bmags

This isn't a big slam dunk own or anything, as I still want to see a lot more out of madrigal before promoting him but at least thought its worth mentioning since people crap on him so much that Madrigal is out-OPSing Jonathan India right now and have same # of xbh (though India has 4 HRs admittedly).

Very interesting.

It's hard. For me its 1. Rutschman 2. Witt Jr. Then there's this mix of guys where I'd be "fine" with them. Vaughn, Abrams, Bleday, Bishop - I' be reasonably excited to see any of them but there is also a bit of trust needed in our front office I dont have. But I don't see any as specifically so much better than any other that its an indictment. But, yeah, Vaughn has to rake so much to be valuable. If that dude struggles at all in the minors its going to be a huge *gulp*

I'm not sure I buy Hawkins as the uber athlete in the same mold. Mitchell and Walker (its crazy that a 47th overall pick gets such hate as "a thing) were that similar mold of these guys that could be an incredible center fielders, maybe generate some pop but questionable hit tools that never turned around. Hawkins was just prodigious power in a high schooler and was a late riser. But looking around at that draft is so painful as there were so many big leaguers and difference makers. Reading comments on Hawkins profile pre-draft, it really brings to light though this idea of "is this a scouting issue or a player dev issue?" And then they did get things pretty damn right with Anderson, who would likely be a top 3 pick in a redraft. Man, there are so many reasons sox should have a completley different front office by now it is so insane they have not changed direction in 19 years.

Ha, I know, but just thought of the widespread discussion on tyrion being one of the dragon riders. I'm not sure I could stop laughing if it happened, especially if they play triumphant music as it happens.

Ha, I just had this visual of Tyrion riding a dragon down on them and it reminded me of independence day of randy quaid screaming into the blue void. People would love it.

Not that I think it would resurrect Carson Fulmers career or anything but in the offseason we heard a few things about Fulmer. One, he went to driveline, where he said he ditched his cutter because it was making his four seamer less controllable and curve worse. Basically all of his pitches were becoming his cutter. But, I don't know. He started throwing his cutter more often this year, a welcome development, but they just started to hit that more than last year. I don't know that there is anything left with fulmer to try, but he didn't really try his changes from driveline. He just can't locate. His changeup is pretty good, but he doesn't have a fastball that he can throw for strikes, and even the ones he does throw for strikes get hammered. Too much side to side not enough up down movement with him. Good luck to him, but I don't know that he'll be able to find control.

I'm so annoyed we have to deal with the negative connotations with KW being in on a guy, because Abrams is good and doesn't deserve to be treated as a "athlete pick" because two athletic (college) outfielders failed in the last 20 years.

There are two things that specifically highlight to me how this group is still worse than at this point all other teams: - re: the bolded - they have still targeted the exact same types of veterans to "fill out the team". The expectation may be lower, but that they still are attracted to these players who have almost universally performed below expectations is a huge red flag to me. I don't care if we aren't trying to win the division, every player acquisition should be made with some idea of what their productionw ill be and they should hit it or it fails. Nearly all have failed. - The other is a post balta made a while ago. Nearly all successful rebuilds had "a thing" that the org did that zigged where others zagged and found excess value. The only place I could have seen where sox did that was with relief pitchers. They specifically targeted in the draft, with excess intl bonus pool money, and in trades minor league and/or college relievers and even had quotes that fabian thought this could be the new moneyball or whatever. This has shown to be a waste of resources and the only decent one we seem to have groomed (who is bad this year) was Fry, who was a traditional starting pitcher to bullpen guy. Everything else I think is either premature or just possibly bad luck, but these will handicap the success of whatever comes of this rebuidl if we keep the same front office. Only I can fix it if they put me in charge as GM.

Exactly what I was thinking of this morning. I am not a books game of throne fan, so some stuff I'm just ignore because sorry but TV is not the same as books, it's just not possible to get the detail in without it being a Nolan film where they just explain the rules for 4 hours. But the criticism for how the show has treated the fantasy and magical elements at arms length is true, and bran, especially if it's just what it is now, is a just lazy lazy choice.

Actually I disagree with the last point, i think the jon vs. dany stuff has been foreshadowed for a long ass time. Also, I don't think Dany was trying to take Kings landing with a 45 person army, that was just a meeting to negotiate.

Ha, I'm in same boat with you. I am not mad, I'm resigned to the fate of the show and that they needed to end it because these actors and production folks need to move on and its an intense show to work on, but this was back to season 7 super sped up just get people to their plot points (after the first 30 minutes at least).

Tired of time line arguments with high schoolers. Sox took 3 college players in 2016, and carter kieboom, a high school pick, made it to the big leagues before all of em. You can't plan on the college player being up there in 3 years any more than a high schooler.

That first double was definitely a “Birmingham home run”

Tiquan Forbes just worked a 12 pitch AB for a walk

Death

Also Sox worst tendencies are spending way too much draft capital on college pitchers with low velo repertoires.

Athleticism is good.

This is where I hope additions like Lisle are focused. That he was id’d to be a college hitting coach made me happy, college programs have been doing a great job with finding good teachers and pros have been poaching them. He has the ability but needs someone to tap into his technique.

Lol

The slide feet first people aren’t here huh

Castellanos is an Abreu replacement.

Castellanos is an abreu replacement.

throw a bunch of baseballs at his feet and hope that he slips and lands on his shoulder just so, so that the tension creates an incredible whip lash that allows him to throw over 100.

I asked James Fegan for Pilkington velocity and he said he's still 87-91. Woof.