HollywoodTim

Kelley looks a bit on the Bobby Hill side (not talking about the Cubs bust here). Put him in the same room with guys like Kopech and let's see what his body looks like in ST 2022. He might be a lot closer than 3-4 years away. Crochet I'm excited to see develop now. I don't want to burn service time but they need to get him throwing in front of their coaching staff. Whatever they do I guess it will be difficult to b**** about it given the covid circumstances.

Y2Jimmy says the Sox staff think Crochet is a stud. You have to trust your people and Fulmer aside, the Sox haven't shown me anything that says we can't trust them on pitching. Given Crochet's upside it's a no-brainer to take him if that's what they think. Kelley, same thing. Given the upside, if he's their guy, that is great. On paper this was an attempt to gain the kinds of talent that really don't become available to you in a trade unless you are dealing the centerpiece in a major blockbuster, and the kind of talent that you don't see in FA until they're at an age where you're half-scared to sign them and stuck looking at $15-20M per plus regardless. I always want to see this kind of strategy. I wish they could have gotten at least 1 more player but I'm very happy overall.

We need to look for the Gonsolin types if there are any. I'm not sure how good we will be at finding somebody like that. Many of these players might just go to JuCo. I dunno. It's hard to think about fringey draft prospects passing on 20k if offered but it's also hard to imagine someone who has the skills to get 60k+ not betting on himself at least for 1 year in JuCo. I think the Sox cupboard will mostly be bare.

Not to be a downer but all the lost development time especially for all the injured players who have not had a full season forever really has me concerned. The draft is great but the FA stuff is kinda meh to me. We're only going to go as far as our young players will take us. And I'm really hoping that when baseball comes back we see last year's Giolito, and and the supposedly hard-working Reynaldo with the big offseason comes back and we see improvements. I'd argue that this COVID crap hurts younger teams a lot more than the older ones.

Well, enjoy the money, kids.

Bailey Horn

Sox on the clock

MBGA

Some teams are taking with writeups on mlb.com. Will the Sox? Angels pick is coming soon, then us.

1 pick away until the moment baseball when is officially uneventful / dead again

This makes me feel like a little kid and you're telling me pro wrestling is scripted

Ok so what about Bryce Bush signing surprising people?

I just listened to some podcast clip awhile ago with the guy who took Trout, and they didn't "agree" to slot until later on. The agent wanted more, the Angels took someone ahead of Trout to lower the slot value to counteract the agent's demand, and Trout's team held out until his Dad agreed on slot. I doubt that's the only time in history that has happened. Maybe the Sox don't do it that way but if so then I don't know that.

If Y2J is correct and we're also punting the 5th, then I think they agreed to a deal to pay him more than they really had to, which cost them a prospect. But of course if it is true, the prospect lost is unlikely a real difference maker so I'm over it. I'd much rather reel in the 2 big fish anyway.

Well I hope they don't have to punt the 5th too. I will just say that I think they overplayed their hand. They are paying too much. I would still rather go this strategy however than take a lesser player so whatever.

The Sox wouldn't say a figure and go lower. But they could have stated a range and they could stick closer to the lower end of the range. The questionmarks on Crochet really puts him in this position anyway. If he pitches and looks great and is dominate, there is no way he falls to the Sox. If he looks bad or is hurt etc. he falls quite a bit. I just personally have the idea in my head of Crochet's agent and the Sox having multiple conversations and agreeing on an underslot number, in large part because both sides think they are at Crochet's high point and also both sides like the fit a lot. But if they went like 4 million on him I think they overplayed their hand. And if its something like the Sox are prepared to go to 3.8 and then Crochet wants to push it to 4, take a legit guy at 5 and play hardball.

Unless they are planning a grand finale in the 5th round, I really do not believe they are in a position of weakness with either of those guys. I think they have definitely over-punted if they punt the 5th. If they take somebody good there, different story.

I think there are probably a lot of hung heads right now. A lot of money isn't there. A lot of people aren't going to get paid, period. Just getting to the point where a MLB team is willing to draft you and spend 100+k is a ceiling most of these guys won't ever hit again. The idea of a HS with "leverage" is way overblown and a bunch of kids cut out of payment in this draft aren't going to get there next time around.

Yeah Crochet really should not get slot. 1 million less sounds about right. Play hardball.

A typical 40 round draft is really more like an 8 round draft anyway. There are like maybe 5 guys in the first 10 rounds and then a few overslots.

Yeah I'm holding out hope for the 5th round. I don't believe they really needed to give **that** much money to Crochet and Kelley.

Gavin Williams interests me a bit because of the FB and CH. I like Abbot as a LHRP.

Can we have Andrew Abbot maybe?

Looking at the draft board, maybe we can get a legit dude in the 4th and help pay for him in the 5th? It really is a shitty move to drop the bonus max to 20k. At least they could have said 20k this year with up to 100k payable over 3 or 4 years into the future. There are a lot of players who are good enough to sign for a lot more but due to general desperation and uncertainty will think about taking that 20k put in front of them. It's really a slap in the face that some of them might just kind of swallow their pride and take with a smile.

I get what you are saying. I'm just thinking that (1) we don't know how many MiLB teams there will even be next year etc. and (2) we really don't know who is going to get a chance to really do anything before like spring next year. I'm not expecting MLB clubs to want to sign more than a handful of guys, and if some team like the Yankees or Dodgers wants to try to sign like 30+ players and send them to some kind of organized complex then great for that team, and it really makes the rest of the owners look like pieces of shit for not doing the same thing. But overall how many guys are there that we really want, and who will also sign for $20K max and not go back to school? I think we'll sign a few but mostly we'll pass. I agree we are probably like mid-tier attractive or so, and the guys we really want that some other teams really want also, we'll probably lose out on.