maggsmaggs

QUOTE (Springfield SoxFan @ Jun 14, 2014 -> 01:48 PM) So assuming Rodon signs for the Sox remaining top 10 allotment, approximately $6.1 million, what is the most that Montes de Oca can be offered? I believe $100,000 if they do not want to exceed the bonus cap. But they could offer $575,485 (only the amount over $100,000 gets apportioned to the bonus cap) and then pay the 75% overage tax on that without losing a first-round draft. Not sure the Sox would do that though and not sure Montes de Oca would accept that.

QUOTE (SouthsideDon48 @ Jun 14, 2014 -> 12:53 PM) So what are your predictions for what Rodon signs for? There seems to be a good chance that the Sox can convince Rodon and Boras to sign for less than 6 million, perhaps even 5.9 million. What was the slot value of the 3rd pick, anyway? With how Aiken and Kolek both signed for below slot, the sox has more weight in trying to sign Rodon at or below slot as well so they can throw more money to Montes de Oca. The third pick's slot value is $5,721,500. I am sure Boras will want more than the slot value and thus far the Sox have saved $385,600 in round two through ten according to Callis. Sox have $6,107,100 left to stay under its bonus cap to sign Rodon. The Sox total bonus pool for the Draft is $9,509,700, but they can go up to about $9,985,185 without losing a Draft Pick and would just have to pay 75% of the overage of $475,485 ($356,613.75). Boras could very well bargain for the Sox to give Rodon the remaining portion of the bonus pool + 5% overage. The Sox could very well think it is more economically efficient to pay $1 million for Rodon (extra bonus to Rodon + overage tax) than to make a deal to get him to Chicago in September, which would start his clock.

Aiken signed for $6.5 million for a near-$8-million slot value (81%). Kolek, if $6 million is true, will be signing for 88% of his slot value ($6.8 million). Sox can go about 107% of Rodon's slot value. Will be interesting to see what happens.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jun 13, 2014 -> 04:31 PM) Honest question, but had we selected Aiken with our first pick would he not be our #1 prospect? Adams was a borderline 1st round talent, he should definitely be our top 10 and I'd have him around #8. Most definitely. But there is a difference between a borderline first-round talent (Adams) and the consensus top prospect in the Draft (Aiken).

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 13, 2014 -> 10:12 AM) Rodon hasn't thrown a professional inning yet either, and I don't see anyone having trouble ranking him #1. But he has three years as an elite college pitcher, which should be given much more weight than a high school arm.

Anyone know why Webb has barely pitched at all in June?

Johnson needs to just go on the DL with "shoulder fatigue" or something so that he can get away from game action for a couple weeks.

QUOTE (southside hitman @ Jun 12, 2014 -> 09:40 AM) I figured this was as good a place to put this considering it's concerning our prospect rankings. Keith Law wrote an article titled "Five teams with new no. 1 prospects" and naturally we were one of them. His write up is below: http://insider.espn.go.com/blog/mlb-draft/...ts?refresh=true "Chicago White Sox: Carlos Rodon, LHP The White Sox's top two prospects coming into 2014, Erik Johnson and Matt Davidson, have disappointed thus far. (Johnson has also lost eligibility for the list by passing the 50-inning threshold.) That makes the top of their list muddled. There's Courtney Hawkins, who is having a strong second go with Winston-Salem of the high-Class A Carolina League; Tim Anderson, who is hitting for average (.309) and playing good defense at shortstop for Winston-Salem but has shown poor plate discipline; and Micah Johnson, now up in Triple-A after a brief but successful run with Double-A Birmingham. Rodon passes all three as a near-MLB-ready starter with a grade-70 slider and above-average fastball. Issues with Rodon's delivery have led to command problems and slightly reduced velocity, but the White Sox have an excellent track record of working with pitchers with unusual or difficult arm actions. Getting Rodon better extension out front and a cleaner finish will help him throw more strikes and maybe add more to his fastball. If all goes well, he should be in their rotation by this time next year -- perhaps with Micah Johnson playing somewhere behind him." A couple of interesting tidbits in here... very surprised he said Tim Anderson is playing "good defense" for Winston-Salem. Is he seeing/hearing something about his range, fluidity, play, that we aren't by just scouting his error total? Also, glad to hear he at least considers Courtney Hawkins for the no. 1 spot, he was a big fan of his pre-draft and was just as disappointed by his aggressive assignment as we were. Honesty, seems like Law just has bad information. 26 errors in 52 games is not good defense. And it is a stretch to say Hawkins is having a "strong" season.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 10, 2014 -> 08:35 AM) “I tend to be an optimistic guy,” Hahn said. “I never anticipate problems. Look, in reality, we have a history with Scott, a positive history with Scott. He had Joe Crede, he’s got (Dayan) Viciedo. We had Andruw Jones here. A fair amount of this concern, or discussion on how this could be difficult, I think is unnecessary and really not significant to us determining what’s going to happen here.” There’s some thought among baseball analysts that Rodon would ask for a signing bonus similar to what the No. 1 pick is expected to receive. Though top pick Brady Aiken signed with the Houston Astros for $6.5 million, the suggested slot for the No. 1 was roughly $7.9 million. The suggested slot amount for the third pick is $5.72 million and Rodon could try and command somewhere in between those two amounts. www.csnchicago.com (Dan Hayes) It's nice when your GM doesn't shove his foot in his mouth with comments. Despite KW's feelings about Boras, he should never had made those comments public.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 10, 2014 -> 09:40 AM) Why are we so high on Danish again? Because he is 19 years old in High-A Ball (nearly four years younger than the average player in the league) and is doing fine there. Lots of hits, but the K-to-BB is great and he induces a ton of ground balls. He also dominated Low-A ball.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jun 9, 2014 -> 08:28 PM) Well, the power is there. He's probably third on the Organizational Depth Chart at 3B with Gillaspie and Semien both ahead of him.

Signing Adams at slot is a huge win. He had a late-first-round grade, which would have valued his bonus at between $2 million and $1.75 million. The Sox signed him for $1,282,000. Excellent value.

QUOTE (Ozzie Ball @ Jun 8, 2014 -> 03:10 PM) Danish gave up some hits and runs but 3.2 IP, 0 BB, 4 SO, 6 GO/1 FO looks excellent. Well with Winston-Salem's defense and Danish's pitch-to-contact game, it was not hard to foresee some possible struggles. Danish is a guy who would benefit tremendously (more than others because of his ground-ball rate) from a ML-caliber defense.

Chris Sale, if he qualified for ERA+ career leaders on Baseball Reference (needs 1,000 innings), would be FOURTH all-time after Mariano Rivera, Pedro Martinez and Lefty Devlin. And Devlin really doesn't count since he played his baseball in the late 1800s.

The big problem I have with rating Beck high is that he has been declining in performance ever since his sophomore year. He is simply trending the wrong direction. I hope the working-on-a-pitch theory is the reason, but I am having a hard time buying it.

My New Top Prospect List 1. Rodon 2. Anderson 3. M. Johnson 4. Danish 5. Montas 6. Hawkins 7. Davidson 8. Michalczewski It is still a 20-30 system.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 7, 2014 -> 05:37 AM) http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2088618...d-through-day-2 White Sox and Cubs both with B+ grades... With the Cubs, they really are going to have to sign 3 out of those 5 prep pitchers (Sands, Cease, Steele, Norwood, etc.) for their first two rounds to make any sense. Taking two catchers is just weird, especially since neither is slated to stay at that position, and both of those guys would be blocked by Rizzo at 1B. As noted, Sands is a strong FSU commit and Cease is going off a near-TJ surgery and seems committed to Vandy where he can re-establish his draft viability a few years down the road. I think draft grades in any sport are meaningless, but especially baseball. There is just way too much unpredictability with the draftees. There is a reason a No. 1 pick in the Draft has never made the HOF.

QUOTE (flavum @ Jun 5, 2014 -> 08:07 AM) If Nola has a 3-4 floor and 2 upside, plus Coop and the staff like his mechanics, I couldn't fault the Sox for taking him. The Sox need another guy that will give 32 starts and 200 innings. They don't grow on trees. I wouldn't mind Nola, but I would not be happy paying him slot. If the Sox can save the equivalent of a third rounder by going with Nola, I would be OK with it. I am just worried that Nola's 94-95 MPH suddenly becomes 91-92 ala Erik Johnson.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jun 4, 2014 -> 05:02 PM) People can blame Kenny all they want, but our low draft spending was due to draft position (guarantee we've had one of the lowest average draft positions over the last 15 years), not taking advantage of the compensation system and accumulating a bunch of extra picks, and Jerry's refusal to go over slot since he was friends with Bud (Borchard/Danks being rare exceptions). It was a conscious decision for KW to spend all on the ML at the expense of the Farm System. We could easily have spent more in the Draft if we wanted to regardless of having extra compensatory picks. When KW would squeeze out extra money to sign an AJ or Tadahito, where do you think it came from? His amateur-talent acquisition budget. It was not in the best interest of this franchise long-term the way he ran it, but it worked in the short-term (and for that I am grateful).

I'll take a stab: 1. Houston = Aiken (Shop around for the best offer, but end up taking the best prospect for a slightly under-slot amount) 2. Miami = Rodon (Most ML-ready pitcher worthy of being picked this high and the Cuban connection will have ownership support) 3. Sox = Kolek (Simply take the remaining pitcher of the Big Three) 4. Cubs = Pentecost (It may be Conforto from OSU, but Pentecost gives the Cubs a legit catcher who will sign a drastically under-slot deal to free up money to go after pitchers later in the Draft) 5. Minnesota = Gordon (They vacillate on Nola because he fits a need and their mold of that need, but too much linking them with Gordon)

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Jun 3, 2014 -> 07:33 PM) Marcus Semien 1-2 with a walk and a homer Tyler Saladino 1-2 with a triple Kris Bryant homered again against the Barons *weeps* He and Gallo are probably the best hitting prospects in the minors.

QUOTE (Melissa1334 @ Jun 3, 2014 -> 03:37 PM) maybe it was posted already, but saw this video today of kolek He is extremely mature with a terrific work ethic. Very nice to see.

Chris Sale WHIP watch: 0.61. All-time ML record: Pedro Martinez at 0.73.

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Jun 1, 2014 -> 02:21 PM) Bryant has hit over 100% above league average at every stop. wRC+s of 214, 209, 212 and 219. I think I'd have him over any prospect in baseball, even Buxton. Bryant might be the best pure hitter in the minors, but Buxton can play a GG centerfield. That's Bryant's only downside, that he is most likely going to be a corner outfielder. But he'll be superstar-level hitter.

He's not returning this season.