striker Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 Alot of people say we shouldn't bring up AA player because it's too soon, or we might ruin them. I think Ozzie even said we might ruin them. How is bringing up a player in September any different then them playing in Spring Training. If we are out of it in September, the games are just as useless. If anything, they benefit from facing major leaguers. I'd rather see if they are ready now. If Gio, Egbert or Russell came up and dominated, then had a good spring, I would think it's safe to say they are ready. If they come up and do bad, I don't think they are going to kill themselves like everyone else seems to think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hitlesswonder Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 QUOTE(striker62704 @ Jul 23, 2007 -> 10:13 AM) Alot of people say we shouldn't bring up AA player because it's too soon, or we might ruin them. I think Ozzie even said we might ruin them.... If they come up and do bad, I don't think they are going to kill themselves like everyone else seems to think. I sort of agree with that -- if a player isn't mentally up to the task of handling adversity (like initial failure in the bigs) it seems like the future isn't all that bright anyway. If I were a GM I wouldn't be afraid of that. That being said, I'm about as far away from having played pro baseball as you can get, so what do I know? There are concrete reasons for not bringing up certain players. Maybe the Sox don't want to start Gio's arbitration clock. Egbert would require other moves to made because he isn't on the 40 man roster. Maybe the Sox feel neither is ready to contribute in the bigs yet so there's no point bringing them up. Maybe they want to trade them and don't want to expose them as products of the worst minor league system in baseball -- and so they keep their value artificially high by not promoting them. If the Sox thought they could compete in 2008, it might make sense to bring up some advanced prospects to see if they can fill a hole in 2008. But when you know your team is going to suck anyway (as KW surely does), they might as well wait till next year to bring them up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balta1701 Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 There are a couple of important reasons here. First of all, the talent level between AA and the bigs is fairly disparate. You don't run into many Manny Ramirez's at AA these days. While our AAA league may be weak, the talent level is still above what there is in AA. And to some people, making that big of a jump is going to lock them into struggles that it takes a while to get out of. A classic example? Gavin Floyd. He was used to dominating in the minors and beforehand, he was brought up from AA, got shelled, started fiddling with his mechanics, lost confidence, and really hasn't recovered yet. Secondly, you're wasting arbitration time on people. Call me greedy, but I would rather have people as big-league-ready as possible before they hit the majors, so that they don't waste years adapting to the big leagues and hit FA a year or two earlier. And third, some people simply aren't ready physically for the rigors of a 162 game season. Esp. when you talk about pitchers or guys who are recent draftees, there's a big jump between a minor league season and a major league one, and a lot of pitchers wind up having major issues when they jump from 130 innings a year against minor leaguers to 200+ innings a year against major leaguers. Think, oh, Mark Prior for this one. There are some guys in our organization who don't have much more they can learn at the minor league level. Floyd, Owens, Sweeney, Richar, etc. IF this season is lost, we might as well give them a chance to start adapting to the top level competition. But for guys like Gio, Russell, etc., guys who haven't hit every level yet, if this season is lost, there's no reason to rush these guys; bringing up Gio this year won't save this team, and it might hurt us long term. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
striker Posted July 23, 2007 Author Share Posted July 23, 2007 hitlesswonder and balta1701, you both made alot of good points. I never considered the roster issues and the arbitration issues that would arise from calling up a player. I guess they have to do good in AA and then REALLY impress in spring training in order to make the jump. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balta1701 Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 QUOTE(striker62704 @ Jul 23, 2007 -> 09:07 AM) hitlesswonder and balta1701, you both made alot of good points. I never considered the roster issues and the arbitration issues that would arise from calling up a player. I guess they have to do good in AA and then REALLY impress in spring training in order to make the jump. It also does depend on your situation. If, for example, I was 2 games up in this division, and I really needed another guy in my bullpen, whether it be a righty or lefty, then I might give serious thought to bringing up a Gio or Russell, plugging them in, and seeing if they can be that last piece. Think about guys like Jenks and Wainright over the last couple years as prime examples. But since we're not, I can't see a good reason right now to not leave those guys in the minors this year and maybe give them a shot to earn a big league slot next spring if we open one up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lemon_44 Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 There has to be something to not bringing a guy up. I remember a couple years back in Tampa when Piniella kept telling people the Upton wasn't ready. It was probably more a defensive thing but it looks like Lou was correct in his thinking because Upton is now tearing it up for the D Rays. I tend to lean to the thinking of throw a guy into the fire and see what he can do but there obviously is a key to knowing when a guy is ready. I just don't know what it is. Brian Anderson seemed to be "ready" but he sure as anything wasn't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TitoMB345 Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 Bobby Jenks FTW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southsideirish71 Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 QUOTE(TitoMB345 @ Jul 23, 2007 -> 01:34 PM) Bobby Jenks FTW Mark Buerhle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BearSox Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 it depends. AA usually has more talent in it, but it is raw talent. A lot of the players are young but their baseball IQ's, I guess I can say, isn't that high (for most players). However, in AAA there is usually less talent, but there are AAAA players and a lot of majors/minor league vets who know more about the game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 Other than starting a player's arbitration clock I'm not sure why we don't want to bring up any of the AA pitchers. I'm pretty confident Gio and Egbert can outperform some of the relievers we've had around. I would've called one or both of them up a couple months ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Allen Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 I think its because they don't want them relieving right now. They have some innings under their belt this year and maybe the different type of routine may worry them. Ozzie had a few teammates that came to the Sox from AA. Thomas, Ventura, McDowell (who made 30 starts and then did pitch in AAA) and Fernandez (who only made 4 starts in AA). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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