NorthSideSox72

Julie's column this week takes a somewhat humorous look at the players on the AAA Charlotte Knights, just a step away from the majors, who aren't actually prospects. This gives you an idea of the smattering of different back stories you'll find in AAA.

QUOTE (Username @ Apr 19, 2017 -> 03:49 PM) Love the extra pop Johan Cruz is starting to show. If he can post a BB rate closer to last year the guy could really break out (I know it's a crazy small sample size). Also, anyone have any intel on how Joel Booker's defense is? Like Roman the guy just keeps hitting and brings some serious speed. Zero pop but pretty solid BB/K rates so far too. Local look last year told me that defense is his strong suit, over offense. Relatively mature routes for his level of development, good glove work, lots of range, enough arm for CF.

This will be a weekly Wednesday feature - a deep dive spotlight on a specific prospect, sometimes one that isn't as well known to Sox fans yet. Y2Jimmy0 (James) debuts the series, opening with infielder Mitch Roman, who many have been asking about. You want to know about Mitch? There ya go!

QUOTE (steveno89 @ Apr 18, 2017 -> 04:00 PM) Roman seems to be able to hit for solid average, with zero power Not sure about his defense though. To be any thing more than a utility player he would have to be able to stick at SS or CF defensively due to the lack of power Still, if he could ever turn into a decent utility player that is outstanding value in the 12th round Baseball America called him the best defensive infielder from the Sox 2016 draft class, FWIW. Also noted for a strong arm. In fact he was drafted more around his defense than offense, from what I understand. Last year in Great Falls he played mostly shortstop, but some 2B and even a couple games in LF. This year he's been just a 2B, which is a little odd since the shortstop position has been manned by Grant Massey (who is an org soldier) and Max Dutto (who is a good defensive SS but is riding the bench half the time). That makes me wonder about Roman's glove reputation a bit, but it's also just 11 games into the season so maybe not time to draw conclusions.

Here's the first FULL week Prospect Hot List report. Kannapolis starting to hit, everyone else starting to pitch. Who among these players is piquing your interest?

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 18, 2017 -> 08:17 AM) Birmingham is pretty pathetic. There is some pitching talent there, but the offense is terrible. And the guys I thought might actually hit a bit, Jake Peter and Eddy Alvarez, have both started ice cold.

Here's your weekly farm update, news and notes. A handful of transactions, some very good article links (especially the one on Collins' mechanics), and a quick look at John Orton.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Apr 14, 2017 -> 10:22 AM) Thanks. FWIW, I really like it. One thing that may be helpful for later on (it's not applicable now) is to add stats line for separate levels as they get promoted. That way people can compare their progress. Good call, I'll mention that to the writer. QUOTE (Dunt @ Apr 14, 2017 -> 10:31 AM) Also, in Dunnings write-up you have Kannapolis as High A. I'll go fix that right now, thanks!

This will be our regular Friday base content. Owen will run down the Top 15 prospects in the system (and maybe others at times), looking at how they did in the past week and so far on the season as a whole, pointing out trends as warranted. It will give you a quick look at how all the high end talent is doing. Here is the first edition. As with all these new content formats, we are open to feedback! We may tweak things as we go on, and if you have suggestions, we are listening.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Apr 12, 2017 -> 11:16 PM) I see the teams outside of Charlotte are just awful for the 2nd straight season. Might indicate continued issues with org depth; AAA is skewed a bit because of all of the AAAA players, but the lower levels have a higher percentage of prospects. Five. Games.

This is the first weekly column for Julie, who will be doing a different subject each Thursday on FutureSox. In this one, she has some fun with extrapolating out from absurdly small sample sizes.

QUOTE (southside guru @ Apr 11, 2017 -> 06:40 AM) Foster retired unexplainably. Shame! Dude could throw! Zangari has an arm issue! Maybe TJ? Dexter did not receive an invite to Spring Training! Sent to Extended Spring! Where did you get all this info? I knew about Zangari, but, Foster retiring? What is your source? Dexter not getting an invite to ST seems very strange.

Best performances from the first week* in the minors Normally, Rob (southside hitman) will write these. I filled in today. We will publish each Tuesday, highlighting the best performances on the farm in the past week. * = it's just 5 days worth this time, will normally be a full week.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Apr 10, 2017 -> 11:06 AM) United is definitely the worst, even their status programs have turned to trash. They tried to charge me a 200 dollar transfer fee to transfer $150 worth of credit to a ticket. They can suck it. I'm SWA and Delta only now. Yeah, none of the big network airlines are exactly great, but United is special-level bad even among that crowd.

QUOTE (ecupittfan @ Apr 10, 2017 -> 11:00 AM) He better not move this week. I have got tickets to see him play in Kinston,NC against the Down East Wood Ducks on Wednesday night. Part of my son's birthday present. Then heading on Friday night to Norfolk to see Charlotte play the Tides. They won't move him up THAT fast, unless someone in BHAM gets hurt. But May or June are certainly likely.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Apr 9, 2017 -> 04:41 PM) The fact that he's a good story is part of the reason why he's overrated. Go ahead and cheer for him all you want, but I hear way more about him than other prospects in our system who also have backup ceilings. He's routinely on these sleeper lists and I'm pretty sure a certain poster here predicted Alvarez would develop into a top 100 prospect at one point. If it weren't for his interesting background, he'd just be another organizational guy IMO. One argument to make here is, his "story" itself gives him an edge. His Olympic experience gives him an edge in handling the daily grind, and knowing what "it" takes. Just adding a thought here.

We've changed our format, and won't be publishing daily game recaps anymore. This was based partially on reader feedback. Instead, each weekday we will have a different type of content. See this article for more details. Here is the first in-season edition of Weekly News and Notes. It's top level news stories, transactions, and links to key articles from around the web on the White Sox farm. It will be our Monday article each week. Feature pieces will be above and beyond these daily content posts. We are still playing with the format a bit. Any suggestions are welcome! For example, we may add a section in the future that would talk about how the TEAMS are doing.

QUOTE (ChiSoxJon @ Apr 8, 2017 -> 12:28 PM) Anyone have any idea where Jack Charleston is? Solid reliever I am not sure on him either, but he's a guy I've spoken with before and can ask. QUOTE (MnSoxFan @ Apr 8, 2017 -> 07:10 PM) How about Mike Horejsei? I did not see him on Kanny roster, expected to. He's hurt, but I don't know the nature of it. QUOTE (MnSoxFan @ Apr 9, 2017 -> 09:47 AM) Others I may have expected to make Kanny, but likely going to be at Great Falls. Matt Foster, Corey Zangori, Sam Dexter. Foster I agree is a surprise, given he clearly has nothing left to prove in Rookie ball. Zangari is hurt. Dexter is really a utility guy, org soldier.

Charlotte, 7:05, Carson Fulmer Birmingham, 7:05, Adams Winston-Salem, 7:00, Thompson Kannapolis, 7:05, Hansen MiLB scoreboard MLBFarm scoreboard

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 5, 2017 -> 05:02 PM) Zangari FYI, word is he is starting the season on the DL. That's why they signed that Brandon Dulin guy, to play 1B at Kanny for now. I don't know the injury though, and maybe he comes off the DL quickly.

I see a lot of Hansen votes, but he's a clear Top 10 guy and has already "broken out" in my view. I'd go with: Pitcher: Jordan Stephens Hitters: Aaron Schnurbusch, Seby Zavala, Johan Cruz Also, guys who I think will rebound after falling back: Jordan Guerrero, Trey Michalczewski QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ Apr 5, 2017 -> 11:30 AM) A disappointment due to health not lack of skill, which leaves some room for optimism It's really both for him. He's still very raw skills-wise, partly due to lack of play, but he definitely lacks skill. Tools he's got though, and he's a fine age for Kanny as others said.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Mar 24, 2017 -> 08:54 PM) Thanks. Futuresox needs more love imo.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Mar 24, 2017 -> 10:58 AM) Considering how long they have been talking about repealing this and replacing this, their plan was as bad as could be. Sort of makes you wonder about their competence. Trump promised repeal and replace with something cheaper, with better care, and covered everyone. Where is it? And saying Obamacare did the same thing so we shouldn't complain that they are trying to ram this through without the proper study, why is that a legitimate excuse? If Obama was so bad, why is it OK when the Republicans do what appears to be the same thing, it's OK because Obama did it? Wasn't that the wrong thing? Maybe Obama wasn't the evil, America hater they claimed. You have my post backwards. This new plan IS a disaster (regardless of how we got to this point), clearly. What I am saying is that people complaining about the last minute nature of the bill, but who were fine when the Dems did it, need to look in the mirror. That's all. Obamacare is flawed. But TrumpCare is an abject disaster. Just to make sure you understand where I stand here. I think it's important to focus ire on the actual bad, but also be less defensive of previous own-goals.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Mar 24, 2017 -> 08:20 AM) ACA came out after about a year's worth of debate, and all of the major features in the bill had been in place for awhile. The backroom deal that conservatives love to cite, the "Cornhusker Kickback," didn't actually make it into the final bill. There were a bunch of procedural hurdles it jumped through in order to bypass the filibuster in the Senate, but the framework for the bill had been pretty well settled for a while prior to the House and Senate votes. A long and boring history of the ACA passage can be found here. This bill is not like that. They were making major, fundamental changes multiple times yesterday, possibly more today, and they're going to try to rush it through the House without even having a CBO score and after about a week's worth of debate. There's a lot of unsightly sausage-making even in routine legislation, but the AHCA is something unique. Republicans are on a deadline because their window to pass this under reconciliation closes in mid-April, and they really want/need the AHCA spending and tax cuts in place to serve as a baseline for the further deep tax cuts they want to enact when they move to tax reform. If they can't clear this hurdle, it puts the other major items on their legislative agenda at risk. If you want to criticize the last minute crap in this bill, you need to acknowledge the overall fact that Congress had just hours to see a 1200 page bill and then vote on it. It was a s***show. Yes that's commonplace, but you can't say one was OK and not the other. You CAN say that the GOP has done poorly here, which is obvious. But they are in fact doing many of the same things wrong the Dems did, keeping most of the chambers out of the discussion until a last minute bill was plopped in front of them.

Our southside hitman (Rob) was on a Conference Call with Rick Hahn yesterday, hosted by the Sox, where he and a few other writers got to ask questions. Most were focused on the farm. Here are the key highlights, particularly those involving prospects, player development, and the younger talent on the team. There are a few interesting things in here not previously reported.