2012 Roster, Armchair GM time

Right on cue:

http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/red-sox/pos...sed-by-iglesias

drums beating for the kid.this one is beyond me.ill defer topeope who have seen him,i just want the ss position cleanly resolved.

I have no idea what to really expect from Iglesias, either...

But my impression from that story is that he continues to dazzle with the glove. He's catching up mentally to where he has already been physically as a defensive player. And he's making strides as a hitter – which is what he needs to do to crack the big leagues with this team – but at the same time, he's definitely not there yet.

Could he get there by the end of spring training? I don't know any better than you do. I'm guessing that it will take more proof than just some good March ABs to land him the job, though. Midseason seems more plausible to me. Or that's always the hope. I'll join you in deferring to someone else on that one.

I have no idea what to really expect from Iglesias, either...

But my impression from that story is that he continues to dazzle with the glove. He's catching up mentally to where he has already been physically as a defensive player. And he's making strides as a hitter – which is what he needs to do to crack the big leagues with this team – but at the same time, he's definitely not there yet.

Could he get there by the end of spring training? I don't know any better than you do. I'm guessing that it will take more proof than just some good March ABs to land him the job, though. Midseason seems more plausible to me. Or that's always the hope. I'll join you in deferring to someone else on that one.

I'm going to make a couple of observations I believe to be true based on simply being old enough to have seen a lot of players come and go:

- A brilliant hitter in the minors can improve their defense while playing in the majors, but it's much harder for a brilliant fielder to improve their hitting when they're over matched.

- There are many more brilliant fielders than good hitters. All teams know how to use statistical analysis, so I assume that the reason offense earns more money than defense is because good offense with average defense contributes more to winning than brilliant defense with below average offense.

What this means to me is that we should not beat the drum for Iggy (which is what Pedey is calling him) to make the 25 man roster any time soon. I'm really glad that he's making offensive progress, but he needs to show he can handle AAA pitching before I'd expect anything close to a sufficient OBP in MLB. I don't what that number is, but if he doesn't reach it his outs saved with defense aren't going to compensate for his outs made with a bat.

The obvious caveat there being that exceptional defense goes a lot further at shortstop than at any other position but catcher (where "defense" also takes on a broader meaning).

I think the other issue here: What you hope for is that the great defensive player develops into a good hitter, of course. But if that is out of his reach, then what you need is for him to make the best use of whatever skills he has. If that means that he ends up sacrifice bunting a lot more than the Red Sox organizational philosophy would normally call for, fine – but he damn well better be able to lay down a decent bunt. If all he ever becomes is a low batting average slap hitter, fine – but then he'd better develop enough discipline to be slapping at strikes. It's one thing to make too many outs. It's another thing to give away too many at bats.

Good glove, no hit players stick around in the big leagues, if not necessarily as starters. A great glove, no hit guy at a premium defensive position is going to find a job. But it makes all sense in the world for the team to exhaust every opportunity to let him develop into a great glove, decent hit player (at a level where he can develop, as you point out) before settling for great glove, no hit.

Which, I think, does mean that no amount of drum beating – or great March hitting – is going to send Iglesias north with the big club in April.

what i dont want is to fuck this kid up now,he is getting close.im hoping that the scutaro deal was not done because they are planning to rush him.pedy and beckett love him and thats enough for me to want to insure his success.

From the Red Sox notebook in today's Globe: Dazzling Iglesias keeps the highlights coming

Jose Iglesias, Injury Updates, And 40-Man Contracts

its really astounding that8 years after nomar the sox are still searching for a ss that can survive more than a full season plus.im surprised in all this omar visqcal never showed up for us. all i care about from here is not to screw up the kid over a few mos.

What'choo talking about? We had Lugo for 2-1/2 years, and A-Gon twice.