NorthSideSox72

Backup C is one, and it will almost assuredly be Soto. Bonifacio is a given. And now that it appears Beckham's deal is a guaranteed MLB contract (I think I was wrong on this before), he'll also be there. I don't think Saladino has a real shot, with Beckham in his way, sadly. Sanchez is also similarly blocked by Beckham, so I agree he's in Charlotte. That's your middle infield in Charlotte, and I think either one could replace Beckham if he struggles. That means Shuck, who has looked pretty good this spring on both sides of the ball and on the basepaths, gets the 4th job. I thought previously they might skip having a true 4th OF with Bonifacio on the club, but Shuck has looked awfully good and they haven't played Bonifacio much in the OF.

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Mar 16, 2015 -> 11:10 AM) I'm very pleased that Hawkins is looking composed and competent. Hopefully, he carries a lot of confidence into Birmingham. On a more immediate concern, who's with me in hoping like hell that Saladino can supplant Beckham for the last spot on the 25 man? I had originally thought that Beckham's $1.5M deal was only if he made the roster. But looking at the articles about it again, I think it's actually a true guaranteed contract. That being the case, I'll revise my earlier view that there was a chance Beckham doesn't make the team - he will make the team if healthy. That said, he may not last the season.

So three of the four #3 seeds are from the same conference (B12). Seems like something that would be very rare, I wonder if it has ever happened before.

Damn, blocked at work. Might try to put one in at home tonight.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Mar 15, 2015 -> 10:25 PM) So Vegas doesn't think that KU-NMSU is going to be a blow out and Kenpom has NMSU as a top 90 team, that could be a game to keep an eye on. NMSU likes to play disruptive, physical games, lots of slashing play. They are indeed the kind of team that can get a much better team off it's rhythm, which makes them a good upset candidate. And KU is, in my view, not a particularly strong 2-seed. I would never say a 15 has a "good" chance, but I'd say this match-up is more likely to end in an upset than the other 15v2's and maybe most or all the 14v3's.

Kinda surprised TCU isn't in this field.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Mar 13, 2015 -> 02:45 PM) Here's Future Sox top 25 prospects from only 2 years ago. Things happen. IMO unless the guy is just a stud, the rankings business is just a game where if you get one out of ten right you ride it for a while. Marcus Semien, a favorite around here was 16. Scott Snodgrass, Simon Castro, Nestor Molina, Charlie Leesman were all above him. I'm not trying to make fun of the Future Sox guys, these rankings for baseball are almost impossible, especially when you are looking at mostly junk. The two best players so far were #16 and #22. http://www.chicagonow.com/future-sox/2013/...e-sox-prospects Nothing anyone doesn't know. Pick any T25/T30 list from any org two or three years ago and you'll see some successes and some bombs. But I can't figure out why you'd come into the thread, use stats to argue a point, turn around in a later post and say you have to see the guy, then end up at none of it matters. If it doesn't matter then why are you here?

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Mar 13, 2015 -> 02:31 PM) I think you mean 152 more but the fact is rankings are opinions. Sometimes they are correct, sometimes not. Arguing whether a guy should be the 8th or 9th rated White Sox prospect is for the most part a waste of time. If they don't become contributing major leaguers, whether they once ranked #1 or #1000, it doesn't matter. Then why argue anything on this topic?

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Mar 13, 2015 -> 02:08 PM) Isn't that exactly what NSS/caulfield have been arguing? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.

QUOTE (shipps @ Mar 13, 2015 -> 01:19 PM) Wow, very nice how all the pieces are falling into place for that. I need that investors name so I can contact him to buy all the units in the condo that we rent out LOL. Tired of dealing with that property and the tenant. Haha, what neighborhood is it in? This particular person already owns a building in our kind of odd little neighborhood that is sandwiched between Bucktown and Lincoln Park. We're just south of that horrible Fullerton/Damen/Elston intersection, but they are finally starting to rebuild it (Elston is actually being re-routed around it), and suddenly the investors are all bullish on the area. I think he's focused there.

Finally selling our condo in the city, and it's a pretty unusual deal. We had the middle unit in a semi-typical three-unit Bucktown single-lot building (a duplex down, and two single-floor units). Had been renting out our unit for a few years, but current lease ended at the end of Feb and we wanted to sell now. Investor made us an offer on our place, but wanted to buy the whole building, so he wrote us a conditional offer: $1000 down in exchange for a two week negotiating window with the other units, and we keep the thousand if he doesn't close the deal. I contacted the other two units. The duplex down had been trying to sell on and off, so she got an offer and took it too, with a closing target in June when her current renters are out. The third floor unit was owner-occupied, and hadn't said anything about wanting to sell, but they ended up deciding to go for it too, with a lease-back for six months while they look for a house (turns out they'd been debating it anyway). Inspections are underway now, we get first close, hopefully early April. Bonus: its a cash offer, so commission is sale-side only, we save probably $8000 in commission costs. Hope this all works!

Well, depending on how the next 1 or (hopefully) 2 games go for ISU, they could be anywhere from a 4 (if they lose to OU) to maybe possibly a 2 seed (if they run the table).

QUOTE (Señor Ding-Dong @ Mar 13, 2015 -> 12:18 PM) I'd like to hear Nathaniel Stoltz's opinion on the matter, as he's likely seen both Hawkins and Michalczewski a ton. It's funny, Stoltz and I both wrote analysis pieces looking at Hawkins pretty deeply. We'd both seen him live and both had videos. We traded notes for our pieces, and borrowed each others' video. Stoltz is in some ways higher than others on Hawkins, or at least that is the general impression I got. He disagrees with the idea that was out there last year that Hawkins can't hit a breaking ball. He actually can, quite well, and I agree. The problem with him was more mechanical (of which there were many issues, but he's been working those out), and pitch recognition. If he saw the BB coming, he could adjust and hit it a mile. And that pitch recognition thing, well, we'll have to see some at bats this season to see if his progress continues.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Mar 13, 2015 -> 10:48 AM) How about Trey Michalczewski ? It's not like Hawkins has established himself as a can't miss. I think you are putting a lot of weight into this spring's results. I can't speak for caufield, but I can tell you without a doubt I had Hawkins above Michalczewski before ST, and that hasn't changed. The reasonable ceiling is much higher. Hawkins still has huge tools in raw power and arm strength along with a little speed, whereas Trey has good but not spectacular tools that go across the board.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Mar 13, 2015 -> 09:03 AM) I was thinking if you could get a top 15 prospect in your system for a couple of months of Adam Dunn, either your system is just horrible or Hahn is a thief, and the system does seem to be improved. Of course we won't really know until they reach Chicago. It would be nice to see the Sox develop an offensive player that actually helps you win games. Don't get me wrong, I like Sanburn and he's a guy you want in the system. He's got legit stuff. I just think he's below where they have him on this particular list is all. Some of the FS writers on our last rankings discussion had him as low as around 30.

That whole kinda disgusting mess of a discussion about the police shootings has been cleaned out of this thread.

I think that's far too high for Adolfo, Sanburn and Lowry. Probably Onelki Garcia too but he's a total enigma at this point. And Jhoandro Alfaro is a nearly total unknown to me at this point, so, no idea there.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Mar 12, 2015 -> 08:22 PM) Rick Barnes gonna Rick Barnes. The crowd was also a big help for ISU. I didn't get to watch most of it, was it really that heavily an ISU crowd?

Wow Cyclones. And TCU made Kansas work for it at least.

QUOTE (fathom @ Mar 12, 2015 -> 03:34 PM) I'm pleasantly shocked by how well Hawkins is doing. Last Spring Training, he looked completely overmatched. And it isn't just results, he LOOKS a lot better at the plate.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Mar 12, 2015 -> 01:10 PM) Translation: Dick Allen, not useful. But I jest. I've already exonerated him for losing our Gordon Beckham bet, where he incessantly vilified me for a couple of weeks for being negative and "rooting for a Sox player to do poorly (hitting under .240 was the prediction)," that I wasn't a real fan, was a miserable person, didn't come to games or buy season tickets, etc. Nevertheless, he still needs his fix of taking shots at Don Cooper and protecting Gordon Beckham. Probably not the right side of the argument to be on at this point for most Sox fans. So this year, it's on again....I'm predicting Gordo will be over .270 with no pressure at all on him. It's not that I WANTED him to do poorly, it's just that 2010-2014 taught us to expect nothing different...like pounding a round peg into a square hole or vice-versa. FWIW, I enjoy MR. ALLEN (couldn't write I enjoy DICK without envisioning Beavis and Butthead) about 80-85% of the time (haha, assigning percentages is always fun)...especially when it comes down to discussions about team finances/business aspects of the game/economics principles. Overall, he's one of my favorite posters, along with Marty and TUC. Always having complete agreement or enforced acceptance of a certain viewpoint/censorship will destroy a board. And I've probably had as many run-ins and arguments with Kyyle and Northside as he has...maybe more. Their bark is worse than their bite (waits nervously to be banned while enjoying chicken tenders with honey mustard dipping sauce at Applebee's with Ozzie and Ozney in Lawrence after B12 tourney game). What the...

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Mar 12, 2015 -> 11:18 AM) I hope he's good, but the reason he has 100 innings under his belt since his debut in 2010 is a huge red flag. Maybe I'm wrong, but I would think guys with arm problems in their teens and early 20's tend not to put that behind them as they get older. I would guess he is going to be a reliever. Well yeah, Hahn even said he's a reliever pretty much permanently now. He's a lottery ticket relief prospect, big stuff if healthy - you want guys like that in the system. But I was responding to your characterization of his season by using his ERA in A+ last year, which just isn't an indicator of anything useful.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Mar 12, 2015 -> 08:29 AM) Does anyone ever look bad in spring training on the practice field? Just take the encouraging things about Jesse Crain. You would think he has at least a minor shot of being on the opening day roster, but I actually read from some insider non fluff piece, the Sox are "hoping" to get him in a spring training game as some point, so really, if Will Ferrell can play spring training games, Jesse Crain isn't close. Ynoa may be a decent pick up. But until he starts showing how great he looks in games that count, I take all the good reports with a grain of salt. His ERA was over 5.00 in high A last year. Just to point this out, Ynoa's ERA in A+ last year means very little. He pitched entirely in relief for one thing, so ERA just isn't a useful measure. More indicative of his performance are the 8.4 H/9 rate (which is good), 4.1 BB/9 rate (which is marginal to OK) and 12.6 K/9 rate (which is excellent). His ERA was at least partially effected by a fairly inflated .349 BABIP-allowed. He went into that A+ season as a 22 year old with only about a hundred pro innings under his belt and no college ball, so that's just a hundred innings of post-high-school (equivalent) ball. Here's our profile on Ynoa if you want some further background.

This always seems to be made more complicated than it is. Do personalities matter in a clubhouse? Of course, they are human beings. Can "chemistry" effect a team? Also, of course. Can it be measured or predicted? Absoutely not.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Mar 11, 2015 -> 02:55 PM) Yeah, friend of a friend is the way to go, use a broker. I used guaranteed rate a few times before they got gigantic and used some little shop on the southside for my last one. Guaranteed Rate is who we have used as well, and I have nothing but good things to say. The only time they approached us unsolicited is when the rates got to those historical lows around early 2012, like 30-year fixes in the mid-3's, and they gave us a completely free re-fi.