NorthSideSox72

Our own Rob Young (southside hitman) takes an in-depth look at the five-man field vying for the starting job at second base. This is a really good primer on the pros and cons for all five. Who do you think wins the job, and why?

I've always wanted to work up to a Rollie Fingers-style curled handlebar mustache. My wife has informed me that our sleeping arrangements may have to change in that instance, so I thought better of it. Honestly, there are people who care about this? I mean, about what facial hair the ballplayers have? I mean AJP had that awful dye-job on his hair a while ago and no one cared.

I still have my iPhone 4S (3G), which I plan to replace. But in the meantime, I put on the new OS version a couple months ago, and coincidentally (not) we are suddenly going from typically using 75% of our data to 125%. Two months straight. Doesn't help that the friggin web developer kit that ALL iPhone browsers must use insists on reloading a web page every. Friggin. Time. you go back to that page, which is an immense design flaw that drives me nuts. Anyone who has an iPhone 6 - does the browser kit behind the native or other browsers still have that idiotic flaw?

QUOTE (BrianAnderson @ Feb 25, 2015 -> 10:46 AM) In my opinion Michael Taylor can be lumped in with Anderson. Both are grabbing at straws. I think we can almost throw Mitchell in that conversation too. To be honest other than Thompson, I wouldn't be surprised if none of those people listed ever do more than sniff a lineup in September when a season is in the books already. I think Taylor is more likely to get an MLB job in April than any of those listed other than Shuck, and I think he's about on par with Shuck.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Feb 25, 2015 -> 08:50 AM) Given our podcast last night, this is an ironically appropriate thread. I enjoyed our bar talk slash podcast.

QUOTE (Brian @ Feb 25, 2015 -> 08:52 AM) Tex get lucky last night? He found some of those blue pills.

So Dan (danman31), Blake (witesoxfan) and I did a new podcast for Future Sox, covering some over/under-rated guys on the new rankings list, spring training battles and other matters. But this one was a bit different than some others. We ended up recording from the basement of a bar, and we were drinking pretty heavily during the recording so... the beginning is a bit stiff, and the rest of it is much more Dudes Talking Baseball. But we had fun, and I think you'll like it. So if you do podcasts, give us a listen - details and links here. And if you've heard previous ones, let us know if you prefer the alcohol-soaked version, or the previous more formal ones.

QUOTE (bmags @ Feb 24, 2015 -> 04:00 PM) This thread is to shame those in Chicago who did not vote in their local Alderman and Mayor elections, which will likely affect you way more than national policy. What's yr ward, who you completing the arrow for? I was 32 (Waguespack) when I was still living in Bucktown, and I actually liked the job he was doing. Suburbs now for me though. Waguespack has been championing two of my favorite projects in the ward. One is the 606 (Bloomingdale) trail, which is underway. The other is the redirection and rebuild of the awful Fullerton/Damen/Elston intersection, which has some funding now and some of the property owners have already moved (i.e. Whirlyball) to make room.

QUOTE (flavum @ Feb 24, 2015 -> 04:09 PM) https://twitter.com/philgrogers/status/570344325097197569 Ok, Phil. QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 24, 2015 -> 04:11 PM) Well now we know who the first guy sent to Charlotte will be. QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Feb 24, 2015 -> 04:14 PM) Phil Rogers? We can all hope. LOL, I don't understand how that guy keeps getting writing gigs in baseball. He isn't a very good writer, and doesn't seem to know much about baseball. That said, I completely agree with him on this one - Soto has the inside track, but by no means is he a lock.

For lack of a better place to put this... Bill Mitchell of BA tweeted it was nice to see Brian Anderson on the field in ST, says he looks in great shape.

My personal preference is to start the regular season a week later, more towards mid-April as opposed to early April, and end the season a week earlier as well. Playoff format unchanged, but starts a week earlier. Spring Training starts a week later maybe, except in WBC years.

Stragedy? Is that like Strategery?

I love the idea of a season that is 1 or 2 weeks shorter. I also think it is something that will never happen.

Recording another podcast tonight. Going to talk rankings mostly, a little spring training battle stuff maybe. But what questions do you want answered? Let's hear 'em.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Feb 24, 2015 -> 08:59 AM) "In a strange and somewhat sad tradition, in order to appear as something they are not, Kansas will claim the Big 12 championship." lol, well played.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Feb 23, 2015 -> 10:22 PM) s*** just got interesting in the big 12. What's really confusing is, I can't seem to find a reliable set of tie-breaker rules, if there even are any. So if some combination of Kansas, Iowa State and/or Oklahoma finish with the same conference record, and the head-to-head is an even 1-1 tie... who is the conference champion?

Daniel's latest weekly video blog on FutureSox TV looks at some key LatAm prospects in the system.

I'm fairly sure Beckham as a starter is Plan C, with Johnson and Sanchez being plans A and B (hard to say which has the edge right now).

One of our writers will have a post up on that tomorrow (the 2B job).

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Feb 23, 2015 -> 11:57 AM) Did you see the catcher that I found for you Taylor Ward for Fresno State, I posted his stats so far this season on the last page. I'm reading some reports now. I like some of what I see - good plate discipline, power. There may be better defenders. Looks like names of college C's to watch right now include him, Jameson Fisher (SE Lou), Shaun Chase (ORE), Luke Lowery (ECU), Korey Dunbar (UNC). None of them appear to be guys who'd go in the first 4 rounds, so they are all possibilities. QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Feb 23, 2015 -> 12:32 PM) There's at least a 50/50 chance that Tim Anderson ends up in the OF. The hopes are higher for him going forward at this point than Hawkins. Based on what?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 23, 2015 -> 09:50 AM) Their draft board will also make going overslot much harder. They have way fewer picks to make those dollars up in. I wasn't necessarily advocating going overslot. Just looking at leaning towards a certain position. Maybe slightly over if that is what it takes.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Feb 23, 2015 -> 09:19 AM) They can't really afford to do that though. They almost need to go under slot in round 1 because there just isn't much money in the pool. If they pay slot to the 1st pick, they only have like $1.5 million total for rounds 4-10. Lot of college seniors this year. The Sox have enough for at least slot value on all the picks they have, so certainly they don't have to go under slot in the first round. In fact they could go over, if they go under here and there with rounds 4-10. They can also spend a little more than their slot totals (like they did last year) and pay the smallish penalty, but still stay under the draft pick loss level. Also the good news is, if they lean college, they usually have less leverage.

Reporting around $30M, Red Sox. Which actually means $60M the team has to pay out.

Especially with the 2nd and 3rd round picks gone this year, it's key to get the BPA in the 1st and probably for the 4th/5th too. But I would like to see the White Sox try to grab the best college catcher available starting around the 5th/6th round if they haven't grabbed one already. And another one sometime not too long after. Normally, you don't start filling gaps at specific positions until much later in the draft, like perhaps starting in the teens. And normally I agree with that. However, I do think that catching is an exception, because it is nearly impossible to trade for it. There are just so few long-term successful catchers, and so few catching prospects out there that look worthwhile, that teams aren't trading them. And the White Sox have, IMO, a dire lack of catching talent depth across the organization right now. I want to see that addressed if at all possible. So my question to this group is, who are the current college catchers at the top of people's draft boards?

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Feb 22, 2015 -> 11:36 AM) Interested to know why Brantly is seen as having more chance of winning the backup job than Kottaras, who "hasn't excelled on either side of the ball at the major league level". Kottaras is a lifetime league average hitter at the MLB level (100 wRC+), whilst Brantly has been horrible (69 wRC+). It's not like Brantly has excelled defensively either, ranking 88th of 108 in framing in 2012 and 109th of 116 in 2013. Kottaras has been 66th of 105, 32nd of 113, 80th of 112 and 78th of 108. Well on the one hand, I think you can ignore framing numbers in that small a sample size, and defense is way beyond framing. But you make a good point about Kottaras' hitting, he's actually a better hitter than I thought, now that I look deeper. Or maybe more accurately, he's a better walker, as he does get on base quite often. Thanks for the feedback, I'm going to go update the article a bit! The other thing is, Brantly is still 25 for this season, Kottaras is 31 going to be 32 during the year. Brantly is seen as still maybe having some upside.