e hënë, 9 korrik 2007

Jacoby Ellsbury: As Good as Gone




Last weekend, Red Sox Nation caught a glimpse of Boston's #1 position prospect, Jacoby Ellsbury. The 2005 first rounder out of Oregon State impressed with his sprinter-like speed, hitting approach, defense and toughness. Ellsbury gave the Fenway Faithful a glimpse of the future, batting .375/.444/.438 in 16 at bats. He also left an everlasting impression when he scored from second on a wild pitch against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Sorry to all of you readers that loved Ellsbury's exciting play and are looking forward to watching him roam the spacious Fenway outfield for the next ten years, because he wasn't called up out of necessity or even for a cup of coffee. Jacoby Ellsbury was being showcased.

One might disagree with this by saying that Coco Crisp was hurt and Wily Mo Pena could not be trusted, but the better option in that case would to call up David Murphy especially since Coco was only day to day. Although Murphy was reassigned to Pawtucket just days earlier, he did not have to go through the normal 10 day waiting period to be recalled because Joel Piniero was placed on the DL.

Ellsbury was only hitting .286/.361/.380, after spending about 2 months in Pawtucket. Murphy was hitting .281/.355/.419 for the season, is a lesser prospect and has Major League service time under his belt. Ellsbury obviously needs some more seasoning in Triple A and the short time in the majors might have hindered his development long term

The Sox brass saw Coco's injury and upcoming series's against pitching-lowly Texas and Tampa Bay as a chance to showcase Ellsbury for the upcoming July 31 trading deadline. They optioned him down not only because they wanted to give Youkillis a rest (Jeff Bailey callup), but also because they were going on to face two southpaws (Andrew Miller and Nate Robertson) and Jeremy Bonderman in the upcoming series with the Tigers.

I enjoyed watching Ellsbury play,as he quickly became one of my favorite players, but I will not be one bit surprised if he is not Red Sox property after July 31. Coco has a good contract and his showing signs of life with the bat, but Ellsbury projects to be the better player long term. Hopefully Theo doesn't trade him for crap.

Around The League

- Shame on you, Barry Bonds. I cannot believe you are sticking it to your home fans by not participating in the Home Run Derby. I hope you blow your knee out swinging for McCovey cove in tommorow's Mid Summer Classic, so you will never reach Hank Aaron's home run record.

- It was great to see the Phillies help the Coors Field grounds crew yesterday. Some loud mouth reporters chastised them because they might have got hurt. Give me a break, the players were having fun and saved some grounds crew members from a potentially dangerous situation. Fun moments like these are what baseball is all about and it is nice to see the players enjoy themselves. See the video clip here:

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