Ryan Sweeney "promote me" watch

[maurice]

I got Owens and Fields promoted. Now I'm getting greedy and going for the hat trick.

Rob Mackowiak must be the worst starting LF in MLB. He wasn't good enough to start every day for some horrible Pirates teams, and now we know why. He came into today's game batting .229 with no power and few SBs. (So far today, he's 0-3.) His terrible defense is legendary. He's Geoff Blum with worse defense and a slightly better bat. In other words, he needs to be on the bench or on the waiver wire.

Meanwhile, our top prospect is in his second season at AAA Charlotte. He got a cup o' coffee earlier this year, but was demoted so that Ozzie can play Mack in LF virtually every single fucking day. Last year, at the tender age of 21, Sweeney batted .296 in a league dominated by 28 year olds. Currently, he's raised his AVE to .280, inlcuding a .304 mark against RHP. Over his last 5 games, Sweeney is 11-22 (.500) with 3 2B, 5 R, 4 RBI, and 3 BB. He's faster than Mack, has a much better glove, and has a better arm. Most importantly, he's young and likely to improve with experience.

[Unregistered]

For whatever reason, he was sent down when Thome came back up.

He could easily be playing instead of Mac or even Terrero. This season is for shit anyway, might as well get the kid used to major league pitching.

[maurice]

I guess I should also mention that he's better defensively than any OF currently on the Sox MLB roster, so he'd be playing CF. (Owens has good range and an adequate arm, but Sweeney has good range and a very good arm.) With BA banged up, Sweeney has been starting in CF for Charlotte and looks great. He made a fantastic catch near the wall in the LCF gap at one of the games in Louisville.

UPDATE: Sweeney was 1-3 today, raising his AVE to .285.

[the fluffer]

so far you are 2 for 2 in your promotion threads, but these guys don't seem to do too well when they get called up....

C'mon Jerry... c'mon Josh...

[maurice]

The sad thing is that Sweeney could bat .200 from here on out and still be about as helpful as Mackowiak has been. Also, playing Sweeney gives you some clue about his future in MLB, which would be nice information to have going into the offseason. (This applies equally to Fields, Owens, and Anderson.) We alredy know everything we need to know about Mackowiak.

I hope it's safe to say that the Sox starting OF in 2008 will not be a repeat of some combination of Dye, Erstad, Podsednik, and Mackowiak. KW badly needs to determine which kids he's going to play in 2008 and which veterans he's going to acquire to upgrade this steaming pile of crap.

UPDATE: Sweeney was 3-4 today with a 2B, HR, 2 R, and 3 RBI. He's now batting .296 with a .364 OBP. Over the last week, he's 15-29 with 4 2B, 1 HR, 3 BB, 7 R, and 7 RBI.

[maurice]

Since the last update, Sweeney has gone 6-16, 3 2B, HR, 2 R, 4 RBI.
It's been a long time since he's gone without a hit, raising his AVE to .303.

Meanwhile, our genius manager continues to waste MLB ABs in LF by handing them to Rob Mackowiak and non-prospect 2B Andy Gonzalez, neither of whom are hitting or are capable of adequately fielding the position.

[the fluffer]

^^^ QFT

If the season is lost, why not call up Sweeney and Anderson NOW and see what we have in them. I guess we have to wait for Kenny GM to trade Dye, Iguchi, Mackowiak, Podsednik, Erstad and Cintron at the deadline before we get to see the youth movement.

GAAY.

[maurice]

You starting to warm up to Josh Fields yet?
:D

[the fluffer]

You starting to warm up to Josh Fields yet?
:D

He has butchered numerous plays at 3B that Crede would have made look easy and routine... granted, his homer in Pittsburgh was a BOMB, it came off of a AAA pitcher on a shitty team with little to no pitching depth.

Looking at his hitting chart, all of his base hits have come off of AAA roster filler and not mid-to-top tier pitching that he will see in the AL Central for the next 6 years... which worries me. The only pitcher he has faced and gotten a hit off of that was a viable MLB-caliber pitcher was Jason Jennings. He singled twice off of him. The first hit was a weak grounder into the hole on the left side of the infield that he beat out and the other was an opposite field single that was an "oops, I was tardy on an 86 mph fastball and managed to get it out of the infield" single.

BUT - his upside is awesome. A guy who takes walks, works counts, has very good baserunning instincts, runs well and has power to boot? We need 7 more guys just like him.

So, to answer your question, YES, I am warming up to him... and I'm excited about his upside, but I am not looking forward to a 2-season learning curve for him nor am I looking forward to him butchering routine plays to his left at 3B.

[maurice]

Comparisons to Crede really are unfair. Kinda like when everybody compared Crede unfavorably to Ventura.

A routine defensive play for Crede =/= a routine play. Crede had mucho range to his left, possibly the most in baseball. Fields never will be that good. In fact, I doubt that Crede ever will be that good in the future. OTOH, Fields probably is average defensively already and has been improving over the past couple of years.

If you're going to compare Fields to Crede, it has to work both ways. Crede actually declined offensively for more than 2 seasons before breaking out in late 2005. He had a really good 2006 and then went "pft." My guess is that Fields can do better than that offensively.

The bottom line is that we have to start playing these kids now, to shorten up their learning curve in future seasons, when we might have a chance of competing for a playoff spot. I suspect that KW already knows this but, for some reason, I don't think that Ozzie will ever get on board.

[the fluffer]

true true true true true .... can't argue with anything you said.

Conversely, Fields has ridiculous range to his right... and this was Crede's dark spot.

I just hope that Fields can somehow work on his flop-to-the-left and his throwing accuracy. Not to compare apples to oranges again... but seemingly ALL of Crede's throws across the diamond hit PK's mitt at shoulder level right on target, whereas... Fields' throws are all over the friggin place.

[maurice]

Conversely, Fields has ridiculous range to his right... and this was Crede's dark spot.

Aggravated by the fact that Crede always played 40 feet off the line, even when the Sox were protecting a lead in the 9th with a right-handed pull hitter batting and a soft tosser on the mound. This made his range to the left seem even more amazing. With Uribe at SS, a ball almost never went through the hole. (Most ground balls in that general area could be fielded by either one of them.) OTOH, a ball through the hole is a single. A ball down the line is a double.

Fields' throwing motion has been a work in progress. The progress was retarded by years of playing QB at a high level, but he should be able to get that out of his system . . . eventually.