Allen hasn’t always shown great numbers, but one thing did stand out to me: He’s always getting better. Once he adjusts to the league he excels and shows his stuff. If he gets enough time in Triple-A this year, and next, he should prove his worth.

1. I still think of Conor Jackson as their primary 1b. Interesting to see how things go. I didn’t foresee him improving much, but he was already pretty useful as a “base clogger”, before getting hurt. Obviously, he may play the outfield now (again)… or get traded… who knows?

2. My MLP’s for Allen’s 2006-2008 minor-league stats (projection of his eventual “prime” performance) come out to: .226/.292/.463, with a strikeout rate just barely tolerable. While not great, the + side of that is a lot like Brandon Jacobs, and the way these work, he should have a 50/50 chance of being better or worse. That’s based on a very robust total of 1383 minor-league AB (before 2009), so it’s a pretty good sample size.

The more interesting part is what they got back. The D-backs have more 1B than they know what to do with right now, between Tony Clark, Chad Tracy, Mark Reynolds (when they need him there) and Josh Whitesell in the minors.

Could mean a trade for Tracy and/or Clark is in the works, more likely Tracy.

Allen was ranked the Sox #6 overall prospect for 2009 by BA–he’s got tons of power, even if he’s not showing it yet (and the plate discipline clearly needs more work). Could be in MLB in the next year or two.