Chisoxfn

QUOTE (Cerbaho-WG @ May 31, 2008 -> 11:18 AM) Sickels has his first round mock up. I think it's completely f***ed up, but that's just me. 1) Tampa Bay: Pedro Alvarez, 3B, Vandy 2) Pittsburgh: Tim Beckham, SS, Georgia HS 3) Kansas City: Justin Smoak, 1B, South Carolina 4) Baltimore: Eric Hosmer, 1B, Florida HS 5) San Francisco: Yonder Alonso, 1B, Miami-Florida 6) Florida: Buster Posey, C, Florida State 7) Cincinnati: Gordon Beckham, SS, Georgia 8) Chicago WS: Kyle Skipworth, C, California HS 9) Washington: Brian Matusz, LHP, San Diego 10) Houston: Aaron Crow, RHP, Missouri 11) Texas: Ethan Martin, RHP, Georgia HS 12) Oakland: Aaron Hicks, OF, California HS 13) St. Louis: Christian Friedrich, LHP, Eastern Kentucky 14) Minnesota: Brett Wallace, 3B, Arizona State 15) LA Dodgers: Tim Melville, RHP, Missouri HS 16) Milwaukee: Shooter Hunt, RHP, Tulane 17) Toronto: Brett Lawrie, OF, Canada SS 18) NY Mets: Jason Castro, C, Stanford 19) Chicago Cubs: Gerrit Cole, RHP, California HS 20) Seattle: Tanner Scheppers, RHP, Fresno State 21) Detroit: Josh Fields, RHP, Georgia 22) NY Mets: Ike Davis, 1B, Arizona State 23) San Diego: Jake Odorizzi, RHP, Illinois HS 24) Philadelphia: Tyson Ross, RHP, California 25) Colorado: Jemile Weeks, 2B, Miami-Florida 26) Arizona: Anthony Hewitt, SS-OF, Connecticut HS 27) Minnesota: Reese Havens, SS, South Carolina 28) NY Yankees: Zach Collier, OF, California HS 29) Cleveland: Andrew Cashner, RHP, TCU 30) Boston: Casey Kelly, SS, Florida HS If both Matusz and Crow are available, I think you have to pull the trigger on one of them. High School catchers in the first round are really risky picks. Holy cripes, all I got to say is if the Sox have there choice of those three guys, well s***, I'll be thrilled. Skipworth is the best prep catching prospect to come out since Mauer (doesn't mean he's as good as Mauer, but he's got great tools across the board and would be a tremendous pick at 8). At the same time, Matsuz/Crow are both very polished pitchers. Matsusz with 4 good pitches (my concern is I hate drafting a guy without a "plus" pitch that early) and Crow has good juice on his FB and a plus slider (very good feel for pitching as well). I'd probably go Crow or Skipworth if that was who was on the board. Interesting to see the Orioles taking Hosmer. They have dealt with Boras clients with some success though, plus with the 8/15 signing day, it pretty much speeds up the negotiation process. The top 11 picks have an interesting order, but I think he did a pretty good job pegging the lower spots (which could give some validation to the top, depending on whether he's doing this based on what he's hearing or how he'd slot people).

Ole Miss putting the route on Bethune Cookman.

QUOTE (juddling @ May 30, 2008 -> 05:58 PM) i've wondered before about what will happen when Sayid (under orders from Ben) goes after Penny. I picture Penny sleeping in bed with Sayid standing next to her, aiming and ready to shoot when he looks and notices a pic or her and Desmond. Now considering Sayid went to the dark side after losing the love of his life...i can't imagine him putting his good buddy Des through the same pain. At that point, i think Sayid will turn against Ben. There is no way Sayid will kill Desmond, absolutely none. I'm guessing Sayid will remain a "good" guy. f***, he's the best character on the show by a longshot. In fact, I think you see the beginning of a new plan with Sayid and Hurley now being back together (there wasn't much put into that in the finale, other than it happening, but I think something drastic will come from it). I also enjoyed Hurley's comment to Mr. Echo (another one of my favorite characters on the show).

Swisher looked good the past couple games (didn't see yesterdays). I should say good is a relative term and means it looked like he was coming out of his funk as he was hitting the ball with some authority and had a much less severe upper cut in his swing. I have faith in him coming out of this but there is no denying that he has been every bit as bad as Thome/Konerko. The only bright spot is that he's actually been surprising defensively in CF. Still, aside from giving him a couple days off (and that really depends on what Walker/Ozzie are seeing, if they are working on certain things with him (Walker to a greater extent) and that he feels its progressing nicely and he's getting closer, I say keep him out there; if he's back in a rut, than give him a couple days off where Walk is just spending s***loads of time with him, in addition time for Swisher to just completely relax. But you can't just bench this guy and you can't compare this situation to Brian Anderson's situation. Swisher has a track record which includes major league success where as Anderson never did. Anderson also wasn't getting on base at a semi respectable clip (and no, that doesn't make me feel any better either, becase we all know that I like an OPB which is driven by a decent extent by AVERAGE (guys need to hit to be good offensive players, not just walk and hit the ocassional homer). If you want to compare this to anything, compare it to Konerko randomly having that one season where he sucked horrificly and everyone thought randomly that his career ended (that season was a total outlier but I remember how scared to death everyone was cause he had just signed that contract and he was so god-awful; hell, even as bad as he was that year, I think Swisher/Paulie/Thome have been even worse this year (god they have sucked). At least Paulie has the hand as an excuse (and he's been driving the ball well since his shot, which is a good sign, even though the hits haven't necessarily consistantly fell) and Thome seems to at least be going the other way more.

Thankfully the Fullerton regional got the A team (Kyle Peterson, WOOT WOOT). IT sucks not hearing Harold Reynolds. The guy was always top notch at these regionals. I wonder if Robin Ventura/Tony Gwynn are going to be doing some games (the two players were pretty involved last season and I love hearing those guys in the booth).

Swisher looked good the past couple games (didn't see yesterdays). I should say good is a relative term and means it looked like he was coming out of his funk as he was hitting the ball with some authority and had a much less severe upper cut in his swing. I have faith in him coming out of this but there is no denying that he has been every bit as bad as Thome/Konerko. The only bright spot is that he's actually been surprising defensively in CF. Still, aside from giving him a couple days off (and that really depends on what Walker/Ozzie are seeing, if they are working on certain things with him (Walker to a greater extent) and that he feels its progressing nicely and he's getting closer, I say keep him out there; if he's back in a rut, than give him a couple days off where Walk is just spending s***loads of time with him, in addition time for Swisher to just completely relax. But you can't just bench this guy and you can't compare this situation to Brian Anderson's situation. Swisher has a track record which includes major league success where as Anderson never did. Anderson also wasn't getting on base at a semi respectable clip (and no, that doesn't make me feel any better either, becase we all know that I like an OPB which is driven by a decent extent by AVERAGE (guys need to hit to be good offensive players, not just walk and hit the ocassional homer). If you want to compare this to anything, compare it to Konerko randomly having that one season where he sucked horrificly and everyone thought randomly that his career ended (that season was a total outlier but I remember how scared to death everyone was cause he had just signed that contract and he was so god-awful; hell, even as bad as he was that year, I think Swisher/Paulie/Thome have been even worse this year (god they have sucked). At least Paulie has the hand as an excuse (and he's been driving the ball well since his shot, which is a good sign, even though the hits haven't necessarily consistantly fell) and Thome seems to at least be going the other way more.

LETS GO TITANS!!!!

There is a lot of talk that at the end of the next trip for the Rockies that they will probably open up the gates and have a bit of a firesale. People in the Colorado media have reported that guys like Atkins and Holliday will likely be available (IIRC, Holiday is either a FA at the end of this year or next year). However, I honestly don't see how you can make that sort of deal, unless you plan on including Swisher and prospects in a trade for someone like Holliday (with the ROckies wanting Swisher, knowing that this is a fluke and that his contract is very affordable, etc) and the Sox upgrading getting a legit middle of the order masher (with a plan of signing him to an extension, knowing that other guys are going to come off the books). You are obviously taking a bit of a chance on any Colorado player since you never know how impacted there stats are by the Coors experience, but Holliday has been pretty good on the road as well. He is on the DL currently. The one issue with this move is that the Sox will now have a hole in CF (since Holliday is a corner outfielder) so the deal would have to be semi-interesting (in the sense that the Sox would still have to move another one of there bats/players so Anderson can start or some other guy can be acquired to play CF). Again, pure speculation on my part, but I'd have no problem going after a guy like Holliday to stick in the middle of the order. Not saying the Sox have the ability to get him, which is why any trade for a guy like that will likely involve the dealing of some of your better or more highly thought of players (this could include guys like Swisher/Konerko/Thome who are struggling but I think teams know they have proven themslves and as a result these guys still have some trade value, ableit not as much as any of them did when they were last performing well, which for most of these guys was at least a year ago).

QUOTE (JDsDirtySox @ May 31, 2008 -> 10:36 AM) I know what you mean... I am just thinking Smoak and Wallace Offensively. I just think Wallace is a better athlete... better speed IMO. I just think Wallace is very underrated. I think he is a better hitter than Alvarez too. The one thing with Wallace is that he's going to have to really work every off-season to make sure he keeps the speed he has (because he does have good speed for a corner infielder, despite his large torso). He dropped a significant amount of weight this past year and hopefully when he gets drafted he will stay serious (I see no reason he wouldn't as I've never read anything which has questioned his work-ethic) and continue to stay in shape and keep those pounds off (because as long as he's able to do that, he should be able to rake and he should move up the latter very quickly). 2 weeks ago, I would have had nothing to do with Wallace. Now, if the Sox are going to take a bat and Skipworth/Smoak are gone (I'm already assuming Alvarez and Crow/Matsusz (The two pitchers I'd have no problem taking are gone) than I'd have no problem going the Wallace or Beckham approach (Wallace is the much safer pick, Beckham could fill a tougher position but offensively I would be stunned if Beckham ever hit like Wallace did at a major league level (that isn't a knock on Beckham either).

Brian Jordan is terrible. I learned today that the 1 seeds have all the pressure in the regional and that the #4 and #5 seeds have no pressure. No s*** Brian, the 5 seeds are the guys who are already out on the golf course (ie, the rest of division 1 baseball teams who didn't make the tourney). The insights he adds are also terrible. I have identified a guy i like on Ole Miss, this Henry kid has legs and a nice swing that uses all fields. Solid body type and he could be a nice pickup (I have no idea what year he is or if he is even a prospect, but he's looked good to me). Good lord is he fast.

Woot Woot...Fullerton did the smart thing, started a nobody (no starts on the season) and he went out and through a complete game shutout (this is key, because it keeps the main guys in your rotation available for the rest of the regional) and the offense did its job to win 11-0 against Rider. Much tougher challenge tonight against preseason #1 UCLA. This is the 2nd straight year the Titans and UCLA will face off in a Regional. In the losers bracket I'm assuming Virginia will take on Rider. Lets go Titans. FSU was shut-out by Bucknell (HUGE game because FSU has a great offense). Mizzu made a mistake in my mind going with Crow on Friday. Unless they have plans to start him if they need to in a game on Monday, as they have a good enough #2, imo, to go after Ole Miss and beat them (or at least if your playing to win the regional and not just one game, they should have taken that approach).

QUOTE (watchtower41 @ May 31, 2008 -> 08:43 AM) Neither.... David Price is gonna blow both of these NL guys away when the Rays call him up. Price is the best collegiate pitcher to come out since Prior and he's definately dominated in his first two pro starts of the season (albeit in the minors). The key is that he's past whatever arm tightness he had in spring which pushed his pro debut back. The guy has tremendous stuff and more importantly has a good head on his shoulder and advanced command for someone his age. If healthy, he has the rare ability to come up to the majors with very limited minor league work (much like Prior was able to) because of that combination of stuff, poise, and command. I can only hope he doesn't end up having the same sort of injury issues Prior ended up having (as much as I hate getting beat by a good pitcher, I absolutely love seeing good pitchers pitch and if they aren't on the Sox so be it, I still love seeing the quality of the game get better and better and right now baseball has a tremendous crop of pitching on the horizon (some of which is already dominating at the major league level).

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ May 30, 2008 -> 11:24 PM) I'd bet damn good money he's not throwing through a teacup in A ball. In fact, I'd venture to guess he's getting quite a few generous calls down there that he wouldn't dream about getting in AA. His control's a bit overrated. He's one to watch, but I'd look at how he does in AA or get a velocity report before I'd even consider Carter a prospect. Not a non-prospect, just a wait-and-see minor leaguer. Similar to Cook. You can't compare Cook and Carter. Cook is very old for his level, where as Carter has done nothing but produce from the get go and isn't near as old or as experienced. I agree its a wait and see with him, but he's got a good arm. I'm working on getting some info on his exact velocity, but I know he was drafted as a projectable guy and at the time of the draft I remember hearing he was throwing in the upper 80's (ie, actually pitching in that range, so there is definately a chance he pushed that velocity up into the 90's).

I think he'll end up getting us type B compensation, which will be one early round pick (depends on what the team who signs Crede does in FA; Ie, if they sign other guys who will be Type A or B players).

QUOTE (JDsDirtySox @ May 31, 2008 -> 08:54 AM) Brett Wallace is a stud baseball player. The guy doesn't get the credit he deserves because he has a big butt... but I tell you what, I don't think you can go wrong with him. He is a good athlete. I think he is a better athlete than Smoak. If Smoak is Mark Teixeira... then I'd say that Wallace is Lance Berkman Those could be solid comparisons, with one exception. Lance Berkman was a CFer at one point in his career and he could handle all 3 outfield positions to an extent. I think offensively the comparisons are similar in the sense that both Smoak/Wallace have the ability to develop into those type of hitters and honestly, if you are going pure offense, those guys, along with Alvarez, are three guys you really be hard pressed to go wrong with. I'd still grade them out (Solely Offense): Smoak, Alvarez, Wallace

QUOTE (fathom @ May 31, 2008 -> 08:17 AM) So the Giants are obsessed with Smoak, so he's probably not going to be there. The word going around the BA office is that KW has his sights set on Beckham of Uga. KW went to see Beckham at the SEC tournament, and he stunk. I didn't know that Wallace won the Pac10 triple crown two straight seasons. He had a couple games in the SEC Tournament. If teams judged guys based on there SEC tourney, Alvarez wouldn't go top 10 either (he was freaking terrible in the SEC Tourney). Its about the body of work and the skills you possess and flash throughout the season and there is no doubt that Beckham emerged as the #2 middle infield prospect in the draft and he's definately worthy of going #8. Giants have been high on Smoak for a while, but it doesn't necessarily mean he goes there (if Alvarez slides to him, they'll grab him instead).

QUOTE (Flash Tizzle @ May 30, 2008 -> 06:35 PM) Are we talking about Bureau here, as well? I don't know much more about it so I won't continue to act as if I do. Concerning the actual story on Soxtalk, even if it were unconfirmed and uncorroborated, what's the issue? We're not a legitimate news media and shouldn't have to be held to the same standards. This is baseball, afterall. People have created threads before of imminent signings and rumors claiming some sort of knowledge most aren't exposed to. We're not revealing the identiy of CIA agents, here. And neither should anyone care about our reputation if, say, everything Bureau posted and claimed to have inside connecitons proved to be wrong. This is a problem with WSI -- they seem to believe they're more than a fan-run website. I know I'll probably experience the wrath of moderators and administrators, but I just can't feel for Bureau because he provided the information himself. Tell the WORST that could happen to Soxtalk? We exposed inside information about the restructuring of the minor league system. hahaha, that's nothing important. It'd be different in Bureau came in here claiming Williams is having an affair with some random girl. I will say one thing regarding this (otherwise I've said everything that needed to be said in the post I made). There is a major difference between me, or someone else posting something that we've heard from someone we know or that is close/involved with the organization and an actual employee of an organization posting this sort of information. And I say that with upmost respect to you Flash because I know you have the best interest of the site at heart. I also want to point out that while we may not be a media source, nor have we ever silenced anyone who wants to slam the White Sox (if you think they suck, by all means you can spew it as long as it is in an intelligent, anti spamming/trolling fashion).

I'll comment on this subject one last time. When this item was initially posted, we did our dilligence and went to sources to confirm the validity to the extent we could. We did exactly that and determined that what was being posted was to be considered reasonable (or as reasonable as anything can be which is confirmed through online intermediaries). However, as things progressed it became clear that the information posted could lead to larger issues (none, specifically related to Soxtalk). However, based on numerous discussions (not just amongst admins/mods mind you) we deemed it appropriate to remove such stuff from public information in order to do our best to try and clean up a mistake which was made (note, that we did all things to the extent to insure that no matter what, Soxtalk performed no innapropriate actions). The fact of the matter is that while I run this site to discuss Sox baseball and thrive on being the best community out there which at times breaks newsworthy stories well in advance of the national media(because we have a lot of people here who have an ear to someone close to the organization or in the organization), there are other things that are more important. And in certain instances, that includes the jobs of the people who have helped out or provided us with outstanding information. Bottom line, Soxtalk's position is that there are certain things greater than baseball and while what was said was said and was in motion, we deemed it appropriate to try and protect to our best extent the long term consequences of said actions in our attempt to do what we could to protect the "source". I will also make one comment regarding Cheat's Blog. We simply made a request, no strong-arming no nothing. I won't get in the details of the request but nowhere did we demand anything, we solely stated our reasoning behind our actions and that the person concerned wanted us to reach out (since they did not know who ran the blog). I'm fully aware that Cheat's blog is his business and I completely respect his decision. I disagree with the way he handled the situation (ie, throwing Soxtalk under the bus even though the information would have never been out there without Soxtalk, nor did I ever have to provide any additional information I provided him with regarding the situation) but I'm more than willing to take such heat for trying to protect a poster. It all goes back to the basics that Soxtalk was established under and I've always felt we've done our best to ensure that every member here has an enjoyable experience.

Someone refresh me who Annie is? Is that the one little girl who is nice to Ben?

QUOTE (WhiteSoxfan1986 @ May 30, 2008 -> 01:14 PM) Agree. Scherzer has a good chance of ending up in the bullpen. Lets not get crazy here. Scherzer has a great fastball, good command and multiple good pitches. The only major question-marks around him are related to his delivery and the amount of stress he puts on his arm. If he stays healthy there is absolutely no reason he will be pitching anywhere but one of the top 3 spots in a teams rotation.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 30, 2008 -> 11:34 AM) I still wouldn't be shocked if Rays take Alvarez. He put on a show during the Team USA tournaments last year, and those games were played in front of a ton of Rays execs. At the time, I was told they would take him with the first pick. I know he's fallen a bit since then though. The big thing is he hasn't looked near as compact this year. I still believe Alvarez is as close to a lock to be an all star as you can get from a draft pick (Smoak is the other guy I'd make this case about). To a lesser extent I feel similar about Wallace having an extended career as an above average hitter. In Crow's case I'm less certain about his long-term future, but I have little doubts that if he's healthy that he'll have an above average career with an upside of being a #1 or #2 (more likely #2 imo, but a lot can happen in the future). In Posey's case, he'd probably be the guy in the draft I'd peg as having the potential to be the best all around player (with Beckham being close, but more risk involved with Beckham, imo). Alvarez hammate injury definitely had an impact and he's still been solid this year, but nowhere near as productive as he has in the past (although every scout knows the tools he has).

QUOTE (Tony82087 @ May 30, 2008 -> 12:30 PM) Lets go bigger... How did a large ship like The Black Rock end up in the middle of an island? How is that possible, unless the island landed ON TOP of the boat??? Holy s***, you may damn well be onto something. In fact, that must be how it crashed, that boat was randomly sailing and bam, island dropped on it.

I don't know if I'd take Crow first. He has some potential mechanical issues that have scouts concerned. I do think he's the most complete pitcher in the draft though. Beckham is a better prospect imo, but I still say I'd take Buster Posey at 1. In the case of Matsuz (USD), I think he's a very good pitcher as well (saw him pitch a couple games last year) but he doesn't quite have the plus plus stuff that Crow has. That said, he has a very good build and mechanics and again, he should be a quick riser. However, I have more concerns that Matsuz could turn into more of a Jeremy Sowers type (who just isn't able to get bye since he doesn't have a true "dominate" pitch and if I'm taking a guy in the top 5-10 spots, I want a guy with at least a plus pitch).

QUOTE (dasox24 @ May 30, 2008 -> 12:03 PM) That's a girl? I was going to say the same thing. And the whole Jack Osbourne reference, classic. Personally I could give two s***s if there were pecking, if it was full blown, get a room type makeout than they should have been asked to stop (just as a male/female couple should be asked the same as well).

Scherzer has more risky mechanics and is older. I'd take Kershaw and its not even debatable, imo.