From what I've seen of Ramirez this spring, I would peg him as a utility player with potential. I haven't seen enough of him on defense to make any conclusions (he got his first look in CF today). Offensively, however, I think I've seen enough to draw some conclusions. He's ultra-aggressive on first pitch, swinging seemingly (but not) every time, and makes adjustments later in the at-bat. He does seem to have a decent eye, understands the strike zone, but has been digging himself a hole all spring with his first pitch approach.

The consensus is that he's a fastball, hitter, which is true. He's smoked a number of fastballs, but I haven't really see him struggle with breaking stuff, at least not any more than the Sox other fringy talents (Brian Anderson, Carlos Quentin).

He's impressed me this spring, in that he's better than I expected after he dropped out of the DWL and received limited interest from teams. He'd probably be best served with 6-10 weeks in the minors adjusting to life in American professional baseball. But I could see a spot for him on the Sox if they think they can get him 400+ at-bats at SS, 2B, CF. I'm more interested in what he will become with another year under his belt than what he'll be this season.

Guillen is particularly impressed by his ability to hit a good fastball. Breaking balls, though, give Ramirez trouble — so much trouble that he might be overmatched by quality major-league pitching initially.

Can't this be said about most AAAA players?

"He's not a finished product. Yet he is 26. You have to keep that in mind. He looks like a young kid. But when you think about upside and tools, at some point it doesn't get any better."

When they signed him and I read he was 26, that's exactly what I thought. That's great, but after 2 years in AAA, he'll be 28, so what's the upside? Hey, I don't think it was a bad move, the contract is tiny and the potential upside is huge, but I'm just not excited about the Alexei Ramirez era.

The scary bit in the article is that it says they don't want to play him at SS in AAA because they want to extend Cabrera. Unless that extension is coming very cheap, that doesn't seem a good idea.

The scary bit in the article is that it says they don't want to play him at SS in AAA because they want to extend Cabrera. Unless that extension is coming very cheap, that doesn't seem a good idea.

Yeah, I don't get this either. The one advantage of trading Garland for Cabrera is that Cabrera is a Type A and Garland a Type B, and obviously signing him would negate the value.

I'm hoping the Sox are talking like they want to extend him because taking the picks is never the popular thing to do, and then lowball him and say "We tried the best we could." But Ozzie likes his shortstops and considers Cabrera a field general, so I'm betting off praying Cabrera wants and gets more than he deserves from another team.