I don’t have any hope for the Sox this year or in the near future.

I am just saying that Morse is a viable option. Particularly compared to Napoli and Kotchman/Overbay.

Plus, you can hit on Morse for his age if you want….but let’s also not forget Daniel Nava who is about to turn 30 years old, with limited major league experience, that MANY Sox fans seem to think is going to be a valuable contributor in the long run. They refer to him as a “prospect”.

That’s the problem. The Sox have too many Daniel Nava’s and not enough high end prospects to think they can actually “rebuild” with that crop. Like I said earlier, you give Morse (or someone else, I don’t care who, but SOMEONE who has at least shown some potential) a shot if the cost is reasonable and you might have found a 4 or 5 year solution.

No one expected anything out of David Ortiz except to be a part time player (hell he was splitting time with Jeremy Giambi….people seem to forget that) and look what he did once he got a full time shot.

I still don’;t understand why tbuck is fighting so much for this to happen. Nothing about acquiring Morse makes sense for the Red Sox.

Because Freddy was untouchable at one point too.

Oh, but he did, somehow, win a batting title for the Pirates so lets pretend the rest of his career didn’t happen.

Again, all those guys happened in a small window (Middlebrooks is a big outlier but also hasn’t put together a track record yet).

My point is, again, that the Red Sox have a much longer history of overrating their prospects than they do in hitting on them. Who was their last big hit before Youkilis? Nomar? Nixon?

And this is despite them consistently being highly ranked in the prospect department by the same media sources you want to cite.

Hell, Donnie Sadler was considered their top prospect at one point.

Per Baseball Prospectus:
12. Boston Red Sox
System At a Glance: Far from loaded when it comes to future stars, but still one of the deepest systems around with prospects at every level that bear watching.

That is my point. Lots of middling talent is not the same as having a solid base of future impact players. It is having a few impact players and a lot of Ryan Sweeneys.

And that DOES suck.

And if you’d like, for perspective, here is the comments they make about #13 (The Rays):

System At a Glance: In danger of losing their status as the poster child for scouting and player development. With Matt Moore in the big leagues, this is a mediocre collection of talent headlined by a player they traded for; recent drafts have been ugly.

So the Sox rank, in Baseball Prospectus’ opinion, one slot above “a mediocre collection of talent”

As to their current prospects, you won’t find a farm system ranking that has them below average, let alone sucking. Most have Boston around 10th. Jim Callis of Baseball America has them 5th, but while BA is highly respected, that’s a little bullish for me, personally.

Anyway, the point is, read up on stuff before you start mouthing off.

Although the reason they are highly ranked is because they have a lot of somewhat above-average prospects to go along with the 3 blue chippers you mentioned….which is what I meant when I said beyond those guys it’s depth and potential.

And you can point to Lavarnway if you like, but umm….he hasn’t exactly shown himself to be a future All Star at the major league level. I’m not knocking him, I am just saying the fact that he made the majors (and was terrible thus far) isn’t exactly a selling point as to the strength of the minor league system. If anything it falls into my argument of overrating prospects (but again, it is waaaaayyyyy too early to say that about him, so don’t misinterpret my point).

Definitely optimistic about Middlebrooks though and if you asked if I’d trade him for Morse I would say no.

Which is a terrible terrible thing.

I’d say that’s pretty far away from “suuuuuck”.

If anything, the RSN has a looooong history of wildly overrating prospects.

Aside from Hanley Ramirez and to a lesser extent Anibal Sanchez who is the last Sox prospect that turned into an All-Star that they traded (and, to be fair, aside from striking gold with the Youkilis-to-Ellsbury group when was the last time they developed an All-Star?)?

I’m sure I’m forgetting one or two in there, but I also very vividly remember the days of untouchable prospects from Fossum to Ohka to Rose to Coleman to Alcantara to Diaz.

Remember Dernell Stenson? I do.

You’re overrating Morse & underrating some of our ‘spects at the same time.

And again, Morse at least has upside. Napoli has peaked and appears fragile. Morse MAY be on the verge of blossoming if given a full time assignment.

Come the All-Star break if he’s hitting .300 with 20 HRs, you don’t think they have the option of extending his deal? And look, they actually may have found more than a stop-gap. They may have found a solid option at first base for the next 4 or 5 years while they actually restock the farm system and maybe develop a blue-chipper at the position.

I hate them acquiring veteran stopgaps because it retards the development of what little they have in the prospect cupboard….but again, at least Morse has upside, unlike guys like Jonny Gomes and Ryan Sweeney and all the other terrible trades and signings they’ve made for guys who have peaked.

I won’t write off Napoli as being in that category at this point, but I am nothing but ambivalent about his potential signing.

That is not the intended tone of any of my posts.

I’ll even do it for the veteran minimum.

And I will hit at least as well as Casey Kotchman.

And who even cares about strikeouts? The guy definitely needs to walk more, but when he’s OPSing .900+ (as he did in ’11) what difference does it make?

And, out of curiosity…..how does one year of Morse not qualify as a “stop-gap”?

And also….a stop-gap for what? This same situation next year? At least Morse is a first baseman with some possible upside long term. Napoli is clearly breaking down and coming off a down season. Perhaps the Sox could actually teach Morse some patience.

But frankly, I’d take 1 year of Morse as a stop-gap over being stuck with Napoli on the DL and blocking any legitimate replacement from being found.

Look at numbers once in a while. Mike Morse, 2012: worse walk-to-strikeout ration in all of MLB. 2011, same stat, he was bottom 15.

And I’d rather stop-gap the position instead of trading for Morse and then watching him walk after this season.