Dominikk85

Walker has a good year and this is nice to see but like Gonzalez last year he is a bit old for A ball so we need to wait and see how he does in AA. A ball often isn't a challenge for advanced college bats.

New farm system ranking is also out. Sox down from 4 to 9. They are high on robert, kopech, vaughn and cease but don't think the depth of the system behind them is good. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.mlb.com/amp/news/mlb-farm-system-rankings-2019.html Don't quite get it. Now SD, TB, LA are clearly better than the sox but I don't buy Arizona, Detroit and Miami

Managers are Not having the same impact as 20 years ago. Front offices now not only make personnel decisions but also tactical decisions. The manager now basically executes what the analytics guys tell him to do, they tell him where to position fielders in a shift, who to play against a certain pitcher, how to use the pen, how to pitch opposing hitters and such stuff. Basically the manager now needs to be a good communicator and keep the players happy, motivated and disciplined but he isn't making many important decisions anymore. It used to be feel when to bring in which pitcher but now he has a spreadsheet which tells him how to decide. Managers used to be able to outmanage the opposing manager but now they all follow an exact plan of the analytics guys (" when x happens you do this...")

Btw I still think you can't really criticise the sox for this. Sure never was a great trade but tatis was seen as a prospect but he wasn't seen as a top30 in that July 2 group and he hadn't played a game. Mlb.com didn't rank him in the teams top20 either. Here is an article about 15 july2 and tatis isn't even mentioned. https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/scouting-reports-for-2015s-top-30-international-prospects-for-july-2/ Sure you could say why give up a lottery ticket for a bum pitcher but this happens all the time and most lotto tickets never become anything. What happened was that tatis made an extreme improvement his first season, not just perfomance but tools too. Longenhagen said nobody saw this coming.

They rays had huge success on the international market. They didn't even draft all that well but had so many great international prospects. The international draft will hurt them a lot because the international market can be a huge difference maker becaue you scout them so early. Int. Draft will level the playing field.

I think it is both. Mostly predetermined but if had hit 100 with 36% Ks he wouldn't have been promoted.

I agree, that is terrible. They have the lineup and pen to challenge the dodgers and cubs but won't invest in SP. I don't think stearns is stupid, i think the owner just won't give him more money.

He seems to be done. Reed was an absolute monster in college. Posted a 1200 ops with 23 homers his last year while also pitching over 100 innings with a 2 era. His start until high A was promising but the higher he moved the more he started to strike out. He still has some pop (28 homers last year with astros AAA) and can take a walk but just not enough contact and it got even worse every time he was promoted. I think one of his issues is he has a long swing. He would need to shorten it up but of course this isn't easy to do without losing power. Maybe he just isn't a great batspeed guy and needs the swing length to generate pop. With his good eye that works at lower levels were he can wait out the pitcher for a dickshot but when pitchers start to locate with velo and spin he is toast.

Couldn't the sox have signed him to a one day contract and let him pitch one last inning in the majors? It is a tank year anyway and even if he is only able to throw it 85 who cares?

I wonder why he wasn 't traded. Wasn't a good offer on the table?

He hasn't sucked. He was probably ready for high A from day 1 but after a long college season they wanted to give him an easy start which they should, the first two months were not for developing him but to get comfortable with the pro ball life. They were probably calling him up anyway unless he had struggled a lot which he didn't.

Female baseball journalists beat the hell out of russell this winter. Outside of sports journalism most baseball players are not well known on a national stage so national media didn't care that much. At this point baseball is mostly a local sport except for yankees and red Sox so football players get a lot more attention nationally

No pitcher is really consistent due to the juiced ball. As long the ball is like this you have to accept that even the best aces have 3-4 starts per year were they give up 7 runs on 3 bombs, you can't avoid that. Just make sure it doesn't happen too often.

I like homers but I think this is a bit out of control. Homers are increasingly important but I feel they have too much influence right now. Almost every night one of my fantasy pitcher has a line like 10 Ks, 5 hits, 2 walks, 5 runs due to 2-3 bombs. The whole league is Adam Dunn right now.

Wouldn't be against a two year deal but it is not a priority. Definitely not more than 3 years as most first base type players don't age well. Overall I think there are bigger needs than him, especially a TOR starter and maybe a good OF

I would be fine with giolito being a number 2 or even strong 3 long term. If he can be a mid 3s era guy consistently that would be nice.

I don't agree. Diaz was just 25 years old and was coming off a 38% k-Bb rate so even with some babip and homer regression he would have been fantastic. In fact even this year his k-bb did regress a lot but still is a strong high 20s, what hurt him most was a 400 babip (bad luck) and a huge homer spike (probably partially luck but also some command regression by him, i.e throwing more down the pipe). If not for the cano money kelenic for diaz is a fantastic trade for the mets considering what other ace closers who were older and had less control like Chapman, miller and kimbrel have cost in trades. Those guys all commanded a higher top100 headliner and a pretty solid second piece too. The mariners wouldn't have done it hadn't the mets have eaten the cano money. Now of course there is risk in that trade but that is what an ace closer costs on the market.

I think partly it is also because with Bad fielders the CF assumes the corner guy will bail and let him catch it. When I still played and played in the OF (I was more of a DH/1b) it was pretty clear i only take balls toward the line or max 3-4 steps toward CF and anything more into the gap the CF tries to get and I get out of the way. So if a CF plays with a weaker fielder he often assumes the weaker fielder won't even try to get there when it is more than a couple steps away from it. Still this isn't good of course, you should still call as early as possible but I can understand a CF thinking "shit, ball into the gap, need to turn on the wheels because the big guy won't get there" so he will just put his head down and sprint to the ball as hard as possible while with a good corner guy like lets say adam Eaton you expect that he can get there and thus you pay more attention to the communication.

Kelenic isnt a better prospect than madrigal. Kelenic is rated a 55 and 37th overall on fg, madrigal is ranked a 55 and 29th so almost a wash. Kelenic got Edwin Diaz this off season (basically, as Cano was involved but his salary made him basically negative value), he won't land a real cheap young TOR either at least not without very strong second and third pieces. The recent history for controlled aces was a 70 or at least a 65 (I,e a top10 overall) prospect as a headliner for a real controlled young ace (moncada, eloy) and then another low ranked top100 as second piece. An exception to this was cole but he also can from two consecutive down seasons (3.9 and 4.2 era). Now you could of course do madrigal and Vaughn as a comparable package to a 70 (two 55 hitters have about the same value as one 70 hitter) but the sox would be absolutely stupid to do that, they don't want to ruin their future, they need those guys.

Why not do it like the dodgers did with buehler. They started his spring training a month later to save some milage on the arm and then basically let him the second half of his spring training in season. His first two starts or so he got shelled but dodgers felt they could afford some more losses due to the weak division and preferred having a strong buehler in october over 2 more wins. They will also probably add the typical dodgers fake DL stint to save some more innings. I think that could be a blue print for the sox too. Start his spring training in mid to late march, then put him to extended spring for 2-3 weeks, then start him and add a fake 10 dl stint and two skipped starts and he should be down to around 155 or so at the end of the year. So March 20: start ST April 20: start season May: one skipped start June: one skipped start Late juli: fake DL stint This should save like 40 innings or so.

When tools and performance coincide at a young age it is definitely a good sign. That is no guarantee either but if you have a good k to bb ratio, some pop and good tools at a young age it means a high ceiling and a decent floor which is quite rare. Of Course it is a low level but if there are tools and young age it is much likelier to transfer to higher levels than if an older polished player does it. That's why franco became a top10 prospect almost immediately after showing some early low level performance because he was a high signing with top of the scale tools. Btw cj abrams looks really good so far albeit in rookie ball batting over 400 with 8% Ks and 2 bombs. Vaughn of course has been doing great too although he was also expected to do this more because he is older and more polished. Still it doesn't mean drafting vaughn is a mistake even if abrams turns out better because this early performance by abrams is already some plus outcome while vaughn was expected to do it so that is some risk that went right for the padres.

Shouldn't he be able to continue to do what he learned with the astros? At least as long the sox coaches don't actively prevent it by forcing him to use their style. Is cooper a dogmatic coach who has one style he prefers or is he a guy who embraces individuality and going with individual strengths?

Also not enough power for the high strikeouts he had. He had some power potential and hit 12 in 2016 and 15 in 2018. With his kind of plate discipline that would have needed to go up but instead this year power is totally gone. Probably injury related and could come back but it also needs to come back and more to play with a mid to high 20s k rate.

A very early review of early 2019 top10 draft pick performance 1. Rutschmann Still hasn't played due to mononucleosis! They say it is a mild case but I have heard of cases were athletes couldn't really train for half a year and lose a ton of muscle mass. Definitely pretty bad for the Os 2. Witt Has hit 250 with no homers so far. K rate is solid though so not a lot of worry yet but not a great start 3. Vaughn Has raked like expected, over .400 with 2 bombs about 17% Ks and as many walks 4. Bleday Hasn't played yet but due to late signing 5. Greene Has hit 360 with 2 homers and lots of walks but K rate has been a little high at about mid 20s 6. Abrams Has hit 450 with 2 homers and single digit K rate but only rookie ball. Still a promising start for a HS prospect 7. Lodolo 8 ip, 15 Ks no walks, has looked very good so far but only rookie ball 8. Josh jung Has hit over 500 with a bomb but only 4 games so really not telling 9. Langliers Has hit 200 with 1 bomb and 22% Ks at A ball. Not a great start but he was considered a glove first catcher 10. Bishop Just 6 games but 11 Ks in 24 PAs. Also a bomb and 250 BA with lots of walks. Tiny sample but some red flag concerning his hit tool. Of course the only thing with some predictive value after 60-70 PAs is K rate. Most of the top10 had a decent start. So far it seems the sox did a good pick as Vaughn statistically had the best results but this was expected of course. Bishop indeed might be a red flag and the mono thing isn't a great sign too. Still good pick by the sox, I think Vaughn will be at least one of the best 5-6 players of this draft in the long and he is about the surest bet to get there. Abrams looks spectacular though if you combine it with his tools, hit tool seems to be legit with single digit K rate, 400+ average and even two bombs. My bet in a year he is the best ranked prospect of this class.

Law certainly is a smart guy but I think he has been passed on, I doubt he still travels as much as the fangraphs guys for example and he tries to be unique in his rankings and can be quite biased if he likes or hates someone.