Throughout the first few weeks of the Red Sox' 2013, Allen Webster was the talk of JetBlue Park.
The pitcher who had come over to the organization from the Dodgers in the Sox' massive trade with Los Angeles (Josh Beckett, Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Nick Punto) wasn't really on the team's big-league radar.
But then, seemingly out of nowhere, Webster started throwing 99 mph. (Keep in mind, it was a time where such things weren't the norm for the Grapefruit League.) Suddenly, the 23-year-old had become perhaps the camp's biggest storyline.
"He's going to be a top-of-the-rotation guy," said one Red Sox coach in the midst of Webster Mania.
Webster does have a World Series ring thanks to eight appearances (7 starts) for that 2013 team. But the righty's career never really translated like that spring training suggested it would.
Now there is Connor Seabold, the guy who came over with Nick Pivetta from Philadelphia for Brandon Workman and Heath Hembree.
The optimism coming into camp regarding Seabold was more substantial than that of Webster eight years ago, with most believing the righty would be come a major leaguer even before this spring training rolled around. But, like Webster, the JetBlue Park radar gun has altered the narrative.
"Velocity was impressive," said Cora, who said Seabold was sitting at 95-96 mph. "I didn't expect that one, but you can see his changeup. It's a good one. I don't know if I mentioned it to you, it's kind of like Ward, there's something about these kids, throwing bullpens, they're paying attention to everything. He goes from the stretch and he's looking at runners. He prepares. That was really good. But velocity caught my eye yesterday."
When asked about Seabold's bread-and-butter, his changeup, Cora added, "It was a good one yesterday, if he starts getting that separation, velocity-wise, he's going to be actually better. One thing he said is last year, he never felt it was where it was supposed to be, he didn't have the feel of the changeup. We were very happy with the changeup for everything I hear last year, so if he starts feeling it, it's going to be a weapon for him.
Seabold's fastball had been known to sit between 90-94 mph, with his go-to pitch undoubtedly being an above-average changeup. Even with the average velocity, the righty had averaged slightly better than a strikeout per inning throughout his minor-league career (203 strikeouts, 196 2/3 innings).