Don't Need Frazier! Don't Need Frazier!

At BP Boston I got a jump on trade rumour season by making a case against the Red Sox trading for Chicago White Sox’s third baseman Todd Frazier. There is no doubt that third base has been an unmitigated disaster for the Red Sox the last three (and maybe more) seasons. But rushing to trade for a player, like Frazier, who is clearly past his best days is not the best solution. Rather the team should give Pablo Sandoval a chance to show that he is capable of staying on the field and producing, and if not they should promote top-prospect Rafael Devers. By the projections Devers is expected to produce just as well as Frazier the rest of the way, which might be a little high on Devers, but going the Devers-route avoids giving up any more talent from the already near-barren minor league system. There is obviously risk in promoting a young player, but I think it is worth taking.

Click on over to BP Boston to read my thoughts: Say No to Todd Frazier.

I suggested the title for my article be Don’t Need Frazier! Don’t Need Frazier!, as it is here, but it was changed in the editing process. I thought it was a reasonably obvious allusion to Howard Cosell’s famous call during the Joe Frazier vs. George Foreman fight for the heavyweight championship. Maybe I am showing my age with my references, but I thought it was clever.

In any case, I think Alex Speier would have picked up on the reference, given that he more directly referred to the Frazier vs. Foreman fight and Cosell-call when he referenced my work in his 108 Stitches Newsletter. It is great that Speier, a Red Sox beat writer for The Boston Globe, is reading and directing his readers to some of the work at BP Boston. Here is what he wrote about my article:

DOWN GOES FRAZIER? Chris Teeter, writing for Baseball Prospectus, makes the case that Todd Frazier is not the solution for the Red Sox at third base.