State of the farm?

[bd811]

Hey guys, I was wondering if someone could give me the lowdown on the Sox farm system? I read in the winter that the system was severely weakened after trades with the Phillies and DBacks, but it seems that pitchers like Tracey, Haeger, and Broadway might disagree with this (not to mention Sweeney and Fields).

 

I guess my questions are, who are the guys worth keeping an eye on? What sort of schedule are they on in terms of when they will reach the majors? And finally, will the Sox be able to fit these guys on their big league roster, or will most of these guys end up as trade bait (ie do the Sox plan to replace Crede with Fields or will Fields be shipped out)?

 

Thanks.

[Heads22]

Ooh. Not really a short answer on this one. A lot of depends if you're like some guys here that don't think we have anyone worthwhile. I'd say our core minor leaguers who have the best chances to develop are Broadway, Sweeney, Fields, Valido and Cunningham. The farm system is still not in great shape, especially at the lower levels, but we have guys who could be starters in the majors.

[GoodAsGould]

at the lower levels(low A and High A) we have some real raw but high potential guys. In Low A their is Paulo Orlando, Salvador Sanchez, Francisco Hernandez and Aaron Cunningham. There is also Vernon Carter but he really struggled the first 2 weeks and I havent heard anything about him since. In High A there are probably 2 guys you want to keep your eye on. Anderson Gomes has the tools to be a star supposedly but not much is really known about him. If Randar is even on I think he has seen him live. As for pitchers the only one in the lower lvl's that has a lot of talent is Wes Whisler. At the moment he seems to either dominate or totally suck.

 

 

In AA its where our pitching prospects are at. Our 3 main guys are Laynce Broadway, Tyler Lumsden, and Ray Liotta. All 3 have really pitched well so far especially Broadway who has flat out dominated. Although he projects to be a middle to back of the rotation guy. Lumsden has the best stuff but been injury prone in his short career. Im not 2 familiar with Liotta but he was awesome last year and the sox seem pretty high on him.

 

The two hitters in AA to keep an eye on are Getz and Valido... who also happen to be the leadoff guys. Getz can do it all besides hitting for power. So far Getz has done pretty well batting near the .300 mark while Valido has struggled. Valido can do it all and is very gifted defensively. He also has been a tremedous base stealer so far.

 

 

In AAA the one pitcher that everyone seems to like is Sean Tracey. Tracey projects to probably be a RP in the bigs possibly as a closer.... he has a rubber arm. The 2 hitters probably are best established prospects too are Ryan Sweeney and Josh Fields. So far both have had a lot of success but Sweeney is currently on the DL. As you can see Fields is completely tearing it up.

[Gene Honda Civic]

Fields (Age: 23 -- AAA), Broadway (Age: 22 -- AA), Harrell (Age: 20 -- A+), and Cunningham (Age: 20 -- A-) have been the biggest standouts at each level. They've all helped their prospect stock over the first 1/5th of the season. Fields and Broadway moving to the top of the Sox top 10 and Harrell and Cunningham supplanting guys like Francisco Hernandez who have dissapointed, again.

 

Lumsden even with his 4 HR game has a solid ERA and should be considered a top 10 prospect once again with his stuff. Liotta has poor peripherals, but keeps stringing together solid outings. He'll need to improve control to make the bigs.

 

Sweeney has handled the transition to AAA at 20, and now is playing some CF. He's hurt now (did we ever find out what he had?) He still should probably get another year of seasoning to really develop some plate discipline and hopefully some more power, but he should hold steady atop the prospect list.

 

Disappointments thus far appear to be Robert Valido, Jerry Owens, Hernandez, Anderson Gomes (who phil rogers probably over-hyped), Brandon Allen.

[danman31]

Disappointments thus far appear to be Robert Valido, Jerry Owens, Hernandez, Anderson Gomes (who phil rogers probably over-hyped), Brandon Allen.

Valido was overhyped in general IMO. His production, even last year, never matched his talent. He came close last year to what he was supposed to do and everyone got all excited. I'm still not sold on this guy. Of course, it's easy to say this now, but we'll see how this works out.

 

As for Owens, he looks like Spidale 2 right now. CF, leadoff hitter for the Barons who has a breakout year and then struggles in Charlotte.

Edited May 15, 2006 by danman31

[Gene Honda Civic]

at the lower levels(low A and High A) we have some real raw but high potential guys. In Low A their is Paulo Orlando, Salvador Sanchez, Francisco Hernandez and Aaron Cunningham. There is also Vernon Carter but he really struggled the first 2 weeks and I havent heard anything about him since.

Orlando has a brutal K:BB ratio. Supposedly, he was a really late convert to baseball. (i.e. he was only put on a team a couple years ago to be a pinch runner. Now he's playing CF and leading off, hitting for a good average, with some power to boot.) He'll need to learn that a walk is a good thing, or he's never going to be anything more than a speedy utility player like Pablo Ozuna.

 

Sanchez is having his second straight disappointing season. As is Hernandez. Carter was shipped back to Arizona after he struggled in his first taste of full-season ball. He'll be back in the rookie leagues when they open up. These guys are falling off the prospect map fast.

 

Daniel Cortes is a name that nobody has mentioned, probably because he's 1-5 with a 4.5something ERA in Kanny. But he's a 19 year old (just turned 19 in march) with a live arm who's striking out a batter per inning, and has featured solid control while also keeping the ball in the park. He's allowed more hits than innings pitched, but part of that has to do with the BRUTAL defense behind him. Kanny has twice as manny errors as they have games played. That leads to a lot longer innings, and more hits.

[Gene Honda Civic]

Daniel Cortes is a name that nobody has mentioned, probably because he's 1-5 with a 4.5something ERA in Kanny. But he's a 19 year old (just turned 19 in march) with a live arm who's striking out a batter per inning, and has featured solid control while also keeping the ball in the park. He's allowed more hits than innings pitched, but part of that has to do with the BRUTAL defense behind him. Kanny has twice as manny errors as they have games played. That leads to a lot longer innings, and more hits.

I suppose if I have to place a caveat on the H/9, I also have to place that same caveat on the K/9 numbers.

 

Still, he's very young, and has a good arm. That defense behind him makes the stats awfully hard to interpret.

[DBAHO]

I don't think Francisco Hernandez has had THAT bad of a start this season. Albeit he has 1HR in 102 AB's which ain't really acceptable, but he's got good plate discipline with a 11/8 K/BB ratio, which is a lot better than other hitting prospects in our system. But he needs to show something power wise soon.

 

Our version of Juan Gonzalez however, has no plate discipline at all with a 33/5 K/BB ratio.

[GoodAsGould]

Its not like Sweeney has shown a lot of power in the minors? He still seems to be doing fine besides the injury. Hernadez is doing alright I think. I expect a lot of these guys to pick it up the 2nd half of the season when they are more comfortable with the level of competition.

[Jordan4life_2007]

but he's another quality pitching prospect for an organization that seems to developing a lot of them

 

Wait till Tizzle sees this.