thxfrthmmrs

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.

Looking at his K total per game is not any more useless than looking at his HR/AB. The true indicators of his development as a useful hitter are his BA and OBP.

The HR rate is cool and all, but I would MUCH rather see a line of 3 for 5 with 2 doubles and no K's We know Hawkins has power, but without seeing any game videos and just looking at the boxing score, it seems like he's swing for the fences every time, as evident by his 10 HR, 50 K and 2 doubles in 95 AB's. Until he changes his approach and start making better contact, I wouldn't get too excited about him. We have too many guys in our organization, top to bottom, who can hit the long ball, but also strikeout over 200 times a year.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Jun 2, 2013 -> 12:52 AM) Semien starting to heat it up. Up to .279 with .380 OBP. Rangel Ravelo continues to hit. Hitting .386 at W-S. Still needs to show some pop though, especially for a 1B. I like Semien, I really hope he makes it to the majors. But he's had one good game the past two weeks, cooling down considerably. I also can't take Ravelo seriously. He's a good contact hitter playing in a power position. But he has hit exactly 3 homeruns in 900 minor league plate appearances. That's unheard of for a 6'2" 210 lb guy.

It's hard to imagine this guy is already turning 33 next year. It wasn't too long that this kid walked into our classroom and introduced himself to us during a high school Chemistry class in which his mother was our teacher, while he was at Double A in Detroit.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ May 23, 2013 -> 02:01 PM) Meh. Unless Hibbert was standing under the basket and never guarded Battier or Bosh he wasn't going to be able to do anything on that play. On the prior possession where LeBron got a layup it was a different story though. That last possession was a well designed play by Spoelstra (pains me to say that) and a huge f*** up by George. He got himself way out of possession and had no chance to even slow LeBron down once he caught the ball. But you have to consider there is no way Lebron won't go to the basket for a game winning layup without a rim protector, especially after what happened at the end of regulation. I would rather let the perimeter guys beat me than to give up the layup, and they only need a 2 to win, so they would like to get something at the rim versus taking a 3. So it's either Frank Vogel didn't expect a layup from Lebron, or he expected Paul George to stop Lebron from getting to the rim. Both of which are mistakes regardless. He should have put Hibbert in, twice.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 23, 2013 -> 11:20 AM) Pressey supposedly looked really bad at a workout yesterday. As for Shabazz, I'd rather have Caldwell-Pope. Shabazz reminds me so much of Xavier Henry. I see a hybrid of Nick Young and Xavier Henry. A wing who can score, but provides nothing else. It's very disappointing that just 3 years ago, this guy was going to be the next Kobe, killer instinct and winning attitude and all. Now he probably won't even be a starter in the league.

Was really hoping to rain out tonight's game so we don't have to run into Buchholz who is pitching out of his mind.