Look at Ray Ray Run

The problem for the Cubs is they've sold this as an increased revenue generator that will help them spend even bigger but the first year it's in place, they are slashing payroll and talking about trading elite talent. The Cubs never told fans that the upfront investment would hamper their contention window because their hands would be tied and they wouldn't be able to spend a dime.

CLTV, you are correct.

The Cubs did this same shit with CTV and it flopped miserably and they immediately regretted it; if I remember correctly.

The Stiever thing was hilarious to me; I love Stiever and was as high on him as anyone, but putting him above Madrigal because of last season is pretty funny. Agree with him on Gladney though; Keith and I the high guys on DJ! Beard belongs no where near the top 20 right now, imo. Speed and speed alone isn't enough, and his contact skills were horrendous. I get that he is coming from a small baseball conference with inferior competition for high school, but his debut didn't exactly give me a lot of reasons to believe he's close. Doesn't mean he can't get there, but it's hard to maximize speed if you don't make contact.

Kenney always makes things worse; he basically said youtubeTV isn't happening during his interview today. So no youtubetv and no comcast lol. The Cubs are going to lose themselves fans because they're so damn greedy. I absolutely loved them telling fans to call Comcast and complain, and to switch to hulu; as if it's the fans job to follow the Cubs broadcast to the one place that has it, and it's not the Cubs job to assure all fans have access. The tone deaf shit coming out of North Side of the city is absolutely hilarious. They spent 800,000,000 on area upgrades, and millions and millions on starting the network, but they don't have enough money to keep their best player and they don't care if you can watch their games.

Collins hands have legitimately looked better behind the plate this spring; I have not seen Mercedes back there so tough to say. Collins hands have looked much softer and more receiving, and his "framing" is not nearly as jerky as it looked last year. I'm not going to say he's good at it, but he doesn't look like an emergency catcher quite as much this year so far.

He is starting the year on the DL because of the flu/pneumonia. Nothing to do with his arm. The Yankees have lost: Judge, Severino and Stanton. Trading Betts was iditoic and absurd as the Red Sox would be within 2 projected wins of the Yankees without the move.

Logan Glass is certainly a name to keep an eye on as well. You get lucky sometimes with high schoolers and that first off-season the game clicks for them and they take off young. It's not often but it's possible.

I have never read anything that refers to Mercedes as a decent receiver but maybe I'm wrong.

Will Vaughn ever have a bad professional At-Bat?

You're still only at 8 players out of a 40 year period. I get your point, that it varies slot to slot for sure, but the expectation shouldn't be an impact player is guaranteed because you had the 4th or 5th pick. I think I have the draft data exported into my information at home; I'll see if I can run an average fWAR output for each draft slot since 1980. It's a fun exercise.

Not surprised to see nothing was done here. The Sox seem to want a bigger discount on the pitching front due to the increased risk.

Jimmy, I am happy with the direction that Hahn has gotten people to take this organization. I like that he has interjected a modern aspect to the organization, and I like that he has intertwined old-school and new-school mentalities. I obviously think Hahn is a very bright guy and the baseball community felt that way about him for a long time. None of that has changed. That said, I can't compliment his work in these areas until there's actual fruits of that labor. Implementation is only 50% of the battle; analyzing and executing are the other 50%. I still think they have struggled to put in a system at all minor league levels that matches the goal and directive from the top, but I think they may have finally completed that merger with the firings on the farm of old-school coaches and etc. Again though, I need to see results before I say job well done. There weren't exactly a ton of position players making strides last year either which sucks. The game moves fast; edges the Sox have had in past decade+ are no long edges as the rest of the league has copy-catted (their health program for pitchers, and possibly now their extensions although I think Hahn can still excel better than others there), and we need to trust that this organization can be a trend setter and not a follower within the game. I'm not there yet but I can get there if they succeed and execute these next 5 years well.

Yeah, I wasn't speaking to you as much; Kenny and Rick have a ring and a trophy on display. They are clearly better than Gar/Pax.

It's funny because while all teams are going to copy-cat now because it was valuable, just yesterday the Yankees beat writers were talking about how the Yankees may not lock up judge because their pre-fa extensions to Hicks and Severino have gone so poorly. Just as is the case with scouting/trading/signing FA's, you still need to pick the right guys. I find it really interesting that the Sox have not even attempted to lock up their arms - by all reports - because I think they view them as riskier commodities with their injury histories.

It's been the worst 7 year stretch in franchise history; with the only comparison being the 40's or 20's. I'm with you 100% here; this anointing of greatness for the FO before anything has happened is absolutely baffling. Let's play and win some games first.

Yolbert and Gladney will be the fastest risers in the system this year, for me. I like Gladney a lot; the K's don't concern me at all. He's a midwest kid who was thrown into professional ball at 17 years old with limited reps and he showed huge power and skill/tools. He may struggle early, but I think he finds it and gets more comfortable as the year goes on. Yolbert - He'll either be a player who was scouted well and performs much better than he did when he was young - I give him a pass for the long layoff - or he's a bum. I trust the Cuban scouting in general - Paddy's eye for that talent as well - so I'll trust that he's had more tools and talent than his production showed when he was younger. Going to be a big year for Bryce too - repeating A ball. He'll be at the right age now, and if he adjusts he could be big for the organization. Health a big key for him, obviously.

I understand why many Sox fans - and fans around the game in general - point to Tampa as some enviable organization of scouting and development; they're very good at it. But... the Rays have won nothing. They have had great rosters that ownership would not supplement - this year alone, they could have easily had a top 3 roster entering the season. They had the pieces in place, and all they had to do was supplement them with a LITTLE money; not even a huge investment. Instead, they traded Pham to acquire more pieces, and made additional depth based moves. For all the Rays do well, they run the team - generally - like shit and I have no desire for the Sox to operate like that. Would I like the Sox to have the analytics department and scouting revolution similarly to Tampa? Sure - although I do think they've improved that quite a bit - but I don't envy the way the Rays operate. The goal is never to push the chips in and go for broke when the roster says too. Even the A's have pushed their chips in when the time called for it.

Kenny never struck me as a rebuild and lose on purpose guy - theres years and years of data to support that. Regardless I think everyone is getting a bit carried away. I'm as excited as anyone but nothing has been achieved and theres still work to be done. This has not been the resounding success as some are portraying it.

Luis Robert, CF Andrew Vaughn, 1B Micheal Kopech, RHP Nick Madrigal, 2B Zach Collins, C/1B/DH Jonathan Stiever, RHP Matthew Thompson, RHP Dane Dunning, RHP Andrew Dalquist, RHP Micker Adolfo, RF Jimmy Lambert, RHP Luis Basabe, CF Yolbert Sanchez, SS Bryce Bush, OF Gavin Sheets, 1B Blake Rutherford, OF Zack Burdi, RHP Ian Hamilton, RHP Tyler Johnson, RHP DJ Gladney, 3B Konnor Pilkington, LHP Jose Rodriguez, SS Benyamin Bailey, OF Luis Gonzalez, CF Codi Heuer, RHP Bryan Ramos, 3B Lenyn Sosa, SS Luis Mieses, OF James Beard, CF Ronaldo Guzman, SP I would keep the same guys

Maybe we should wait until they win 82+ games in a season before we start patting everyone on the back for a job well done.

I'd say being at 97 without max effort is a good report. He may never sit 100 like chapman again, but his slider is real good and his velocity will play fine at 97-99 I think.

I get your point, and he should STOP SLIDING HEAD FIRST PERIOD (this makes me crazy), but you're not going to take that competitiveness out of him right now. He's going to bust it right now as a young guy. He hit that and his brain just yelled triple. The sliding thing needs to stop though, for everyone. It won't happen though. Jammed wrists, thumbs... had my hands stomped on by a metal spike. Nothing good comes of it. And replay makes sliding feet first even harder when coming in at full speed because they'll call you out if you pop off for .01 seconds. Really dumb of baseball.

I like you Jack, but things like this are absolutely wild. Funny, but wild.

Would like to see guys like Mazara, Anderson and Robert work counts deeper - even if it's not natural for them. See more pitches. Spit on ones you can't hit hard.