Lumberton's Clay Buchholz

[adminbaberuth]

Sunday, February 25, 2007

THE BIG THREE - CLAY BUCHHOLZ, MICHAEL BOWDEN, JACOBY ELLSBURY

The trio of prospect pundits - Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus, John Sickels - rate Jacoby Ellsbury, Clay Buchholz and Michael Bowden as the best of the Sox system. (Prospects are players that have not played in the Show, excluding Dice-K). Sickels rated all three as B+s. Kevin Goldstein of BP has Buchholz as an excellent prospect, and both Ellsbury and Bowden as very good prospects with all in his top 86. Jim Callis, Will Lingo and John Manuel of BA have Ellsbury rated at 40, 29, 35, respectfully. Callis is the only one of the three to have Buchholz in the top 50 and no one has Bowden. When published, I think all three prospects will be in BA's the top 100.

Buchholz has control over his four pitches - a low to mid-90’s fastball that has hit 97, a 12-6 curveball that has been described as a hammer, a hard slider and his new out-pitch the changeup. It seems like the issue with Buchholz is inexperience, stamina, and consistency, but those can be resolved relatively easiy. The first-rounder will probably end up in Portland this fall. I can’t wait to see the future starter in-person.