it's seven years not six
http://espn.go.com/boston/mlb/story/_/id/11392841/boston-red-sox-add-cuban-rusney-castillo
right, but that includes this year, or what's left of it, on a prorated salary. so functionally it is 6 years. i don't expect castillo to do much this year since he has been out of baseball for a while.
good signing at not an outrageous price. i hope his skill translate well into the game here.but even so, it is the exactly the sort of risk a rich team like the sox can take.
as mentioned above, the sox HAVE to do something since they have for 2015 a boatload of possible outfielders.
castillo
cespedes
JBJ
victorino
betts
nava
craig
craig could play some 1B, he has in the past. but there still are only really 4 spots for outfielders on the roster and they have 7 candidates. something is going to happen, even if craig is DH and 1B AND JBJ goes to AAA things will be tight. oh yeah, and holt is a factor as well.
I'll throw in it stands to reason to me that if Betts is in fact a sure handed 2B who has been trusted to play in RF by the org this year, I'd think he has the prerequisite arm and skills to be quickly converted to 3B.
But yeah, I'm expecting fireworks this winter.
good point, especially given WMB's woes. the only question, and it is a question, on betts at 3B is he arm. coming up in the minors reports said he had a strong arm, but not accurate enough to play 3B. but those reports, my memory, or both may be faulty or out of date.
the sox have decisions to make for everyday players. and as for the pitching depth in the minors, geez, talk about an embarrassment of riches. i can't see how a trade doesn't take place sometime.
I really can't speak with any knowledge about Betts' capabilities at 3B, it just my guess he goes there or in a trade at some point. On that, though a little OT, I was listening to Felger just now characterize Betts' value in a trade -- to paraphrase, it was something like " Why would Miami want him?? He strikes me as wildly overrated....a throw in in a trade..." <Click>, ; that was the end my listening for the day....
yeah, a wise move to turn off that noise. for what it is worth, a scout from another MLB team who knows the sox system projected betts as being the best player on the red sox team in 2-3 years.
even if betts looks to remotely approach that level in the eyes of the front office, and for next to nothing in salary, he isn't going anywhere unless another young star comes back.
betts is good, very very good. there is a reason sox prospects has him as their #1 prospect and the sox brought him up to the show at age 21.
Right, but that's what people were saying about Bogaerts and to a lesser extent, Bradley Jr. Until they actually play a few seasons in the big leagues you just don't know if any of these prospects will pan out. That's what makes it worthwhile to trade prospects, even multiple ones, for established stars if their hyped value exceeds their actual value. Look at how much Bradley Jr.'s value has plummeted in the past 5 months.
I still feel pretty positive about most of these guys but the fact is most of us really only have the media hype machine to go on. Remember Casey Kelly, Lars Anderson, Craig Hansen, Jason Place, Frankie Rodriguez, etc.?
You left out Anthony Rizzo, Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis, Jon Lester, Jonathan Papelbon,Hanley Ramirez, Ellsbury, Buchholz, Masterson, Reddick, Moss in your list of over hyped failures.
Not to come off as a combative punk, but it's a pet peeve of mine when people point to anecdotal evidence of guys who flamed out to knock the value of prospects in general. You mention Casey Kelly, but Rizzo was part of that trade as well. He's one of the best hitters in baseball on arguably the most team friendly contract in the whole league. You could make a strong argument that that was a bad trade, and I'm not one of those people who finds any fault with AGon's role in the '11-'12 disaster teams. I just think it's a matter of the inexact science of predicting what human beings are going to do, rather than a hype machine product.
I just don't see it as cut and dry that giving up a significant haul for Stanton is a no-brainer. It's dumb to argue that he isn't on the path of like a Manny/Mickey Mantle type career, but with Stanton's acquisition comes of course the 10(+?)/300 mil(+?) contract. So if the deal is hypothetically Cespedes, Betts, and Owens, you also have to factor in the 30 mil+ of Stanton's huge extension.
If they do make a Betts/Owens/Cespedes type trade for Stanton I'm not gonna cry my eyes out, but I'd honestly wager on Miami getting the better end (and I also don't see trades in a one team vs the other sense, another pet peeve of mine) of the deal.
And don't give 'em Swihart!!! Haha.
