Roman Anthony, Stud OF and Future of Sox

TrotNixonRing

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Jul 28, 2023
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How can there be no thread for this guy?

call me whatever you’d like but I want him in the outfield opening day 2025, full stop

he is Special
 

Sandy Leon Trotsky

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I actually hope he doesn't "start" the season with the ML team... he's super young and there's already a lot of talent in the OF. But I would like to see him on the ML roster after at least a month of doing what he's doing in AAA to start the season in '25. I'm optimistic that he will but if there's not an injury to one of Abreu, Duran or Rafaela before the start of the season then I think he should get some time in AAA to show it's not fluky (again, I doubt it is but....).
Assuming Story will get injured by the end of that month (watch them trade Story and he finally have a full healthy great season for Atlanta), the obvious move is for Mayer to come up... but with HIS injury history, I think he should stick around even longer at AAA. That's when you move Rafaela into SS and bump up Anthony.
---I'm not sure how all this will work, but that'd be 3 LHH OF starters.... so depending what happens with RFSnyder and O'Neill the team would be even more vulnerable to Left Handed Pitchers. So then once again, we turn to Yoshida... despite the good season as a place to change him into a spot for a RH power corner IF backup. Maybe Campbell takes over at 2B (but I'm in the same boat with him needing some AAA to start the season) and brings some there. The puzzle doesn't quite fit... but it's rare it ever does in any smooth elegant way
 

oumbi

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I see quite a bit of posting and gnashing of teeth over the "lefty problem." But it is not, as we know, automatic that a LHB does poorer against LHP, and Anthony seems to show this, at least in 2024. The problem may not be as worrisome as we worry about for Anthony. (Apologies for the poor formatting below.)

Split. G. PA. AB. R. H. 2B. 3B. HR. RBI. SB. CS SO BA. OBP. SLF. OPS. TB [TH]vs RHP as LHB[/TH]
95 340 293 78 17 4 15 43 44 76 .266 .362 .505 .867 148

[TH]vs LHP as LHB[/TH]
51 97 85 29 7 0 3 11 10 28 .341 .423 .529 .952 45


https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=anthon000rom&type=bgl&year=2024

EDIT for stupidity in typing 2024. Thanks Brianish.
 
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benhogan

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I see quite a bit of posting and gnashing of teeth over the "lefty problem." But it is not, as we know, automatic that a LHB does poorer against LHP, and Anthony seems to show this, at least in 2004. The problem may not be as worrisome as we worry about for Anthony. (Apologies for the poor formatting below.)

https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=anthon000rom&type=bgl&year=2024
It's a good excuse for many of us to want them to move on from Masa so we can prospect hump.

Fringy WC dreams are fine if they develop young talent on the roster for a brighter future.
 

TrotNixonRing

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Roman Anthony strongly dislikes making outs

.418 OBP in AAA coming into tonight and on the night 1-2 with a 2B and BB so far
 

BaseballJones

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I wonder where this kid ranks among Sox' prospects of the last 30 years. His rise is meteoric, and he just keeps getting better.
 

AlNipper49

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I'd honestly probably (slightly) have Benintendi over him based on his older age and, as a result, better track record. From seeing them in person a bunch and indexing to how excited I was at time time, Moncada would have been higher as well.

Taking nothing away from Anthony at all. He's an elite, elite prospect. He just brings with him a tad amount of age-influenced risk imho.
 

Fishy1

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Nov 10, 2006
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Maybe #2 behind Hanley?
It's funny because I remember Hanley being highly touted but also someone everyone was concerned about. Wikipedia said he was #10 in all of baseball prospect-wise, so just purely in terms of ranking I don't think he would count. His minor league performance was actually pretty middling, and there were a lot of reports that his attitude was shite.

And then obviously he turned into an absolute monster.
 

Pitt the Elder

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Is there any statcast data on these guys? My first thought about a guy like Benintendi was that his statcast metrics were very underwhelming when he hit the bigs, even when he was putting up pretty good numbers.
 

Jimbodandy

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Is there any statcast data on these guys? My first thought about a guy like Benintendi was that his statcast metrics were very underwhelming when he hit the bigs, even when he was putting up pretty good numbers.
Yeah the case for Benintendi was that he was a finished product like right now. Having someone make the majors barely a year after being drafted is pretty awesome. People knew that he would hit and could field. The question was always ceiling on his power, which some folks thought was limited (narrator: it was). Roman has a much bigger frame and seems to have a substantially higher ceiling there.
 

Merkle's Boner

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I'd honestly probably (slightly) have Benintendi over him based on his older age and, as a result, better track record. From seeing them in person a bunch and indexing to how excited I was at time time, Moncada would have been higher as well.

Taking nothing away from Anthony at all. He's an elite, elite prospect. He just brings with him a tad amount of age-influenced risk imho.
I’m not following you. Are you saying he’s too young to be putting up the numbers he’s putting up? Or too old? For me, the fact that he’s only 20 while doing this, and can thus develop more, makes him far more impressive than Benny. I also think we all forget about Devers making the bigs at 20.
 

AlNipper49

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Not at all. In a vacuum and if I could time travel if I had to pick between Benintendi, Moncada or Anthony at their peak prospect value I'd have Anthony after the other two only because age gives you a little better idea of if they can sustain what they are doing. With that said, it makes what Anthony is doing even more impressive so it's not really a hill that I'd die on arguing.
 

BigSoxFan

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What’s a reasonable MLB comp for Anthony if he realizes his potential? JD Drew?
 

JM3

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Roman's age 20 season is comparable to Benintendi's age 21 season while playing at higher levels (AA/AAA to A+/AA), being 22 months younger, & outhomering Benintendi 18 to 9 in 38 more PAs, & stealing bases better (21 of 28 to 16 of 25).

I'll take '24 prospect Roman over '16 prospect Benny easy.
 

LogansDad

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Mike Trout?

More seriously, he's 20, and he has murdered every challenge they have given him. The sky is the limit with this kid, and I hope we get to enjoy the whole thing with him wearing the Red Sox uniform.

More, more seriously. It is so hard to compare prospects across eras, and I think the minor league restructuring after COVID makes it even harder to make comparisons.
 

simplicio

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Bellinger age 19 (A+): 128 games, 30 HR, 9.6 BB%, 27.6 K%, .873 OPS, 130 wrc+
Anthony age 19 (A-AA): 106 games, 14 HR, 17.5 BB%, 24.2 K%, .869 OPS, 143 wrc+

Bellinger age 20 (AA): 117 games, 26 HR, 12.6 BB%, 19.7 K%, .872 OPS, 148 wrc+ (had 3 games at AAA)
Anthony age 20 (AA-AAA): 119 games, 18 HR, 14.6 BB%, 23.5 K%, .894 OPS, 148 wrc+

Guys with 40+ PA in AA at age 19 with a 120 wrc+:
89100

And at AAA age 20:
89101

Pretty good lists to be on.
 

nvalvo

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What’s a reasonable MLB comp for Anthony if he realizes his potential? JD Drew?
That's a pretty good comp, I think. Should be a good corner outfielder, playable in CFer. Great patience, good contact, great quality of contact. I think that an Anthony who "realizes his potential" would reach the 30-HR threshold more than once; that said, a healthier JD Drew would have, too.
 

TrotNixonRing

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How about Juan Soto with better defense and base running but less (but still great) OBP?

yeah, he’s that good. As @JM3 pointed out, he’s not just 20… he won’t be 21 until May 13th! And he’s demolishing AAA? This portends amazing things
 

JM3

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116 MPH. Sweet mother of God.
For reference, that's harder hit than any ball Juan Soto, Kyle Schwarber, Manny Machado, Mike Trout, Rafael Acuna or Julio Rodriguez, among many others, hit this season. Only 17 MLB hitters hit a ball harder this year.

& harder than any ball hit by a Red Sox player all season, which was Rafael Devers at 114.7.

Per Statcast that's harder than any ball hit by a Red Sox player since Franchy Cordero hit a single 117.9 in 2022...

View: https://twitter.com/LockedOnOrioles/status/1598821721578115074
 

Jimbodandy

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For reference, that's harder hit than any ball Juan Soto, Kyle Schwarber, Manny Machado, Mike Trout, Rafael Acuna or Julio Rodriguez, among many others, hit this season. Only 17 MLB hitters hit a ball harder this year.

& harder than any ball hit by a Red Sox player all season, which was Rafael Devers at 114.7.

Per Statcast that's harder than any ball hit by a Red Sox player since Franchy Cordero hit a single 117.9 in 2022...

View: https://twitter.com/LockedOnOrioles/status/1598821721578115074
And he's 20, not even 20 and a half yet. He's only going to get stronger.
 

BaseballJones

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There's a real chance that Anthony never amounts to much in MLB.

There's also a real chance that Anthony becomes an elite MLB player for a very, very long time.

My prediction is that he will be a multiple time all-star but not a HOFer in the majors. So yeah, a pretty nice outcome.
 

nighthob

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Make certain that you tell him that, just so that he rises to the challenge.
 

Merkle's Boner

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There's a real chance that Anthony never amounts to much in MLB.

There's also a real chance that Anthony becomes an elite MLB player for a very, very long time.

My prediction is that he will be a multiple time all-star but not a HOFer in the majors. So yeah, a pretty nice outcome.
The guy on the list posted above that jumped out to me is Jason Heyward. He has had a very interesting career, one that some may consider unimpressive but I’d sign up for a Heyward career any day.
 

sodenj5

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116 MPH. Sweet mother of God.
That’s super high exit velocity at any level. Utterly insane for a dude that is 20.

My only fear with Anthony is I may not have bought enough of his Bowman’s 1st cards.