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Re: Witt Shawn (Kansas): Bobby Witt Jr is on the older side for a high school senior, as he will turn 19 shortly after the draft. Does this potentially drop his stock a bit? John (New Jersey): How has Bobby Witt's hit took looked so far this spring? Still the favorite for the Royals at 2? Matt (Chicago): Bobby Witt Jr. Obviously a great talent. There has been some negative reports on him lately. Is this more "he is not progressing and producing" or "you are on top for so long that eventually scouts nitpick and come up with false negatives." Carlos Collazo: A number of Bobby Witt comments, as always, so let's get to them here. I'll have a lot more specific information on him next week after a few calls, but I have not heard negative reports on him to this point this spring. He just got started up recently and it sounds like the same Bobby Witt. His age is a factor, but it's only one data point that teams are looking at. If there was a player with the same toolset and track record who was younger, sure, go with the younger player, but his toolset is special and no one else in this class has it. I don't think it will hurt him much at all. In my brief time doing this, I think there is definitely some "prospect fatigue" that happens with the top-end guys who scouts have seen over and over and over again. Maybe you start really get critical because you are expecting him to be the best player in the country every time you see him. That happened with Brice Turang last year. I don't think it's happened to that extent with Witt because he's hit with impact during high-level games throughout the summer and fall and his tools always stand out, whether that's offensively, defensively, or on the bases. Personally, I still think he has the highest upside in the class.

Oh, right, good point. Looks like 3/62 mill for ages 32-34 seasons. He may be able to get an additional year and 20 mil, but that's a pretty nervewrecking trade off. Tough call for him.

We don't know the cost of JD yet, he was suppressed his last go around in free agency despite productivity. If he drops off at all this year it will be used against him.

My worry is Edwin Encarnacion. Age 32 has a 150 wrc+ season, then 136, 130, 115 and he became someone you gave away pretty quickly. So you can still get some productive years but you should plan on it being between 115-130 wrc+ when you pay for him.

Man small sample but the Arcidiacano, lavine, porter, lauri, lopez lineup has an offensive rating of 124 and is plus 50(!) in only 48 minutes together.

It's actually a really nice fit with zion (PG) Lavine Porter Zion Lauri If you get a good pg (say you can make a jrue holliday work or something) that is well rounded on D and can shoot 3s, you have surrounded zion with 4 deep threats, PG/Porter can provide defensive stability (Zion himself will be good on D by end of year). That lineup would be perfect for Zion, who has a blue print in milwaukee for how to make his game work even if his shot doesn't fall right away.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/royals/2018/03/08/kansas-city-royals-anti-pornography-seminar-players-spring-training/407295002/

A lineup B lineup Leury in CF is nice to see. You'd have to pay me $100 to watch that b game. Im not sure you could put together a collection of least interesting sox players than that.

The team that makes their players watch an anti-porn video is 100% going to be the one that valorizes Heimlich as a good kid that something "unfortunate happened to for all involved" but "he's passed it"

I have always loved the nfl draft...I am having a hard time getting amped without the bears having a 1st and 2nd round picks. I like Mizzou's emmannuel hall and assume he could be there later so that would be nice.

I 100% think Dayton Moore is going to sign him in a year though.

This is always what I think about re: Heimlich. I don't think Heimlich should be in jail, he did do it as a minor and he mostly lived up to his punishment as was prescribed. I don't think that means he should be able to play in major league baseball.

I think theyve been too slow considering the bulk of college prospects they've had, especially with relievers.

His playmaking as a primary ballhandler has improved including passing and it feels like he is getting stripped less even if he still makes some bad passes out of drives. I think it all goes back to team structure. When you had dunn/portis/holliday/parker/blakeney etc with him you had a lot of guys that got the ball and took their shot, so Lavine got the ball and took his shot. They've made Dunn/Lavine combo less of a priority, and him with arc, porter, lauri, lopez they have a bunch of players that look to him when he's open, work hard setting screens for him, and he pays them back. The team core fits better now except still has no point guard and very poor bench, though I like selden/TLC but they cannot be on a line together with arc and felicio. That improves through health but also need some vets next year when we have zion.

Very fun game. I thought the same on Jimmys foul however Lavine was a bit out of control so I’m not surprised.

I am so happy with Zach Lavines progress this year.

Anderson would probably be best served if he can show plus defense at multiple positions. In our ideal world, anderson is that "surplus" piece that sox had. Even if he improves this year, his low obp and hit tool to date make him someone that you'd still target to replace even if you were good. That he's so cheap will make it unnecessary. However, I can easily imagine a good team with an infield of moncada/bogaerts/madrigal/(vaughn) with Anderson playing ss/2b/cf/lf with nice baserunning and power in late innings. But alas, now we just need him to be the best player he can be.

Definitely recommending him as a 1b/dh bat.

They had their success when the player aging curve was much different, and since free agency has become less productive the team has been unable to overcome their lack of scouting, drafting, player development and international pipeline and have become one of the worst teams of the decade.

I named recent acquisitions for teams that were in a similar spot in rebuilds, that specifically had playing time for players that they could afford to let develop in the majors, which was an asset other teams could not offer. It's not just naming examples of striking gold on a prospect a la quintana, it is comparing apples to apples where teams that could offer playing time to players that had promise but risk found decent production, while the white sox could not. None of the 2005 players are that, but especially not paul konerko I'm not sure why he is even there.

What I'm talking about has no bearing on that. The Phillies found Odubel Herrera on waivers (2015) The Reds found Scooter ganett on waivers (2017) The Brewers found Jesus Aguilar on waivers. (2017). They found decent production from Keon Broxton in a low level trade. Junior Guerra from the white sox in 2016. Obviously, famously, Max Muncy was on waivers. Other teams have been able to find decent starters, if not long term pieces, through the use of waivers, rule 5 and playing time for marginal pieces. The white sox ... lets hope Daniel Palka pans out as a possible DH.

Said it before, adjusting expectations down mine is Nick Castellanos.

For me it's not about need or anything like that. It's just being scarred from sox drafting these college bats that don't improve as they progress, just stay the same so they end up in AAA as less productive versions of their college selves. But there is a whole lot of vaughn that screams he will be an outlier, just nervewrecking there.

I just look at it differently. Hahn has had a really bad record of using free agency to get productive mlb players at any price point, compared to other GMs. This was another offseason where he could show their scouting or decisionmaking has improved, even in looking for short term pieces or even using it to find undervalued assets. It also lets the same team (front office) off the hook of the bigger picture. We had 2 years of major league playing time available to find a power hitting first baseman. 2 years to find an innings eater that isn't great but can give you 180 ip and a 4.5 era. 2 years to find versatile, decent outfielders. These are roles you should be able to find through good scouting and playing time. 2 years with roster space where you can hunt for players through waivers, free agency, rule 5 drafts, trades and of course internal player development. In that time they provided it to: Dylan covey, Miguel Gonzalez, Hector Santiago, Manny Banuelos, Carson Fulmer, Wily Garcia, Daniel Palka, Nicky Delmonico, Avisail Garcia, Alec Hansen, Matt Skole, Casey Gillaspie, Ryan Cordell, Charlie Tilson, and Leury Garcia. Of that group, the sox did not find any they were confident enough to give average production to, and needing to rely on free agency and trades to provide short-term, average production on the team because they could not do it through their own scouting and development. In similar places, other teams have found at least decent albeit replaceable players. And while the sox have had a decent record of dumpster diving for relievers, they instead felt the need to pay market rate for 2 middle relievers after spending considerable capital to acquire lots of minor league and college relievers saying this was the new moneyball. So basically, I think this offseason was indicative of a longstanding Hahn-era problem of not being able to squeeze greater value from marginal parts, and always feeling like he has to pay market rates for average production from multiple positions, to the point you end up with a higher team salary than you'd expect from the players on it.