NorthSideSox72

Here are some handy links to prep yourself, get to know Kopech a little better: Promotion story from Sunday, ICYMI Prospect profile with history, scouting info, links to more stuff All of our Kopech videos on the FutureSox YT channel Happy Kopech Day!

Here's an interesting prospect focus piece - a look at the three catchers on the Kannapolis roster, including quotes from all three (Ken conducted the interviews), video and more. It's unusual for an affiliate to carry three backstops, let alone when none of them are org soldiers. All three of these are players with potential. This is a really good read on some depth prospects, with the hope that perhaps one of them becomes a valuable major leaguer.

Nothing else new that I'm aware of, sorry.

Get your weekly dose of transactions, news links, team performances and playoff statuses, and all the rest of the info from the past week.

Everyone now knows that Kopech is on his way to the Sox. Now, to prepare for Tuesday, here is a little guide to Mr. Kopech, including video, links to further info, and even an amusing quote about the promotion from Spencer Adams.

So noted, internet guy named "Hot FiRe".

Lots of people have been talking up Bryce Bush lately. So James (Y2Jimmy) dug in on a focus piece. He interviewed Bryce, plus his high school coaches (two of them), his signing scout, and Nick Hostetler. And we talked with his agent. And have video, and photos. Here is 3300 words of in-depth coverage of Bryce. Not sure anyone has ever written 3300 words about a 33rd round pick in rookie ball, but there it is!

One of our writers, Julie, has dubbed him "Laz-o-matic".

Sort of amazing to think the Sox picked this guy up in the MINOR LEAGUE PHASE of the Rule 5 Draft. Most R5 pickups don't end up as much, and minor league phase pickups virtually never do. Some pro scout who pushed for him should get a pat on the back.

Julie's been taking in some Dash games recently, including Luis Robert's return to the Dash, and some of Madrigal's first games. Here she writes about NC in August and all that rain, while seeing what Madrigal and Robert look like on the field.

It's unusual but not unheard of. And Collins is such an interesting case study, in that he seems ideally positioned to be a C/DH/1B type (probably).

As a group we are definitely a smidge higher than most national publications on Collins too. Time will tell, but Dunning is a high floor and lower ceiling guy for me, with Collins a much higher ceiling value and lower but not super-low floor. A year from now that may end up looking silly, it happens, but I'll stick with it for now. Certainly the two were very close in our voting.

It's here. Discuss.

I'd take Johnson's ceiling over Hamilton's, but Hamilton is more refined and much closer to ready at this point with less risk. Thus the higher ranking.

Ya don't say? Haha No we've never given that much thought, but I'll put it in front of the writers and see what people think for the next one.

Thanks. Good catch on Call - just fixed the typo. Sorry about that! At least we got his round right, haha. We used to just release the full 30 all at once, but that makes for a reeeeeaaaalllllly long article so we broke it up. And we thought the slow burn from Just Missed, to 16-30, to 1-15 (and full list) was better at building suspense.

As usual, we've released the back half of the Top 30 list first. Tomorrow will be the full list. For now, enjoy the 16-30 list, with capsules for each player. And discuss! Where were we higher or lower than you think we should have been?

The initial voting process we used, started in mid-July. We had nary an in-person report at that time. The in-person reports from a couple sources started coming in right around the end of our process, and of course his numbers kept climbing.

It is rankings week, but that doesn't mean we stop covering everything else. Catch up on a week's worth of transactions, performances, news links and more in this week's edition of News & Notes.

Rankings Week at FutureSox has begun! First up as usual, the Just Missed list. These are prospects who were in discussion for T30 berths, but just couldn't fit. With a system this deep, even these guys are legitimate prospects. So check them out!

So, shortly after Brian's article that pushed the idea of waiting to next April to bring up Eloy, some of the FutureSox writers got into a group text discussion on the topic. We... don't all agree. But the discussion was interesting so we decided to turn it into an article. Here is that article! This gives you a glimpse into some of the personalities of our writers, but more importantly shows that even for people close to the farm system, there is no universal answer on this subject. If you were on this thread, what point would you have brought up that maybe we didn't?

Speaking of the Iraq War, if any of y'all haven't read the book Curveball, you should. Now that's a book where the author provided lots of his own color, too much in my view, but the information is just fascinating (and frightening).

I guess I didn't get the impression reading it that he was providing any cover. In fact I thought the information he presented was pretty damning.

it is indeed insider stuff. I guess I don't care how he markets it. I don't read his text as trying to pronounce anything as the full story of everything. It's a lot of interesting insider info, and that to me has great value.

Sorry guys, I just do not at all agree. Journalism takes many forms, and I am not at all opposed to the analytical end of things. That's fine too. Woodward is not that - he's a digger. Which I appreciate. Clearly he didn't criticize certain things enough for you, but I don't think he was even trying to go down that road. I look forward to his new book, presenting information that I can synthesize with other sources, myself.