. I always pay special attention to double-A, because that is when the cream starts to rise to the top as far as the viability of a prospect.
 
One of the ways I greatly increased my knowledge was reading up on the rule 4 draft (entry draft in June) and following the Sox selections. You then create a baseline for players you have read scouting reports on and can start to follow their careers. If you keep doing this every year, you're going to have an intimate knowledge of the entire Sox system in a few short years.
 

Niastri

Member
SoSH Member
I would read the adopt a prospect forum. Each player has his own thread. If you read the top twenty threads and mark the forum read, you can then pop in twice a week and stay current. Each thread gets topped when new info gets posted, so you always get updates when somebody thinks it matters.

When the draft happens in the summer, you can then draft a prospect and keep the thread up to date on him. I plan to do so this summer and try to do my part.
 

dbn

Member
SoSH Member
Feb 10, 2007
7,785
La Mancha.
Niastri said:
I would read the adopt a prospect forum. Each player has his own thread. If you read the top twenty threads and mark the forum read, you can then pop in twice a week and stay current. Each thread gets topped when new info gets posted, so you always get updates when somebody thinks it matters.

When the draft happens in the summer, you can then draft a prospect and keep the thread up to date on him. I plan to do so this summer and try to do my part.
 
Yes, I will do that. This forum is a great resource that seems to be underutilized by most of us (I know it has been for me). Unless I fail my resolution, I'll be able to contribute to it myself!
 

Snodgrass'Muff

oppresses WARmongers
SoSH Member
Mar 11, 2008
27,644
Roanoke, VA
Just read everything Cuzittt posts if you want box scores and daily updates.  His daily game day threads are one of the best resources you will find on the web for following Red Sox prospects.  If you want more than box scores, the Adopt A Prospect threads, as mentioned, are great, and the suggestion about following the pre-draft and draft threads is another good one.  Soxprospects.com is very good resources as well, as they keep updating their top prospects list as the season goes on, so you can get a real time feel for how each player is doing just with a cursory glance.
 
I'd also recommend following the Greenville Drive this year.  Their roster is one of the most exciting the team has had in a long time and will give you a great place to start building familiarity with the next wave of prospects that will be turning heads once the guys everyone already knows (Bogaerts, Bradley, Swihart, Owens, ect) graduate or flame out.  The entire rotation is really interesting.  Callahan, Ball, Stankiewicz, Buttrey and Smith all have interesting upside, and Light was a 1st round pick in 2012 who is still pretty raw even though he was drafted out of college.  And Trey Ball was out number 1 pick last year and may have the highest ceiling of any of our pitching prospects right now.
 
They will also have Jon Denney, Tzu-Wei Lin, Manuel Margot and Forrestt Allday, who will all be a lot of fun to watch.  Denney was rated as high as number 25 among draftable amateurs last June but somehow fell to the third round where the Sox scooped him up.  He has great power potential.  Lin is an excellent defensive shortstop   Margot is an international signee with a ton of projection.  A lot of people are picking him to be the next guy to leap into the public consciousness like Mookie Betts did in 2013.  Allday is another center fielder who supposedly has a great eye and a very mature approach at the plate.
 
If you want to build a foundation for a long term relationship with the farm system, Greenville is a great place to start.
 

Homar

New Member
Aug 9, 2010
94
Lots of good suggestions here; I'd just add going to games whenever it's possible.  I'm often in Portland, and am never disappointed with an evening at Hadlock Field.  Baseball on a very human scale; you get close enough to see them as human beings, and not merely stat lines or prospects on a list.  You get to see the toll that a full season of increasing pressure takes and how well different players respond to it all.  Impossible to quantify, but a load of fun all the same.  
 

dbn

Member
SoSH Member
Feb 10, 2007
7,785
La Mancha.
Thanks for the info/advice posted so far. I'm taking note. I also hope that this thread gets noticed and inspires other SOSHers in similar a position as myself to get more into Red Sox minor league baseball.
 

dbn

Member
SoSH Member
Feb 10, 2007
7,785
La Mancha.
Homar said:
Lots of good suggestions here; I'd just add going to games whenever it's possible.  I'm often in Portland, and am never disappointed with an evening at Hadlock Field.  Baseball on a very human scale; you get close enough to see them as human beings, and not merely stat lines or prospects on a list.  You get to see the toll that a full season of increasing pressure takes and how well different players respond to it all.  Impossible to quantify, but a load of fun all the same.  
 
A thousand times yes.
 
In addition to what you say: I grew up closer to Pawtucket than Boston. As such, my little league coach would sometimes take the team to PawSox games as a season-ending event. It was a great time, and so much more affordable.
 
If I lived close to a Red Sox affiliate I'd love to be a regular at their games. Sadly, I live in southern CA.
 

Julius.R

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 23, 2010
212
I'd echo soxprospects, especially when they start discussing potential prospects that will be drafted. I went from kind of knowing about the top 5 prospects, to knowing everything about the top 30, and a large amount about certain prospects. I would also recommend MLBfarm since you can see the stats from all the players that played in every organization that day. Great to check the batting stats for Boston, or a pitching line in Salem.
 

Galamann

New Member
Jul 15, 2005
36
Columbus OH
This past season I spent more time following prospects and here's what helped me
 
1) Alex Speier: He's my favorite Red Sox beat writer. Follow him on twitter and he always links his daily reports on the farm. Also, he has a bunch of podcasts about the system.
http://fullcount.weei.com/sports/boston/baseball/red-sox/2013/12/16/xander-bogaerts-henry-owens-top-red-sox-prospects-list/
 
2) soxprospects.com : It's already been mentioned but those people know their stuff really well. Additionally, I feel like they're reasonable about projections ( i.e, Owens most likely will be a 3rd starter and that's still awesome to have as a prospect). I've been flying a lot recently and I've listened to a ton of their podcasts during my flights. They're loaded with information about prospects on all levels.
 

Cesar Crespo

79
SoSH Member
Dec 22, 2002
21,588
Just read this forum honestly.

If something was written about a sox prospect, it ends up here with a blurb and a link.
 

Rasputin

Will outlive SeanBerry
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Oct 4, 2001
29,423
Not here
Snodgrass'Muff said:
Just read everything Cuzittt posts if you want box scores and daily updates.  His daily game day threads are one of the best resources you will find on the web for following Red Sox prospects.  
 
This is truth. The worth of Cuzitt's contributions to this forum cannot be overstated.
 

tbrown_01923

Member
SoSH Member
Sep 29, 2006
780
Rasputin said:
 
This is truth. The worth of Cuzitt's contributions to this forum cannot be overstated.
 
My knowledge of the system has increased just by reading Cuzitt - it provides all the context I need to read posts / articles from the outside world. My morning routine is sox box score  followed immediately by minor league "Cuzitt Recap" thread.  In addition to having all the days "going's on" it occasionally has some basic analysis / trend identification thrown in.  
 
I started by reading the adopt-a-prospect once a week, but the Cuzitt threads became habit forming, and really rendered the adopt-a-prospect as "old news" (although there are often bits in there not seen in other places).
 

Rasputin

Will outlive SeanBerry
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Oct 4, 2001
29,423
Not here
tbrown_01923 said:
 
My knowledge of the system has increased just by reading Cuzitt - it provides all the context I need to read posts / articles from the outside world. My morning routine is sox box score  followed immediately by minor league "Cuzitt Recap" thread.  In addition to having all the days "going's on" it occasionally has some basic analysis / trend identification thrown in.  
 
I started by reading the adopt-a-prospect once a week, but the Cuzitt threads became habit forming, and really rendered the adopt-a-prospect as "old news" (although there are often bits in there not seen in other places).
 
Yeah, this. Those threads have completely replaced the box score page of the Globe that I used to pour over in the can at work.
 
Dude, Cuzitt, if you ever decide to take those posts to a blog just to monetize it a tiny bit, I would give you all the clicks.
 

seantoo

toots his own horn award winner
Jul 16, 2005
1,308
Southern NH, from Watertown, MA
tbrown_01923 said:
 
My knowledge of the system has increased just by reading Cuzitt - it provides all the context I need to read posts / articles from the outside world. My morning routine is sox box score  followed immediately by minor league "Cuzitt Recap" thread.  In addition to having all the days "going's on" it occasionally has some basic analysis / trend identification thrown in.  
 
I started by reading the adopt-a-prospect once a week, but the Cuzitt threads became habit forming, and really rendered the adopt-a-prospect as "old news" (although there are often bits in there not seen in other places).
Kudos to Cuzitt from me as well, the man puts in alot of time and does a great job.
 
As someone else noted AA is where the men start to distance themselves from the boys. Trips to Portand or closer to home for many here I'm sure is Manchester NH when the FIshercats play the Seadogs is a good cheap take. Inside the dugouts are $12 seats including front row, behind the dugout is only $10/seat. It's one thing to read what someone else wrote but another to see with your own eyes what the hype is all about or even if it's understated. To many people will debate the merits of this prospect or that one and have never even seen them play. If your going to throw your ring in the hat the least you can do is actually know a little something about what you are talking about and this is coming from a stat man.
 
Alex Spier and Soxprospects are two other great resources. About one a month during the season Spier's does an overview of the Sox system, which should not be missed by any Sox fan. Sox Prospects re-ranks the prospects during the year, preseason, mid-ish season and end of season and they also show the previous rank they gave the player. That alone would give someone a good idea of movement of the individual pieces within the whole system. These ranking are well thought out without over hyping a few good months by any one propsect. Also click on each player your interested in and read the scouting report at the upper right for each player, the reviews are excellant and scout worthy. My eyes have agreed with 90% of what I read after or beforehand, not that I'm a scout by any stretch.
 

mt8thsw9th

anti-SoSHal
SoSH Member
Jul 17, 2005
17,120
Brooklyn
This forum is good for catching up, and I would say you can do this at a leisurely pace while focusing on something more beneficial.