Sad to see him go, but I don't think he was ever going to flourish in Florida. I expect a good year from him in Boston, though.

As long as it's the beginning of a trend where Team GM focuses on getting younger and more athletic by raiding arbitration-eligible lists in lieu of signing free agents then I am on board. Hermida could be the Lowenstein half of a LF platoon or he could be a decent bench piece

His HR/FB and IFF/FB have been heading in the wrong direction over the last two seasons. Not sure if that's something that can be "coached up." Still, a nice gamble by Boston.

Interesting trade from the Marlins' point of view (that is, if anyone here cares about the Marlins' point of view). The Fish must have seen something in Jones and Alvarez to make this deal. (Salary, some wags will say.)

Hunter Jones has below average stuff. Jose Alvarez pitched in relief in High A/short season with a fairly unimpressive K rate. He's only 20 though, and stats at that level aren't worth much obviously. No idea on what kind of stuff he has.

From what I can tell the Red Sox gave up basically nothing, except whatever they have to pay him in arbitration. I have to assume the Marlins were going to non-tender Hermida anyway, and just decided to get whatever they could.

He's still relatively young, though he strikes out a ton. His one decent year was driven largely by having a high (for him) batting average.

I vividly remember Hermida's MLB debut... I knew he was highly touted at the time, but that was ridiculous...

Strikes me as Bay/Holliday insurance. There are worse kinds to have, I guess, though he hasn't been much good of late.

Does he still have options? They called him up in 2005 but didn't send him back down. He doesn't seem to have been sent back down for more than a rehab stint since then.

I hope the Marlins fleeced the Sox as badly as they did in the Hanley deal.

I hope the Marlins fleeced the Sox as badly as they did in the Hanley deal.

Why do people keep insisting with this viewpoint? The Sox basically won 2007 with Beckett and Lowell as two major contributors. The Sox got a #1 starter and an above average 3B who was a decent fielder until this year. AND, Hanley's final year in the minors did not indicate he'd be this good. It was a win-win for both teams I reckon.

Pretty sure 'options' are just the number of years you are on the 40 man. With one exception, 3 years on the 40 man means you are out of options, regardless of how many times you've been called up/sent down.

Nope, options are only used up when a player is sent down to the minors.

The Ramirez-Beckett trade was a rare win-win trade.

Nope, options are only used up when a player is sent down to the minors.

No, an option *year* is used when a player is sent down, but within an option year the player may be sent down and called up as many times as the team wishes.

Right, so options are only used up when a player is sent down to the minors.

His HR/FB and IFF/FB have been heading in the wrong direction over the last two seasons. Not sure if that's something that can be "coached up." Still, a nice gamble by Boston.


Logically speaking, this is either because:
a) he's not hitting the ball as hard, or
b) he's hitting the ball too up and not enough forward

a) seems unlikely to me at his age (unless he's off the ROIDS) and maybe could be disconfirmed by hit f/x data?
b) seems very coachable.

Right you are, DKDC. A guy that spends no time in the minors doesn't burn an option. But guys on the 40 that aren't on the 25 get optioned at the start of the season, burning an option year. But I suppose if you add the guy to the 40 and don't send him down that year, you wouldn't burn the option, which makes me now understand what villageidiom was (correctly) saying.

Still though, if he was added to the 40 man in 2005, that leaves 2006, 2007, 2008 on the 40 man. I don't recall Hunter Jones spending the whole year (well, minus 20 days) on the 25 man roster any of those years.

Hunter Jones made #27 in the 2008 Baseball America Prospect Handbook. He did not make the 2009 list. Reading the blurb, he appears to be a crafty lefty who can be used against righthanders. He's a good risk as bullpen filler, I reckon, and maybe an improvement on someone like Matt Lindstrom. They might have a lefty-heavy bullpen if Dan Meyer and Renyel Pinto are coming back.

The Ramirez-Beckett trade was a rare win-win trade.

Agreed. The Marlins probably got the better of the deal in a strictly value-for-value sense but it's hard to imagine how the Red Sox fix the hole in the rotation that would have resulted in Beckett's absence such that they still win the World Series in '07, come within one game of reaching the Fall Classic in '08, and make the postseason in '09. Not to mention the contributions of Mike Lowell, who was included as a salary dump but managed to rejuvenate his career in Boston, to the first two of those in particular.

The Ramirez-Beckett trade was a rare win-win trade.

Fine, but let's not over-state what the Red Sox got either. They traded for 2 years of Beckett and 2 years of Lowell and, essentially, first crack at signing/extending them as FAs. Anything they got from those two in 08-09 (and beyond) has very little to do with that trade

[20] - I'm with you. I think my fellow Red Sox fans have a tendency to (A) exaggerate how good Beckett's been and (B) forget that, just because inertia have kept them in town, we didn't give up the best shortstop of his generation for four years apiece of these two players, but two years apiece. I'm not looking the 2007 gift horse in the mouth, but pretending that, on a value-for-value basis, the Red Sox didn't lose, is like pretending that Britain is still in possession of its empire because the Falklands don't belong to Argentina.

And I know I've used this analogy before, but Josh Beckett is to an ace starter as an orange is to a grapefruit. There are things in common, but it's a lot smaller and it's got more pips in it.

I like this trade for the Sox. I like it a lot.

If a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, then plain old consistency is the hobgoblin of Jeremy Hermida. Plenty of talent there, but he's just never put it together for a lengthy stretch. Early this season, he looked like he might've finally made the leap; he was taking a TON of walks and hitting for good corner OF power. Then his power went missing towards the end of May. I don't know if the Sox think they can recover some of his power through coaching or whatever, or if they think the change of home parks will go a long way towards getting his SLG back to a respectable level. Maybe they just like his OBP and general hitting approach regardless.

I think he's well worth the gamble, and they didn't give up much of anything. If the Sox sign a marquee LFer, Hermida should manage to be a decent corner OF backup to that guy and Drew. If the Sox do not sign a marquee LFer, Hermida could be part of a pretty good LF platoon with Baldelli if the Sox bring the latter back.

I vividly remember Hermida's MLB debut... I knew he was highly touted at the time, but that was ridiculous...

I don't know which was more stunning -- the grand slam or being pinch hit for the next time he came up.