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When soxtalk was down I decided to get some OOTP action going. Things I like about OOTP: - The irrational attachment you get to players who succeed out of nowhere (like Maikel Cleto, who became a Cy Young winner for me) Things I don't like about OOTP: - I'm terrible at it - When a prospect you like is given an attitude problem and you kinda carry it with you into real life (michael kopech) So, I read the OOTP forums. But just kinda want to check. How much do you guys actually control when you play and how often? To start season, I: - Set up minors, drop dead weight and have AI add minor league free agents - Search for any guys with 60+movement or 65+ speed and usually add some of them to minor league FAs - Add some FAs I like Sim a month: - Find that 80% of my team is injured and will start the beginning of soon being 25 games udner - Find all of my prospects are failing hopelessly - Try to make trades where the computer demands I give 6 45+ prospects for a 50 prospect - Get bored and then just start swapping 1-1 major leaguers for major leaguer Sim to draft: - Think I draft reallyg reat for high character, high contact or control in pitchers early, high power and speed and movement later. - Sign them - Cut dead weight in minors Sim to to week before trade deadline: - Find all prospects are terrible - Major league team is 30 games under, 10 guys on DL - All draft picks are bad. This is pretty typical for me I'm wondering if I hit the limits of amount I can actually spend time on the game vs amount required to actually be good at it.

I'm pretty stoked. That offseason was probably as brutal as I'd expect, but still terrible to go through. What did we get to talk about? Machado trade we didn't want to happen and didn't Moustakas signing we didn't want to happen and didn't Ohtani signing we wanted to happen and didn't The exciting Luis Avilan and Soria trade that lasted about 3 hours and then I often forget about Signing wellington castillo A rule 5 draft where we didn't end up with anyone. Brutal. Last year we had the prospect of trading to make winter fun even into april. Now we have baseball. A draft. Prospects knocking on the door. Some incredibly fun teams have been assembled. This is gonna be awesome.

For all of them, I'd just say look at Kopech. Last winter I would have been right here saying he's a late 2019 guy because he had so much work to go building up his arm. He then had a dominant, healthy year that has him in AAA and knocking on door of majors really at any moment. If any of them have a healthy and good year it will vault them.

QUOTE (Dunt @ Mar 29, 2018 -> 06:44 AM) I love Madrigal's profile, but I can understand why people dont. There are no real weaknesses to his game and I feel most confident that of all the hitters in this draft, he will be the biggest lock to hit in the majors. Moncada is the 2B of the future for the Sox, but I would have no problem drafting Madrigal and, at the very worst, having him try manning SS or trading him for other pieces. Right. Presumably people will buy his bat if we draft him, and considering the DeJong and Senzel experiments, people should be more open than ever to try guys back at SS (esp. with shifting)

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Mar 29, 2018 -> 08:11 AM) Saw a lot of Pinto last year (I work for the AAA affiliate where he played). The breaking stuff never seemed to fool anyone. He gave up a lot more contact than you'd expect given his velocity. Also worth noting that our park is well-known for suppressing homeruns. Hope will be they can have him focus on relief and find a way to give him something like a cutter.

QUOTE (knightni @ Mar 28, 2018 -> 03:32 PM) Chubb Nelson Edmunds Smith Ward Who's the #8 guy? Fitzpatrick possibly there too

Thanks for posting. Interesting to see the shakeout of players, but their comments under their picks for the sox were pretty off-base. Would sox fans actually hate madrigal? If he's good you'll find a place for him. We had a pretty good view of how the championship series teams were able to just find spots for best players on field int he last playoffs.

HR props: Abreu 30.5 Over Davidson 24.5 Under (i am not confident he doesn't tank and gets sent down) Moncada 20.5 Under Garcia 17.5 Over, barely Anderson 15.5 Over, barely Castillo 15.5 Under (just hoping he's not out for season by may like our recent C acquisitions)

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Mar 28, 2018 -> 03:46 PM) I'll go: Moncada Avi Abreu Delmonico Davidson Castillo Anderson Sanchez Engel Which is actually same as flavum. Ideally, though, I'd like to see: Moncada 2B Avi RF Abreu 1B Delmonico DH Castillo C Cordell LF Anderson SS Sanchez 3B Engel CF But sadly, Cordell is at Charlotte and Davidson seems to be preferred Ideally this is me: Moncada 2B Avi RF Abreu 1B Delmonico DH Castillo C L Garcia LF Anderson SS Sanchez 3B R Cordell CF

Seems like sox were pretty into the Moncada/Avi 1-2 so i'll go Moncada Avi Abreu Delmonico Castillo Davidson Sanchez Anderson Engel

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 28, 2018 -> 03:25 PM) Hansen has an outside chance of being in Chicago at some point this year. Neither Cease or Dunning really do. Hansen *did*, I doubt they'd push him that aggressively considering the forearm now.

After a particularly dominant outing vs. the Cubs, Fangraph's Jeff Sullivan pointed out in this excellent article that Giolito appeared to have lowered his arm slot to 3/4ths. He compared this to when James Paxton made a similar motion before his emergence as a frontline, if oft-injured, starter. It also may have led to giolito recovering his fastball velocity, showing up with 93-95mph fastballs: https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/lets-watch-...look-very-good/ Fast forward to today, Fegan of the athletic followed up on this article (which continues to make him my favorite sox writer ever): https://theathletic.com/291143/2018/03/28/w...st-full-season/ In this, Giolito talks about how that drop to 3/4ths slot was not intentional, but natural placement after following Don Cooper's ever useful ethos of staying tall. He talked about how it has made his curve feel much more natural out of his hand and led to it being more consistent. Also talked about how his drop in stuff the last two years helped him become a better pitcher, and led to the rise of a reliable and consistent changeup that he can lean on when his curve disappears. And this great paragraph: "If asked why, Giolito would be more likely to credit “pitching with conviction” than mechanics, while acknowledging both are a factor. The conviction bit sounds like a cliché until you remember that much of pitching, and especially getting off-speed pitchers to work, is deception. When he talks about pitching with confidence, he also means eliminating the hesitance that would cause him to shorten or slow up his arm action to guide his pitches in, which acts as both a tell while also costing him sharpness and location. Now that he has keys to fall back on, Smith thinks Giolito's curve can adapt to whatever approach he's taking." I'm super pumped about Giolito, after a year of being optimistic but frankly hesitant and nervous. Stay health and take off. I can't wait until he's in the world series and we have to hear the story about how his uncle was in seinfeld for the 1000th time.

QUOTE (mac9001 @ Mar 28, 2018 -> 02:45 PM) People put way too much stock into spring training. He's got a long way to go. But I expect he'll be in AA at some point this year. I think for the prospects it's the first time a lot get to see em in person. For hitters I think it can be misleading (courtney hawkins 2015 spring training), but man, having not really seen Cease's stuff before - it was exciting.

QUOTE (ChiliIrishHammock24 @ Mar 28, 2018 -> 02:18 PM) So is Darkhorse just MORE of a surprise then? Surprise - Giolito Disappointment - Davidson Darkhorse - Engel lol

dang a lot of bears news happened.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 28, 2018 -> 01:55 PM) Bobby Thigpen is the pitching coach down there. http://www.milb.com/content/page.jsp?sid=t...amp;vkey=roster Weird, I thought it was Zaleski, which made more sense to me after some of the success he's had recently getting guys under control.

Daryl Van Shouwen just tweeted that he's reporting to W-S, which is kinda odd? He was in AAA and majors last year. I wonder if that's becasue they want a specific coach to work with him?

More from fangraphs: "Profile: Despite possessing some potential as a reliever, Ricardo Pinto was torched in his major league debut. Hitters punished his two fastballs. They posted a .407 average and .704 slugging percentage against Pinto’s 95 mph four-seamer. His 94 mph sinker was just as ineffective, allowing a .375 average and .625 slugging percentage. Fortunately, his best pitch – a plus changeup – showed well. There’s potential for Pinto to grow into a relief role, but he’ll need to substantially improve his command. When he did throw strikes, far too many of them were located middle-middle. (Brad Johnson) The Quick Opinion: Mid-90s velocity is no longer enough to succeed in the majors. Pinto needs to learn more about the craft of pitching. Fortunately, he can turn to a good changeup as a foundation." Again, will be interesting to see if our scouting of relievers has become a point of value for org. This year will be interesting after them doing a good job with Kahnle/Swarzak last year. Lots of guys in camp with an interesting pitch.

"Scouting Report Pinto is undersized but still sits 90-94 and touches 96 as a starter. He?€™s also got a straight, planeless fastball that might not play in the majors, even at that velocity, and a fringey slider. The changeup is above average and Pinto?€™s best pitch, and it could be plus at peak. Pinto throws enough strikes to start, but when I saw him mid-year with Reading I thought the stuff really started to play down after multiple times through the lineup and, without a good third pitch to which he could resort, Pinto started getting tagged. I think, if the velo ticks up in short relief stints (it was 93-96 in the Futures Game), it will give him more margin for error on the fastball and suddenly a 60 fastball, 60 changeup with a good amount strikes starts looking pretty good one inning at a time. I have him projected in the bullpen, but the present fastball grade is as a starter where I think it plays down due to a lack of movement." https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/top-33-pros...lphia-phillies/ Another guy with a good changeup, and seems from this like a decently intriguing bullpen spect

Just in time for board revival. <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8">

This year will be interesting. If this year we see some of our minor league contract guys pan out again, there are some takeaways: 1. Our pro scouting has improved and I'll be more confident when we start adding bigger pieces the next two years 2. Our investment on scouting specifically relief pitching is starting to pay off With #2, not sure if that would actually apply to the players that would perform in majors. But if that wave of Tyler Johnson, Henzman, Olson, Burr, etc etc also perform well in minors, sox may have put some valuable bullpen assets together.

What is a white sox guy at this point? Seems like we've gone big on statcast schools. We have been avoiding players with big athletic tools that lacked hitting polish. But that's a last 2 years trend. And last year all "trends" were pointing to us and Jerren Kendall. We grabbed Burger and then a bunch of good contact/power guys with little positional versatility and then college relievers. I could see madrigal fitting into this "best hitter available" mold we've ridden with, or this year we go big with athleticism to round out our minors (in both pitcher and hitter build)

I'm not that surprised by Charlotte. I think they want to avoid being forced to press up a future prospect, so they want filler guys like Volstad available for spot starts. Am surprised that they put Clarkin at AA and not Dunning. That said I bet it shakes out fairly quickly. They may have told him to get more under control while he pitches and purposely disappointed him to see how he handles. Where is adolfo? DH in W-S? I'm not against challenging Rutherford. I think he was too complacent about his failure last year and they want to show him that everything is advancing around him. Disappointed about curbelo but i bet it shakes out fairly quickly. I also think they want our catchers to be familiar with these more likely future pitchers in AA. ANd set up a AA team that can have some on field success.

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Mar 28, 2018 -> 10:09 AM) Surprise- Adam Engel, I think he will hit .250+ with 15 HR and 15 SB Disappointment: Reynaldo Lopez, his walk rate will really hurt him throughout the year Dark Horse: Nicky Delmonico, I just love this guys swing and I think he will prove to be a big part of the future. My list is similar Surprise - Engel - not even starter level, but I think similarly to Yolmer he establishes himself as enough of a hitter that he'll have a decent 4-5 year run in majors due to versatility and defense. Disappointment - Reynaldo Lopez, funny how he was the least disappointing guy in AAA last year after that 8-9 start run. But the whole "starts off looking good then hits a wall in 4th inning" just gives me the uneasy bullpen feeling. Luckily we have the space to let him keep developing. I do think he'll be lights out in bullpen. Dark Horse: Juan Minaya - he impressed me last year handling the high stress situations after probably starting year expecting just to be a rarely used reliever. I think that experience treats him well this year with pressure tamped down and he lets loose. Now org wide? Surprise - Alex Call - I don't know if it will be him, but I just feel like the injuries to robert/adolfo will allow one of the other A-outfielders to take advantage full force. So, yeah, one of Call,Fisher, Gonzalez, Booker, Dedelow...one says "I will make majors!". I should have went with basabe. Oh well. Disappointment - Trying to think of someone that would be unexpected disappointing. I'm gonna go with Gavin Sheets. His makeup is great and he was awesome at soxfest. But there is a lot of pressure for him to rake so much that he could easily fall way back this year. Dark Horse - Going with my 2016 intl FA fix...gonna take Anthony Coronado. Maybe his k rate will be super high, but I'm gonna bet on his power continuing to advance and impress people. The better pick is probably Curbelo.

I think at this point my ranking is Madrigal Mize Turang Swaggerty Mclanahan Liberatore Gorman Hankins