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On the contrast, even if the perceived level of pitching is roughly the same in Low A, a demotion might actually fuel a fire under him and encourage him to work harder to move back up. A demotion could also be a change of scenery and a fresh start that he needed. Also, he might have a better chemistry and he can work better with the hitting coach in Kanny, which could be a possibility given he performed quite well in his short stint in Kanny last year.

QUOTE (danman31 @ Jun 16, 2013 -> 03:26 PM) I agree that the level has nothing to do with it, but if being demoted is such a huge blow emotionally he probably isn't cut out for MLB anyway. Exactly the point I wanted to make a few days ago. If he doesn't have the mental make up to handle adversity such as a demotion when he's striking out at a historical rate, he will not be able to make it in the majors. And it isn't a case where he is play well, or just struggling minorly, and the org sends him down in a surprise move. He is struggling badly, and he knows it. Such a move, if it does occur, is only to help him. It's not that they are pushing him down in favor of a better player.

QUOTE (Springfield SoxFan @ Jun 16, 2013 -> 01:27 PM) Does the new CBA still allow a team to pay for college costs for high school signees? If so does that count against a teams bonus allotment? Yes, and no it will not count against the pool value. I believe Michalczewki's contract has the future tuition stipulation as well.

QUOTE (danman31 @ Jun 15, 2013 -> 10:06 PM) They do that on a semi-regular basis. Obviously if they liked the player in the first place there's a good chance they still like him a few years later. The Sox have almost $800k for those players. If Michalczewski and Freudenberg signed for slot - I think they probably signed for more than slot - the Sox would have $420k for overslot players outside the top 10 rounds. The $420k is the combined amount underslot the bonuses for the eight players that we know the bonuses for. So the Sox have those numbers plus the slot bonuses for Michalczewski and Freudenberg as far as we know. Either way, I doubt $300-400k is enough for Rodriguez. Maybe Engel bites for that much, but honestly, he doesn't interest me at all. What I meant was the Sox have savings of $420K they can sign over the slot value for the rest of their picks. You can't really factor in Freudenberg's slot money when considering how much slot value savings we are going to have, he will at least sign for slot value, and if he doesn't sign, the Sox will lose the slot value. On a side note, this only goes to show you how hard it is to sign high potential high school players that aren't drafted in the first two rounds in this new system. You can sign several picks under slot in the first 10 rounds, but in reality, you will only have enough to sign one or maybe two high impact high school players past round 10. We only drafted 7 high school players this year, and it looks like we will come away with only 4.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 15, 2013 -> 06:57 PM) Their pool number is $5,301,600. 5% of that is $265,080. As long as they stay under 5,566,580, they don't hit the 5% threshold and get taxed. http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2013/6/6/44016...pel-colin-moran I think you might be thinking of the amount that a team can go over when signing picks from rounds 11-40 without counting against the pool money.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 15, 2013 -> 09:22 AM) Fixed. If the Sox decided, they could add about another $260k in bonuses without going over the tax number, but I really doubt they will do so. Correct me if I am wrong, but the $260k (or 5% of the Sox pool value) will get taxed 75%, which is about 200K, but they don't have to give up a pick within 5%. If they don't want to get any extra tax, I don't think they can sign a guy like Engel, let alone Rodriguez.

Lowry's signing was for $400,000, can someone please update? So the Sox have about $420K to play with right now, that's not including the Trey Michalczewski and Matt Ball signing. It will be hard to sign all of those two, Octavio Rodriguez, and Adam Engel with the said amount. I would say they should go up to 5% over pool and pay the 75% tax if they have a chance to sign all 4 players.

So none of you think he's not ready for high A pitching?

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 14, 2013 -> 12:30 AM) You don't send him back to rookie ball with that kind of money invested in him and an 804 OPS combined between Kanny and Winston-Salem last year. You're panicking. If he's still doing this 3-4 months through 2014, then there's a right to be concerned. Look how long it has taken Trayce Thompson to get to where he is, for example. Am not. At the start of the season, I thought he will go back to Kanny and spend at least 2-3 months there. Most of the board predicted the same. WS is a tough assignment for him, considering how little baseball experience he has had. It's wonderful you brought up Trayce Thompson. It further proves my point. Jared Mitchell has been a major disaster, and Thompson is showing gradual, albeit small improvements each year. Mitchell spent 35 games or so in Low A, before being sent to WS after his injury, with 35 games of full time baseball under his belt. He had a horrendous year at WS of course, but instead of repeating the level, he was rushed to Double A the next season. He is a hopeless prospect now. Hawkins isn't running out of time like Mitchell was. (Same deal with Keenyn Walker, he should be repeating WS this year.) Where as Thompson actually spent 2 1/2 years at Low A and below before he was promoted to WS. He was drafted out of HS known for his athletic ability, same deal as Hawkins. He was promoted only when he has shown he can handle the level for an extended period of time. So yes, take your time you get a Thompson, rush him he will end up with a Mitchell. Sox need to understand these players aren't pitchers like Dan Hudson or Addison Reed, you have to be patient with them. Hawkins, Thompson, Walker and Mitchell are athletes who play baseball, not baseball players who are athletic. They need time to develop, and they are still learning the fundamentals of the game.

Rookie ball is fine by me. He just needs to face less advanced pitching while rebuilding his confidence and swing.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Jun 13, 2013 -> 11:03 PM) Let's write off a 19 year old 1st round pick at High A that did not play much baseball as a high schooler. Sounds like a great idea. So if he's 19 years old with less baseball experience, why push him to a level he's not ready for, if lack of experience is the cause for struggle? I am not writing him off by any means, but a demotion makes sense here, the Sox need to take action before they break him.

QUOTE (Jake @ Jun 13, 2013 -> 10:18 PM) It's literally impossible to look at a guy and tell if he has a bad approach or bad pitch recognition. For the opposite example, I'm of the mind that Miguel Cabrera is not "the smartest hitter in baseball," as Hawk says. I think he's just so good that he doesn't need to be smart or have a good approach because he just sees everything perfectly. However, that is only my opinion because you can't tell the difference. Bad pitch recognition will make your approach look bad and vice versa. Lots of reasons to be optimistic with Hawkins and I think a demotion is a horrible idea. There really isn't. The only thing he has going for him is power and age. Other baseball skills are severely lacking. People keeping bringing up he's 19 years old, and we should cut him some slack for his inexperience. We indeed should, to an extent. But at some point this trend should become a major cause for concern. People act like 19 year old high schoolers typically struggle like this when they turn pro, but they really don't. Without looking up stats, his strikeout rate has gotten but one of the worse of all time. And how many 19 year olds who struggle to this extent actually turned out to be a successful major leaguer? Not too long ago, people were cutting the same slacks for Jared Mitchell - he's played pro baseball for less than 2 years, he's coming back from a horrendous injury, he's a supreme athlete he will turn around. The organization can take the same approach with Hawkins as they did with Mitchell - just let him figure things out, and eventually he will start making contact. Or we can take him down one level, start from the basics, and help rebuild his swing and refine his approach. It may be a bit demoralizing in the short run, but it can definitely do more good than harm in the long run.

QUOTE (DirtySox @ Jun 13, 2013 -> 09:33 PM) From the assessments I've recently read, it's less about a flawed swing and largely due to very poor pitch recognition. Edit: Actually the swing can have its issues apparently: http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article....articleid=20890 I actually think it's more so his approach than anything that results in the absurd K%, while the poor pitch recognition isn't helping with the approach that he's taking, which indirectly results in a extremely low walk %. Does most 19 year olds have holes in their swing? Sure. But Hawkins is striking out at an historic rate. Just by looking at the HR/Hit ration, you can clearly see he's looking to hit one out every time he's batting. If he approach every at bat as just looking for an opportunity to get on base, the rest of his game will come along a lot quicker. It would make sense that BP describe his swing as "wild", as he is trying to dead pull the ball every time. I don't think he has to drastically change his swing, however, with a few minor tweaks and a new, and more humble mentality, he still has a chance to reach his spacious ceiling.

Reality check for those who jumped on the Hawkins bandwagon too soon. 0-5 with 5 K's is a pretty tough feat, it only further shows he has some serious holes in his swing. Sooner or later, we might have to break up his swing/approach and have him relearn the basics again, i.e. a demotion, while he's still new to the game.

That's why all the promotion talks are pointless. Unless Hawkins is hitting homeruns, he's virtually useless as a hitter. He strikeouts too much to move the runner along, and he rarely gets on base through hits/walks. He's got ways to go before he gets promoted.

It's funny how even just a year ago, these signings were reported with sources from online articles. But in 2013 with a few searches on Twitter, we get information faster than the beat writers do.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 11, 2013 -> 02:37 PM) According to Buddy Bell they want their players challenged and don't really care as much about statistics because of it. Even though it's coming from Buddy Bell, I don't think that's the right approach. A guy like Keenyn Walker is the perfect example. His average dipped from .280 at Kanny to .240 in WS after the promotion last year, and he only played 37 games at WS to finish off the season. He should absolutely be starting the year at WS and continue to work on his swing, and prove he can handle Advance A hitting before promotion. As a result, he's barely hitting above .200 this year, and as it looks now, it's a long shot for him to make it to the majors.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 10, 2013 -> 09:06 PM) When it's time, they will probably push Mitchell back up to AAA... Early's not a serious prospect, so he becomes the 4th OF or part-time DH. They might just as likely push Early up and have an outfield of Mitchell/Walker/Hawkins/Thompson all together in one place...although there's also a decent chance they push Thompson up in August to Charlotte and give Hawkins one month in AA and the AFL season after that. At any rate, Walker, Early and Mitchell aren't going to be getting in his way. Seriously? People are talking about promoting Hawkins this year when he's still hitting .220 with 8 walks and a 50% k rate? This has got to be the most ridiculous suggestion I've read in FutureSox this year.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Jun 9, 2013 -> 11:22 PM) That's why I said cut/trade Curley. He is having a good year, but he is like 25 years old in High-A. The best move is to move Curley to third and bench David Herbek. While the main goal of a minor league team isn't to win, but you still want to field a team of good players out there so your core prospects have a better chance to develop, so it won't make sense to get rid of your most productive hitter this season, even if he's 25.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 8, 2013 -> 05:00 PM) We won't sign him unless someone in the top 10 surprises and won't sign, but at this point, you keep him away from other teams and start getting to know his family and such if you want to draft him in a couple years. Reading the draft rules from the other fronts apparently you lose the slot value of the draft pick if you fail to sign any picks from first 10 rounds. That's why we took mostly under slot guys with a couple of possible over slot guys in those rounds. With Anderson not being in top 30 in any boards I've seen, there is a possibility he will sign for under slot as well. We should have some $$$ to spend on guys from round 11-40. Looking our picks today, there aren't many tough signs with the exception of Matt Ball, Engel, and this Rodridguez kid. The sexy move is of course put all the marbles in and sign Rodriguez, and one of Ball or Engel, if we are up against the cap at that point.

QUOTE (beautox @ Jun 8, 2013 -> 08:53 PM) Micah Johnson 2/3 with a BB, 2 SB (second and third) and 2 CS That's Michael Johnson with 2 CS. It's often easy to confuse those two. It's wonderful to see Micah get back on track in the baserunning department after being slow down recently.

I just saw some of highlights of the Twins Pick Kohl Stewart. He's a high schooler at St. Pius X High School in Houston. For some reason their school uniform is exactly the same as the Sox's black and gray uni's. Yet their mascot is the Panthers. Anyone know if we sponsor any high school down there?

QUOTE (bbilek1 @ Jun 6, 2013 -> 03:07 PM) You should take another look at their stats this year. We don't need to argue over sample sizes here. You would be nuts to think Flowers will not be in the 200 strikeout neighborhood if given 600 PA a year. I know Thompson has improved his K rate this season, but he's well on his way to 200 strikeouts the past two minor league seasons given a 162 game season. Until I see solid improvements from him in a full season, I wouldn't shred the label from him.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jun 6, 2013 -> 09:13 AM) No way. Jerry Owens would have been considered a great prospect from that point of view. The power is a great start, but the K's are incredibly troubling because of how often he is doing it. Tyler Flowers put up fantastic minor league numbers, but showed signs of trouble with his K rate and it's coming to fruition now. You HAVE to be considered about the K/rate. They are important, but K%, BB%, and HR/PA are far more important for a player like Hawkins. I don't want him hitting .300 with 10 homers, I want him hitting .250 with 40 homers. Comparing my expectations of Hawkins to Jerry Owens is unfair. Hawkins has legit power we can see that. Even if he aims to hit for average and get on base, he will hit more than 2 HRs a season. If Owens can hit for 15-20 HRs and get on base, he would have been a great prospect. I DID say THE K rate is important, and so is OBP, hence BB%. I think these secondary skillset should be the focus for Hawkins throughout his minor league career. I don't care if he's hitting 50 HR a season if he's hitting .200 while striking out 250 times a year. To each their own. I think a .300 20 HR hitter is more valuable than a .250 40 HR guy with contact issues.

Flowers and Thompson as well.