1.5 million for Bard seems okay, though he didn't look all that impressive during the college world series. All fastballs with poor secondary pitches, so poor that his head coach was piping mad that he decided to throw them since hitters were batting like .900 off his flat slider. After about five hits off them, of course Bard went on to throw 42 straight fastballs and pitched effectively. The fastballs looked good though, they have some movement.

Daniel Bard, Darren.

Overall, a very nice haul, with Lars being the biggest piece. I still don't really get his situation though.

He was a projected supplemental 1st rounder who fell to the 18th round because of signability issues, but he later signed with us for supplemental 1st round money anyway. Weird. Hopefully he will let us forget about Pedro Alvarez from last year.

I love Kalish, but that's mostly a Jersey thing. He's very athletic, but a little raw.

Weeden is a nice pickup, though if he has to move from C, he obviously loses a lot of value. I don't love that short statured R/R as a future 1B.

Belt is going to be a nice DFE to follow. He is a very projectable lefty, who wanted to sign with a team, but had his pre-draft deal with the Cubs botched (by the Cubs). He should be one of the top 3 DFE's before the season.

Bard definitely needs worked, but he is nice to have in the fold. I'm interested to see what his track will be with the Sox.

Daniel Bard, Darren.

Really? I thought it was Bard-of-Avon.

For it is worth (not very much), when I saw him pitching in the CWS Bard had one of the easiest 97s I have ever seen. His situation appears somewhat similar to Verlander's coming out of college in that they both have extreme power arms, but mechanical/control/consistency issues. I remember Verlander as having a better breaking ball though...

oh yeah, duh.

In addition to the signees, the Red Sox have a few DFE's who look interesting (though, I'm really just reading from others' reports):

Belt
Reddick
Rahman
Gilligan (I'm a sucker for Canadians)
Gross (son of Kevin Gross)

Gilligan (I'm a sucker for Canadians)

If they don't sign this kid, they're crazy. The name alone guarantees he's going to be a superstar.

If they don't sign this kid, they're crazy. The name alone guarantees he's going to be a superstar.

As long as they don't send him out on one of those three-hour harbor tours.

-- MWE

they already signed phil's distant cousin, ryan khoury.

Clay Buchholz had a very nice second start in the Carolina League.

6 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 10/0 K/BB

The game story noted that he hit 97 mph, which would be the hardest I have heard of him throwing this season.

Also...Bowden will be making the start for Wilmington on Saturday.

As long as they don't send him out on one of those three-hour harbor tours.
kevin, why do I suspect you may have heard that before...

I liked Verlander's breaking stuff more than Bard's. I like most everyone's breaking stuff better than Bard's. Still a solid pick, though.

Awesome class for Boston - now, they just need to land Belt, one of my favorite prep arms in the draft (man, San Jacinto's got a sweet incoming rotation b/w him and Ranger draftee Kevin Angelle).

Congratulations to the GCL Sox. The first champions of the 2006 professional baseball season.

Gross (son of Kevin Gross)


Great great grand kid of Jgross as well... ;)

Remember that guy Hairps from SOSH who did a study on which pitchers and pitchers had performed the best in college in 06?

One of the guys who scored very highly in his adjusted numbers was New Mexico's Danny Herrera, a 5'8" 145-lb. pitcher. He eventually got picked in the 45th round by the Rangers, and has been dominating in the low minors:

AZL: 8.2 IP, 5 H, 0 HR, 0 BB, 11 K, 2.08 ERA.
CAL: 40 IP, 29 H, 0 HR, 11 BB, 49 K, 1.56 ERA.

Just thought that was interesting.

Not to mention that 71% of the BIP against him have been on the ground.

I'm pretty sure that's how he was able to dominate in an offensive environment like NM.

He also throws a screwball, apparently.

I went to the first leg of the Fenway Futures games yesterday, which featured Lowell and Oneonta. The star of the show was Sox 2nd round pick, Justin Masterson. He was simply unhittable. His fastball was jetting in every which direction while staying from 92-94, and his slider was a nice out pitch. Yet he also maintained very good control and poise. All contact against him was either pounded into the ground or fouled off weakly.

The 2nd player who caught my eye was catcher Luis Exposito. I've talked about him before, mainly because one "unnamed" scouting director was raving about him before the draft. Anyway, he showed off a very strong arm behind the plate, to go with right-handed power potential. He just looks like a major leaguer.

7th round pick Kris Negron flashed a very nice glove at SS, and hit a sharp single and stole a base in his only PA.

I left after the 2nd game, which was my biggest error. The people I was sitting stayed for the 2nd game, and had a chance to sit next to Sox scouting director Jason McLeod. It pisses me off just thinking about it.

I didn't get to go, but I heard that when he entered the game Joshua Papelbon got a reception similar to his brother. I'm having goosebumps on his behalf thinking about it.

He just looks like a major leaguer.

We're not selling jeans. But maybe we should.

17th round pick Josh Reddick has signed. He was the GJCAA player of the year. That's all I got.

Old news, more or less, but the Bard signing is "official": http://tinyurl.com/h294r

With Kottaras aboard, and what appears to have been a strong draft, it will be interesting to see how the Sox system ranks next year, given that many of last year's top-five are in the bigs now, probably to stay.