Better prospect: Reddick or C. Johnson? Will help U2

[jnormy]

Josh Reddick of Boston or Cody Johnson of Atlanta -- who has more upside and why?

[mblax10]

Better prospect and more upset are 2 different questions.

Better prospect in strictly baseball terms, Reddick and it's not even close. Arguably the best OF arm in the minors with good speed. Should be an everyday OF for many years. Great hitting approach. Can be a high avg guy who will walk, hit for a little power and may develop more.

Johnson is strictly a HR/K guy. Because of his raw power, he has a higher upside, but he's very far from realizing that potential. There's a very strong chance he flame outs considering his ridiculous K rates at low levels.

So the question is how deep is your farm team and how much to you like to gambooolll? To greatly overysimplify (I also hate comparisons), which would you rather have:

Reddick: 75% chance he's a Shane Victorino type with a better arm, 25% chance he's a slightly better Corey Patterson type

Johnson: 5% chance he's Ryan Howard, 15% chance Jeff Francouer but terrible defensively and probably a 1B, 80% chance he never makes it above AA.

[jnormy]

Better prospect in strictly baseball terms, Reddick and it's not even close. Arguably the best OF arm in the minors with good speed. Should be an everyday OF for many years. Great hitting approach. Can be a high avg guy who will walk, hit for a little power and may develop more.

Thanks for the great info! Any chance Reddick is part of the Bosox OF next year, or is that more likely to happen after Drew's contract runs out? (I'm assuming they'll re-sign Bay.)

[mblax10]

I've heard people go both ways on Reddick next year. Bay is a FA, but an OF of Drew, Jacoby & Reddick gives the Red Sox 3 lefties without a lot of power. Starting RF, #4 OF or AAA are all realistic options next year.