FanPost

The Farm System......Time to sell??

I have been a diehard Red Sox fan for 30 something years. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a farm system like the one we’ve built in the last few years. I remember thinking Nate Minchey and Tim Vanegmond there the answer. So the question is now that we have one of the best farm systems in Baseball, what do we do with it? This is an easy question if your Tampa Bay, Houston, Chicago, or Pittsburgh. The answer for them is grow prospects, promote them to everyday roles, get them to play with you for cheap so you can compete. But we’re the Red Sox, we have the payroll, power, owners and fan base to do more.

The Sox have the ability to spend $17m on a #2 starter. We can afford to throw $13m at a corner outfielder and a first baseman. We can sign mediocre catchers for $8 million a year. Few others can keep up with that. We can spend to build a solid lineup 1-9, we can spend to build a solid 5 man rotation. What we need is studs to build the team around, the $17 million dollar starter is a #2, The $13 million dollar outfielder is a role player (a good one), the $13m first baseman is too.

David Ortiz is a stud. Maybe Pedroia is. Everyone else is very good or solid role-players, even on last year’s great team. Ortiz is almost 40.

A solid farm system as it’s best operates in 2 ways, it bring cheap youth (and hopefully talent) into an organization, and it serves as a key to acquire talent.

It’s time to overwhelm the Marlins and try to get Stanton.