wskeleton76 wrote:

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To be honest, both highly touted kids are disappointing. I know it's too early to decide. But they are playing in the short season not in the Low-A. For the first pro full season, Lars held his own in Low-A, Place played in Low-A even though he struggled a lot, and Kalish was outstanding in the short season. Hopefully both Middlebrooks and Rent come back nicely and prove that I am wrong.

Right, and maybe... just maybe, their careers might not be over after two games.

Steve Dillard wrote:

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Nobody is saying that their careers are over. We only have a limited glimpse into their career progress, some of which may be entirely misleading even over a longer initial sample size - witness Papelbon's Lowell season and Jeter's GCL season, etc. Heck, even with a larger body of work one can get a bad read on a player (J.D. Drew, Ortiz, etc.)
That said, we can say that the few signs we've seen are more on the "concerning" variety than "lets get giddy." Specifically, not making a full season club, and a whole 8 at bats of struggles. Might Middlebrooks and Dent go 3/4 and alleviate those concerns and make doubters look foolish? Sure. But let's also put in the back of our minds that we now have a couple of data points, and lets watch to see if those are outliers or a trend.

The reason why Middlebrooks didn't make a full season club is because there was no place for him and even if there was, he's not the type of prospect that's ready to make the jump from HS to A ball as he's more on the raw side with big potential, but he's no Jason Place. You could make a case that Dent could've started in Greenville but the fact that he's been playing SS so far moving WMB to third already, probably means that the redsox want to see what he can do at the position everyday which he wouldn't have gotten a chance of in Greenville. Passing judgement and getting concerned about two players, one which is literally beginning his pro career, after two games is foolish, sorry.