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Gordon Beckham Ranked #36 Prospect


Steve9347

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I'll paste his writeup, the rest can be found at the link at the bottom.

 

Beckham doesn't always do it pretty, but it seems to work for him, as he has incredible instincts, enough that the "ballplayer" label might be more than just a cliché for him.

 

Beckham's first move at the plate is down and slightly back, a hitch that makes it harder for him to catch up to better fastballs or adjust at the last second to an off-speed pitch, but he manages because of very quick wrists. He also helps himself by cheating a little on his front side.

 

His natural range at shortstop is a little limited, but good game awareness helps him overcome that, as he positions himself extremely well, and his hands and arm are fine for the position. He could handle second base, but he should be allowed to stay at short until it becomes absolutely necessary to move him.

 

He's the anti-Alexei Ramirez: Beckham's feel for the game makes his tools play up, and he's much more substance than flash.

 

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Tyler Flowers in at #51...

 

Flowers wasn't on anyone's radar screen after a decent offensive year in Rome last year at age 21, since he wasn't young for the Sally League and will never be known for his defense behind the plate. He moved up to the Carolina League this year and hit .288/.427/.494 in a brutal hitter's park in Myrtle Beach, then obliterated Arizona Fall League pitching with a .387/.460/.973 line in 87 plate appearances. If you hit like Flowers hit in front of all of the scouts who go to see the AFL, you're going to get noticed, and Flowers' performance there helped him land in a trade out of Brian McCann's shadow to the White Sox, who did not have a catcher of the future in their organization.

 

Flowers is, as you might imagine from the stat lines, a thick, strong kid with a good eye at the plate and 55-60 raw power; it's a high-effort swing and he starts with his hands so far back that he has to commit early, so he's going to swing and miss a fair amount in the big leagues. Behind the plate, he's an excellent hitter; he's playable back there but fringe-average is probably his defensive ceiling. As long as he can stay at the position and the White Sox can live with the cost of his glove, his bat is going to be star-caliber because of the low standard at that spot around the majors; otherwise, his bat will play at first base or DH, but he'll be an average overall player or slightly worse.

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Poreda at #57

 

Poreda was a late first-round pick in 2007 but has zoomed past several college starters taken ahead of him. He's a tall lefty who comes from a slightly below three-quarter angle, but gets on top of the ball with a ton of sink. He'll sit 91-94 for maximum movement, and then dial it up to 95-96 to go up in the zone but still have some life on the pitch. He commands the fastball well and throws strikes with it, but beyond that he's a work-in-progress. He slows his arm for just about any off-speed pitch, primarily using an inconsistent slider that flashes solid-average with late break and decent tilt. His arm is so quick that he may have trouble throwing a consistent changeup, and didn't use it in-game during two relief appearances when I saw him in the Arizona Fall League. Because he throws strikes and gets groundballs, he projects at least as an innings-eater in the middle or back of a rotation, but he needs to find some kind of secondary offering to miss more bats and raise his ceiling.
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QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 23, 2009 -> 10:00 AM)
Why is it Keith Law, if he ever says anything negative about the White Sox organization, knows nothing, but everytime he says something positive, there's a thread acting like he is an excellent source?

I apologize, dear Sir Dick Allen, for posting a thread. I don't believe I've ever had a comment negative or positive on Keith Law... however, I will make sure to run it by you before posting what seems like interesting writeups of three of our young players or anything else for that matter.

 

I bow to your forum greatness.

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QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 23, 2009 -> 10:00 AM)
Why is it Keith Law, if he ever says anything negative about the White Sox organization, knows nothing, but everytime he says something positive, there's a thread acting like he is an excellent source?

 

I agree. Take from it what you want.

 

It looks like he is looking for the "new" find and get a jump on others.. According to him this past draft must be one of the best of all time. Beckham is #36 but there are I think 5 players from this past draft. That's roughly 15% of the best prospects in the have less than 1 year experience.

 

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QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jan 23, 2009 -> 10:02 AM)
I apologize, dear Sir Dick Allen, for posting a thread. I don't believe I've ever had a comment negative or positive on Keith Law... however, I will make sure to run it by you before posting what seems like interesting writeups of three of our young players or anything else for that matter.

 

I bow to your forum greatness.

 

I'm not picking on you, but when this thread has run its course, do a search on Keith Law threads and you will find that some of the same people who call him a worthless wannabe who isn't qualified to be paid for his opinions when he says something negative about the Sox will be excited about the optimism he has for these prospects.

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what is there, 31 teams? So assuming a random distribution you'd expect every team to have a least 3 guys in the top 100. So Sox are just average there.

 

anyways, I put very little stock in Law's observations. He goes and watches a player once or twice than passes judgment. He basically admits as much in the article. Not my idea of proper scouting, which should be a mix of DETAILED and SUSTAINED observation and statistical analysis.

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QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Jan 23, 2009 -> 11:52 AM)
what is there, 31 teams? So assuming a random distribution you'd expect every team to have a least 3 guys in the top 100. So Sox are just average there.

 

anyways, I put very little stock in Law's observations. He goes and watches a player once or twice than passes judgment. He basically admits as much in the article. Not my idea of proper scouting, which should be a mix of DETAILED and SUSTAINED observation and statistical analysis.

30. And like others said, it's just one mans opinion but overall I can't put much stock in Law's opinion when he said we had a bad draft this year. He's just not paying any attention if he really believes that.

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QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Jan 23, 2009 -> 11:52 AM)
what is there, 31 teams? So assuming a random distribution you'd expect every team to have a least 3 guys in the top 100. So Sox are just average there.

 

anyways, I put very little stock in Law's observations. He goes and watches a player once or twice than passes judgment. He basically admits as much in the article. Not my idea of proper scouting, which should be a mix of DETAILED and SUSTAINED observation and statistical analysis.

 

 

On a positive note, we do have 3 of the top 57 but nobody in the Top 30.

 

I really think nobody has a firm idea where to slot Viciedo. Legitimately, based on his hitting skills alone, he's thought to be a Top 5-10 guy. We'll have a much better idea down in Arizona what we might actually have on our hands...or we might be wishing we had used that $11 million to sign Ben Sheets instead. Could go either way.

 

Interesting question though...would you rather have Ben Sheets in 2009 or Viciedo in 10/11/12? If the Viciedo bidding happened again, it might be somewhere between $4-8 million instead of $10+.

Edited by caulfield12
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Every time i hear about Poreda he sounds like a potential reliever.

 

Additionally, is the fear with Flowers that his bat wont be good enough to warrant putting up with weak D behind the plate? Is he projected as AJP type hitting? less? I know little about him.

Edited by Princess Dye
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QUOTE (Princess Dye @ Jan 23, 2009 -> 12:38 PM)
Every time i hear about Poreda he sounds like a potential reliever.

 

Additionally, is the fear with Flowers that his bat wont be good enough to warrant putting up with weak D behind the plate? Is he projected as AJP type hitting? less? I know little about him.

 

He is talked about with 30 homer power, much better than AJ.

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QUOTE (Princess Dye @ Jan 23, 2009 -> 12:38 PM)
Every time i hear about Poreda he sounds like a potential reliever.

 

Additionally, is the fear with Flowers that his bat wont be good enough to warrant putting up with weak D behind the plate? Is he projected as AJP type hitting? less? I know little about him.

 

Flowers was at A and AA last year. Kenny Williams said he could hit in the big leagues now, so it's his defense that needs work. Maybe if he has a good year at Birmingham, he'll be up in September.

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QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 23, 2009 -> 02:50 PM)
He is talked about with 30 homer power, much better than AJ.

and almost more importantly Flowers will certainly be willing to take a walk

Edited by daa84
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QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 23, 2009 -> 01:12 PM)
On a positive note, we do have 3 of the top 57 but nobody in the Top 30.

 

I really think nobody has a firm idea where to slot Viciedo. Legitimately, based on his hitting skills alone, he's thought to be a Top 5-10 guy. We'll have a much better idea down in Arizona what we might actually have on our hands...or we might be wishing we had used that $11 million to sign Ben Sheets instead. Could go either way.

 

Interesting question though...would you rather have Ben Sheets in 2009 or Viciedo in 10/11/12? If the Viciedo bidding happened again, it might be somewhere between $4-8 million instead of $10+.

 

Yea I really think people are sleeping on Viciedo hard core. From the amount of money he got (and the interest from teams like the Yankees) I would think he would have been a top #10 pick in this year's draft.

 

So he's overweight? He's 19 years old for god's sake. Give him a year or two with a professional training staff, a personal chef, and the pride of being a cuban MLB player and I think he'll be a bronze titan soon enough. Most non-track athletes (football players, baseball players, basketball big men) are a bit soft in their late teens. I see no worry here.

 

Plus the Sox are expecting him to compete for a starting 3B spot as a 19 year old! That speaks to the lack of any real options in the org, but it also speaks to how advanced Danny is for his age.

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QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Jan 23, 2009 -> 08:22 PM)
Yea I really think people are sleeping on Viciedo hard core. From the amount of money he got (and the interest from teams like the Yankees) I would think he would have been a top #10 pick in this year's draft.

 

So he's overweight? He's 19 years old for god's sake. Give him a year or two with a professional training staff, a personal chef, and the pride of being a cuban MLB player and I think he'll be a bronze titan soon enough. Most non-track athletes (football players, baseball players, basketball big men) are a bit soft in their late teens. I see no worry here.

 

Plus the Sox are expecting him to compete for a starting 3B spot as a 19 year old! That speaks to the lack of any real options in the org, but it also speaks to how advanced Danny is for his age.

The problem is that he is so young and from the Cuban league, so it's really hard to get a feel as to what he'll do in the future. What he does this season will really change his standing, for better or worse.

 

 

Who was been the Sox's highest ranked prospect in the past few years? I was thinking BA or Borchard.

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QUOTE (chitownsportsfan @ Jan 23, 2009 -> 01:22 PM)
Yea I really think people are sleeping on Viciedo hard core. From the amount of money he got (and the interest from teams like the Yankees) I would think he would have been a top #10 pick in this year's draft.

 

So he's overweight? He's 19 years old for god's sake. Give him a year or two with a professional training staff, a personal chef, and the pride of being a cuban MLB player and I think he'll be a bronze titan soon enough. Most non-track athletes (football players, baseball players, basketball big men) are a bit soft in their late teens. I see no worry here.

 

Plus the Sox are expecting him to compete for a starting 3B spot as a 19 year old! That speaks to the lack of any real options in the org, but it also speaks to how advanced Danny is for his age.

 

With his background and what not, it does seem that way. I am not sure if it's just me or most of White Sox nation who always feel like we get strange/lesser credit for things. In this case, I wonder where he'd have been ranked had someone like Boston, NYY, NYM, or even if the Cubs had gotten him.

 

Obviously there is a lot of questions about him but no more then someone like Inoa and he got ranked fairly high so it leaves me wondering?

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I mean, it's not like we weren't just about the ONLY team right on Alexei Ramirez...or I suppose all those guys with their lists had him tabbed as a ROY candidate?

 

I agree with the thought that had he ended up with the Red Sox, Yankees, Cubs, Mets or Dodgers, he'd be somewhere at least between #1-20.

Edited by caulfield12
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