Sox Farm Produce

Sox Farm Produce

The Boston RedSox farm system has long been a source for trade bait. Just as a prospect would begin to mature and be ready for the bigs, the RedSox management would see fit to trade him for a much older but known quantity. These older players usually would play for the team for just a year or two and then retire or bolt for greener pastures through free agency. This would leave the Sox with no prospects and the veterans gone. This was a time-honored routine, a regressive system to say the least.

Trot Nixon, and Kevin Youkalis, have both shown their worth. Each has proven to be a solid major leaguer, with Youkalis being versatile as well, playing several positions and able to bat well from any spot in the lineup. But the big payoff with the new managements youth movement seems to be in the pitching department. An old axiom of baseball is “you can never have enough good pitching”, with that in mind; the Sox seem poised for a bonanza of talent to soon join the staff. Lest we forget though, past performance is no guarantee of future per results. They are an “unknown quantity” after all, but their upside is more than promising.

Take Jonathan Papelbon for instance. Projected as a starter, he has taken to the role of reliever as if he were born to it. The results as of this date: 20 saves and an ERA of .30 is more than the team could have anticipated going into the season.

David Pauley pitched extremely well against two very tough teams (Toronto and New York).

It will be interesting to see how Jon Lester performs today in the opener of a double header. Sox manager Terry Francona expressed his rookies start this way, “If he has a tough game, it doesn’t mean he’s not going to be a good pitcher, and if he throws seven shutout innings, it doesn’t mean he’s going to the Hall of Fame. I would opt for the seven innings, but this is a long, long deal. Hopefully this kid’s is going to be pitching for a lot of years.”

Other pitching prospects about to mature are, Lenny DiNardi, Manny Delcarmen, and Craig Hansen. More on them later.