Nardiwashere

My twitter feed this offseason was full of guys who think they are brilliant wringing their hands over letting Narvaez and Smith go for McCann. So happy he is having a good season.

I have a question that may have been explained elsewhere.... I thought the general pre-daft issue with Seth Beer was that, although he could end up being a good player, it was a waste of a high pick to choose the 1B/Corner OFer. Why is Vaughn different? Is he that much better with the bat or was Seth Beer that bad in the field?

Don’t get me wrong... I’m not in the “Why don’t the Sox just decide they want him to be Juan Pierre?” camp... But one thing I’ve always thought about... If you have 500 ABs in a season, the difference in batting .200 and .250 is just an extra single a week. You’d think more guys with elite speed like Hamilton or Engel would be able to muster enough infield hits and bunt hits to be serviceable. Obviously, it’s harder than it looks. Edit: I suppose I just described Billy Hamilton’s offensive profile... I guess I’m just surprised more guys like Engel can’t become that....

Narvaez sucks. The front office deserved/deserves every ounce of criticism and mocking for their mishandling of the Machado/Harper situations, HOWEVER, the outrage over the backup catcher position since this past offseason is ridiculous.

Have you used this feature yet? I was going to get it starting in May and was going to get the group on one account but that leads to issues (If you don't show up together, you need to transfer the ticket, if I had it on my account but decided not to go, etc.)

Can someone explain to me why the Orioles can't just offer him like 3-4 million? What else are they going to do with that money if they've missed out on the other big names and they didn't have agreements in place with any of the lesser guys?

Exactly.. and in 2015, Carson Fulmer was a "stuff" guy who had issues with his command. It doesn't matter if people thought he could end up in the bullpen if he never put it together.

Ok... so without hindsight... Carson Fulmer's best case scenario/comp at the time he was drafted was who, Carlos Martinez? Is that a low ceiling pick? Just because he turned out to be bad, doesn't mean he never had a ceiling. I agree that Burdi was a floor guy in the 1st round... But when I think of SPs who are floor guys, I imagine a pitcher with lesser stuff that has a shot at the rotation but will never be very good.

Here's my take... If the Cuban has no chance to be anything more than a poor man's Yolmer Sanchez, why would he command so much money and be a top 10 guy in his class? Seems like a very inefficient way to spend the allotted money. One would think there's more potential here than people are assuming.

Carson Fulmer was drafted 8 overall. What pitcher drafted that high doesn’t have a floor of ending up in the bullpen?

Isn’t the knock on the Sox system that they have a lot of upper end guys and not as much depth of guys who project to be mlb regulars?

Not sure I understand what you mean by "organic talent" but I think Moncada, Giolito, Kopech, etc. illustrate the Sox current philosophy than drafting Royce Ring in 2001.

Julio Encarnacion is a 14 year old out of El Palero, Dominican Republic, that I really like. Advanced hit tool but I don't know if he'll be able to stick in CF in 9 years.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the situation but it doesn't seem impossible that teams knew/suspected he would defect and be able to plan around the time it would likely take to clear. In my uninformed opinion, that's what I assume happens every time.

Few of the arguments are based on any information. The "We shouldn't have 2 million to spend" argument assumes the Sox had no idea he would be available, didn't plan for him, and simply forgot to participate in the international amateur process. The "I prefer other players" argument is ridiculous because no one here knows anything about any of these guys. Luis Robert was the biggest Cuban prospect in a couple years and no one even knew how to say his name... some reports said he was slow, etc. What information do SoxTalk users have about 16 year old kids in the Dominican Republic that they like better? If they sign him, cool... I hope hes good. If not, cool... I hope the guys they get end up being good.