Ryan Westmoreland

Here is the link to soxprospects with his stats/scouting
http://www.soxprospects.com/players/westmoreland-ryan.htm

He even shares the two-way player designation (Westmoreland had a 19-strikeout perfect game in high school). Hicks isn’t nearly as filled out physically as Westmoreland is, though.

As far as next season is concerned, Westmoreland has yet to show he has any obvious things to work on. He really did everything very well last season, and seemed to almost switch gears to show he could do everything (one week he’d hit some homers, the next week he’d hit .500, the next week he’d take a bunch of walks and steal bases). Any weaknesses his game might have will only be exposed when he faces tougher pitching. He’ll probably start the season in Single-A Greenville (though there’s been quite a bit of talk about moving him straight to High-A Salem), but I wouldn’t be surprised if he took only a very little time to advance. A really great year maybe gets him a cup-of-coffee in AA Portland before the season ends, a standard good year still has him knocking on the door. And if he’s threatening to make AA before his 21st birthday…He’s in good shape. Unanimous top-25, with some of his bigger fans putting him in the top-15.

As far as the injuries are concerned, he obviously had a great season immediately after coming back from the torn labrum, which was not an issue at all. Until there’s any sign of that recurring there’s no reason we should think it’s anything but in the path. The collarbone injury came when he crashed into a wall going after a fly ball, which is not the type of thing that would suggest he is particularly injury-prone. He’s still going to have to shake that reputation with a couple of healthy years, but there’s no reason that shouldn’t happen.

And just as a sidenote, because I don’t see this number cited enough, Westmoreland stole 19 bases in 19 attempts last year.

Just ranked 21st overall by BA’s top-100, I’m seeing now too.

I’m about as high on Westmoreland as I’ve been on anyone in the Sox system. Soxprospects has his MLB comparison as Grady Sizemore, which is ambitious but also sounds about right.

He signed out of high school partly because he wanted to play for his hometown team (and obviously the money didn’t hurt either.)

He has every tool a player could want and it seems like he has his pick of which type of player to become. Can’t wait to see him in Fenway

Kevin Goldstein about him:

One scout described Westmoreland as having “the tools of a top-five high school pick, with the advanced skills of a college player.”

And by advanced skills of a college player, I think he meant:
- Advanced Strike Zone judgment: 14.2% BB rate and a sexy 0.78 BB/K
- He’s a terrific base stealer 19 SB with 0 CS: Most HS kids are raw speedy guys running the bases and don’t posses the polish he’s showing in that department.
- His capacity to hit the ball to all field ( High Schoolers tend to be pull happy): Just check out his spray charts, it’s a thing of beauty!
Oh an about Hicks Vs Westmoreland, Here’s what KG thinks:

vince (la): better young cf prospect hicks or westmoreland?
Kevin Goldstein: Westmoreland . . . and I love Hicks.

And someone on here gave him the perfect nickname of Manifest Destiny, both because of his last name and his destiny of owning the country.