Hernandez back up to the big club, Light sent down, according to Over the Monster. Will be nice to add a lefthanded bat.
Marco Hernandez and Christian Vazquez recalled, Swihart to AAA
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PawSox @PawSox 48m48 minutes ago
#PawSox left fielder @BLAKESWIHART_1 has two outfield assists tonight. (And he nearly had a third earlier in the game.)
looks like he is adjusting pretty well to the OF
#PawSox left fielder @BLAKESWIHART_1 has two outfield assists tonight. (And he nearly had a third earlier in the game.)
looks like he is adjusting pretty well to the OF
Yes. Being able to throw out those testing you falls pretty comfortably in the "adjusting pretty well" category.
Christian Vazquez is actually starting to hit and approaching a .700 ops. The ISO is encouraging but those strike outs are piling up. I think people were too quick to just assume he would hit well enough, so it's nice to see.
I'd argue people were too quick to assume he wouldn't hit well enough. He's got a career .740 OPS in the minors with decent enough power and plate discipline numbers, playing at pretty advanced levels for a catcher. He also just missed a year of game action. Mike Piazza at the plate, he is not, but I haven't understood why people wouldn't think his offense would trend up from his rookie season. But, yes, it's nice to see.
The reason I thought his offense wouldn't trend up this year, is because he seemed to hit an extraordinary number of texas leaguers to RF in 2014. Those little flares are fairly easily defensed against, at least when the RF can cheat in by more than a few steps because there's so little opposite power to fear. And even when those hits find grass, there's not much damage done.
To my eye, his batted ball profile in 2014 and 2016 show he's basically still getting hits the same way: Christian Vazquez spray chart comparison, 2014 vs 2016.
Vazquez still does most of his damage with fliners dunked over the heads of the infielders. And since he was hurt all last season, I never expected that the hitting game would develop much from where it was before the surgery.
Now, when Vazquez came up in 2014, I also thought the player his overall game most reminded me of wasn't any of the Molinas, but Carlos Ruiz. Ruiz was a very useful hitter for some good Phillies teams, and put up some terrific OBPs when his fliners missed gloves (plus one fluke crazy-good season).
So I expected (and still expect) Vazquez will become a good enough hitter for the 8/9 in a championship-caliber order; however, the next 1-2 seasons will call for some patience with his growing pains, I expect.
Fortunately, JBJ got in his much-needed year of hitting development last season and now looks to remain a respectable plate presence even once he cools down from white-hot. So the 2016 Sox should continue to have the luxury of a strong bottom-of-the-order without requiring Swihart-level offense from catcher, and instead should be able to enjoy Vazquez's defense while giving him the time he needs to get better as a hitter.
But not expecting Vazquez to improve from his rookie year in his sophomore season isn't the same thing at all as not expecting him to improve over the long-term. I still think he'll probably hit about .600-.650 OPS in 2016. But if JBJ is really a .850 OPS bat, that should easily be enough.