The Forgotten Prospect: Brian Johnson

It wasn’t supposed to be like this for Brian Johnson.  First round picks during their first full season after being selected usually get a lot of hype.  The hype isn’t always positive, of course.  Sometimes, it’s negative with prospect analysts and...

Putting Prospect Depth In Context

Jacoby Ellsbury, Koji Uehara, Stephen Drew, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Mike Napoli and Joel Hanrahan. You have just read an exhaustive list of Red Sox players who will become free agents after the 2013 season. Two additional players – Jon Lester and Matt Thornton – have...

Sweeping Success For Red Sox Prospects In 2013

When I first set out to write this column on Sunday, my idea was pretty simple: highlight which Red Sox prospects have done the most to improve their value in 2013, as well as those who’ve taken major steps back in their development. Filling out the first part of the...

Roster Power Rankings, July Edition

Every month, here on Fire Brand, I take a look at the relative value of the 25 players on the current active roster. If you missed the March, April, May, or June editions check them out for the criteria and history of these rankings. This month sees a season high six...

Can Prospects Save The Red Sox’ Pen?

Andrew Bailey, Andrew Miller, Joel Hanrahan, Franklin Morales and Alex Wilson are all on the DL. If the playoffs started today, here’s what we’d probably be left with for a bullpen. RHP LHP Koji Uehara Matt Thornton Junichi Tazawa Craig Breslow Pedro Beato Drake...

Fire Brand Mid-Season Top 15 Prospect Report

Written by Chip Buck, Ben Carsley, and Josh Cookson The Red Sox farm system is in the midst of a very exciting upswing. In large part due to two very successful drafts in 2010 and 2011, the minor league ranks have returned to prominence as one of the best and...

The MLB Draft: The Henry Ownership Years

With the 2013 Rule 4 draft finally in the books, I thought it’d be fun to take a look back at all of the drafts that have occurred during the John Henry ownership era.  In this piece, we’ll review their successes, their failures, the trends they’ve...

5 Potential Rising Prospects You May Not Know

At some point over the next week, I’ll release my version of the Top 15 prospects currently in the Red Sox farm system.  Before I do that, I thought it might be a good idea to look at five prospects that we don’t really know a lot about, but...