NorthSideSox72

QUOTE (bmags @ Dec 16, 2016 -> 02:53 PM) Do you know if any of the coach shakeups would be good fit for working on a catchers defense? Catching coordinator is the same guy - John Orton. He gets high marks for his development of defensive improvements for Tyler Flowers (who blossomed into a very good receiver), Josh Phegley (who went from awful to serviceable) and others. Also maybe worth a side note, Cole Armstrong - a former catcher - will be the hitting coach in Birmingham, where I suspect Collins will spend much of his 2017.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Dec 14, 2016 -> 09:45 AM) Interesting article on Cahokia, an ancient city that's right outside of St. Louis. My wife and I stopped there for a couple of hours when we were heading back from St. Louis back in 2011, and I'd recommend it to anyone passing through the area. At its peak in about 1100 AD, it had a population of as many as 30,000 people, which would have made it larger than London or Paris at that time. It was the largest city to have existed north of Mexico in the Americas until the Europeans came over, and its the largest archaeological site in North America. http://arstechnica.com/features/2016/12/th...-louis-suburbs/ QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 14, 2016 -> 09:48 AM) And we put an interstate right thought it. This a place that is on my bucket list. I am still kicking myself for not getting over to the Serpent mounds when I was over by Columbus last year. Cahokia is a great spot to check out. There are a few other mound-builder parks and monuments along the Mississippi valley too, all the way to Iowa and Wisconsin. And if you like that sort of thing, I highly recommend visiting either Chaco Culture (NM) or Canyon de Chelly (AZ). The latter is much more profound, but you can only see it with a Navajo guide so it's pricey and a little restrictive. The former is pretty cool itself and you can walk it on your own. Mesa Verde (CO) would also be on the list, except it is visited by a LOT more people - it's crowded, and you can't walk into most of the ruins anymore because they were too worn down by visitors.

QUOTE (illinilaw08 @ Dec 16, 2016 -> 02:49 PM) To clarify, Callis said the Sox having the second best TOP 10, not the 2nd best system overall. OK, in that case, those two trades could surely make for a super-large jump.

Good plan on Collins. Give the guy every shot to catch. QUOTE (bmags @ Dec 16, 2016 -> 02:38 PM) There is also a lot more in there, they are going to work on development for all pitchers and not move them up until ready. Acknowledged in a way that Fulmer going up as a reliever was not good for his development. Hostetler said as much in the recent interview. Nice to see.

That seems waaaaay high to me. Adding 8 prospects should give you a big jump when a few of them are T100 guys, but not that big of a jump.

I just recently did a working Top 30 list, without a ton of research, as a starting point. I figure this is a good moment to post it. FWIW, I continue to be much lower on Adams than most people... 1 Yoan Moncada 2 Michael Kopech 3 Zack Collins 4 Lucas Giolito 5 Reynaldo Lopez 6 Carson Fulmer 7 Alec Hansen 8 Zack Burdi 9 Luis Alex Basabe 10 Jordan Stephens 11 Dane Dunning 12 Amado Nunez 13 Trey Michalczewski 14 Alex Call 15 Jameson Fisher 16 Luis Curbelo 17 Spencer Adams 18 Micker Adolfo 19 Rymer Liriano 20 Adam Engel 21 Jake Peter 22 Eddy Alvarez 23 Jordan Guerrero 24 Seby Zavala 25 Corey Zangari 26 Dylan Covey 27 Bernardo Flores 28 Jacob May 29 Aaron Schnurbusch 30 Josue Guerrero Just missed: Tyler Danish, Joel Booker, Charlie Tilson, Nick Delmonico, Carlos Perez, Matt Cooper, Johan Cruz The only prospect acquired in the recent trades who I didn't rank is Victor Diaz, who I look at as similar to Robin Leyer (I'd put Diaz somewhere in the 30's). Have at me!

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 13, 2016 -> 12:57 PM) The Getz link leads to an article from 2015 talking about what he does with the Royals. Yeah, Scott Merkin pointed that out to us right away (at least we know he reads our stuff!). I just fixed it. Stupid Google.

It was one heck of a week for the White Sox farm. While the two big trades grabbed headlines, there were a few other signings and acquisitions of note, and some other key bits. Get your quick recap of all the news and notes here, with links to various more detailed content you can drill down to. By the way, thanks to our FutureSox readers for the past week. We did a ton of traffic, expanded our readership and followings quite a bit, and got a lot of positive feedback all over (including from multiple people with the White Sox). The five writers who posted articles this week and the whole FS team thank you for your support!

QUOTE (Ezio Auditore @ Dec 13, 2016 -> 09:23 AM) The current guy in that position has a PhD in theoretical physics, the guy before him also did, and had a Nobel Prize, the guy before that in the Republican administration had a Doctor of Science from MIT. And then there's Rick Perry. Get the entire f*** out of here. Borrowing this in spirit on social media.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 13, 2016 -> 09:39 AM) He just had his first throwing session since TJS Blake Hickman ‏@BlakeHickman18 18h18 hours ago First day of throwing went well. Felt great to get back after it a little bit. He was throwing in the fall - this was definitely not his first. It was his first after a few weeks' break.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Dec 12, 2016 -> 01:36 PM) I wouldn't be surprised if Diaz is in the starting rotation at Winston Salem. They could fast track him out of the bullpen though. Burdi, Diaz, and Ian Hamilton are all guys that could move really quickly. I think doing that with Diaz is no different than when they did it with Leyer, as they are very similar, though Diaz I think has a slightly higher ceiling. In both cases though, the chances of them sticking as a starter are slim. Burdi has a better shot to stick as a starter, but he's also near the majors and could be a fun reliever already in 2017. So it's a tough call with him. By assumption is he stays a reliever, but that could definitely change.

QUOTE (Con te Giolito @ Dec 12, 2016 -> 12:17 PM) I like the Victor Diaz stuff. Pretty cool to have two 100 mph RHP in the minors that soley project as relievers. I've always maintained that a chief problem with the Sox in the last half decade has been their manic development of pitchers. Montas who wasn't durable enough to start was forced to keep starting games because that's where the value is, whereas someone like Fulmer who at least deserved a crack at starting was rushed the bigs as a reliever. And all of it was subject to change at a moment's notice depending on the needs of the big league club. This issue conspired with the total lack of pitching depth and the bullpen became an absolute mess. You can tell the Sox realize this with Hostetler's comments about keeping Burdi and Diaz as relievers and the admission that they rushed a lot of guys. I doubt strongly we see anyone called up before Independence Day regardless of minor league performance. Good post. I do want to point out something, though - regarding starting guys like Montas, the White Sox will often have a handful of relief prospects starting in any given season. And the primary reason, I am told, is that they want them to get more reps and more innings to improve their non-fastball repertoires. You'll see them start for a season or two, then go back to the bullpen. Guys who are relievers that are in the system now who did that include Brad Goldberg, Matt Cooper, Brian Clark, Andre Wheeler and more. I know having spoken with some folks that those guys, the club knew there was a 95% chance they were relievers, but put them in that starting internship anyway. One exception - they did this with Chris Bassitt too, but he turned out to be in the 5%. Which is another, smaller reason to do it.

QUOTE (dasox24 @ Dec 12, 2016 -> 11:49 AM) I only have 1 car buying experience, and it was for a used car at Carmax (it was great experience, fwiw). I've always been a proponent of buying a used car, but I'm looking at new 2016 F-150's because there seem to be some very good deals on 2016's with the 2017 models coming out and it being year-end. There's one in particular I'm looking at, and it's list price is $9,000 less than what KBB lists the invoice price as. 1) How is that possible? 2) I plan to try to talk them down from the current list-price, but should I expect any movement when it's already that much lower than invoice? Something seems wrong here. Maybe I'm missing something. No way the dealer is just losing money on this truck, right? "invoice" price is a funny thing. I think you might be better using TrueCar data, and see how much of an outlier that price really is.

Birthday present from wife: reserved seats to Rogue One on Friday night, 7pm, opening night. Plus babysitting arranged for the kids, overnight with the grandparents. I married above my station.

Thanks for the edit notes. Dotson spelling fixed. The Diaz link is auto-generated by Baseball Reference, but I tweaked the code to hit the right Victor Diaz.

Our Brian Bilek got an interview with Nick Hostetler, Scouting Director, to talk about the rebuild. It's a wide-ranging interview, covering a ton of new guys (Moncada, Kopech, Dunning, Diaz), as well as current ones (Hansen, Burdi & more), and the front office generally with the new direction. Read it here - this is pretty cool exclusive stuff.

I'd be happy if he retired today. Hard to say when he actually will.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 9, 2016 -> 02:20 PM) How does Burdi get a 75 on his gas? FB grades are not just on velo. They at least also include movement. And if Command/Control isn't a separate grade (sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't), then command comes into play.

QUOTE (bmags @ Dec 9, 2016 -> 12:51 PM) Do we see Diaz getting pushed at all or more of a Winston-Salem guy? Would be funny if him and Leyer were together after getting that comp. Hard to say for sure, but I'd guess he opens in Winston-Salem.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Dec 9, 2016 -> 12:02 PM) Here's hoping they can turn Diaz into another Frankie Montas, who was similarly ranked when they got him. I don't know that he's at that level or can be. Different bodies, and Montas flashed much more potential on secondaries.

Similar to Rob's post covering Lopez and Dunning, here is the deep dive into the back end of the Sale deal - Luis Alexander Basabe and Victor Diaz. Includes video, as well as a quote from Nick Hostetler.

One of our writers, Kim Contreras, got to know Dylan Covey over the last few years. So when the Sox selected him in the Rule 5, we asked her to write him up. Here is your background on Dylan Covey. Lots of info in here, more than just a scouting report.

As far as I'm concerned, 2017 is a lost year in terms of team competitiveness. Therefore, try out some guys who might have a shot at being something later, even if a small one. For the outfield, I think you need to get rid of Avi. But I have no problem with guys like Tilson, Coats and Liriano getting playing time (along with Melky of course if he's still here, which he shouldn't be). That's three guys who can play competent defense, and all have a non-zero chance of hitting enough to show that can at least be a future 4th OF and maybe, maybe, more. So give them a look. There's no 2017 playoff run to harm, and you might find something that ends up being helpful for 2018 and 2019.

Sox lose no one. Draft only Covey. As it happens, one of our writers is also a writer for the Oakland Scout site, so she's talked with him, seen him pitch, has video, etc. She's doing a write up, we'll have it up on FS soon.

Sox make a pick - RHP Dylan Covey (OAK)