Anyone know where I can get batters faced data for minor league pitchers?

Interesting. They have Pedroia playing short and Machado playing 2B tonight.

He's going to be the starting SS by the end of the year.

He's going to be the starting SS by the end of the year.

That's OK as long as he plays both 2b and ss enough to qualify for next fantasy season. I need some flexibility going into the 2007 fantasy draft.

1/3, 2 BB

Sox Prospects: Dustin Pedroia

Are you trying to being levski back?

Seriously, where is that guy? And kevin, are you talking about Anderson Machado?

I was wondering the same thing. I miss the little guy.

Nonetheless, some prospects performances tonight:

Jacoby Ellsbury: 2/5, 2B, BB

Luis Soto: 2/6, 2B

Chris Turner: 2/6, HR (Heeeeeee's back)

David Murphy: 2/4

Jed Lowrie: 2/6

Edgar Martinez: 1 IP, K

The Cla: 2 IP, H, 4/0 K/BB

Clay Buchholz: 5 IP, 4H, 1 ER, 6/2 K/BB, HRA

This is kind of obscure, but might interest the die hard prospect followers. We have discussed Chih-Hsien Chiang before. He is the 17-year old Taiwan phenom who the Sox signed for $375,000 recently. I have heard the Sox regard him as a 1S-type talent, and that he took lesser money to come to the Sox. Nevertheless, there is a video floating around that was put together for his birthday. It's basically a highlight reel of him, but it has really cool music and it's pretty well coallated. It's more fun than informative, but you get a good idea of Chih-Hsien Chiang the player. Which is pretty hard to do with most 17-year old IFAs. BE WARNED, it's a large file (30 MB) and it will immediately open as a download query. I also can't assure its security, though I have no reason to believe it is infected with anything. Enjoy.

I don't think Chris Turner was ever "here". I doubt he makes it more than a season or two above AA.

Cla and Manny D have now combined for 17.1 shutout innings, 18 K, 5 BB, 10 H. I think there's a very good chance we'll see Manny D pretty soon. I figure the Sox will make sure that Claaaa builds up his confidence for a while (or, less confidently, make sure that Claaaa isn't just having a fluke start like last year.)

I'm guessing a lot of those highlights came from when he was in the 16-18 world junior championships at 16. Still, though, it doesn't look like he has a ton of power in that swing. (Not that I'm remotely qualified to make that judgment about a 16 year-old)

#9 was in response to #7.

I'll be out at the DBAP on Friday night. I'll be sure to file some observations sometime over the weekend.

-- MWE

I'm sure that Pedroia is a future HoFer. It's his fashion sense I'm worried about: that picture, with the big cap pulled low, makes we worry that he's going for an Ecksteinian look. A baggy uni and oversized hat can make the compactly built look... runty.

But Pedroia has two inches and twenty pounds on Joe Morgan in his prime. He shouldn't be regarded as undersized. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but we want Dustin to strike the appropriate amount of fear into the hearts of opponents. ;-)

That was one helluva senior season at ASU. Gosh.

There's a Craig Hansen watch in Portland for today.

Dustin Pedroia is 1/2 in his game so far, with a single. 11:05 start in Durham.

Jimmy Serrano's pitching for the Pawsox.

If he doesn't get out of this with a win, I'm going to stab him in the heart with a pencil.

FYI, minorleaguebaseball.com has upgraded their site, so you can follow the game via MLB gameday-like graphics.

Extremely nice.

Choi just went yard.

I am going potty.

Completely unrelated to Pedroia and this thread, but I just noticed this summay from El Gammo on recent deals:

Red Sox cut some smart deals
First there was the Bronson Arroyo contract, which was below market and essentially got him traded for Wily Mo Pena. Then came David Ortiz, followed by Coco Crisp. "Those were all very favorable deals for the club," says one AL GM. "Oh, I know that Ortiz is a DH, but he is the face of the franchise, if not baseball, he's 29 and he means so much to the franchise. They're paying Crisp, who is 26, $18 million for the same four years that the Yankees are paying Johnny Damon $52 million. But what's most amazing is that they got options that can buy out free-agent years from Ortiz and Crisp. In today's market, that's amazing."
Some have suggested that Boston should forget the middle of its order, forget his presence, forget how little they paid him without one whimper and that they overpaid for Ortiz at $12.5M a year. But DHs are difficult to quantify; the only DHs who had enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title last season were Ortiz, Travis Hafner and Carl Everett. This season Jim Thome is an everyday DH ($14.2M), while Jason Giambi is, for all intents and purposes, a DH making $20.4M.

I'd generally agree, though the oft-made Damon v. Crisp comparison is a bit misleading: In addition to $18M, you gave up Marte to get Crisp. If he's a 4-WARP player for three years at the minimum wage, that closes a lot of the economic gap between the two. Then there's the arb years, but, of course, you get a draft pick back for Damon, and maybe Coco turns out better...

I ain't sayin' I want JD and Marte back--it's just that this swap is far more complex to evaluate than people often say.

I tried to make that Damon/Crisp comparison on another thread, and it gets pretty complicated. I think I concluded that the relevant comparison is pretty close to Coco for $29 mil (including the $11 mil packaged with Renteria) vs. Damon for $52 mil. My thinking was that Bard/Riske/2 draft picks balanced pretty well with Shoppach/Mota/PTBNL. You also have to consider that it probably would have cost more than $52 mil for the Red Sox to get Damon.

FYI, minorleaguebaseball.com has upgraded their site, so you can follow the game via MLB gameday-like graphics.

AAA games only.

-- MWE

Nevertheless, there is a video floating around that was put together for his birthday.

At first glance I thought this was a Kaz Tadano-type situation.

Is Mickey Hall putting it together? 20 years old, putting up a .900+ OPS at high A. 7 bbs (good!) 16 Ks (bad!!) in 49 ABs. Probably just a fluke, but let's hope not.

Hall was pretty good last year before his injury.

Pedroia's played games at both 2B and SS. Interesting. I like that he could have the flexibility to field either position. I've got to think that if he were to start for Boston next year it would be as a SS, assuming his defense is acceptable. It just doesn't seem like there are ever too many SS available, while it always seems it's like there's an acceptable 2B free agent or waiver guy floating around somewhere.

"...it always seems it's like there's an acceptable 2B free agent or waiver guy floating around somewhere."

And this offseason, in particular, there are a bunch of acceptable 2B FAs. Some could have poor 2006's and look less acceptable, and some could re-sign in season, but there should still be a few left regardless.

I haven't checked the stats myself, but supposedly Pedroia has a 770 OPS right now (though, with such a small sample, I assume any decision to call him up would be based more on scouting than numbers anyway).

Pedroia's played games at both 2B and SS.

He has been playing 2 of every 3 games at SS.

-- MWE

Another great outing for Michael Bowden tonight:

5 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 10/1 K/BB, 4/2 GB/FB

Season YTD: 19 IP, 18 H, 4.26 ERA, 28/3 K/BB

Temple, you always leave out HR! Got to have that in there too. 2.

Pedroia 2/5 tonight. Remember, IT'S STILL SPRING TRAINING FOR HIM, DAMMIT!

Lester 5 IP, 3 H, 4K, 2 BB, 1 HR. Eh.

39th rounder Nichols St. OF/P Bubba Bell continued his hot hitting by going 2/5 for Greenville. Up to .385 in 26 ABs with great peripherals. A nice complement to 32nd rounder Natale, who was 2/3 and is up to .353.

Injuries are piling up down there. Ellsbury on the DL, so is Buchholz, and Lowrie left the game with an injury tonight.

Given how terrible Gonzalez is hitting is it likely that Pedroia will be getting called up soon?

Maybe Boston is just delaying it so that he avoids 'super two' status.

FIW, Clay is making his first stay in a month tonight. Link.

Some more updates (taken from Baseball America)...

Choi: .437 OBP, .418 SLG (79 AB)
Machado: .345 OBP, .341 SLG (88 AB)
Pedroia: .352 OBP, .329 SLG (76 AB)

Alvarez: 2.18 ERA (41.1 IP)
Lester: 4.57 ERA (21.2 IP)