AJP gets exorcised and Christian Vazquez up. Starts tonight
- Thread starter RedOctober3829
- Start date
There is a God!
Shit, I hope said God doesn't take what I said about going to church if this happened seriously. I enjoy my Sunday lie-ins.
Shit, I hope said God doesn't take what I said about going to church if this happened seriously. I enjoy my Sunday lie-ins.
Because going into the season with Bogaerts, Bradley, and Middlebrooks wasn't doing that?jsinger121 said:
Or following them up with Holt, Workman, De La Rosa, Betts, and now Vazquez?
This whole season has been investing in young players. That's half the problem. the FO planned 2013 to be a bridge year. It was. That bridge happened to end in a title but there wasn't meant to be a window on the other side when they first assembled the 2013 club. The FO did some things to try and salvage that window. Some worked (Badenhop?) most didn't (AJP, Mujica), but at the core they weren't eschewing the youth movement for veterans, just using the veterans to keep the youth from being rushed. Now the youth is ready, so exit stage left to all the veterans.
Peavy is likely next since he's clearly being shopped in a seller's market. Miller might get too good of an offer to refuse on a 29 year old LHRP about to be a free agent. Drew will only get saved the chopping block if none of the young 3B or SS options in AA/AAA right now make a strong push the rest of July. If Marrero is hitting >.300 come the deadline and Drew is still struggling he's likely to be dumped for nothing/DFA'd himself.
Allow The Jaw to respond:ivanvamp said:
Count me among those who were disappointed – I kinda liked what AJ brought to the table attitude-wise. But he wasn't hitting either.
I wonder if the next phase is going to be let's see if the kids can help us tread a bit of water before we go into full sell-off mode.
Drew playing goes against everything JF just said.
He's not going to be here much longer. Xander needs to go back to short ASAP. (it might be tonight if Holt, Bogie, JBJ, and Mookie are all in the lineup)
As for AJP. The signing was ment to be a year stop gap. But the year is a waste so you might as well bring up the kids for development.
He's not going to be here much longer. Xander needs to go back to short ASAP. (it might be tonight if Holt, Bogie, JBJ, and Mookie are all in the lineup)
As for AJP. The signing was ment to be a year stop gap. But the year is a waste so you might as well bring up the kids for development.
The difference with Drew is that there is hope they can move him for something of value. Maybe that hope is misplaced, but a few weeks to find out isn't going to kill the future.
With John Buck and George Kottaras out there for anyone to grab for nothing, it's not hard to imagine that the Sox had no real trade options with AJP. I'm actually a little sad for AJ. He seems like a guy who had good intentions, but he's just kind of a douche and rubs a lot of people the wrong way.
This seems like the best baseball move. I hope Vazquez does well.
This seems like the best baseball move. I hope Vazquez does well.
FelixMantilla said:
I'm actually really excited. Yeah, there will probably be some colossal screw ups, but it is what it is and I actually plan on watching.
I'm honestly pretty bummed right now. I really was expecting to see the Ron Paul "It's Happening" gif.
I will console myself by not having to watch AJP see 3 pitches total tonight.
I will console myself by not having to watch AJP see 3 pitches total tonight.
If nothing else, Christian Vazquez is at least going to be above average in one phase of the game. I'm psyched to see what he can do.
I've always felt that given the bat, Swihart is their future starter. I wonder if they're not showcasing Vazquez for pro scouts?
Totally spitballing based on my opinion on the superior long term player.
Edit: on topic, hated the singing from the start and glad that goofball is gone.
Totally spitballing based on my opinion on the superior long term player.
Edit: on topic, hated the singing from the start and glad that goofball is gone.
So the doors are open; players coming and going. Sizemore and AJP are the first to leave. Peavy will be next. When Middlebrooks gets back, Drew goes. When Shane comes back there are a number of options, probably Carp. I was never in the AJP hate club. didn't agree with the signing in the first place. Thought we should have made a run at Kurt Suzuki who is now an All-Star but what do I know?
I'm going to the game tonight. I will be able to say I was there when the turn-around started. The Sox are on their way. Get on the bandwagon now! Too much enthusiasm? Yeah, maybe not this year, but in years to come getting the kids playing time will pay off.
AJ turned his best paid season into a part time job, TBS awaits his arrival.
Chalk this up as another bad move by Ben this past off-season.
Chalk this up as another bad move by Ben this past off-season.
SouthernBoSox said:
Stephen Drew doesn't merit being spoken in the same breath as AJP.
- AJP had half a season, plus spring training, to prove that he sucked
- Drew deserves some patience, particularly from baseball-savvy Soshers. He is what he is but he ain't there yet.
- SS is the most critical defensive position on a team. Pitcher pitch better when the know there's real strength up the middle. Why would you fuck with that? (Imagine the playoffs last year if Bogaerts had been at SS, despite the light hitting of Drew)
- The "future" at SS is more likely Marrero than Bogaerts. The future at 3B is more likely Bogaerts than Middlebrooks.
I hope we see some patience with Vazquez. Odds are he's not going to hit as well as AJP. No, matter - it's still a good move.
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Corsi said:
In fairness, the entirety of the offense's problems can't be heaped on AJP. Still, this is a step in the right direction.
I don't think the Sox are really planning that far ahead with the surplus of young catchers. Better to wait have the surplus at the ML level when teams will come calling to you.Dummy Hoy said:
Also, Swihart's ETA is probably mid-2015 at the soonest, with his real demand for every day action to start 2016. That is when Ortiz will be in the option years of his deal and 40 years old, so it is very possible he'll hang it up, leaving DH open. Having Vazquez and Swihart split C and DH with the rest of the roster picking up the ~50-60 games a year that one of them takes off completely sounds to me like a pretty good way to handle catcher for the next half decade.
Dummy Hoy said:
I think Vazquez/Swihart is a near-perfect long term catching situation. Vazquez can hit a bit, too. His Pawtucket numbers look bad, but it was a good April, horrible May, great June with him. If Swihart's the player we hope he is (a B+ version of Buster Posey, basically), you give Swihart 60 percent of the PA to keep him fresh, and have a strong backup.
benhogan said:
The 2013 short-term deals to mediocre FA strategy was okay, but over-hyped. It worked so well because Victorino had a second career year we had no reasonable right to expect before reverting to his career trajectory in 2014 — and, well, Koji Uehara.
Those sorts of things are not reliably repeatable, as the 2014 AJP and Drew experiments indicate.
Um.... The season is over. Stephen Drew won't be with the 2015 Red Sox.geoduck no quahog said:
You know who will? Xander Bogaerts.
geoduck no quahog said:
I agree on all counts, including on Drew, whose shortstop defense has been as good as ever over the last week. He and Pedroia have a very good double play exchange.
Also, no need to move Drew until Middlebrooks is ready to play. Holt is better in the outfield than at third base.
Vazquez will probably be as bad at the plate as any callup since Iggy. I don't care. I want to see how he plays the most important defensive position on the field.
I love the symmetry in todays Globe. AJP dumped and an article to "Get rid of the Wally Wave too". The two most annoying factors in this season filled with annoying factors!
Sprowl said:
Yep. His defense is why he's up already. I hope people remember that when he's batting 180/210/315 in a few weeks. I love this move because it will get his adjustment period out of the way before 2015 starts. I expect we wouldn't be out of line to hope for a .330-345 OBP out of him next season. He's going to take his lumps in 2014, though.
Swihart is the only untouchable guy in the system. But if I read the tea leaves correctly, the preferred idea is that they can rotate Swihart over to 1B/DH a few times per week to keep him fresh. So each of them will catch 3/4 times per week. They haven't worked Swihart out over there yet but it's bound to be a matter of time, in my opinion.Dummy Hoy said:
ivanvamp said:
Like something the Marlins might do?
Dummy Hoy said:
Then who is the second C next year?
Yup, I never understood the reasoning. His 2012 was nearly Brady Anderson-esque in it being a possibly drug-enhanced contract drive, and other than that he'd been averaging about a 90 OPS+ for years. Without Texas's rightfield porch juicing his HR total like it did last year, he declined into oblivion this season with one last payday from a team that bought his 2012. And, if you look at the second half of 2013, the decline into oblivion may have started at last year's all-star break. That makes me even more suspicious.benhogan said:
Still I'm surprised that the Orioles didn't want to take a flier on him. As a free agent, he may be able to go back to Texas.