Chisoxfn

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 7, 2011 -> 12:19 PM) Not to cause a debate in the draft thread, but it still puzzles me why people think Buddy Bell is doing some fantastic job with the farm system? How could I be the judge of that. It takes time to change a team. I mentioned in the other thread that we won't know how good Buddy has done for another 2 or so years. Stuff doesn't change over night and it will take time to see if progress has really been made. Smith was the #8 ranked college catcher in this years draft. Pretty nice upside for a college senior.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 7, 2011 -> 12:14 PM) It's a little disappointing, but whatever. Outside of having a first round pick, there's no way anyone can have confidence in our scouts. We could have the best scouts in the world. I don't know. We haven't developed much. I have a lot of faith in our development people on the pitching side though. I do like the pick of Smith (former Pitt QB who went back to baseball, supposedly has a ton of power potential but is incredibly raw). I just hate that we took 3 straight relievers early in the draft. Just reeks of cheapness to me, but whatever. Individually they all have decent stuff, its just, the value is in potential starters. http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburgh...d/s_608723.html

Not going to lie. On first glance, I really hate our draft.

Kevin Smith - Catcher - University of Pittsburg That is our next pick. They specifically mentioned they want him listed as a catcher.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 7, 2011 -> 12:01 PM) Hope so, cause his stats were really mediocre this past year. New bats. Supposedly good defense as well. Hit the ball quite well a year ago as a starter. Don't know much else. http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=...OcxK7wjLf5gv-VQ Video of Simean taking BP.

Texas takes Derek Fisher after the Sox pick. Huge value in that pick. Sox took Marcus Semien, California's shortstop. Semien is supposed to have very good speed.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Jun 7, 2011 -> 07:40 AM) That's what I figured, but IT is pretty different from what Ive seen. I do have a ton of accounting friends whose offers are actually worse overall than those going into the industry 5 years ago (no signing bonus, salary pretty much the same, etc. Hell, the big 4 used to give signing bonuses to their interns!!). Yep. That might start back up a year from now.

QUOTE (danman31 @ Jun 7, 2011 -> 11:27 AM) I didn't care for the Johnson pick, but I agree about the Sox doing well in terms of getting guys to repeat their delivery. When I see guys that struggle with that in a scouting report, I get excited. I don't like the combination of the two relief prospect picks. Seems short sighted. Individually I don't have a problem with the players but in the deepest pitching draft in eon's we are taking safe college relievers. Haven't they learned there lessons with all of the failed college relievers they have taken in the past. Again, don't mind the players, don't like our draft strategy here, thus far. Liked our 3rd rounder more than this guy (even though he is a value pick).

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 7, 2011 -> 11:11 AM) No, I get yours, you're telling me that a guy who is drafted at #13 who becomes a major league reliever is a failure of a draft pick. I'm disagreeing with that. Drew Storen looks pretty good. Chad Cordero worked out for a while. Drafting relievers isn't always a bad thing, especially if you have a need. I prefer draft starters but in Sale's case, no one knows whether he is a starter or not, we really haven't done much develping of him at this point and the majority of that little development has been at the major league level (most likely to the detriment of his long term success). But even if Sale stays at this level in his career, he wouldn't end up being a bust. Quite frankly if you get a couple above average years out of your guy at 13, than the pick was relatively successful.

QUOTE (DirtySox @ Jun 7, 2011 -> 10:43 AM) I wonder why Noe Ramirez is still available? He isn't a sexy pick but I'd really like him. My guess is some of his injuries also could have scared teams off. Very solid pitcher and at worse case I think he profiles as a nice lefty reliever, although I think he has a shot at making it as a starter. Glad to see him nabbed though. Loved watching him at Fullerton. So far I like our day 2 picks. Some solid upside and I like Johnson. I saw him pitch once and he has good life on that slider and a good fastball. Plus, the one thing the Sox have done a good job of in there system is taking guys with control issues and help develping them. Our minor leagues have a pretty good reputation at developing and working with pitchers and helping them repeat there delivery. In fact, I've only heard very very good things about the vast majority of our pitching coaches in the minor league system.

Fathom, you don't draft guys based upon what you have in the system that much, you draft who you think is best. This guy clearly has some tools. Given this was our first pick though, I wanted the Sox to be bold and agressive. Sounds like almost everyone on there boards was gone and this was the next guy on there list or at least, this was the only position player even close to grading out at 47 on there list where as they still have a lot of pitchers grading out in the 2nd to 3rd rounds and given how deep of a pitching draft this is, the Sox felt that by taking Walker here and with what they project they can do with there next couple of picks that this overdraft was the best strategy. I like his upside and talent and i don't buy into this saying anything about Mitchell. The key to me is will the Sox organization start developing guys or not. In the next year or two we'll have a better idea since the organization has now had a few years under Buddy Bell and he supposedly put in some pretty major changes to the overall player development.

Congrats Sqwert!

It has risen a bit due to his ability to hit. But he is still something like the 60th rated prospect in his state (albeit, it is a state loaded with talent). In no way am I insinuating he is a top 3 round talent or anything like that.

You guys are seriously overreacting. But oh well.

Ozney is a quality prospect. I have no problem drafting him (as long as it is in an appropriate round).

Tough loss for Fullerton. Tip my cap to the Illini. Nick had been money all season and just couldn't do it. I was still heartbroken from Saturday's 1-0 loss to Stanford. When the matchups came up, I thought Fullerton was going to lose (of course, I thought they would lose to Stanford). Well done Fullerton. Pretty crazy out on the West with both Fullerton and UCLA going down.

Was never worried. They did a nice job pulling away in the end. Illinois should have a shot against Kstate. But they have very little chance of taking down Stanford (who is loaded with talent) or Fullerton two games in a row.

Just 116 for me. Couldn't believe I didn't know any of the Padres and had forgotten about Mr. Green.

We clearly need to start supersizing for the good of the economy.

I completely disagree. Right now the Sox have done nothing but play Dunn and now I think it comes to the point where mentally he might need some breaks. I would work on getting him into the field more but until he starts hitting confidently against righties we need to consider our useage of him against lefties and in key situations. Somehow the Sox are going to have to figure out a way to get some benefit out of him, becuase as much as I can't stand Dunn, he's a better player than this (duh). I could argue all day how valuable he really is and his OPS makes him appear more valuable than he is, but the Sox have to hope he figures it out. I would say that my biggest concern is his bat looks very slow and that is a very alarming fact because if he has no bat speed (and its a result of aging), he really will be worthless.

Plus, who knows if they've done it to other people. Might as well make em learn there lesson.

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Personally, for the sake of college baseball, I hate the new bats. No more "ping". It has really impacted a lot of natioanl programs too since power is just so far down that teams who were built on power are just getting killed (see LSU). The reality is there aren't many guys who early in there college career are going to be able to rake with regular bats. However, I understand the safety use of things and I also understand that from a talent evaluator standpoint if everyone used wood bats it would make things easier.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jun 2, 2011 -> 09:16 PM) I know Bosh hasn't played well in this series yet, but it seems like he deserves a little better than that after the series he had against the Bulls... Especially since Wade played awful in that series and they only won due to the performances of LBJ (who was huge in the 4th against the Bulls) and Bosh (who was pretty damn consistent). Haslem also played a big role as well.

Student Loan debt is 850B and growing. It actually exceeds credit card debt in this country. And from 10 years ago, the average student loan debt in this country has increased by ~54%. Pretty insane given how much more we are actually spending as a country. It is actually quite mindboggling to me that debt has increased that much and tuition costs have increased as much as they have as well (and that isn't a coincidence, imo), all in a short 10 year span. Makes you wonder what the f*** we spend our money on, given gov spending has done nothing but go through the roof.