When you write about baseball on the Interwebs a half-dozen times every week, sometimes you run out of ideas.
When I first sat down to write this column on Saturday, I began waxing poetic about Will Middlebrooks and the flaws that we somewhat willfully overlooked. We all know those flaws plenty well by now, though, and it felt redundant, so I scrapped it.
Next I moved on to a piece about Jon Lester and why, despite his struggles, we need to pick up his option for 2014. I was going to point out that counting on the Allen Webster/Anthony Ranaudo/Matt Barnes trio is the baseball iteration of counting chickens before they hatch. Again, the piece felt sort of self-evident, so it was command-a-delete-ed.
I will get to see Garin Cecchini play for the first time this weekend. I am excited. Photo by Kelly O’Connor, sittingstill.net.
Finally, I moved on to perhaps my most familiar and comfortable subject: prospects. But we just released a Top 15 list and no Red Sox prospect has made earth-shattering news as of late. You all know I think Xander Bogaerts is a god and that I don’t think very highly of Bryce Brentz. You all know I’m going to ask you to curb your prospect enthusiasm (except in the case of Bogaerts). The piece felt recycled.
And so here I sit, late on Sunday night (and now on Monday morning), both burying my lede and missing my deadline (sorry, Hunter ☹), with but one play left. I’m asking you, readers, for help.
Next weekend I am traversing up to Portland to see your favorite team’s Double-A affiliate take on the Double-A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins. This is exciting because there remains a possibility that I will see five of the Top 75-or-so prospects in the game.
The Seadogs will trot out Garin Cecchini and there’s a 40% chance I will see one of Anthony Ranaudo or Matt Barnes pitch. The Rock Cats have the drool-worthy Miguel Sano and Eddie Rosario, and there’s a 40% chance I’ll see Alex Meyer or Trevor May pitch (if Meyer comes off the DL).
Plenty of other intriguing names litter these rosters as well. For the Dogs, I’ve yet to see Drake Britton pitch in person, and I’d love to put eyes on Michael Almanzar, Derrik Gibson and Travis Shaw as well. For the Cats, Matt Hauser intrigues me, as does Angel Morales.
All of this leads to a question I’d love to see some response to before I head up north this weekend: what do you most want to see from me if I write up the game(s)? Do you want progress reports on the notable names I mentioned above, or would you prefer to know how lesser prospects like Chris Balcolm-Miller and Christian Vazquez look as well? Do you have any interest at all in hearing how Twins prospects have performed? Want to hear about what type of beer they’re selling at Hadlock Field? Want me to just write an article without seven or eight rhetorical questions?
Let me know, because as the summer swings into gear I’m going to be hitting up minor league parks with much more frequency. And I want to give the people what they want.
What would you like to read about in a MiLB column in which indecision and poor time management skills don’t come to cripple the author?