Dan Bard with another 2 IP, 5 K performance. He's at 26 IP, 42 K, 0.69 ERA in A ball right now. When do they move him up and where does he go? Straight to Portland, so that he can avoid the goofy game in Lancaster?

Reddick was an exciting young player last year. Why it took until this year for people to catch up to that is beyond me.

Dan Bard with another 2 IP, 5 K performance. He's at 26 IP, 42 K, 0.69 ERA in A ball right now. When do they move him up and where does he go? Straight to Portland, so that he can avoid the goofy game in Lancaster?


If you don't have the balls to pitch in Lancaster, you can't pitch anywhere.

Not everything in life is a pissing contest.

And that’s not saying anything bad about Lars, who’s a great prospect.

Actually I would disagree with this. Even putting the hyperbole aside - ie Lars has always been more "good" than "great" - isn't the driving force between this comparison more that Lars is having a poor, developmentally stagnant year than that Reddick has come on strong and passed him?

In a vaccuum, is Reddick's sup-900 OPS in Lancaster all that impressive?

And Bard should be in Portland and it has nothing to do with Lancaster. It seems half the people want Bard to go back to Lancaster to "man up" and prove he can beat whatever demons he had last year and half just want him to skip it because they hate Lancaster for pitchers in general and Bard in particular. But I'm not sure you really have to bring Lancaster into the discussion at all. You have a 23 yr old with major college experience dominating lo-A. The next step for players like that is just about always to get them up to AA and more age appropriate competition to see what you really have. Regardless of your opinion about Lancaster and Bard, I don't see why that has to change.

Lars’s K rate is still somewhat alarming, considering the hitters’ paradise that he plays in. And Reddick just keeps chugging along, hitting for good power and average while keeping an impressively low K rate.

This kind of ignores what they're supposed to be working on in Lancaster, though. In 2007 Lars had a BB/K ratio of .678 (in both Lancaster and Greenville) to Reddick's .510 (Greenville only). In 2008 those numbers are .7 for Lars (Lancaster) and .444 for Reddick (in both Lancaster and Greenvile).

Lars already has very impressive plate discipline, but the Sox want him to be more aggressive so that he can get used to pulling the ball and hopefully start to generate more pull power. (I can't remember off the top of my head, but doesn't the wind in Lancaster blow out to a particular field? I can't remember if Lars is working against or with this direction...) The book on Reddick is that despite his good contact and K rates, he's not patient enough, and his BB/K ratio bears this out.

Which is not to say that I'm not happy to have Reddick (and Kalish, and Place, and Lin). I think one of the keys to the long term health of the Red Sox is finding someone who can hold down RF at Fenway. That's no small feat since you need the proverbial 5 tool player to cover what is really a small CF, make the throws, and hit like a corner OFer. The Drew contract shows what that will cost on the open market, and with attrition being what it is in prospects, growing your own is not exactly easy. Hopefully one of these guys will stick...

I really wish they would challenge Bard. I think there's maybe a 20% chance that he'd be worth having on the postseason roster this year, but you're not gonna find out if he's busy striking out 20 year olds hitting .230 in the Sally League

Comparing the stat lines of Reddick and Anderson is kind of silly at this point. They don't have enough ABs for us to really know anything besides that neither is Ken Griffey Jr and they'll both make it to AAA

Comparing the stat lines of Reddick and Anderson is kind of silly at this point. They don't have enough ABs for us to really know anything besides that neither is Ken Griffey Jr and they'll both make it to AAA.

How is it silly? The stats are a big part of the picture of what type of prospects they are.

You're reading too much into 500 ABs.

Just because over their first 120 games Reddick was worth 6 more runs or whaever doesn't mean that Reddick was a better player over those 120 games (in the true talent sense) or that Reddick projects to be better when they're in the their mid 20's

But it's a large majority of what we have to go on. The only other data we have are the opinions of other outsiders, who try to glean what they can from scouts, who may or may not be right and may or may not be being honest.

I wouldn't compare these two based only on their runs-created lines though. I'd consider their age (which is very close) and their defense. And Reddick is player a tougher position very well while putting up a better batting line.

Actually I would disagree with this. Even putting the hyperbole aside - ie Lars has always been more "good" than "great" - isn't the driving force between this comparison more that Lars is having a poor, developmentally stagnant year than that Reddick has come on strong and passed him?

I think you're right about the hyperbole--great is way too strong of word. But I don't know if I'd say he's stagnated and been poor. Holding your own in A+ at age 20 is pretty decent. Perhaps it's a mild disappointment.

Abe Alvarez has apparently been released.

Last week on 890's Boston Baseball Pregame show, a person from the Lancaster organization was interviewed. During the interview, he mentioned that in close to half the home games this season the wind was blowing in while the wind blew in fewer than 10 times over the course of last season. Has anyone heard about this difference in conditions?

edit for clarity

How about Charlie Zink? Has he finally learned to pitch? His career has had a number of notable hot streaks, and someone in the internet Sox community has always been there to pick up on the streak and suggest that this time, he'd really turned a corner. But this is the first hot streak I remember that actually started a season, and the big shift in Zink's K/BB is impressive.


It's early, obviously, and Zink has had flashes of hope before, but I like this one.

There's an interesting article in ProJo after Zink's second-most recent start, discussing how Zink has made a transition from throwing only knucklers to throwing mostly knucklers, while working in a variety of other pitches:

Now, as [Zink] is excelling for the Pawtucket Red Sox and putting himself in position for a possible spot in the big leagues, it seems ironic that he has become a different pitcher, at least partially. He still throws his knuckler most of the time. But now it is just part of his arsenal.

“I’m throwing four pitches,” said Zink, who is 4-2 after being the winning pitcher as the PawSox beat Norfolk, 8-5, at McCoy. “I have a fastball, curve and changeup, too.”

Zink has made particular use of his fastball and changeup. His fastball is in the low 80s. His changeup is interesting because it is about the same speed as his knucklers, in the 66-71 range.

ANOTHER of our guys just got cancer. Ridiculous

I read that Anthony Rizzo was diagnosed with Hodgkin's.

He'll make a full recovery thank the F!@3ing gods.

Reddick continues to rake but has an ugly 7/25 BB/K rate.

Darren, both Reddick and Anderson are still in A ball, playing in an extreme environment that makes it nearly impossible to interpret their stats fairly. I think you have to favor "scouting" over "performance" at that level.

Still hope to see both in Portland before the end of the year. It might be rushing them, but I don't believe playing in Lancaster is good for any prospect.

It's hard to walk when you're hitting .360. It's not like Reddick is striking out a lot. The 25 K's have come in 165 AB's. He's got an OPS over 1.000 for the last month. I believe he'll see significant time in Portland this season. He also has 10 assists in Lancaster so far.

And here’s what they’ve done so far this year:
Lars in A+: .264 .371 .465; 21 BB, 30 K in 129 ABs
Reddick in A: .340 .397 .491, 5 BB, 8 K in 53 ABs.
Reddick in A+ .333 .354 .533, 3 BB, 10 K in 60 ABs.

Actually, Lars' numbers are now a heck of a lot better than this: .311, .406, .494; 42 BB, 54 K in 267 AB.


http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?n=Lars Anderson&pos=1B&sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=502249

Reddick's looking even better, too - 353/379/608 with 14HR, 12BB/41K in 255 AB. Like everyone says, it would be nice to see what he can do in a less extreme environment like Portland.

I guess the problem is the outfield backup at the higher levels. One of Bell, Daeges, or Corsaletti need to get promoted Sean Danielson will most likely be the odd man out in Pawtucket when that person, whoever it may be, gets promoted.

Why not move up Bell now? He is 25 after all.

I don't know the answer to that. Corsaletti deserves a look too.

Yeah, he's an old fogey as well. I'm more impressed by Bell's overall performance and from what I've read (mostly from you), he can actually handle CF.

And now that I recall, Daeges is a bit old at 24 as well and has a very impressive 42/36 BB/K ratio, but has shown very little power. If he could play 3B, he'd be a lot more interesting.

Yea, Bell is a more dynamic player.