Eminor3rd

Eh, in this case it has very little to do with the White Sox. You have to remember that the vast majority of affiliates (including the Barons) are independently-owned businesses that are merely contractors to the MLB clubs. Unless it affects the facilities or upsets the player development squad, the MLB teams generally couldn't care less about anything the affiliate does to operate. In the case of milb.tv, MLBAM has been trying to grow the product and is essentially selling the idea that it's an important brand-builder to each of the affiliates for years now. For a handful of the larger clubs, it is, but most clubs only get a handful of viewers a night (like literally 5-10). The lion's share of that small pool of revenue goes to MLBAM, so there is very little incentive for a club like Birmingham to invest in an HD broadcasting rig that will never pay for itself. Most likely, it'll get upgraded when enough of the existing equipment wears out.

FWIW, at Winter Meetings, Nathan Blackmon said at his presentation that MLBAM is prioritizing working with all low-definition teams to upgrade feeds to HD. On the other hand, MLBAM is the slowest company I've ever had the pleasure to work with/around. Everything they do comes out about three years later than they plan. Also, the new equipment must ultimately be purchased by the Barons, so if they haven't taken their feed seriously to this point, it isn't likely they'll change any time soon.

He would look great there, but thanks to the hard slotting system, we can't offer high upside HS guys enough to buy them out of going to college. It's the same problem everyone faces, essentially unless you have a ton of compensation/comp balance picks to play with.

Jenista! Jenista!

https://www.mlb.com/draft/tracker/undrafted

The Greyson Jenista dream is still alive

Madrigal will take slot; our best hope is that a college arm falls to us. Any high profile HS that falls that far is going to want more money than we can give them, I would think.

He'd just go to school

Royals/Rays are gonna mop up most of the exciting stuff, I fear.

Shocked that Weathers went ahead of Liberatore.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Yes, because they figured KW would win. They were very transparent about what was going on, and you don't make statements like they did unless they actually knew something.

That podcast also has them all but directly stating that KW wants Singer an everyone else wants Madrigal.

I see where you're going here, but I think you can get a Miguel Gonzalez type for 2-3m on a one year deal.

Idk man, I mean what if he had workouts and stuff all day? What if the call for him to travel came on short notice? There's all kinds of reasons that people are late for flights, some are good and some aren't. I don't think you have nearly enough info here to hold it against him.

Definitely not just you. I've thought that every time I've seen him batting. I always figured he just used a big bat and held it all the way at the knob.

And I know Kiley McDaniel at least has mentioned the possibility of Collins being deployed similar to how the Astros use Evan Gattis -- backup catcher who DHs full time when not catching. That type of a guy would look great next to Bart.

That's true -- but I think that nearly all of the failed hitters have been of the same type: high upside speed/power guys that needed to learn to made consistent contact. It's definitely a bit of an experiment, but I feel like they'll do better on a high-end contact guy. I guess Gordon Beckham is the example of them ruining that.

When the talent available all falls in the same "tier," I think choosing a hitter is the objectively correct choice. Pitchers simply have more that can go wrong with their health. Among the hitters, I think the Hit tool is the rarest, most difficult to develop, and the one the White Sox have shown the least ability to develop. Therefore it is most coveted, IMO. The clear answer then becomes Madrigal.

We can keep all the discussion in the main thread, but I thought it would be fun to have a poll to see where the board stands prior to tonight's draft.

Well, neither of those guys has fallen for the same type of reasons as Romero. Romero, by the way, has NOT worked out so far, for the same reasons he fell in the drat in the first place.

Probably a game

FWIW, the Sox feed isn't working on mlb.tv either, I had to choose the Brewers one.

Oh my god this guy is so bad at framing. He's turning strikes into balls.

But who will be the new Tank Commander?