bmags

nowhere really, but the instructional league has largely died b/c those orgs now just run their own training at same time with all their prospects. The benefit here is the competition, but getting more time with your prospects with a coordinated set of instructoin is definitely being done more in top orgs.

Yeah I think the article was updated.

Here is my 1-sentence review of every new birmingham player for the uninitiated: Colson Montgomery - Literally is Joe DiMaggio Bryan Ramos - The nerds pick for sleeper bat in the system Luis Mieses - The man has hit more doubles than 98 albert belle but in a good way Christian Mena - Throws a large number of pitches for strikes but yet to overpower with anyone Wes Kath - He either hits the ball hard or Ks with a beautiful lefty stroke of air DJ Gladney - see above but with a righty stroke Wilfred Veras - A large man who has had a great single-a campaign but is gonna be bat only driven for rest of career so is likely our future right fielder Kohl Simas - Dominating first stint with rumors of velo uptick but went on IL and has faded since returning (also bills son) Jared Kelley - Finally putting longer outings and finding some swing and miss but still wildly inconsistent Norge Vera - Dominating stuff but has had so few innings last 3 years and he's already probably near shut down Andrew Dalquist - Invented "the dalquist" which is 2 IP, 10 hits, 14 BBs, 1 k Adam Hackenberg - Hit 2 home runs on day 1 and that's enough good will to get you through tye year Tyler Osik - hit monster, late round pick who is likely a bat only guy but hey, probably our future catcher then

Yeah, makes a lotta sense the whole Neslony, Dedelow movement though. Some slim shot left for them. Simas is headed there as an NDFA, so clearly ellis idn't there yet proving it.

well on one hand it's true Fields was not as ready as we all hoped out of college but on the other hand Chris Simms was horribly, horribly wrong about Kellen Mond.

BTW that article is really good. there is some amazing insight from Colson. Pretty much the exact type stuff you'd hope to read from a player that was multi-sport. Now getting the information and drills to specialize, and his exceptional athleticism and competitiveness pay off:

I think Kanny is the near drowner and W-S is the skeleton. Kanny at least gets some recent draft boys. I don't even want to see what Winston-Salems roster is. Can they even sport a team? And Charlotte benefits from some pretty real MLB roster guys who the sox can't bring up because of our Corner Infield redundancy and terror at using young prospects. Sosa and Burger a nice 1-2 punch.

hmm, maybe Birmingham in august/sept is cheapest.

Did getz think about how this kinda ruins our minor league watch party experience? Also, getz showing 4d chess by having none of our affiliates remotely competitive so there is no issue destroying any playoff hopes for the local owners.

maybe he doesn't have a next game.

Interesting to me because Birmingham seems like the most bespoke affiliate. You have all of our Carolina affiliates, and obviously a home base of AZ. But you have the post-draft instructs in bham, and now this. If it's not a clear indicator where they believe their best staff is, too, i'm not sure what is. And I'd agree. When we first started the year all of us were agape at the awful roster in bham. Yet, they've been largely as competitive as any other with a roster full of MILB free agents, while also launching their few hitting prospects to the moon in colas, sosa, rodriguez. I am mostly a fan of this but I like more the idea of letting players get a taste of their likely next stop, including maybe figuring out housing.

Yeah I actually don’t mind this. Similar moves done with Sosa/Rodriguez if memory serves. He was certainly going to start in AA next year, I like giving him a taste of it to know what to work in over offseason.

Right, he finished 90% of his ABs with a ball in play. We’ll see if the 17 homers aren’t just off mistakes he’ll see more of in AAA. But he did create some power for himself to punish mistakes, so good for him.

lol I’m happy. He’s going to be a mlb catcher. But after the last two weeks I’m prepared to be annoyed when people write him off if he’s not immediately the best offensive player on team.

Looking forward to Gabriel Rodriguez stateside next year

10 home runs on the year for Godwin bennett

Signed with Pitt, 1 yr $8 mill

gotta be the most inconsequential home run saving catch of all time.

One thing I just remembered about yesterday that made me laugh is that we actually had a home-run saving catch lol

I still think this is a better roster than 15-17. With no Roquan, it's very 17-esque, but he's still likely to be there imo. I think the (correct) idea that Robert Quinn will see regression has gone so far in that direction that people can just say the bears don't have a pass rusher now and everyone just nods. 2017 finished with defense as 14th in DVOA, offense 28th, ST 23rd. I think we can beat offense, Special teams rankings that year (connor barth only hit 60% of his field goals that year) and Velus looks like a good returner. Defense, even though I think our secondary is better, that line had hicks + goldman when goldman tried. but yeah our receivers in 2017 were Kendall Wright, Josh Bellamy, Dontrelle Inman, and I actually think zach miller may be an upgrade over kmet but he only played 6 games.

While somewhat encouraged by jenkins, the line still looks like a sieve on passing downs. I'd really hope borom can get beat out by Reiff. And man, please get better lucas patrick.

glad we didn't go down that road.

Right, I guess I mean the lower dollar guys that filled out the class. I don't care if they make the big leagues, but at least be competitive in A and AA so we aren't a rotation of 7-8 ERA guys.

hail DSL, one of only two winning affiliate teams. Love colson, and getting 1 top 30 prospect really is worth it, but incredibly disappointed in how little we've gotten elsewhere from the 2021 class. Maybe broadway being in AA is a success, but it's just a bunch of gas cans.

Right. And I think there’s easily a world where bears end up with worst record with certain injury luck…but I would certainly bet money even if that happened the bears wouldn’t be 32nd ranked defense.