When the Red Sox granted permission to first baseman Triston Casas and outfielder Jarren Duran to play for Team USA in the qualifying round for this summer's Tokyo Olympics, they thought it would be a great learning experience for both.
The two prospects -- arguably the top two players in the Red Sox developmental system -- would benefit from being in a competitive environment, learning from a host of former major leaguers and, as an added bonus, getting to play for their country.
It's unlikely the Sox anticipated the two playing such big roles. As Team USA rolled through the qualifying rounds undefeated and clinched a spot in the Olympic Games next month, Casas and Duran were far from small-time contributors. Casas hit .400 (6-for-15) with two doubles, three RBI, three runs scored and two walks; Duran batted .368 (7-for-19) with a double, triple, stolen bases, three runs scored, three RBI and a walk.
It's uncertain whether Casas and Duran are going to again be cleared by the Sox to play with the team in Tokyo at the end of July. That will depend on their health, availability and other factors. But the person who is serving as the manager of Team USA very much hopes he has them again.
"We were very happy to have both those guys on our club,'' Mike Scioscia told BostonSportsJournal.com. "When you see them in person, you can see why they're so highly rated.''
Scioscia, who had a 13-year playing career with the Los Angeles Dodgers before managing the Los Angeles Angels for 18 seasons, had gotten plenty of advanced scouting on the pair, including reports on their makeup. But overseeing them on the field with practices and games for a week gave him a different perspective.
"Both of them are, first and foremost, baseball players,'' Scioscia said. "They love to practice, they play hard. Duran is in an elite class. He can be really be a force if he continues to develop -- both as a center fielder and as a very good hitter with some big power. I think Triston is a little longer, and he's still figuring out his swing a little bit. But it just seemed like big moments didn't faze him. As we started to play more games, you could see the talent come out in Triston and he played great defense at first base.
"Duran has a chance to be a really impactful player in a lot of areas. He's a five-tool player. Triston has a chance to be a special offensive player, too, if he continues to evolve.''
Duran was drafted as an infielder before making the transition to the outfield a few years ago. But in addition to adapting to a new position, he also completely remade his swing last summer at the organization's alternate site in Pawtucket. He remains a work in progress, but an intriguing one at that -- as evidenced by the fact that earlier this week, he shot up 57 spots on Baseball America's list of the top 100 prospects, jumping from No. 86 in preseason rankings up to No. 29.
"There's no doubt that he's going to be able to drive the ball,'' Scioscia said of Duran. "I think he's got power to all fields. He's explosive in the batter's box, so whatever adjustments he made are certainly allowing him to impact the ball a lot better. He had a great series for us.''
Watching Duran in the outfield, Scioscia would never have suspected that he was a second baseman not long ago.
"Great routes,'' gushed Scioscia. "He is a polished outfielder. He made some great plays in center field, great angles. He made a couple of tough plays look very easy. The range was there for what you're looking for in a premium defender in center.''
Casas is just three years removed from high school and has more developing to do. But already, Scioscia can see why the first baseman is so highly regarded.
"He's a big guy who impacts the ball hard,'' Scioscia said, "with a nice, natural swing.''
Results aside and notwithstanding the exposure to international competition, the pair also had the benefit of being teammates with a roster full of former major leaguers including Jon Jay, Todd Frazier, David Robertson, Homer Bailey and Matt Kemp, among others.
"What I liked about our team was that they had a good focus,'' Scioscia said. "We played five intense games, an intense format, and if you stub your toe, that could be it. So I think these guys had an understanding that they were playing baseball games. That veteran presence was key; those guys understood how to get ready to play games of this magnitude. They played nice and free, so I hope the young guys took note of that -- even though there's a lot riding on this, you have to be able to go out and play free to do the things you do best..
''(Both Duran and Casas) performed well. They weren't overwhelmed. So I hope they take that experience with them and that will help them whenever they get into those pennant race games, or playoff and World Series games.''
USA Baseball had been careful in selecting players, wanting to make sure that the younger ones in particular wouldn't be intimidated by the stakes or surroundings. And from Scioscia's standpoint, they fared just fine.
"These guys are gamers,'' said Scioscia, "and it was fun to be around them. I think both these guys have the potential to be terrific ballplayers for a long time.''
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Two things regarding Fenway of late:
* It's perhaps not a coincidence that the swirling winds that impacted Thursday's game with Houston have become more prevalent and noticeable this season. On a few occasions, players have had difficulty tracking balls with unpredictable gusts making catches of routine popups and fly balls a challenge at times.
On Friday night, Alex Cora voiced what I've suspected a few times this season: the amount of building construction in the Fenway neighborhood is something of a factor in that. Around the ballpark, there's been a building boom going on for some time, with a number of new high-rise apartment buildings going up on Brookline Ave and Boylston St .-- the two major streets that surround the ballpark.
Additionally, the Red Sox are themselves building a new 5,000-seat music theater just beyond the right field boundaries, set to open in the fall of 2022. And across the street from the theater, at the end of Van Ness Street, work continues on another large building.
It would be logical that, at some point, the building boom would impact how Fenway plays. Some of it, of course, is beyond the club's control. But it's hard for them to claim no role in this at all when the theater construction is, in fact, their own initiative, built on team property.
And when you consider that there are far more ambitious plans to further develop additional commercial properties in the Fenway neighborhood, it could be that this problem gets worse before it gets better.
* You wonder how concerned the Red Sox are that they've yet to attract as many as 26,000 fans to any home games since the commonwealth lifted all restrictions late last month, allowing for the idea of full capacity.
Initially, on the first two days of the new guidelines, the Red Sox explained the modest size crowds by noting that the team hadn't forced season ticket holders to purchase tickets for games in April and May -- the team was unsure when or if fan restrictions would be lifted in the first half of the season -- and that meant essentially having to re-sell tickets that are usually taken for.
But on this current homestand, with season ticket holders back in the mix, the weather warmer and the team very much in contention, crowds have been good, but hardly typical for the franchise. A crowd of 25,000-plus still leaves anywhere from 12,000-13,000 seats empty and unsold.
Because baseball fans tend to skew older, it may be that some fans don't quite feel comfortable being part of such large gatherings. The area's vaccination rate is among the highest in the country, but there's no guarantee that the person sitting next you in the grandstands has been vaccinated and some may not yet be confident in that setting.
Chief marketing officer Adam Grossman pointed out that, unlike in typical years, the Red Sox didn't have the luxury of putting tickets on sale in December, with four months of selling season before Opening Day. Additionally, he noted that the unanticipated green light at the end of May -- it had been rumored for Aug. 1 -- didn't give the team time to sell to groups or schedule promotional theme nights.
Finally, with tourism still slowed by the aftermath of the pandemic, the Sox have been unable to attract the usual number of out-of-town visitors who have come to count on a trip to Fenway as part of their summer vacation.
"We're actually pretty satisfied with how it's been going (with ticket sales),'' said Grossman. "And we're very bullish on the rest of the summer.''
Still, it has to concern the Red Sox at least a little bit that while the Celtics and Bruins sold every available seat upon the lifting of restrictions -- and indoors, to boot -- they have not had the same demand. Of course, both the C's and B's were involved in postseason games, with far greater stakes, than, say a mid-season series with Toronto, but still....
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If you want to know much distrust exists between the players -- and by extension, the Players Association -- and Major League Baseball's owners and executives in charge of the game, consider the recent remarks by New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso.
Alonso advanced the rather ludicrous theory that, for years, MLB has either deadened the ball or juiced it, depending on the free agent class for the next winter. In other words, when most of the top prospective free agents are set to be pitchers, MLB orders livelier balls to impact the pitchers' earning power. Conversely, when the majority of big name free agents are set to be hitters, MLB deadens the ball to depress their offensive numbers.
Of course, there's no evidence whatsoever to support this theory. What's more, logic would suggest when the game is split approximately 50-50 between pitchers and hitters, such a practice would have unintended consequence of improving the stats -- and bargaining leverage -- of the non-targeted free agents.
But the fact that Alonso actually believes this to be true reveals the gulf that exists between labor and management. At this point, players wouldn't believe the owners if the latter suggested the sky was blue.
That mindset didn't exist as recently as five or six years ago when the last collective bargaining agreement was negotiated, leading to a relatively tranquil and respectful back-and-forth. That's hardly the case currently, adding to speculation that the upcoming talks will suffer as a result.
Buckle up. It would seem that MLB's streak of having no play interrupted since the end of work stoppage in 1995 is in very serious jeopardy.