For the last two years we’ve been hearing about how Boston has one of the top farms in baseball. Seven players in the top 100, a top ten in Clay Buchholz, on and on wherein “the only farm that measured up was Tampa”.
Well here we are heading into 2010. Buchholz is a major question mark as he was wholly ineffective against teams with a .450 record or better, Daniel Bard is synonymous with 100 MPH going in, 150 MPH going out. The only player in the last two years to develop into a reliable player is fantasy stud/mediocre outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury.
Well today baseballamerica has come out with it’s list of Boston’s top 10 minor league players and the farm looks like it was devastated by mad cow disease.
“Frontlining” the list is Ryan Westmoreland. Drafted in the 5th round in 2008, Ryan played in rookie ball last year and projected to strike out 115 times over 500 AB. Mind you this is rookie ball where 1 in 5 pitchers can throw a curveball. Assuming he can continue to progress and figures out the zone though, by 2013, the kid may have his cup of joe in the majors where his real learning curve will begin.
Number 2 is Casey Kelly. Kelly was the top pick in 08 and had nice numbers, but in A ball he struck out a pedestrian 7 per 9 has less than overpowering heat (obviously) and cant throw a curveball for strikes. He has “number 4 starter” written all over him, and Boston is eagerly awaiting his arrival. In 2012.
3. Josh Reddick- .277 BA in AA. .169 BA in AAA. .127 in the majors. Strikes out every 4 AB which is the result from being antsy at the plate. No word on whether overeager Josh Reddick changed his name from Josh Blueballs.
4. Lars Anderson. .233 in AA= the Great White Hope. On the plus side though his raw power is frightening. .345 SLG, 9 HR. He’s starting to get a little long in the tooth.
Where are all the studs coming out of Boston’s farm? Gammons and Callis RRRRRAVED about this farm for the last couple of years. What happened? They were so good! So deep!
Gammons finally gave up the charade and went on NESN’s (the Red Sox cable network) payroll. Can Callis be far behind? Does anybody still buy their ridiculous evaluations of the emperor’s clothing?
I’m thinking that Theo should dump off the top 5 prospects on their list with Jacoby and Bard for Adrian Gonzalez. In a year, we’ll hear the “experts” rave about how Junichi Tazawa is the next Tim Lincecum and Jose Iglesias compares favorably to Derek Jeter at the same age.
The best business strategy is to sell the goods BEFORE they turn up lame.
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