With the Sox 5.5 games out of first, there is still hope for a postseason in Boston despite a season filled with injuries and frustration. One of the reasons the Sox continue to stay within striking distance of the Yanks and Rays is the way that the replacement players have stepped up. From Bill Hall to Jed Lowrie to Ryan Kalish, who continues to embed himself as the cream for the Red Sox crop of prospects.
With seven drafts under their belts, this front office has taken the team from a roster of two homegrown regulars (Nomar Garciaparra and Trot Nixon) in 2003 to eight in 2010. Among them are a perennial Cy Young contender, a powerhouse corner infielder, a league champion base stealer, an elite closer, a man with a 100 mile an hour fastball, and an MVP. In addition, there is a new crop of talent maturing in the minors, with some players nearing the point where they will make a Major League contribution. So, not bad for a few years. After the jump, we'll take a look at the best and worst draft picks of the past seven years.
First the good news about shortstop Oscar Tejeda: he won’t hit the “ripe” age of 21 until December 26. Now the bad news: Boston has a veritable glut of shortstops in its farm system including, in no particular order, David Renfroe, Derrik Gibson, Jose Iglesias and Yamaico Navarro. And just imagine if Boston decided it would be best served by having Casey Kelly play shortstop instead of pitch. In a sense, Tejeda has been running on a treadmill in that last season was his second at low-A Greenville. But the fact he returned to the Drive might have been expected considering he contracted a staph infection in a forearm which hampered him much of the 2008 season. And that was after he had off-season surgery to repair a tiny hole in his heart.
Tonight, it was the song of the backups -- the team was lifted up and carried by players no one has on a fantasy team, and eventually it was those players who gave the Red Sox their most inspiring win of the young season (with, admittedly, stunningly little competition). McDonald, Jeremy Hermida and Josh Reddick drove in six of the team's seven runs, and two of them weren't even on the roster this morning.
The rankings are rolling in and the Red Sox are entering 2010 with their best two prospects having yet to play a game at Double-A yet. I'm speaking of outfielder Ryan Westmoreland and confirmed starting pitcher Casey Kelly. I want to look at what the rankings are telling us and how we should value these two.
Baseball Prospectus and Minor League Ball have Westmoreland as the Red Sox number one prospect. John Sickels gives him a grade of B+ and gave the following comments.
With the conclusion of the 2009 MLB Rule 4 Draft signing period, it is time to look at the Sox final bounty.
Included are links, scouting reports and bonuses, as well as analysis...
1-28 OF Reymond Fuentes $1,134,000
With the recent trade rumors flying fast and furious, a lot of Red Sox fans have had to come to grips that significant prospects will have to be given up to get an impact player. There have been some names that is clear the Red Sox are not willing to move; others that I personally go "eek!" at when I hear their names in trade rumors.
So which prospects should be considered untouchable? I have heard two names that the Red Sox consider off-limits, Casey Kelly and Ryan Westmoreland (also Daniel Bard, but now that he's in the bigs, I no longer consider him a prospect). I would add a third to that as well. Let's take a look.
 |
| David Ortiz - Samara Pearlstein |