Red Sox to call up Nick Sogard
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Sogard should give them a little more flexibility than Westbrook. Definitely not as good of a prospect as Meidroth, but he is someone they can send up and down quickly right now without burning options unnecessarily. I don't think they want to start Meidroth's clock yet.
Top-notch message boarding. You both add so much to the baseball discussion here, it's definitely what makes SoSH great.
Yeah... uh... There's no universe in which they would have. Sogard is in his 3rd year in AAA, and it took that many years for him to post a wrc+ over 100. He's a nothing, our 36th best prospect, which you would have known if you'd spent five minutes thinking about this?
Seriously, yeah, he's an improvement over Westbrook and that's what this is about, and of course dealing with the 40-man roster issues.
Completely different players. Westbrook is only charitably a second baseman, but *really* hits lefties. A specialist.
Sogard is a generalist: a switch hitter without a big platoon split, he plays all over the infield. Patience, pretty good contact, a touch of pop (he has shown more power in AAA, but I have my suspicions that that is the new ballpark playing small; 9 of his 12 HR came in Worcester). Classic utility/bench profile. Low ceiling, high floor.
Sogard's no hitting star, but he might be able to improve on what the Red Sox have gotten from their second basemen so far this season:
187/244/280 for a 524 OPS, 55 OPS+ in 416 PA. 98 strikeouts to 26 walks.
Which is somehow much worse than last year's shitshow from that position:
240/286/376 for a 663 OPS, 82 OPS+ in 612 PA. 132 strikeouts to 32 walks.
The 724 OPS of 2022 (mostly Trevor Story) seems amazing in comparison.
187/244/280 for a 524 OPS, 55 OPS+ in 416 PA. 98 strikeouts to 26 walks.
Which is somehow much worse than last year's shitshow from that position:
240/286/376 for a 663 OPS, 82 OPS+ in 612 PA. 132 strikeouts to 32 walks.
The 724 OPS of 2022 (mostly Trevor Story) seems amazing in comparison.
This is pretty much all fair -- not to quibble overmuch, but I wouldn't even say he has a high floor. The guy couldn't crack a .400 slugging percentage in AA or his first two trips through AAA. This year is the first time, and I think you're 100% right about Worcester. He only hit 7 homers last year and 0 in AAA the year before that. The 13% BB is nice, but Worcester had 7 guys qualifying ahead of him in terms of BB%, including Valdez, Heineman, Yorke, Kavadas, Meidroth, and Gasper -- which probably has to do with the automated umps.
Yeah, you're right: "high" was probably too strong. If I had to guess what he'd do in an extended MLB sample, I'd say something like .260/.320/.350; with reliable defense at multiple positions, that's not terrible. I expect him within a couple runs of replacement level, in other words. Hopefully he surprises to the upside.
I do like to see the team doing something to improve the infield defense, even the defense from the short side of a second base platoon.
Yeah, agreed one hundred percent. Our pitchers need all the help they can in the second half, and that's why Valdez and Westbrook aren't up here anymore, and Hamilton and Sogie are.
This is why I can’t believe they couldn’t find a warm body that would be more productive than what we have seen. All we heard going into the deadline was about finding a RHH middle infielder and nothing was done.
I feel pretty good about Grissom coming back and contributing. He's always hit when he's healthy.
If not, Romy is a good defender, has been raking all year against LHP, and can start at 2B when Casas takes over at first base within probably the next couple of weeks.
I'm just not that worried about it. I'm happy they put their chips into getting pitching and a bat to take some of the weight off of Wong.
They've got a bunch of internal options they're probably not interested in blocking which kinda limits some of their options in terms of deadline acquisitions.
What gets me about the overall numbers is that Enmanuel Valdez was hitting extremely well in his second stint, to the tune of a .961 OPS in 28 games (20 starts). Granted, they kinda hid him from lefties during that month (2 starts vs LHP plus an occasional lefty reliever), but still, that's a lot of production they sent to Worcester.
I can only assume they prefer steady defense and they trust to get that more from Hamilton, Romy, Westbrook, and now Sogard. If it was entirely about offense at 2B, Valdez would still be up I would think.
I think the problem is that having both Hamilton and Valdez on the roster is redundant. It’s difficult to roster two LH 2B, especially when the rest of the roster is so LH. So, they chose Hamilton. Westbrook was up to play 2b against lefties; but he was so mediocre that they had to move on and try someone else in that role. Hopefully, Sogard is a better fit.
Can we get these guys a style consultant? I know they get paid a buck fifty a day or something, but come the fuck on. He looks like the uncle that Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel won't let his kids be alone with.