The baseball world is in the midst of a holiday lull right now, but there are at least a few things happening. We’ll keep track of the minor moves in this post…
- The Red Sox have agreed to terms on a minor league deal with Mike Olt, says Chris Cotillo of MLB Daily Dish. A former top prospect, Olt was once part of a package sent from the Rangers to the Cubs in exchange for Matt Garza prior to the 2013 trade deadline. The third baseman has never able to make an impression in the major leagues, however. In all of his MLB stints, Olt has played at half a win below replacement level or worse. He owns a lifetime .168/.250/.330 batting line across 400 career plate appearances with the Cubs, Rangers and White Sox, and has whiffed in an astonishing 37% of his plate appearances. He does carry some pedigree, however, and Boston will hope he can show some of the defensive skills and power ability that prompted Baseball America to rank him within their top 50 prospects in both 2011 and 2012.
Then comes kris Bryant who took over 3rd base. I noticed a lot of bust with rangers prospects. Does the rangers farm system hit in a hitter friendly areas in the minors? Or what? Yeah they got gallo, Davis and olt, but these guys have such a common theme, a lot of power but strikes out a ton.
I just think this Ranger front office and scouting group has been more willing than some others to take chances on guys with big raw power and questionable hit tools
Olt also got hit in the face with a pitch a few years back. I think it affected his vision afterward. Not sure if that’s still an issue, though.
Olt, wow that brings back memories of 2014.
Take me back to 2014,
when the Cubs had the drought still,
those were the dark days of disaster,
When we didn’t know no Maddon
Bryant was in single A,
Hendricks was a future no. 5 starter
and the announcer yelled hey hey
Hey hey Chubs lost today,
Hey hey Cubs win today
Zambrano tossed a water cooler hey hey,
now that chap Chapman threw 104 mph hey hey
Cubs won a World Series hey hey
…wtf?
I remember sitting in bleachers April or may game against brewers with my 11 year old son and 2,000 other fans freezing to death. One year later couldn’t get in and sat on rooftops watching cubs clinch nlds. Thanks for the memories Rondon.
Drink much cubsfan?!
Rangers organization is a mess. As much love as Daniels got from 2010 and on…… I think the wheels are about to come off completely. Besides Mazara, they haven’t sent any real talent through their system in a while that was truly home grown. And even Mazara is not that great, a corner OF with power and plus tools.
The amount of talent in other organizations that they gave up in trades (Philly, nyy, Chicago) could nearly field all of their obvious needs right now.
I see this year full of regression for a lot of their players and if Daniels is smart, blow it up in July and rebuild to chase Houston in a few years.
Odubel Herrera, Nick Williams, Brinson, Sardinas, Luery Garcia have all went on to have value to the clubs they were traded in. I never assumed “ prospect” meant all star but more of serviceable MLB player in some regards.. let’s not forget the pitchers like Grimm and CJ Edwards who helped the Cubs win WS
Lol really? Leury Garcia? He could barely beat out an awful Jacob May this year for playing time
Leury’s the one you pick out lol? Luis Sardinas has done a single thing haha!
Hasn’t
Olt was Exhibit A in the Cubs defense if Bryant’s grievance for sending him down to AAA to start 2015 was heard.
Olt still hanging on?
No Korean teams with any interest in Olt or he doesn’t want to go over there? .766 OPS in triple-A at his age speaks to a guy who is not MLB level.
Olt played for the Sox’ AA team in Portland, Maine last season. It’s a fun place to watch a game.
Haven’t been in many years, in fact the last visit to McCoy I remember Ellsbury patrolled the outfield. I remember the giant lighthouse that would pop up a la the Shea Apple when someone went deep. It would make the lamest foghorn noise. BEAOOOWOOOOOO
unfortunately I don’t remember calculus.
d/dx(x^2) = 2x , integral(2x) = x^2 . “Stokes theorem”. I hope that refreshes your memory.
Much obliged
Keith Law loved this guy and raved about him constantly.
Joey Gallo could be next.
Gallo hit 40 bombs in the bigs olt couldn’t even do that
Olt also got hit in the face and had vision problems for over a year after that. Since he got hit his career has been completely derailed.
Law’s highest ranking of Olt was 46th overall, in 2013. That’s pretty good, but certainly not outside the realm of bust possibilities. He wrote about his defense and his power bat but also acknowledged his “swing-and-miss” that could become problematic as he moved up the ladder.
Guy never could throughout his MILB career get “‘olt” of the ball and was swing and miss at most everything, another middlebrooks type way to many people were tripping over themselves for nothing over and it was funny watching.
Almost as funny as watching you attempt to form a complete sentence.
Thanks for setting the record straight, using actual facts rather than such nonsensical hyperbole as “Keith Law loved this guy and raved about him constantly”. Unfortunately, BS like that actually flies and people just run with it when it comes to discourse nowadays, regardless of how (in)accurate their comments may be.
Rave reviews.
Gallo has way more power than Olt ever had. He hit 40 HR as a 19 y/o. Olt never touched 30 at any level or age. Gallo will have a much longer leash in the majors with that kind of power. Adam Dunn 2.0
Always reminds me of the movie “Signs” Remember Joaquin Phoenix’s character Merrill Hess ?
Merrill: Felt wrong not to swing.
Yes the market is in a holiday lull right now, yawn.
Olt was in the Sox minor league system this past year.
He also was never the same player after that big time concussion he experienced.. The knock to the head also injured his tear ducts and caused further eye trouble beyond the blurred vision.
bleachernation.com/2014/01/23/mike-olts-eyes-his-2…
Hell yeah! Watch out Yankees we’ve found Giancarlo’s match!