Red Sox call up INF Tzu-Wei Lin, DL Rutledge

Cesar Crespo

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wow. This is great.. I've been trying to hold back my excitement on him because of his track record but the results coincide with a change in swing and approach. He can play all 3 OF spots too.
 

sean1562

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if he can play 3B as well as Marrero, the bar of .512 OPS isn't that hard to clear. More exciting than seeing Pablo back out there, at the very least.
 

Rasputin

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We spend all spring arguing over taking the better player (Hernandez) or the one that complements the starter he'll have to replace the most (Rutledge) as our backup to the backup in the infield and now we're without the starter, the backup (Holt), the backup to the backup and the backup to the backup of the backup.

Deven Marrero and Tzu-Wei Lin.

Baseball does weird things.

Congratulations, kid, I hope you make it memorable.
 

sean1562

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We spend all spring arguing over taking the better player (Hernandez) or the one that complements the starter he'll have to replace the most (Rutledge) as our backup to the backup in the infield and now we're without the starter, the backup (Holt), the backup to the backup and the backup to the backup of the backup.

Deven Marrero and Tzu-Wei Lin.

Baseball does weird things.

Congratulations, kid, I hope you make it memorable.
I can't imagine he ever saw this coming, considering how he played last season. He must be ecstatic right now.
 

Bigpupp

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wow. This is great.. I've been trying to hold back my excitement on him because of his track record but the results coincide with a change in swing and approach. He can play all 3 OF spots too.
I don't think this is correct. He has 10 career starts in the OF, all in CF.
 

nvalvo

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Lin, for those just hearing of him for the first time, is a Taiwanese shortstop.

The Red Sox signed him for $2m, the largest bonus ever given to a Taiwanese position player, when he was eighteen. The Yankees had attempted to sign him two years earlier, but there was a Tazawa-style incident about big league teams poaching high school students, and the deal fell through. The Sox swooped after he graduated.

Until this season, he's been a glove-first shortstop, although some scouts question if he has the arm for an everyday SS in MLB. He had risen quickly through the system because of his defensive maturity, but stalled out at AA because he couldn't break a .600 OPS against Eastern League pitching.

But this year, he tweaked his swing to get a higher launch angle and suddenly started destroying the Eastern League. He's still only 23.
 
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Cesar Crespo

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I don't think this is correct. He has 10 career starts in the OF, all in CF.
If he can play CF, he can probably play RF and LF. He has the arm for it. From what I've heard, he looked fine in CF. In the 17 games at 3b, he was an absolute butcher and he'll probably be getting some starts there.
 

grimshaw

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Curious if Farrell will play him at all or keep Marrero out there. He could just be up for depth, but I'm crossing my fingers.
 

Rasputin

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Curious if Farrell will play him at all or keep Marrero out there. He could just be up for depth, but I'm crossing my fingers.
What say we score fifteen runs so Lin can get a couple innings in at second safely?
 

Cesar Crespo

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Grimshaw linked to this the other day in the LIn thread: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/instagraphs/daily-prospect-notes-622/

Tzu-Wei Lin, MIF, Boston (Profile)
Level: Double-A Age: 23 Org Rank: NR Top 100: NR
Line: 5-for-5, 2B, 3B, SB
Notes
Lin’s batted-ball profile has changed dramatically. His ground-ball rate is down from 55% in 2016 to 34% this season, and his fly-ball rate is up from 28% to 46%. Lin’s footwork has changed: a dangling leg kick has replaced a quickly grounded front foot. He has always been hard to strike out, and now it seems Lin’s hand-eye coordination and bat control are benefiting from more efficient use of his lower half, generating more doubles power. Not all scouts consider him a shortstop — many think his arm belongs on the other side of the infield — but maybe there’s enough bat here now that he profiles as a low-end regular at second.
 

soxhop411

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Looks like Rutledge has been dealing with a concussion since memorial day and didn't tell the coaches

Brian MacPherson‏Verified account @brianmacp 37m37 minutes ago
Replying to @brianmacp
A follow-up to Farrell on Rutledge: In a perfect world, would Rutledge have said something right away?

Brian MacPherson‏Verified account @brianmacp 1h1 hour ago
Farrell: Rutledge mentioned disorientation and lack of focus Friday, but he thinks his concussion stems from a diving play on Memorial Day.

Article here
 

AbbyNoho

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Players (and the culture of sports) really need to understand that a head injury isn't something less serious that you can just ignore, it is often much more serious than any other type of injury. The competitiveness is appreciated, but I hope the Red Sox staff let him know (and the rest of the team) that ignoring concussions is not okay for them or the team.
 

SydneySox

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Sure. But that's one of those sadly sympathetic conversations, similar to the old AAAA guys on performance enhancing stuff. If you're Josh Rutledge and you're getting playing time because everyone else on the Red Sox who can play 3B has gotten hurt, and you started the year as maybe the backup to the backup of the backup... maybe you grit it out and do everything you can to stay in the big leagues.

It's tough.