Encouraging future
Jon Papeldon has a lot of promise, as this article underlines. I am very excited for the future of the Red Sox, and especially excited at the pitching/defense approach taken by management. Also they have refused to sacrifice the future of the club for the now, and their farm system is in great shape and will produce stars for Red Sox teams of tomorrow.
Why is this so important? When you have someone come up through your farm system you are guaranteed 4 years of their service without having to sign them to a huge contract. Teams like Atlanta are dominant year after year without having a huge payroll because they don’t often have to sign expensive free agents. Instead they plug holes with players from their farm system who are just comming into the best years of their career. The Red Sox are definately moving in that direction.
