harfman77

There is the age thing, the style of play, and the fact that he was at the epicenter of PED's with the A's and Cardinals.

Would be a coup if they can get Howard at 11 on a decently underslot deal that allows them to get someone who slips (Witt?) into round two.

Its a good trade, they get a guy who is one year older and three levels higher. Mazara is still only 24 and has loads of potential, and a change of scenery may be just what he needs to tap into it. It also is relatively low cost roll of the dice and allows the Sox to take on a bad contract to get some more value. This does not preclude the Sox from doing a Betts/Price trade. Mazara/Eloy/others can rotate through LF and DH as Castellanos and Ozuna are still options as well for RF. If Mazara doesn't hit, you are out Steele Walker who was pretty borderline to be a MLB contributor and you non-tender Mazara next winter. Its a low risk high reward move that in no way stops the Sox from adding through the trade market.

Frank was also playing football though, so had not started focusing on baseball full time yet. If Law is right and O's are looking at Vaugn underslot and Rutschman drops to the Sox, that would be a best case scenario. The Sox have plenty of guys that can man 1B for the next decade but Clutchman would be an answer at a position the organization has struggled to find good solutions.

Surprised they didn't call up a second pitcher for todays game and then send him down tonight and bring Rondon up given the work the bullpen has been getting the last couple days.

Or that he didn't make it through waivers and this was getting anything in return that you could given that it is a closed market.

Sounds like a LOOGY.

He has been chronically injured and has had a tough time throwing strikes coming back from all of his injuries. Still throws hard, but a much bigger wildcard than he was in HS even with the TJ.

I'm not sure you can save enough at this point to make any real difference, especially on a junior. I would like to see the Sox grab Tyler Cropley from Iowa, tough kid that has played up to every level he has been in.

Aaron Poreda?

Looks like the closer for USF. http://www.collegebaseballdaily.com/2017/11/20/2018-cbd-top-100-countdown-65-andrew-perez-south-florida/

The Royals have now taken 8 pitchers in the first 7 rounds.

If they drafted him here, they know they can sign him.

Agree

Agree, Sox have been known to help guys get their secondaries to play up. In round six, its a good gamble to take.

Yeah, I dont think Cashman or Theo want the headache of dealing with the questions or headlines.

I would be surprised to see a marquee team take him, I think it will be someplace where it can fly under the radar a little more.

I think the next pick is very likely to be Pilkington based on Sox draft trends. De Sedas would be great, but not sure there is enough money there to get him to walk away from school unless the Sox got discounts with Madrigal and Walker.

Anyone who thought that this was going to be a competitive year was fooling themselves. Giolito is going to need time, guys over 6'5 tend to struggle with their control early in their careers due to a tendency to drift due to their length which makes it difficult to repeat their delivery. Its not insurmountable, it just takes time to work through. Fulmer is probably not going to make it as a SP, but thats not new news. Shields and MiGo are filler that can provide some leadership for the team, but not a lot of ability at this point in their careers. Offensively, they probably have 2 guys that will be everyday players on the roster in two years, the rest will be gone and replaced with guys in the system or FA's. Yes, the record is not great, but there was no reason to think it would be given the lack of quality players on the roster.

QUOTE (Jack Parkman @ Apr 4, 2018 -> 10:07 AM) MLBPA will never agree to that, as it puts too much pressure on pitchers. They would totally agree with it if you made the active roster size 27 to support it.

Man, there are a lot of OF's in AA and high A and only so many spots for them to play once everyone is healthy. I wonder if you might see RH start buying some pieces or trying to trade for some draft picks to clear up some of the logjam. Limited AB's will hurt all of their developments, so its better to pare down then to have the most loaded OF in A+.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Apr 4, 2018 -> 08:05 AM) Also, the lack of LatAm talent hitting full season ball is really discouraging. Carlos Perez is the only prospect of note on Kannapolis’ roster and he’s pretty fringey IMO. I know a lot people here give Paddy the benefit of the doubt given what he started with, but I find these results to be unacceptable. Whether it’s a scouting or development problem is up for debate, but all our LatAm signings shouldn’t be burning out in rookie ball. Something has to change here or we’re going to go back to a bottom 10 farm system as soon as our top guys graduate. They are coming along, the farm system is deeper than it has been in nearly 30 years which holds some of the guys back that would be making it into full season ball in years prior. Nunez and Reyes have upside at GF and there are a litany of guys on the AZL roster that have a fairly good ceiling. They did well identifying Tatis, who is now a top ten prospect and Adolfo is starting to click and he took the lions share of the Sox pool in the year he was signed. The problem with LatAm talent is that it is so volatile, players that sign for millions of dollars don't make it through AA, and players that sign for $30K can end up as all-stars. I think patience is warranted on that end as some of those guys will still have a chance to shoot up the charts and make an impact in the next few years.

QUOTE (ChiSoxJon @ Mar 30, 2018 -> 11:11 AM) Maybe But if he continues to be a star player, why trade him? I know we have Jimenez and Robert as OF locks of the future with Engel/Leury both flashing starter potential and Cordell coming up soon as well But a long term OF of Avi, Robert, and Jimenez is insane Because you have options in the OF, he will be a FA just as the Sox window is opening, he is a poor defender, and he could pull back multiple pieces that could be contributors to the Sox next playoff team. The Sox are not going to be able to extend everyone so they are going to have to pick and choose, and Avi probably needs to go for the Sox to realize some sort of return on investment for him and keep payroll open to add in a spot where the Sox may need FA help in their contention window.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Feb 28, 2018 -> 06:46 PM) I think part of it is that they are still rebuilding and the stellar defense will help the young pitching. Its the same reason they signed a veteran catcher with stellar defense. I think this is overlooked. The team is going to put the defense on the field to help its pitching as much as possible because it helps the young pitchers gain confidence and it helps increase the value of the guys that you may be looking to flip at the deadline.

QUOTE (FT35 @ Feb 21, 2018 -> 08:10 AM) Recently I've seen Micker Adolfo's name surface more frequently in Sox coverage and it's always been VERY positive. It makes me wonder why we don't talk about him more and why he's not on more people's projected lineups in our contending years. For those of you who are up on this sort of thing...is there a bigger reason (other than injury history) why he's not mentioned more in our top prospect conversations? Seems like this guy is healthy and a beast in the making. http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseb...0220-story.html https://sports.yahoo.com/chris-getz-describ...-194919118.html He has a lot of talent, but to date, has struck out way too often at the low levels he has been playing at. Traditionally that does not improve as players move to a higher level and there have been many prospects with light tower power that never advanced beyond AA because they could not adjust to advanced pitching. He is really a boom or bust prospect. If he cuts down on his K's his power will carry him to the majors, if he doesn't he ends up as Wily Mo Pena. This is really a big year for Micker, he had some success last year and finally was able to stay healthy, and given that he has missed some time he may have an opportunity to cut down on his mistakes through more AB's. If things go really well for the Sox, you have a Jimenez, Robert, Adolfo outfield in three years. But of the three, Adolfo still has the highest bust probability.