Chisoxfn

QUOTE (29andPoplar @ May 31, 2008 -> 12:34 PM) Wise is being sent out today, isn't he? I don't see any reason why he wouldn't be. The next roster move will either be the acquisition of a 2nd baseman (Kenny is obviously wanting to get a legit top of the order hitter and unless he plans on moving Swisher for a different CF (Which isn't going to happen) 2B is about the only spot he can do that (or if he has plans to trade OC, which despite this big blow-up, I'd be stunned if the Sox dumped him). Plus I continue to say that OC will be exactly what the Sox expected out of him by seasons end (he hasn't been nearly as bad as some people have indicated, in fact, most defensive matrix/ratings have him as the 2nd best defensive SS in baseball this year). I know its hard to imagine, but obviously Uribe has the ability to do somethings OC can't do (but no one else, aside from Furcal could have done those things anyway) and OC can do a heck of a lot more at the plate on the paths. The other potential move I see happening at some point is Adam Russel being added to the pen. The Sox brass really likes this guy and I believe they feel he can develop into an upper echelon set-up man at some point in his career. Wasserman has been better as of late, but if he at all falters back to his first few outings, I wouldnt' be shocked to see Russel up.

QUOTE (daa84 @ May 31, 2008 -> 01:32 PM) granderson, carmona (but laffey has been better anyways), howie kendrick, aybar, Wasn't Arod out for that series against the Yanks?

The NL has horrible depth, but when I look through the all star ballots I think they'll have the better "all star" team. Heck, I still can't figure out whats going wrong with the Dbacks (they are much better than they've played as of late) and the Dodgers are in need of a middle of the order bat, but aside from that they are a pretty complete ball-club (albeit they have had there offensive struggles). The NL Central is a poor division and realistically the only team with the talent to go with the Cubs is the Brewers, who have a manager that shouldn't be managing (Yost has done a horrid job). The fun team to watch in that division is the Reds, who have a bevy of young, top notch talent coming up and what looks to be the makings of a pretty solid rotation (even though Harang/Arroyo haven't been as good as they have been in years past). Cuetto has shown he's still very raw, but the stuff is there. Homer Bailey really isn't even close to the prospect he once was. In fact, if I could compare him to anyone it would be Gavin Floyd (ie, a one time, premiere prospect who really had a bad major league debut and has continued to see his stuff decline since than). Who knows if Bailey turns it around because he has the god given ability, but you got to wonder what the heck has really happened to him.

Leadoff double, lets go Mizzu. I freaking hate Miami. I should say, a leadoff two base error (terrible play by Miami's 3rd baseman as that was as easy a play to 3rd as it gets).

For anyone with the U, I highly recommend watching the Mizzu/Miami game that will start shortly. I assume Miami will have its ace going (unless they were dumb enough to start there ace in game 1 and for a 1 seed, when you play a 4, you should be able to use a lesser pitcher to win) plus they have as many top 3-4 round prospects as any team in the country (and that includes Yonder Alonso who could potentially be the Sox draft pick). Mizzu has a rock solid rotation and at one point in time I expect all three of there starters to get drafted (everyone knows about Crow, but the rest of that rotation has some talent). Offensively Mizzu isn't near as talented as Miami so they'll have to get another strong pitching performance.

If somehow Alvarez fell to the Sox, they better not be cheap. Getting that sort of prospect at 8 would be an absolute steal. I still think there are enough big money teams at the top that negotiate with Boras on a regular basis that would take there chances (that even includes the Royals, who have had good luck negotiating with Boras draft picks). I also don't think San Fran would pass on Alvarez (they have the resources to sign him).

Got off my ass and looked up the player on Ole Miss that impressed me, Jordan Henry. He's a Sophmore (not draft eligible sophmore based upon my understanding of the age rules). He was the SEC Freshman of the year last year. That season he reached safely in 62 of 65 games. He hasn't been good this season and has shown very little power (so he won't be an early round pick thats for certain, but I think he'll get drafted next year in the 10-20 round range, just my guess based on the tools he does possess, ie "SPEED"). Other guys to watch on Ole Miss are the closer Scott Bittle (who could be around in the 3rd round when the Sox are on the board, and if he is that would be a good value pick), Satterwhite (very taletned, despite posting not so impressive numbers at Ole Miss;

QUOTE (fathom @ May 31, 2008 -> 10:27 AM) Question...which of these guys are Boras clients? At the top of the draft Hosmer is the one guy who teams are scared to death about (reports are that his demands will be in the 7M range) and because of it a lot of people are projecting him to fall in the 10-25 range in the draft (even though he's a top 4 talent). Not sure if Alvarez is repd by Boras, but I don't think Wallace/Smoak/Beckham (Collegiate Version)/Skipworth/Crow/Matsuz are Boras guys (and these are the main guys that would potentially be tied to the Sox).

Knight, I agree with you in the sense that Atkins is just not a good fit. If the Rockies were interested in moving Barmes (I'm assuming that won't be the case until Troy T. comes off the DL) than I would have a problem picking him up and considering him as an option at 2B (of course my preference is for a more proven guy or one of Richar/Ramirez to flash the tools and play solid baseball while they continue to develop and get better and better). I'd rather find a way to resolve the black-hole of highly paid hitters that are struggling (ie, the Thome/Konerko/Swisher "Triangle").

The discussion in the topic, involves the Sox and whether they'd have interest, so I feel its worthy of being in PHT.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 31, 2008 -> 11:21 AM) Why would the Reds take a SS? They have Phillips, Frazier, and Keppinger up the middle. The Reds have been for all intents and purposes considered a lock to grab Crow if he falls. I know BA has indicated that the Reds already have pretty much given a guarantee to Crow that if he's there, they will take him.

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).