The Cincinnati Reds have sent uber-prospect Jay Bruce down to the minor leagues to start the 2008 season. Response from the stat geek corner of the web has been swift:
Reds Send Down Jay Bruce
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8 responses to “Reds Send Down Jay Bruce”
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All those walks clogging up the bases again.
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If he were a pitcher, Baker would have him throwing 200 innings.
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When they call him up on May 2nd, will the MLBPA have the balls to call this h*s* move out for what it is?
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damn injury… he was doing fine up until that point, but he’ll be up soon enough
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The Rays pissed off Upton & Young by keeping them in Durham and they should send Longoria to AAA also. Why not?
Why start the arbitration clock ticking before you have to? Doesn’t a club max out the investment in a prospect by not promoting them until they’re ready to excel?
Put another way, should the Royals have had Gordon in Omaha last season? As much for $$$ as development?
Anyway, the baseball web is filled with prospect fetishists ( is that a word? ). Fans who have read too much Baseball America and mistakenly believe that all prospects are future stars or at least future regulars.
Off the top of my head, Henson, Borchard perhaps Marte…..we could come up with dozens.
None of this to say that Bruce will be a bust. I don’t think prospects of his calibre generally are but this prevailing opinion amongst the baseball chattering classes that it is ALWAYS better to go with the prospect is over done.
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“Why start the arbitration clock ticking before you have to? Doesn’t a club max out the investment in a prospect by not promoting them until they’re ready to excel?”
There’s two problems with that: one is the potential development benefits of playing in MLB as opposed to AAA. The other is why piss off the last guy in the organization you want mad at you?
Taking a loophole in the CBA that costs the guy money seems like a lousy starting point for future contract extension negotiations. If I were a player, any negotiations would start with “whatever figure you come up with, add an extra $3 million for the money you cost me when you kept me in AAA until the end of May.”
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I think most young players/star prospects just want a shot, and feel grateful for any opportunity to be amongst the major league club.
Bruce is going to be a much more expensive free agent at age 26/27, than at age 27/28.
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dchase, my point is the benefit of delaying the arb eligible years not the FA years. Anyway, the trend is to lock guys up to long term deals sooner and sooner.
BTW, I missed the obvious example here of a high profile prospect who has yet to meet expectations. Corey Patterson.
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