The Red Sox have officially signed supplemental first rounder Pat Light, according to Alex Speier of WEEI.com. The hard-throwing right-hander out of Monmouth University agreed to a bonus of $1MM, shy of the $1.394MM bonus earmarked for the No. 37 pick.
Light routinely worked in the mid-90s in college and flashed fastballs of 96 mph and better at the end of games last season. The right-hander posted a 2.40 ERA in his junior year with 102 strikeouts and just 16 walks across 101.1 innings.
The Red Sox also signed second-round pick Jamie Callahan, a hard-throwing right-hander from Dillon High School in South Carolina. The amount of the 17-year-old's bonus is unknown.
Oh man! Glad I actually read the post. I heard the announcement on the radio and understood it as ‘Red Sox sign on for Pabst Lite’.
This is actually the worst joke I have ever heard on this forum.
C’mon…it’s only a joke.I didn’t mean to hit a nerve.
Sox are starting to stock the shelves again with hard throwing arms. They should be back in business very soon.
Yeah. This guy was one of the highlights, along with Callahan they supposedly already have signed and drafted in round #2. Those 2 to me have tons more upside than the 2 1st round picks they had.. Boras represented Marerro pick #24 and Johnson with the 31st overall.
I hated what they did with their first round picks. Pat Light was the best of their picks, imo.
I still don’t understand the hate for the Marrero pick. He was rated as high as #3 overall coming into the season, and after spraining his ankle he fought through from mechanical issues he was rated (as late as the morning of the draft) in the 13-15 range, but ended up sliding to the Sox at 24. It’s the prototypical Red Sox pick the last few years – guys rated at or near the top of the draft who fall due to an injured Junior season (Ranaudo, Brentz, and Bradley were all rated in the first half of the first round coming into their draft year but fell to the Sox due to injuries). Marrero also hit his Freshman and Sophomore years, as well as on team USA, and in the Cape Cod league (with wood bats), so there is ample evidence that his Junior year was a fluke (Keith Law has already said he would rank him as the fourth best prospect in the Red Sox system behind Bogaerts, Barnes, and Bradley).
Don’t see the tremendous upside there. he did not hit with wooden bats, no outstanding speed. Glove is his biggest asset and yes.. I understand most smart teams draft the best possible talent at the slot they pick, but not sure this was the best player available, same with especially Johnson.
I mean that x2 if Marrero ends up costing more than the 1.75m that the 24th overall pick was slotted to receive and 1.5 for Johnson.
While have read on Soxprospects they think Jonson will finally settle in the 1m range, they are predicting 2m for Marrero and I just think that is too much.. My own personal opinion now. You know I am always wanting them to take high upside power pitchers in round 1.. Matt Barnes to me is the perfect type, as was Ranaudo last year in the supplemental round.
Can go on and on (again) regarding my feelings about lefties who throw the stuff like Johnson and success over the decades at fenway and the track record for nearly all is abysmal at best until they leave. Saw on Soxprospects only 1 had him throwing over 90, the rest had him high 80’s.. Where Hernandez and Pena throw and 1 of those cost the team 400k, the other 85k last year.
Start throwing a 55mph ephus and acting strange maybe is the key to lefties who can’t throw hard and want to be SP at fenway.. No other way seems to ever work.
He mashed in the Cape Cod league with wood bats (and I’m pretty sure team USA uses wooden bats, and he mashed on team USA too). He’s also supposed to have 60 speed (which is actually pretty dang fast) and plus-plus base running instincts and be a legitimate base stealing threat.
Johnson, according to every scouting report I’ve ever seen, sits 89-92 and tops out at 94, with most believing there’s a chance he can raise that a tick or two once he’s concentrating solely on pitching (he was also a very good 1B) and sit more consistently around 92-93; Pena and Hernandez were 84-88, that’s not even close to the same. His fastball grades out as solid-average – his curve grades out as potential plus to plus-plus – and his change up grades out as average; with two average to solid-average, and one plus or better pitch a guy can be a solid #3 starter, especially when they have ’70’ control and ’60’ command. He also throws a slider, but most believe that he should scrap it and focus on the curve (it’s supposed to have higher potential of the two pitches) and there’s already talk that he’ll probably be taught a cutter later on (Boston loves to teach guys the cutter), so how that potentially turns out could affect his upside as well. And, according to BPN at least, he was a possible top 15 pick in the draft as a pitcher (and a potential first rounder as a 1B, so even if pitching doesn’t work out they have a guy with plus power as a 1B).
Pats a good friend of mine but i will tell you this..he did not mash cape cod hitters down
I was referring to Deven Marrero hitting in the cape cod league.
Wow, when you’re a rising college senior all that draft bonus money just disappears…
sounds more like a name for a beverage than a baseball player, lol
Good one! Just kidding.
When you can get Marriero and Johnson plus Light & Callahan you do it. Good draft. We are super deep.
The Sox are deep but in the low minors not the high minors. Time still needs to pass to see how deep they are really. But Barnes looks beastly so far.
Middlebrooks who was called up a couple months ago.
Iglesias, Lavarnway, Kalish, Ranaudo, Britton, and Brentz are all in AA or AAA and have above average regular to occasional all-star potential.
Wilson, Tazawa, Lin, Pimentel, Balcom-Miller, Butler, and Tejeda are all in AA or AAA and have reliever, bench player, or average regular/second division starter potential.
The lower minors is absolutely stacked with talent (including some guys with legitimate star potential), but there is plenty to be excited about (and plenty of guys with value) in the upper minors.
Between salem, Portland, Greenville, and Pawtucket we have a very solid balance. Each level has some good prospects and others with potential. Some of the best are in the lower to mid levels but then again we got Lavarnway, and Kalish who just as easily be on the team right now with Middlebrooks if it wasn’t for a roster crunch.
Portland is pretty barren, or as far as people who will be at Pawtucket next season. Ranaudo is struggling and will probably repeat AA, Britton just got promoted to AA and might have to play a full season there. Vitek has shown nothing and is injured anyway. Linares.. Would still like to see him at AAA, injury and all. He is playing through it at AA, why not at AAA? I see Brentz and Kurcz as the *real* prospects on that team who (as of now) would be at Pawtucket to start the season in 2013. Maybe Britton and Ranaudo later on.
Hernandez probably will open the season next year with Pawtucket, but see him as a career retread. Ditto ReyRod.
Edit:
Agree that the majority are (as of now) at Salem and Greenville. Some should be going to Portland soon hopefully, like Jackie Bradley and it should be fun to watch both the Portland and Salem teams next season, as they will both be loaded.
My guess is that Bradley is only in Salem because he got voted onto their all-star team, and I think you’ll see him in Portland not long after their all-star break (the Sox do this pretty regularly, it’s kind of a courtesy to the guys who make the AS team). I also wouldn’t be surprised to see Barnes up there by the end of the year if he keeps this up, even if it’s just a little taste at the end of the year (kind of like Middlebrooks with AAA last year).
Ranaudo is struggling since coming back (but it’s only been two starts I think) and his velocity is down (which makes me wonder if he’s still not 100%, although mechanical issues can sometimes hurt velocity as well.
Britton is an enigma at this point. The wheels completely fell off for him last year, and he was mediocre for the most part to start this year, but then he was promoted to Portland and has yet to give up a run there. He has always had the pure “stuff” to be a top of the rotation kind of guy, but he’s never been able to harness it well enough to make it all work which led a lot of people to believe his future role was in the bullpen, but after walking a bunch of guys in his first Portland start (and working around it to not give up any runs) he has actually limited the walks really well, so maybe he’s finally figuring it out (and if he ever really does figure it out he has Lester upside).
Linares has been DHing a lot in Portland, and last I heard is still limping pretty severely.
I think Kurcz is pretty much Michael Bowden part II, and Brentz has slid RF potential but he is still a hacker of the highest order, and needs a lot of work on staying back on breaking stuff and laying off pitches out of the zone; unless he figures that out this year I wouldn’t be overly shocked if he was in AA again next year, at least to start the year.
Pretty much in agreement then from what had read in scouting reports only and thanks for your input there Maine..As always..
Brentz seems to be hitting some better the last 3 weeks or so, though have noticed his bb/k rate has *not* changed over that same period and that is disappointing. Coyle, the same thing, only he has just stopped hitting as well.
Think Ranaudo has made around 4 starts by now. He made 1 2 evenings ago and was blistered again. Went 2IP as recall without looking it up. Velocity from the groin pull could be an issue and hopefully that is all it is.
yeah.. Seeing Barnes get some AA time would be nice, though seem to recall 1 piece of an interview several starts back when he was dominant and he stated that he only threw *1* change. Regardless of his *owning* the competition at his 1st 2 stops, he is going to need that 3rd pitch at either AA, or AAA at the very latest.. 96-98mphFB or not.