NorthSideSox72

The arm grade on Blake is one of those odd things where you can find reports all over the place. I've seen one BA writer in an article call it above average, but their tool grade in rankings puts it below. MLBP as you said calls it 50, which is average. I personally called it above average in my looks for FS. My guess for the discrepancy: His arm STRENGTH is average at best. But I've seen him doing outfield drills twice where he was putting on an absolute clinic for hitting a target glove. Highly accurate, compared to his peers like Adolfo or Basabe who have cannons but not nearly the accuracy. For me, that should be part of the picture. For others, I think they just go with strength.

Here's our first, very early, look at the start of Nick Madrigal's pro career. Truly this is the infancy of his career with just 10 games under his belt, but there are already a number of things about Nick's start that are worth noting.

Thanks, though it's Eric who wrote this one. We appreciate it! We are in the middle of the discussions (arguments? battles?) now for the new list, and Rivera is a hot topic hovering right around the back end. Don't know for sure yet if he will make it, but he will be close if he doesn't.

Two farm teams have clinched playoff spots so far this year, Madrigal and others that keep hitting, more injuries to report along with other transactions, the Sox sign a few flamethrower reclamation project, and more in this week's News and Notes. Get up to speed!

Oblique injury. Hopefully not out too long but no known timeline yet.

Here's the most recent in-person report from the AZL. Includes discussions on Walker, Bush, Pilkington, Mieses, and a rehabbing Ryan Cordell.

Oh I think Zangari definitely replaces one or the other, that's my point. But I also don't think they want to give up on Yurchak yet, who is pretty much the same age as Zangari. So do they promote Yurchak, even though he's been only so-so in Low A? Or promote Villa because he's 24 and doing a little better? Or just release Villa? One of those things pretty much has to happen. And I think you might see a wave - Sheets to AA as well - of one is promoted. Then Rose or Barnum is moved out of the way somehow.

I once spent about 30 minutes on the phone with Scott Reifort, going over with him what it might look like for me to visit the DSL camp for FutureSox. In the end, decided it wasn't worth it. No access to players for media, no access to the compound or field, video has to be from behind the backstop AND a fence, flights are pricey and there's some crime risk in the area. At best, I might have been able to time a trip to be there when one of the field coordinators was down there and maybe spend some time with them, but I can do that in the US too. Plus the great majority of those guys won't even make it to AZL, let alone full season ball or the bigs.

Two key things on Zangari, to add: 1. His K-rate is now at about 20%, which to me is mor encouraging than the power we already knew he had. 2. He has lost a LOT of weight. Went from looking like a bouncer to looking like an athlete. Hopefully that helps his defense (which was really iffy) and his long-term health. Wouldn't be surprised to see him go to Kanny very soon. Which poses a bit of a dilemma for Yurchak and Villa, but we'll see how that goes. Villa isn't a prospect.

The article was focused on players with super-high national prospect rankings. Not sure if Kittle fit that bill, but maybe? Julie would need to answer for sure, but I got the impression the context here was pre-rebuild. That said you are absolutely right that Moncada is the other one likely in this discussion, but maybe not because he was in the majors prior?

In this week's column, Julie explores the history of highly-touted White Sox prospects and their appearances in AAA, to see if the team has ever had one at that level quite like Eloy.

I think what we are seeing here is the intersection of: --Sox lost their ability to sign anyone over 300k the last two cycles --Sox usually spend their substantial money almost entirely on position players --Sox have taken to promoting the highest end position player prospects to AZL as young as 17 now, draining the DSL --Pitchers in that market are more of a crapshoot, so they will be relatively better off than the drained hitting ranks --The pitchers doing well are in the 19-21 years old range, so they are maybe a little more mature than the average 16-19 ages more typical of the hitters in that league

Their offense is just horrific. Two players on the entire team have an OPS north of .600. The only guy that's mildly interesting is maybe Jose Rodriguez, a 17-year-old shortstop holding his own (.686 OPS) with a good contact rate, but I can't even find any info on the guy so probably nothing there either.

Agreed.

haha, sorry I referred to you as southside hitman, I totally forgot you changed your user name.

A whole bunch of White Sox prospects are injured. You know this. Ken decided to run down the full list with their statuses, but also added their outlooks, and did so with the help of our own ptatc. The expert input helped us understand better the risks of these injuries to the players' long term health and outlook. Thanks ptatc! Here's the rundown, which may seem depressing on first glance, but in the end it's not as bad as you might think.

Thanks for finding this. Found their blog post on it too, will tweet via FS.

We've made these now every other week, instead of weekly, at least for the time being. See who had the hot bats and arms in the last couple weeks in Rob's latest edition! It is apparently, unofficially, Rob Young Day at FutureSox.

1. I never said Trump was controlled by Putin or anything of the sort. He's not. He's mostly just an idiot, and is being duped, but that's not the same. 2. Totally missing the point. Again, let's ASSUME you are right about their incompetence (which I feel you've dramatically exaggerated). You simply do not air them out standing next to an obviously aggressive enemy and give them ammo! That's idiotic and borderline treasonous! That is the very heart of the issue here! 3. The rest of the world's opinion of the US sure as hell better concern you, if you have a concept of how foreign relations work. The US is the most powerful SINGLE country in the world, but if it is the US against almost all the REST of the world, the US is going to lose and lose big in so many ways. Alienating allies who share many common goals is playing Russian Roulette (so many layers of meaning there). 4. This is classic scorched Earth tactics, and interestingly is almost exactly what some of the more liberal people here accused me of. Except I actually acknowledged what should be obvious yet neither you nor they are willing to - that it is never, ever, 100% the same. Nor is it ever absolute when it comes to human beings. Of course the letter after their name matters, but that does not mean they are all the same. Of course there are a lot of bad actors, but not all are. Of course agencies like the FBI and CIA and NSA will have blunders, because they are made of humans, but that does not mean you dismiss them entirely and buddy up with the guys who WANT TO KILL YOU. I mean come on, have some perspective here. 5. I literally, in the post you replied to, did exactly what you are asking me to do. Maybe not in those words, but I specifically said I think that Trump was not directly colluding. I DO think, and it seems pretty obvious at this point, that the Russian meddling was real. I can't see how that can be denied, really. And they did it in a way well beyond anything we've seen in modern times. But that doesn't mean Trump did that himself, which is what I clearly said. And really are you expecting me to reply to every post that I disagree with? That's all I'd do all day, haha.

For the record too, note that I did not bring up the Mueller investigation or collusion. In fact I'm pretty confident that Trump himself was not part of any collusion. I think some of his close campaign folks MIGHT have been, but Trump himself would have been shielded from it. Trump was of course giddy when he had Russia trying to help him because helping him is good, but I don't think they find any direct collusion. Just my guess. This is not about the Mueller investigation. This is about Trump's stunning level of incompetence, and his treating our friends like enemies while cozying up to some really awful people.

raBBit, I think I made pretty clear that my problem was not with the idea of a US President trying to improve relations with Russia. No one is saying not to do that, so, let's drop that straw man. You are 100% aware of what people are upset about, and it isn't the idea of the two leaders meeting to talk, so stop with that game. I can't get my head around the idea that any American can be OK with Trump, while standing next to the leader of a country who have provably and by all accounts been trying to undermine the US in any way possible (including elections), undercutting his own intelligence agencies. It is inexcusable, even if he does disagree with some of their assessments. It is inexcusable not just because it lacks patriotism, which isn't the point either. It telegraphs to the world that the US is incapable of operating in a complex foreign policy environment. How could you possibly think that is OK? Secondarily, it also makes Trump look even more inept as a leader (though frankly the world already see him as a joke anyway). These are agencies he manages, run by people he nominated, and he's out there saying they are wrong about one of their most important focuses. If that's true (which it's pretty clearly not, but let's play along anyway), then Trump is a useless leader! Nothing in this makes Trump look competent, at all. Finally, just to destroy yet another strawman, no. No, Obama, or Bush or Clinton or Bush or Reagan, would not have been feted or celebrated for doing what Trump did. They would be crucified, and rightly so. How do I know this? Simple - none of those previous Presidents ever did anything like this, because... it is 100% idiotic to do so. They wouldn't have. If it were actually true that they would be celebrated for it, then they would have done it, because all these guys have huge egos. Think it through, man.

I know people are down due to all the injuries, but there's a flipside to keep track of too. Some guys are breaking out, and none more so than one Jimmy Lambert. Rob (southside hitman) dives deep into how Jimmy got here, with quotes, and paints a picture of an arm that White Sox fans should start keeping track of.

Dopico has some very good stuff, but command has always been a major issue. Here's a write-up if you want to know more, with video (4th pitcher in article).

I would love to hear any American's reasoning that makes Trump's cozying up to Putin and rejecting his own Intelligence agencies' (run by his own nominees) unambiguous assessments of a national threat while standing next to the worst offender, somehow, OK.

There are only 2 DL's in the minors. Usually they go on the 7-day, which has a minimum of 7 days but can go any number beyond that. The other is the 60-day, which they only use for players who will assuredly be out for basically the full season. It is not used often.