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QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jan 22, 2018 -> 08:24 AM) Doesn't Ellsbury have a NTC? Why would he allow himself to be dumped to a non-contender? That's why people bring up him accepting the trade contingent on being released so he can try to sign with a contender. No contenders want him now with his contract, but if he is released and you can get him for basically the minimum, then some of them would almost definitely do it. My thought was a way for him to get to the White Sox would be to promise starting time and that we would attempt to trade him to a contender at the deadline or next offseason, assuming the Yankees eat some of the contract and then we can eat more to entice another team.

Only guys that make sense really seem like Yolmer because they need help at 2B or a reliever because contenders can never have enough relievers. Our highest end reliever is probably Nate Jones, so what can Nate Jones or Yolmer get from the Brewers? It said an outfielder, so probably one of the guys close to the majors, but what we're offering isn't great, so probably the low end of the guys that fit the bill.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Jan 21, 2018 -> 04:42 PM) Avi? Is it the Brewers getting an OF? I thought they already had a glut of OFs and I took the tweet to mean they were going to deal one of those guys.

QUOTE (cjgalloway @ Jan 19, 2018 -> 03:22 PM) TOP 10 1B prospects released. No Sox (no surprise) HOWEVER, they names Gavin Sheets the 1B prospect to watch.. So that's pretty cool Between the scouts saying he'll be good if he adds loft to his swing, and the reports out of the hitters camp that he is hitting it in the air more, I'm pretty excited to see what he can do this year.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 19, 2018 -> 02:11 PM) We can only offer $300k. Yeah, he is out of our price range.

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ Jan 18, 2018 -> 08:27 PM) According to BA, De Sedas is not a strong hitter from the left side of the plate, while he has been switch-hitting for two years and is committed to being a switch-hitter, some scouts wish that he would only bat righthanded. And Kelenic is very much a grinder but super intense and scouts think he may not handle failure well as a professional. This might explain why I see Gorman consistently ranked above De Sedas even though he plays a lesser position and had some strikeout problems during the summer. If De Sedas is weak from the side which he will see much more and is insistent on batting switch, his profile is then probably more risky than Gorman because you know Gorman has power and you can explain away the few rough stretches he had. It's really starting to look like their is no HS bat that is will separate themselves from the pack. If that happens, I might want to go with Liberatore or Hankins if they are available.

Okay, so with all the talk about speed, this is something I've been thinking of. In a couple years lets say the outfield is LF Rutherford/Delmonico, CF Robert. RF Jimenez. We bring Engel in as a late game replacement. We want to keep Jimenez's bat in the lineup and he has a better arm so he stays and LF goes out. We now have two guys with crazy range and one guy with a big arm. Do you do the conventional thing and move Engel to CF, Robert to RF and Eloy to LF? Or do you put the fast guys in the corners so that they can combine to effectively cover most of the field and leave Eloy in center to nail throws if anything hangs in the air when a runner is on base?

<!--quoteo(post=3590952:date=Jan 17, 2018 -> 08:27 PM:name=Jimmy3Putt)--> QUOTE (Jimmy3Putt @ Jan 17, 2018 -> 08:27 PM) <!--quotec-->Is Moncada not there? He and Eloy are both also there. I don't know if he saw them as much though. He says "on that field" so they might have been on a different field. Edit: It was a different field from Jimenez at least

I think figuring out how guys will fill out and what adding muscle will do to them is a uniquely baseball problem. In other sports (mostly thinking football and basketball), to play the sports at a high level you really have to fit a pretty narrow mold for body type, and so its easier to project because everyone is pretty similar. In baseball, because so much of it is skill based and not physical traits, and because guys are signed earlier than in other sports, there is a wider range of outcomes of what can happen. So in some cases guys fill out and slow down, while in other they fill out and speed up. With Robert it makes sense he sped up because he probably didn't have proper training or nutrition in Cuba, so his natural speed was stunted, whereas other guys who are more acclimated to the training might already be near their max speed, so adding more muscle will only slow them down.

IIRC there were questions about his speed because it was above average to plus when he was in Cuba and they thought if he filled out he might slow down to average speed. But once he got out of Cuba and got better training and I'm assuming much better nutrition/supplementation, he had times that were plus-plus or even 80 based on some times. So it looks like what happened is scouts thought he might slow down when he filled out, but instead he put on muscle and got faster.

I think this will be more interesting to debate when pipeline comes out with the new top 30 and we can argue over who was left off. The bottom third of the current one is pretty weak and I could see a lot of guys from off the list jumping on. I feel like Zavala and Gonzalez with both be on somewhere and Sosa will be like #30 because he is a high potential guy. I bet Yurchak is left off but if he is in full season ball and keeps hitting he will quickly be put on when some of the guys like Bummer, Fulmer, & Cordell graduate this year. As for 5 guys who I'm pretty sure won't be on the list, but to keep an eye on: 1) Kleyder Sanchez - Put up a good average at 17 in the DSL and is a catcher, so if he is passable defensively and can hit for average, looks like a prospect 2) Harvin Mendoza - Its apparently hard to hit homers in the DSL and he hasn't but doubled his doubles, so I'd like to see how he can drive the ball when he comes over. He is a 1B, so he'll need power, but looks like he has a good eye because in his two DSL years he has 78 BB/76 K 3) Anthony Villa - 1B who was 23 in rookie league last year, but put stupid numbers. I really want to see what he can do in full season ball against players his own age. 4) Craig Dedelow- See above, but RF instead of 1B 5) Corey Zangari - Big 1B who made it to Kannapolis as a 19 year old in 2016, though he did struggle. He missed last year after having Tommy John so it will be interesting to see how much rust he has, but he has big power if he can hit. Edit: just realized I picked 3 1Bs, a RF, and a C. I guess I like to profile big, slow, power hitters.

I'm pretty sure Engel graded out as like a top 3 defensive CF. He is like Buxton levels of good, and probably about the same speed. With that defense and speed, you try your hardest to get something out of the bat because if you can get it to even just be playable, he is a good player.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 17, 2018 -> 09:46 AM) It would be nice if he could find a defensive position that actually had some value. He is a big boy. Maybe you could get him to play LF a la Adam Dunn, but with his speed (35 grade) I think we should just be happy if he can stick at 1B.

I would almost rather let him get everyday ABs in AAA and see if he can develop anything resembling an average hit tool. It would also have the added benefit of keeping his service time down because I think even if he can never hit in the bigs, he could be a valuable piece when we are contending as a late inning defense and baserunning guy with the expanded roster and playoffs.

QUOTE (Lip Man 1 @ Jan 14, 2018 -> 11:36 AM) Since it will impact the White Sox in ways that can't be determined yet, I thought I'd post it here: Crane Kenney at the Cubs convention on their future media plans: "If the Cubs are successful, it could have a domino effect in the market, with Kenney saying the team is “probably 80 percent inclined” to leave its NBC Sports Chicago partnership with the Bulls, Blackhawks and White Sox. “We like controlling our own destiny,” he said. “You start adding partners, it becomes a little more complicated.” ---------- The Cubs are going to start their own TV Network, that's pretty clear. What it means for the Sox since their deal is up at the same time is unknown from an advertising standpoint and an interest standpoint and a rights fee standpoint. I feel like the Sox wouldn't risk trying to start their own, but if the Cubs are gone maybe we can get a better deal since we're the only team.

The only reason I can think you would start him in A+ is that Kannapolis has too many OFs that need to be there and Robert also destroys spring training. Even then I might rather send someone else to a higher level before they're ready and still put Robert in Kannapolis. We should start him lower and let him prove it at each level before moving him up.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 12, 2018 -> 09:24 AM) I mean when we traded Miguel he had a pretty decent run of starts and he netted us DaQuan Forbes whom I didn't even remember until I googled it. These flip projects aren't that exciting to me. Seems better to catch lightning in a bottle for bullpen. Well you didn't google hard enough because his name is Ti'Quan Forbes

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 11, 2018 -> 10:47 AM) Might as well grab as many of these guys as you can if they don't cost anything. There have been several slick fielding SS that couldn't hit initially, who became really good players. Yeah, I'm of the train of thought that you send him to AAA and let him work on his hitting for a year to see if he can become something more than a glove first utility guy.

Looks like its gonna be Miguel Gonzalez again. Rosenthal tweeted we signed him to a one year deal.

QUOTE (ron883 @ Jan 9, 2018 -> 03:50 PM) Is this supposed to be a stacked year as far as pitching goes? I'm just surprised to see Hankins ranked 3rd among HS pitchers (presumably, by Eric L), let alone all pitchers who will be eligible. The dude has DYN-O-MITE stuff. Yeah, HS pitching and pitching in general is supposed to be super deep. Kind of one reason I want us to go position with #4 because we could probably find a good pitching prospect in the second round.

From Longenhagen's chat today when asked who the Tigers should take 1-1 Also when asked about HS pitching: Interesting he has Rocker over Hankins. And on Burger's former teammate:

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 9, 2018 -> 10:51 AM) I was watching MLB Network yesterday and this is something that blew my mind. The SEC is a really good baseball conference, a couple of historic programs, but Frank Thomas is their only HOFer. How many HOFers are there from other conferences? I feel like going to college limits your ability to make the hall because you are in college for years where HOF caliber guys drafted out of HS might already be in the league.

QUOTE (Quin @ Jan 9, 2018 -> 10:28 AM) Hamilton to Hurricane, Burr to Room Where It Happened. If Hamilton is a righty then its gotta be Right Hand Man

QUOTE (oldsox @ Jan 8, 2018 -> 07:18 PM) How many? He had 98 in 261 at bats. The record was 99, but had 295 at bats, so Skoug was actually at a higher rate than the record. I think Skoug could be good if he can get the strikeouts under control because he has awesome power, but the strikeouts are a problem and not just something that happened in pro ball.

QUOTE (IowaSoxFan @ Jan 8, 2018 -> 02:35 PM) Its an extremely small sample size, hes only had 65 AB's in A ball, not really even enough time to acclimated to the change from metal to wood bats adjusting to handling an entire new staff of pitchers or any of the other transitions from playing a long college season to pro ball. He was one strikeout away from setting the college single season record, so its not like this was an anomaly.