Josh Fields will get an extended tryout and over the last week is showing he is worthy of the praise he has gotten in his minor league career.

Last 7 days for Fields:

9-23 (391 avg) 3 2b and 2 HR with 8 RBIS. OBP of .419 and Slugging of .783 OPS of nearly 1.200.

He's really picked it up since the initial few weeks.

I agree, but he needs to cut down on his strikeouts. Even in the minors he struck out a lot.

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I'd be a little more concerned with his fielding ability at this point. I would be willing to take 100+ strikeouts each year if I can also get a gold glove.

I will allow him to get comfortable in the big leagues before I judge his fielding. I haven't seen anything to indicate he will not be an adequate 3B.

I would like to see Anderson in center and Sweeney in right over the last two months of the year as well. If those three can show enough this year, then KW can concentrate on spending big bucks on one OF out of the excellent crop of FA.

you wanna know the real brightside of things?

BEARSS!!

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I certianly hope you are playing devil's advocate here Nas, because Fields isn't going anywhere. Crede is done after this year (in one way or another) and Fields is the next best thing. I anticipate him to be a major contributor to this team within the next year or so with possible all-star ability within the next 5 years.

Who would he be in the place of? Podsednik? A newly-traded Dye?

Crede may come back for the offer you proposed, however I believe the risk that IS Joe Crede's New Back could be too great to designate him as an everyday starter at that corner. Fields has already proven to have a better bat than Joe as well and the defense will come with experience.

Besides, Crede would be excellent trade-bait to a team in the East who may be in need of a corner infielder soon.

The Sox may just have Boras where they want him with Crede. It probably is in Crede's best interest to take guaranteed money and forego a year of free agency rather than gamble on him returning to his career year numbers of 06.

On the Sox side of things it would be a good deal as well. 2 years with no trade clause would be very attractive. It's probably wishfull thinking as Boras rarely extends people beyond their FA year when it is less than a year away.

Either way, Crede is your third baseman next year. He has to be, if only to showcase him.

Sure, but I've never heard anybody say he has gold glove potential. So the fact that his minor league stats suggest he may be a 150 K/yr. player doesn't make him seem like a tremendously exciting prospect.

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I suppose that is a good point, GD, however I still believe Fields is the route to go in this situation. I can undertand why the Sox would want to showcase Crede for awhile after coming back from back surgery, however in the meantime you need to make room for an offensive contributor elsewhere in your lineup (if Kenny plans on keeping Fields on the roster).

If Crede is our third baseman for next year, I hope it is for just long enough to sell him to another team in exchange for another outfielder or middle infielder.

Yeah, because nothing says "midseason promotion" so much as a .235 batting average in AAA. Anderson is regressing, not progressing.

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And nothing says we have a good future like an aging grinder extrordinaire who is now on his second significant DL stint in two years. I could see if there were other options but Erstad is purely stopgap. Since the season is over, he has no use to the team, as he will likely not be here next year. Even if he is, he better not be starting in center.

Regardless, he has proven to be worth a spot in this lineup for the past two years. I suppose what I meant to say was that I wouldn't mind a guy with 100+ K's and mediocre fielding talent if he also provides 25 HR's and 90+ RBI.

This is the problem--neither Erstad nor Anderson is the answer. Our minor league system isn't producing anything.

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Nope, but at least you learn something by playing Anderson. You learn nothing by playing Erstad.

The trades that are coming may produce something though. I heard the name Lastings Milledge being thrown around, who should be able to start in the outfield next year.

Absolutlely, and especially if it means we get to use our homegrown talent as opposed to trading away two veterans and a prospect for a big-time name at 3B. Crede will not produce as well as he did in 2006 when he comes back from the DL. It just won't happen.

As far as how Crede makes the pitchers better, I apologize but am unsure as to what you mean?

Fields doesn't have the remarkable first step that Crede has. Nobody in baseball robbed more screamers down the line. He'll never get that. You have that right away or you don't. It's all instinct.

I haven't seen him enough to judge his hands but Crede's hands were the best in MLB as well.

Looks like he has decent arm strength. He's been accurate but not enough time to totally judge that. I also have yet to see how well he is at handing bunts and throwing off balance. Once again Crede was excellent at that.

I just hope he's not a butcher defensivly. I don't think he will be. Very few 3rd baseman are as good as Crede on defense.

I already know that Anderson is an above average (but not great) centerfielder with a loopy swing and a poor sense of the strike zone. I don't need to learn anything else about him.

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Agreed, which is why I am pretty comfortable with saying that Fields will follow suit. While he may not be as defensively talented as Crede, he will make up for it at the plate. We haven't been losing ballgames this year because of poor corner fielding. As long as Kenny can rebuild the bullpen and maintain a strong rotation, Fields' job at third will remain pretty routine.

You learned all of that definitively after approximately half a year of playing time?

Haven't we seen enough crappy outfielding the last few years? I would say since the Sox have no stikeout pitchers, the outfielders defense grows in importance because everyone is putting the bat on the ball.

His minor league stats indicate he hasn't fixed any of the flaws he exhibited last year. Since the Sox have no chance this year, there's no harm in promoting him. But he's not the future of the team, as KW once billed him.

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[quote="Puddingheaded Loon. But he's not the future of the team, as KW once billed him.[/quote]

This really should go down as one of the major failures in KW history of talent evaluation. He cleared the path for Anderson with the trades of Rowand, Young and the guy they sent to Seattle (and in a much more minor way Borchard). This was his CF of the future so all the other talent was expendable. Ooops.