Jose Ruins Careers at the Fort
I hope everyone in Massachusetts enjoyed the foot of snow last week. If it makes you feel better it was a bit windy today when I stepped out of the pool and I caught a bit of a chill. Brrrrr.
I have been able to brave the elements and get to a few Spring Training games so far and as always it is a ton of fun. The week started on a bit of a maudlin note as I walked through the retired numbers section in front of JetBlue Park and passed Johnny Pesky’s number 6. John hasn’t been an active part of Spring Training for a few years but it was still a sobering reminder that the beloved Pesky was no longer with us. I can’t imagine a better ambassador for the game of baseball.
Watching the big boys has been fun. Just in general it seems like things are going well. Jackie Bradley Jr. has clearly become a huge fan favorite generating the biggest cheer when lineups were introduced on Saturday night. He’s great fun to watch playing with a certain joie de vive without being over the top about it. A great example of this was Wednesday’s game that he ended with a fine running catch near the wall, stopped, then took two running steps and jumped spread eagled against the wall. It was a funny and fun moment.
I’ve seen Felix Doubront twice. The first time he looked awful. His delivery was all over the place and he couldn’t hit his spots at all. His second start against the Orioles was up and down. He got a bunch of swing and misses(6 on 53 pitches) but when he got hit he got hit hard. He had no command of either his curveball or his change up (which seemed to be sitting around 85/86 MPH, too fast for his 90 MPH fastball) but his fastball was effective.
I don’t know if it was just usual conditioning stuff or not but on Wednesday Doubront was in a solo part of the complex doing some running drills (think suicides on a basketball court). I never saw other pitchers doing this and it was just Felix and a coach/trainer. It looked like “hey fat ass, get in shape” type drills to me.
A few other guys of note;
Joel Hanrahan - I saw him against Baltimore and he looked sharp. His slider was really snapping, not at all the pitcher we had seen in his first few outings.
Jose Iglesias - Iggy looks like he’s added some speed. He’s not Jacoby Ellsbury or anything but he seems to be considerably quicker than he was last year and he still hits the ball hard when he makes contact. He’s not a Punch and Judy hitter, he just needs to hit his pitch, not the pitcher’s pitch.
Will Middlebrooks - It’s a small thing but Middlebrooks had a few chances to start double plays on Saturday night and was tentative on all the throws. I’m sure it was nothing but the throws were a bit Knoblauch-esque frankly in the way he shot-putted them over.
Jon Lester - Lester seemed like he was focusing on mixing his pitches a LOT more than he did the last couple of seasons. A scout sitting near me mentioned his arm slot seemed a bit lower.
Mike Napoli - It’s possible that it was just a function of the heavily right-handed lineup Baltimore employed against Doubront Saturday night but Napoli was playing way off the bag at first in a very Overbay-like manner. His footwork over there was underwhelming. Considering that he has played a fair amount of first the last couple of years he looked surprisingly uncertain. I wonder if the Sox are trying a break him down/build him back up approach to his defense.
Rubby De La Rosa - Fine, he’s not freakin’ lanky. He looked a bit like a taller Tom Gordon. Watching him pitch it is hard to see him as a starter. He has a real maximum effort delivery and while his stuff is good he just looks like a reliever out there. It’s hard to see his approach working for 6-7 innings. Appier is the one guy who comes to mind that was able to succeed as a starter in such a way.
Brian Butterfield - I like watching Butterfield as a third base coach. Unlike the last couple of 3B coaches we’ve had he gets way down the line when sending/holding runners which should allow him to make later decisions.
Defense - Other than Napoli being off the bag I haven’t seen anything in the three games I have attended that speaks to a plan to play radical defensive shifts. It’s early in the Spring through so that is hardly proof of anything.
Walking among the minor leaguers was its usual great fun. Deven Marrero seems to be a really coaches favorite. He was singled out (“that’s how you do it boys, look at Marrero running that drill the right way!”) for the way he did drills and every time he did something he would seek out a coach for a quiet word afterwards and seemed to be lapping up instruction.
Dwight Evans was actively working with the outfielders one of the days I was there on their throwing techniques. Not a bad guy to get some input from.
The minor leaguers as a group seemed to be really focusing on stretching and conditioning more than I recall in years past. It almost had a high school football team vibe with everyone in a circle diligently doing their stretching drills. The other big focus on days I was there was base running. The general sense I got was that fundamentals are a big part of John Farrell’s first Red Sox camp.
In general the coaches seem heavily empowered at all levels. Unlike last year when you couldn’t get away from Bobby Valentine Farrell is a much less obvious presence but the coaches on all fields are much more vocal and engaged than I recall under either Valentine or Francona.
Thoughts on a few kids;
Bryce Brentz/Drake Britton - Both guys were working with the minor leaguers, Britton two days after the arrest. Brentz seemed to be moving fine, I didn’t see a limp.
Pat Light - Light is a big solid guy who takes the Will Middlebrooks mantle of “that’s how you’re supposed to look in a baseball uniform.”
In Shape - A couple of guys who I thought looked like they were in better shape than when I saw them last were Anthony Ranaudo and Travis Shaw. Shaw particularly looks a bit more athletic than he did when I saw him in Portland in August.
Henry Owens - If Owens has anything at all on the baseball LOOGY should be the floor for him. Haircut aside he physically resembles Andrew Miller and I can’t imagine standing in the batter’s box against him if I’m a lefty.
Manuel Margot - My first thought upon seeing Margot was a young Ron Gant. That level of power probably isn’t going to be there for Margot but he has a sturdy, explosive look about him for a young kid.
I’m going to games Tuesday and Friday this week. If you’ve got something or someone you want me to see, let me know (and if someone could go shovel my driveway that would be great).
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1. Famous Original Joe C Posted: March 10, 2013 at 08:47 PM (#4385925)Speed is good. Will be interested in seeing him "hit". Previous incarnations of Jose are ones that have seen him have trouble getting the ball out of the infield. Your assessment of him hitting the ball hard has me wishcasting for Edgar Martinez gap power....
I am growing a little bit optimistic about Jose Iglesias. Your point about speed is a good one - he just looks like a better athlete, stronger and faster. That home run he hit in the first NESN game came off just a good swing with a good weight shift, not some load-up-and-close-your-eyes kind of deal. If he can start to hit doubles without striking out all the time, he can be a major leaguer.
Have you gotten to watch Tazawa? He looks, if anything, even better than he did last summer. He's added this dirty little slow curve.
And if Doubront is as big a disaster as this sounds, what's the plan? I guess either Morales or Aceves, but Doubront doesn't have any options remaining. Would he take one of the precious bullpen spots? Or would he be assigned a semi-phantom injury?
My favorite piece here:Now that is a baseball nerd. well done. (Margot put up solid XBH numbers for a kid so young, and I am hopeful that there's more power in his bat than the initial scouting returns seemed to suggest.)
I can't imagine Doubront would just get punted, if would be a pretty firm indictment of him if be was. I would assume he'd go on the DL first but he showed enough last year that the Sox aren't going to just lose him. He will get every chance to pitch himself out of the job.
I saw Tazawa once and he was unremarkable. It was the ninth inning against Pittsburgh so no names abounded and he threw strikes. Nothing really great or awful to say.
To be clear I think the second start was fairly positive. He improved noticeably from the first to the second. If he can add some off speed command in his third start I think there is cause to feel good.
Tazawa has always featured that curve. It was the main offspeed pitch he was throwing when he came up, and last year out of the bullpen he'd flash it occasionally though the splitter/changeup/whatever was his main second pitch as a short reliever. He certainly has the varied repertoire to be a starter, but I think the question has always been his stamina/durability.
1. Buchholz looked excellent. He was pounding the ball down low and all his pitches looked pretty sharp.
2. I think I'm in love with Allen Webster so we may as well book his Tommy John surgery now. I don't know if it's two fundamentally different versions of the fastball or he just changes where he throws it but he was effective both up and down in the zone. The change up was the real "wow" pitch though. That thing gets about 40 feet to the plate then just disappears on the hitter.
3. It's a stupid little thing but it's the kind of thing I enjoy seeing. Frank Montas (hard throwing Dominican kid) was someone I would have expected to be coasting by on pure talent. I watched him in a simple warm up group with about 20 other pitchers and he was the most diligent and attentive to doing the warm up right. If you're looking for a concern he's already going Rich Garces and by the time he's old enough to be on the 40 man he's going to weigh 250.
4. Mike Napoli still looks out of sorts at first base to me.
5. I can't stress enough how much I enjoy Brian Butterfield at 3B. I know I mentioned it originally but he gets way down the line and very wide to give himself a great view of the field and time to make a decision on whether or not to send the runner.
6. Jackie Bradley committed an error (dropped a sinking liner) after misplaying a flyball on Friday. Not the end of the world or anything, just nice to see the kid is human.
I was thinking about shortstop today. Drew is still out with the concussion and I'm wondering how long he will need after coming back to get the at bats he needs to be season ready. Are we approaching the point where Iglesias or Ciriaco will be our opening day shortstop?
Was it Salty making the throw?
~What's the big deal with concussions, you get like 6 freebies~
I'll be interested to see if the Red Sox catcher defense looks much better this year. Ross has a pretty good defensive reputation, and is supposedly one of the better catchers in the league at pitch framing. This article mentions that Salty also has excelled in pitch framing, which I haven't really noticed, since Salty's defense often looks pretty shaky at best.
This was my first time watching Jackie Bradley Jr play. The book on him seems perfectly accurate to me. Great defensive instincts. Typically, the first thing I notice about excellent defensive outfielders is that they'll already be running at full pelt by the time my eyes find them after a ball is hit over their head or into the gap or anywhere else where they've got to get on their horse and run it down. Bradley is like that. He's often in motion before actual contact off the bat; he appears to start his read just based on where the ball is pitched and how the batter is shaping to put a swing on it. At the plate, he looks calm and methodical. Surprisingly strong for a smallish guy, too (I think his listed 5'10" on bb-ref is generous). He has seriously beefy forearms, and he was able to inside-out the ball to left field with some authority when Nuno tried to jam him inside. I think the hype is justified. Kid can really play.
I was also impressed with Brock Holt. Another guy who looked like he had a plan at the plate each time he went up. Nice compact swing. He wasn't particularly tested defensively, but he handled his chances fine.
I agree with Jose's opening comments about Iglesias. He didn't have a great day with the bat, but he wasn't overmatched or anything. A bit hacktastic in approach still, but not a total pushover.
David Ross has a ridiculously quick release.
Felix Doubront had a very good fastball, but he had to throw it too much because his command of the offspeed stuff was pretty iffy. When the Yankee hitters were able to sit on the heater in a fastball count, they made good contact. He bounced back reasonably well from a difficult 2nd inning, so that was a plus I suppose. Also, the guys who looked the worst against him were Gardner and Youkilis, two of the three or maybe four bona fide major leaguers in the NY lineup. I don't know what that means. I do know Doubront ate Youk alive. I think about seven of Doubront's five punchouts were against Youk and the official scorer just took a few away at the end because they shouldn't count when a guy looks that bad.
The Red Sox are probably going to have one of the best bullpens around.
Gardner also. He just seems to go from 0 to 60 in a second and makes catchs look easy. Whereas, aside from a couple of brilliant catchs, Ellsbury seems to make plays look hard, and I think Crawford is all but done as a speedster. He runs like someone who can only run as fast as he can without pulling a hammy.
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