NorthSideSox72

I like that Coats is getting some time in center field, with Thompson up in Chicago.

Sucks about Adolfo and Brennan both getting hurt. Love what the Z's are doing in AZL.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 04:21 PM) Rich = greedy asshole! Poor = s***ty with money! Can't win with you guys. Just to be clear, when I said those net worths seemed low to me, I didn't mean I thought candidates needed to be higher. I meant I had a hard time believing they were actually that low. I don't care how much money they have, as long as they haven't been bankrupt or something.

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 09:03 PM) Brantly & Coats both with HRs. Coats sure is pretty impressive. Davidson 1-4, 2 RBIs, 3 Ks Anderson/May 0-4 Delmonico 0-2 BB Barons getting destroyed Trey/Engel 0-4 Peter/Alvarez 1-4 Brennan left early with a hand injury. Interesting, Dykstra coming out of the pen tonight. Almonte must of bounced him from the rotation. Yikes, multiple injuries last night. Also, Brennan has been hurt every year he's been in the system. QUOTE (oldsox @ Aug 6, 2015 -> 06:10 AM) If a top draft pick had those stats, there would be wet dreams all over the place. Cooper?? In nobody's Top Anything. But if there is a trade looming, the other team will want Cooper thrown into the deal. Cooper is on the radar, and he certainly deserves a promotion. But you have to take into account the full picture. Yes, his stats have been absurd, which is why he should be promoted and challenged. But he's also a 23-year old reliever in A-ball. And more important than that is, unless he's made significant additions to his stuff (which is certainly possible), when I saw him in May, it was clear this was a guy who could see success in the minors but likely wasn't a major leaguer. His fastball was 89-91, with some sink but no other special characteristics. His offspeed pitches were a change and curve that were both just OK, though he was able to release them and they look identical until near the plate - that's his "trick" if you will. I've seen some reports his FB is a couple clicks faster now (unconfirmed readings of the stadium gun, which I'd be skeptical of), and apparently he now has some pitch in the upper 80s that likely is a cutter. If those are both true, then he becomes interesting, but still not T30-worth in my view. Not quite anyway. Now if he keeps doing this in A+ and AA, moving up quickly to get a little closer to age-appropriate, that changes things. More so, if we (or someone else) can get a live look at see what may have changed, that has an effect too. While the stuff is different, the results and age-for-level are very reminiscent of Dan Remenowsky (though Rem was even more dominant in the lower levels). Rem never succeeded above AA. I was fooled on him for a few years too, until I got to know his stuff better. Even when I was ranking him probably too high in the back of the teens, he was just scraping into the 20s in what was a weaker system at the time.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 03:28 PM) They have to hit on both guys...or the Sox are in major trouble with Hawkins fading. What Hawkins does has nothing to do with the other two. I don't understand the connection you are trying to make here.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 03:01 PM) Fulmer isn't Carlos Rodon though. People need to stop thinking like this. I like him. I trust the Sox on pitching. But Fulmer isn't a sure thing to be a starting pitcher long-term. Nor is Anderson a sure thing to be a major leaguer of any kind. He's still pretty raw. He's developing, but he's far from a sure thing either. And neither, in my view, is as good as Rodon was this past offseason when he was #1. For the record, I voted Anderson over Fulmer, but I can certainly see the Fulmer argument.

I'm sort of curious about O'Malley. I don't know a ton about him though. It just seems like with Hillary in the race, the rest of the Dems are all staying away. I really hope a couple younger names jump in late here and add some more choices to the field. Not a big fan of Hillary Clinton.

So I'll post the same thing in here I did in the GOP thread. What candidates interest you, at this point? The Dem field isn't as crowded, but perhaps has more variety. What it seems to lack is fresh blood though, mostly. Who do you like or support in the Dem field so far?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 12:39 PM) According to PitchFX Fangraphs, he's throwing the fastball a little more than last year (60%, which is right around league average), but both his fastball and his slider are coming in as more effective pitches. It also thinks he's throwing a changeup 5% of the time, but I always wonder how accurate that is (could just be classifying his lower-velocity sliders). His curveball still shows as a weak, below-average pitch, but he's throwing it 15% of the time as well. That would be good news for him on the slider. The CB and CH are still weak pitches though. He was a real prospect the team gave up, no doubt.

Two trips this month, open to thoughts... --Montreal on business next week, most of the week. Would probably have time in the evenings but not during the day. --3 days hiking (with a Navajo guide) in Canyon de Chelly (Arizona). This one's been on my bucket list for a long time.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 11:39 AM) Alright parents, I need some ideas for a family vacation in the lower 48. I have a 3.2 year old, so there needs to be some very kid-centric things to do. We've done driving trips to Hilton Head and Disney/florida beach house the last two summers. I want to go west and camp, but I don't think my son is old enough for that yet. Sadly a beach and water is the biggest draw, and some kind of theme park is a good way to pass the time. Any other coastal destinations that people would recommend? We thought about Myrtle Beach, but I can't really tell why that place is so special. There doesn't appear to be anything THAT amazing there. We're debating another Disney/florida trip, but I feel weird about it since we just went last year. But he had such a blast last time (and my wife and I enjoyed it too) that it would be a guaranteed fun trip. Depends a lot on time of year. If it's August, heck you can find places on the Great Lakes that could be fun with beaches but other things to do as well. Like Put-in-Bay (Lake Erie off Ohio shore), Door County (WI), Saugatuck/Douglas (MI), etc. If you are going fall or winter and want something tropical I'm not as much help as we've rarely done that yet with our kids, but maybe one of the barrier islands in Texas if you want something different?

QUOTE (southside hitman @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 09:58 AM) http://www.chicagonow.com/future-sox/2015/...ash-to-victory/ Recap posted. Great game from the Dash, meh otherwise. Fulmer looking good, Clark gaining steam. Engel and Michalczewski hitting. I like all that.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 10:31 AM) If we had so much pitching talent that a guy who just shut down the Orioles and has a 2.66 ERA in 47 innings so far this season is only ranked 13-15 in our system, we should probably have one of the best minor league systems in all of baseball. It doesn't work that way, and I'm pretty sure you know that. Looking at Bassitt's peripherals and advanced metrics, he's been lucky. He's a good talent, but unless he's done something to work in a batter change and breaking pitch (which maybe he has), he's a reliever or a doomed starter. Not because he can't handle the workload, but because he is so heavily reliant on a (very good) sinking mid-90s fastball and plus control. The rest of his repertoire lacks movement and command, again, unless he improved it.

QUOTE (Jose Paniagua @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 10:15 AM) Is it unanimous over at Futuresox that Micah Johnson can't become a CF? I've seen the twitter account mention this (and it's mentioned at this link, and i'm reading the link within too) but I'm wondering how completely that belief is held. Basically that his arm cannot handle OF? The link on the list goes to an article I wrote. I know at least some of the other writers feel the same, but I've never asked if it was ALL of them. If you read that article, you'll see the reasons.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 5, 2015 -> 09:01 AM) Where would Chris Bassitt and Rangel Raveo be ranked? Yes, I do realize Chris is over the 50 ip limit for consideration overall. But just for argument's sake. Would he be ranked behind E. Johnson, who's also ineligible? Ravelo missed most of this season due to injury, though now he's hitting in his typical fashion (more or less). He might be right around the same level as last time he was on our list, around 10-12 ish. Bassitt, maybe a little lower than that, but the key questions with him were always about breaking pitches, and what he could do with LHH. I'd need to know more about what, if anything, he's done there with his stuff. He could be higher, or not.

A few fun facts about the list that we didn't include in the post because it was already so long... --There was significant argument about 1 vs 2, which hasn't happened in a few years --The upper-middle of the list, from about 4 through the teens, is pretty weak, relatively --The lower third or half of the list is possibly the strongest we've seen in a long time, and a whole lot of players who missed the list could have easily been in that back end --The increased spending in LatAm the last few years is starting to bear fruit, as some key signees are making into the back end or just missing it - which is part of why there is so much depth there --The lack of 2nd and 3rd round picks this year, along with offseason trades like the one for Shark, are significant parts of why the middle is so weak this cycle

Give it a read. It's long (our rankings lists always are), but it is also one of the biggest and best things we do. We had seven writers participate in the process this year, and to all of them I say THANK YOU. If you're going to read something from FutureSox, these rankings lists are one of the few must-reads. So now that the full list is out, tell us what you think!

QUOTE (knightni @ Aug 4, 2015 -> 02:16 PM) I enjoyed it. The production values weren't high quality though. It looked small-budget. I can't recall every scene, but I thought the church shooting thing was done very, very well. Its very hard to get something on that scale, right.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 4, 2015 -> 04:18 PM) Presidential candidates' net worth, data from here trump 10B fiorina 59M chafee 50M clinton 21.5M bush 20.5M carson 10M santorum 5M huckabee 5M webb 4.6M christie 4M cruz 3.1M perry 3M jindal 2.7M kasich 2.5M paul 1.3M graham 1M rubio 443k sanders 330k walker -71k (???) A lot of those numbers seem far too low to me. Something odd there. QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 4, 2015 -> 05:21 PM) FOX NEWS DEBATE LINEUP 1 Trump 2 Bush 3 Walker 4 Huckabee 5 Carson 6 Cruz 7 Rubio 8 Paul 9 Christie 10 Kasich Interested in watching Kasich. But it really is sad that the candidates numbered 1, 5 and 6 in the current polling aren't even real candidates.

Recap posted. Adolfo returns, Intimidators absolutely shelled, Anderson with another big day.

Thanks for all the responses, guys. Good to think about some of these names. Last cycle I was a fan of Huntsman (who by the way was the guy closest to Reagan's issue stances, despite protestations from the rest of the field), more so than Obama or any of the GOP'ers, but he wasn't going to win. If Kasich has a similar profile in some ways, plus he can carry one of the 2-3 most key swing states and might be able to actually get the nomination, that sounds intriguing. I'll have to research him a bit, I know very little about him. The number of lunatics in the field is disturbing. I don't mean Bush or Paul or really the majority of them - I am not talking about issue stances per se. I mean guys who just seem to do nothing but throw temper tantrums - Trump and Cruz chief among them. I can't see how anyone would vote for those two, as they clearly have no actual interest in governing. That's not about issue stances.

So I haven't been in this thread in a long, long time. I am curious about the GOP'ers in here, what their thoughts are on two things... 1. Is there anyone here who supports Trump? 2. What candidate(s) for the GOP nomination (there are 17 in the field from what I last read) do you like so far?

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Aug 3, 2015 -> 01:16 PM) Is Saladino still eligible? I'm assuming it's Luis Martinez that isn't on your list. Saladino is still eligible, yes.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Aug 3, 2015 -> 01:11 PM) Here's my guess at the Top 15: 1. Tim Anderson SS 2. Carson Fulmer RHP 3. Frankie Montas RHP 4. Spencer Adams RHP 5. Micah Johnson 2B 6. Trey Michalczewski 3B 7. Tyler Danish RHP 8. Micker Adolfo OF 9. Courtney Hawkins OF 10. Jacob May OF 11. Jordan Guerrero LHP 12. Chris Beck RHP 13. Trayce Thompson OF 14. Matt Davidson 3B 15. Luis Martinez RHP I'm assuming that these guys missed and I'm intrigued by some of them: Amado Nunez, Jhoandro Alfaro, Keon Barnum, Andre Wheeler, and Michael Ynoa You've got a guy in your T15 there that didn't make our T30, let alone 15. So you're missing a guy.

QUOTE (LDF @ Aug 3, 2015 -> 01:03 PM) and here is my point, no one will always agree and as the sox continue to get more players in the systems, it is going to be extremely hard to get a great feel of the prospects and where they rank. you guys do a great job just introducing those prospects to us, the other group of fans. many thanks for that info. psst ..... when is the 30-45 coming out???? Funny you say that. Historically, we've done a pair of articles after each Offseason list, looking at the players who just missed - we call then Next Wave. With so many interesting names just missing, we're going to do them after the Midseason list this year too. Sometime in the next week or two.