The Red Sox called up reliever Cla Meredith over the weekend.
Who the heck is Cla Meredith?
If you had bought my 2005 Baseball Prospect Book, you would know.
Here is what I wrote about him:
Cla Meredith, RHP, Boston Red Sox
Bats: R Throws: R HT: 6-1 WT: 190 DOB: June 4, 1983
Year Team LG G GS IP H R ER HR BB SO W L SV ERA
2004 Augusta A 13 0 15.1 8 0 0 0 3 18 1 0 6 0.00
Sarasota A 16 0 16.1 15 4 4 0 3 16 0 2 12 2.20
1 Minor League Season 29 0 31.2 23 4 4 0 6 34 1 2 18 1.14
Meredith was picked in the sixth round in '04, from Virginia Commonwealth University. As you can see, he had no trouble with professional hitters, dominating them in brief trials in the South Atlantic and Florida State Leagues. His fastball is average at 88-89 MPH. But he has sharp command, a good slider, and he uses a weird delivery that confuses hitters, especially right-handers. He projects as a middle reliever at higher levels, and given his performance in Class A, he should see significant action in Double-A in '05. That data will determine his true prospect status, but the early results are good enough for him to get a Grade C+.
***
Now, Meredith got to the Majors a lot faster than I thought he would. He will need some adjustment time, but I like his chances to be a very useful bullpen fixture.
Loading comments...