NorthSideSox72

QUOTE (bmags @ Apr 27, 2017 -> 12:04 PM) Surprised there was no Matt Cooper. Good call. Though I think he's a promotion candidate to the bullpen in Charlotte, but won't move until Stephens returns.

People have already been clamoring for certain players to be promoted. So who is deserving? Julie dives into some candidates, making cases both for and against for each.

Giolito was going into this spring with serious mechanical changes (back to his previous, in some ways). The idea that he'd be clean and back up to ceiling track by late April was a very long shot from the start. The idea that he's "garbage" is hilariously short-sighted. Give the guy a few months, or heck the season, to get used to throwing a different way. Pitchers are creatures of habit, and changing habits is hard stuff. This wasn't just adding a new pitch.

How many of Trump's Executive Orders do not fall into one of these two categories: 1. You, executive department, please do study things and do your job 2. Slapped down by a court Working from that, we can have a list of what he's actually "accomplished". Maybe.

QUOTE (Username @ Apr 26, 2017 -> 11:27 AM) Wait is he actually touching 96-97?? The scouting reports pegged him with above-average stuff, but as more of a feel for pitching kinda guy. If he's throwing that hard we might have something huge on our hands. Kanny radio guy said he was more 92-93. Not sure where 96-97 comes from.

QUOTE (yesterday333 @ Apr 24, 2017 -> 12:57 PM) I'm in Helena MT. I don't know what quality I can provide. I was hoping to make it to some games when the voyagers play in Helena. Sent you a direct message.

QUOTE (steveno89 @ Apr 25, 2017 -> 11:30 AM) Ok maybe non prospect is a bit harsh, but I'm looking for players that have a chance to become everyday mlb players Peter's ceiling appears to be that of a utility player, still a valuable guy Michaelczewski has yet to show his bat can become anything close to mlb worthy. At age 22 this is a make or break season for him in my opinion. My point with Alvarez, is that despite his return later than most prospects, he is still 27 years old. At what point do you expect a player to either make an mlb impact or not? I see him projecting as a bench player at best at the mlb level. Again, I'm not trying to be overly harsh on our farm guys, but rather point out how little in the form of legitimate position player prospects exist in our farm system when not a single AA position player projects very well Well, I wouldn't project the AA lineup to the whole farm. That AA lineup really is bad, no doubt about it. And really, those three guys we are discussing maybe being prospects or not? Aren't hitting at all anyway. That offense is terrible in Birmingham. Among the starters on the Barons, no one has an OPS above .700. The best hitters overall, again among the starting players, so far have been Cleuluis Rondon (who wasn't even starting to open the season) and Mason Robbins (who is fringy if that), and neither of them are doing all that much. Five of the starting nine are hitting below .200. Five of their starting nine have K-rates of 25% or above. It's not pretty.

QUOTE (Tex @ Apr 23, 2017 -> 09:17 PM) Congrats. QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Apr 24, 2017 -> 10:26 AM) Congrats Matt. Sounds like the perfect car for you. QUOTE (iamshack @ Apr 24, 2017 -> 07:41 PM) Very nice to hear! Enjoy the new wheels! Thanks all. This is primarily my wife's car, since I take the train to work, but I'll enjoy it when I get the chance.

QUOTE (steveno89 @ Apr 25, 2017 -> 08:39 AM) Michalczewski has a career .703 OPS in the low minors to AA. That does not inspire much confidence that he ever hits enough to contribute at the mlb level. Peter with a minors career .719 ops and little to no power = utility player at best Alvarez is 27 years old and is a journeyman non-prospect at this point Not trying to be overly harsh on our guys, but none of them are legitimate prospects compared to what we should have taking the field for us at the AA level Alvarez is quite literally the opposite of a journeyman. He's been with one team, and moved quickly through the system with that one team (at least until this current assignment). I wouldn't focus on the stats that much. Peter has done well considering the pace of his moving up, again, until last year - and he's got value in great part due to defensive value across the field. Michalczewski certainly has reached a point where he needs to perform, no one is arguing that. Writing any of those guys off as non-prospects is, to me, kind of absurd. Unless your definition of a prospect is only T100 guys, that is.

Take a quick peek at which players have had the best last 7 games on the farm in the weekly Prospect Hot List. Delmonico and Adams lead the way, with a handful of other worthy players getting mentions.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Apr 24, 2017 -> 07:38 PM) Dan Hayes saying they are working with Spencer on getting more "downward angles on his pitches". Not much change in his stuff, its the eye level. Looked good doing it tonight. Just to add to this, local report from the radio booth had Adams' fastball sitting around 91-92. So yes, more about movement and location for him that velocity at this point.

Read up on the last week of news tidbits from the White Sox farm, all in one place right here.

QUOTE (steveno89 @ Apr 24, 2017 -> 02:45 PM) I'd say pretty much every position player at AA Birmingham currently is a non-prospect unfortunately Let's not get ridiculous based on 2.5 weeks. Michalczewski, Peter, Alvarez are all still prospects in my eyes. I even consider Mason Robbins a fringe prospect. I won't write off any of them yet, especially since Peter and Alvarez were successful up through AAA before. Michalczewski is a little more worrying as he's repeating and has yet to succeed at the level, though he's still young.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Apr 24, 2017 -> 12:27 PM) You really can't do it mid-season though when he hasn't had any arm conditioning. At best they should keep him as a position player while start conditioning his arm for winter ball. This way he could pitch this winter. But this is precisely what they did last year with Louie Lechich, who was an outfielder through May and was pitching in the AZL by June. And he did quite well. In has case, he had pitched some in early college, but that was 4 or 5 years ago for him. Hawkins pitching in high school, about 5 years prior. It's pretty much the exact same case, and they did it.

Oops, meant to add - also open to one in Great Falls, Montana area, if possible. But I'm guessing that one is an extreme long shot.

The past couple seasons, we were very fortunate to have Kim Contreras as our correspondant in Arizona. She got video, pictures, and wrote content on what she saw in Spring Training, Extended ST, AZL, AFL and Instructs. These are all key development environments. But Kim has moved away from sports writing for the time being, so we are left wanting. If you or anyone you know would be potentially interested in working with FutureSox to get some content from those leagues in play at Camelback, we would like to hear from you. If you're a good fit, we can help you get certain levels of access. This is not a paying gig - just looking for someone to volunteer, like the rest of us, to be part of the team. If interested, you can post here, or email us (futuresox at gmail dot com).

QUOTE (iamshack @ Apr 22, 2017 -> 12:48 PM) Sounds like a great option for you guys! I can't imagine you were able to negotiate much, but it sounds like you're getting exactly what you want, which is important. Surprisingly, when I emailed basically every dealer in the Chicago area, there was some price discounting going on. In the end we paid about 3k under MSRP for the purchase price, even though they had to bring it in from some distance. A few dealers said they couldn't get one (translation - didn't want to mess with trading with another dealer), but most came back with an offer of some kind. In fact the whole process with the dealer we bought from was surprisingly pleasant. Maybe I'm paranoid but I was expecting a lot of problems, but there really weren't any, and no pressure. I even remarked about that to the Finance guy, and he said nowadays, buyers have usually done most of the homework before they ever set foot in the dealership. So what's to gain from yanking on them? Just give them the info, because if they walk in the door, there's a high chance they will buy from you anyway.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 24, 2017 -> 08:03 AM) It said on the board Sunday he lead the league in HR. I would give him this season to hit. If it doesn't get better, and probably won't, then maybe have him become a pitcher if he's up for it. I don't think there is any rush. That's the counter argument, that it requires more time. I was on board with that idea in 2016 and years before. For me personally, I think we've passed the point where there is any notable possibility in his recovery as a hitter. I of course could be wrong, but to me right now, the chances are virtually zero. As a pitcher they aren't exactly high either, but even if that's 10%, that's certainly 10x as likely as him hitting his way to Chicago. And of course he may have no desire for it - who knows. I hate seeing this. He's a good guy. He interacts with the fans prolifically at every stop. I want him to succeed, but he's now in his 3rd try at AA (after staying at A+ for more than 2 seasons) and is striking out in more than half his plate appearances. That's insane. Even with those four home runs, his SLG is only .333 because he just isn't hitting the ball. He isn't walking either.

Last fall, multiple posters suggested that maybe Courtney Hawkins should make the switch to pitching. I did some digging on that idea, and made a case for why it's a good one. With Hawkins not striking out in more than half his plate appearances in opening his third year in AA, it seems like a good time to discuss again. Where do people stand on this?

Going to go finalize the purchase of our car tonight. 2017 Kia Optima Plug-In Hybrid, with the Tech Package. It will be very interesting to see how we do with the electric and mileage. In theory, this car gets 29 miles of electric-only, then goes to hybrid mode. My wife's round trip commute is about 28 miles, but they also have chargers at her parking lot. It should function like an electric car almost all the time for us, with her commute and some errands/kid stuff here and there. Might go months without getting gas. I'll report back here in a few months to let y'all know how it goes. These cars, by the way, are hard to obtain. When we went to purchase, there were only three Optima PHEV's in the entire Chicago area in stock, and only one was at our trim level (but not a color we wanted). They had to ship one from Ohio. Dealers say they get them in, but they can't keep them as they immediately fly off the lot. The plug-ins are about 4k more than the regular, but the tax rebate is almost 5k, so for the life of me I don't know why anyone would buy the regular hybrids.

QUOTE (PolishPrince34 @ Apr 15, 2017 -> 06:14 AM) Any word on Jordan Stephens and Adolfo injuries? Not sure on Stephens, I've asked him but didn't get a response. Adolfo has returned. QUOTE (ChiSox59 @ Apr 21, 2017 -> 11:55 AM) Willy Garcia has played in CF for the Charlotte last several games. Any reports on how he has looked? I'd like to know this too - Rob and I will be down there in early May. If he's still doing it then we will report on it.

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Apr 21, 2017 -> 09:44 AM) Matt Cooper made Fangraphs' list of "Baseball's Most Compelling Fringe Prospects" http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-fringe-...e-prospects-84/ Note who Carson is basing part of his report on.

Find out how the top fifteen-plus prospects in the White Sox system have performed in the past week. Fulmer and Lopez both rebounded. Collins had a rough week. Dunning and Fisher just keep rolling.

A new FutureSox podcast is up, and the guest this time is Nick Hostetler, Director of Amateur Scouting with the White Sox. Listen to Rob and Brian go over some reader questions, play a game of over/under and more in addition to Nick's appearance. You can get it from this post, or you can subscribe via iTunes or Podomatic and get them automatically when they go up (about every 2 weeks during the season).

QUOTE (NCsoxfan @ Apr 19, 2017 -> 11:29 PM) What's the argument against moving up Adams to AAA? I get the sense he's now projected more as a 3-4 starter? I'd argue he wasn't even ready for AA yet, let alone AAA. Kid turned 21 years old on his first start of the year, and he wasn't exactly lighting the world on fire in High-A last year. He's being moved too quickly IMO. Also, as I've noted in the past year or so and others have hinted, the Adams of 2016 is not a major league starter. But there is still plenty of potential there, particularly if he can get his 4S velocity back to the mid-90's and get more consistency with the slider.