Never before has an 8.60 ERA looked so good.
Sometimes when a young pitcher bombs, it's obvious they just don't have it. Zach Stewart produced six of the worst innings Red Sox fans have ever seen back in 2012, and small sample size be damned, there simply wasn't much there. Maybe I'll eat these words three years down the line, but I'd put all the money in my pocket against that even on pretty bad odds.
Allen Webster? He's a different story entirely.
Webster was inconsistent in 2013. That seems an odd thing to say given that his results were so consistently bad. But anyone who actually watched him pitch should know what I'm talking about. For every flat meatball that ended up sailing over the fence and wild ball that put him in a bad count, Webster offered up a couple real beauties. If you don't remember, go back and look at some of his games now that the losses are clearly not an issue. His pure stuff can be simply disgusting at times. It's how he earned swinging strikes on a full eighth of his pitches. Yu Darvish is the only qualified starter who tops Webster's mark, and he only managed it by one tenth of a percent.
This is not to say Allen Webster is about to become an elite starter. Just that the potential is there probably moreso than for any other pitcher in the system. As we've seen, his floor is quite a bit lower. If he can't manage either consistency or control, then he's always going to have problems the same way he did in 2013. But oh, if he does...Seven will seem far too large a number.
- Xander Bogaerts, SS
- Jackie Bradley Jr., CF
- Garin Cecchini, 3B
- Henry Owens, LHP
- Matt Barnes, RHP
- Blake Swihart, C
- Allen Webster, RHP
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