NorthSideSox72

QUOTE (oldsox @ Jul 9, 2014 -> 10:08 AM) I just read that Sox signed a 22 year old catcher named Ryan Plourde. Never heard of him..... Played 4 years at Fairfield (MAAC), started at catcher all four years and set a school record for games played. Posted .900+ OPS all his last three years. There's a YouTube highlight reel of sorts of him, if you are so inclined (can't link from work to YT). 22 years old, undrafted. Just filler for AZL most likely.

Also, have to fully disagree with caufield here. First, the system looks better now than it did just a few months ago, purely on some key guys improving. And that is reflected in the fact that after very slow starts, all four full-season affiliates are starting the second half as contenders in their divisions (if not in 1st place). That's even with injuries to guys like Anderson, Hawkins and Montas. Plenty of interesting bats showing well lately. As for Angel Sanchez being the 2nd best pitching prospect in the minors, I'm going to have to go with... LOL. The system does seriously lack pitching talent depth, no doubt about that. But I could easily list 10 arms more interesting to me than Sanchez right now.

Unfortunately, as it stands now, Chris Beck sure looks a lot like Charlie Shirek: Fastball that can reach mid-90's, heavily sinker-reliant with good ground ball rates, questionable secondary stuff, decent control but low K totals. Now, that said, Beck still has a higher ceiling than Shirek did. Beck is much bigger and stronger, able to hold velocity late in games, and Beck does have one breaker that has previously been marked as potentially plus. So Beck still sits higher in rankings in my book. But for now, Shirek is a good performance comp, unfortunately.

QUOTE (oldsox @ Jul 8, 2014 -> 02:26 PM) Former Sox farmhand David Holmgren called up by Cinci and sked to pitch against the Scrubs tonight. Holmberg?

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 8, 2014 -> 12:17 PM) What else did he mean? He said the guy already conquered AAA, he is just in a slump. He said he is so advanced he cannot develop anymore at the minor league level. No, he said he'd conquered every minor league level. Literally that would mean AAA, yes. But if you actually read the rest of his post, it's clear he understands that does not include AAA, at least not this year. This sort of nit-picking of posts degrades the conversation and is frustrating.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 8, 2014 -> 10:54 AM) So a guy on July 8th hitting .200 with 101 strikeouts has conquered AAA. I realize the Sox minor league system has been weak, but this shows just how bad it is. Oh come on. You are taking one partial sentence from his post where he obviously meant something else and then turning into a parade of horribles. This is not discussion.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jul 8, 2014 -> 09:31 AM) So a month or so ago I believe NorthSide posted that what Trey was doing was good but not breakthrough. With his recent power, do people think he is ahead of development? What are things he needs to continue to show before moving to WS? I don't think that was me. I think Trey is having a break-through season, though I'd agree that at his age and experience, you do have to be somewhat careful with assumptions. The age thing cuts both ways - it makes his performance in full-season ball all the more impressive, but we don't want to get the idea that means he's ready to go rocketing up the system either. His defense, for one thing, needs significant work.

I like the new format. People can click to the box score if they want the exact stat lines for everyone.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Jul 6, 2014 -> 01:12 AM) More than likely just a filler guy, but he has yet to fail at the levels he should not be failing, so that's good. AA has slowed him down a little as expected, but he is finally facing more age-appropriate players. He will likely just fall in to the Leesman/Axelrod/Carroll type role which provides value at the end of the rotation when needed, but he's no one we have penciled in to a future rotation, I can promise you that. Agree he most likely isn't anything, but disagree with some other things here. He was brought in as a similar type to Axelrod (flopped from SD), Carroll (from CIN) or Leesman (career minor leaguer), but he's proven to be more than that. No, I wouldn't pencil him into a future rotation either, but I do think he's can be a successful major leaguer as a back end starter or a middle reliever. His stuff is, IMO, at a level above the other guys you mentioned.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Jul 3, 2014 -> 02:58 PM) Knowing very little about international talent, are there ever premiere guys that pop up between now and next July that are free to sign? If the Sox are holding on to the $1.6M until a guy they expect to "defect" or whatever the process is to becomes available, then that's perfectly fine. I just have no idea how the process works and when players become available to sign. The current process is somewhat new, so I am not sure how often it happens. But it can. And certainly some players do sign at other times. Remember too, this club once paid a Korean pitching prospect a 300k bonus too, so there are other geographic areas at play that may not fit as nicely into the 7/2 timeframe. And, there are likely to be some 100k-300k type guys we haven't heard about yet that they have already agreed with.

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Jul 3, 2014 -> 01:07 PM) At 24 already, if he continues well, I'd send him to AAA to start next season. He missed a year of pro ball recovering from an injury (blew out a knee at the end of his college career). If he keeps hitting like he is, he should see AA this year, and he'd be age-appropriate at that level at 24 (or close to it anyway). B-Ham has Mitchell (who, despite a monster game, is not really a prospect anymore), Thompson (who is), Richmond (who was picked up as org filler but is maybe kinda interesting) and Michael Earley (org guy). One of those likely hits AAA at some point, so May or Coats will go up (I'd hope they don't rush Hawkins). May is the better prospect, but I think Coats can handle AA now too. None of those 4 AA OF's should block either May or Coats, other than Thompson, IMO.

People still sleeping on Coats. He gets overshadowed in that OF by Hawkins and May, but Coats is becoming a real prospect in my view.

I think some of you folks are missing that this isn't a one-time event. That money is available from yesterday until a YEAR from now. Furthermore, you are assuming we've seen all the signings that were done - we've seen 4 reported. I guarantee there are more we haven't yet heard about. I'd be shocked if they didn't spend all or nearly all the money, it just may not be all right on the 7/2 date. Or even all in LatAm for that matter.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 3, 2014 -> 09:28 AM) One of the BHam ballplayers rolled a ball to us over the dugout when I wasn't looking. It hit my moonshine-containing cocktail. I'm still waiting on FS to replace it. I'm sure I could make you some sort of drink that I could label moonshine. May work better as an engine degreaser than a cocktail though.

QUOTE (Jake @ Jul 3, 2014 -> 09:28 AM) That's awesome. You guys do a great job. There's really nothing better out there. Perhaps the services like BA might have more "talent" for this sort of thing, but they don't put the time and effort on our players like you do. Thanks!

QUOTE (Jake @ Jul 3, 2014 -> 09:17 AM) A question, which you guys can feel free to measure as vaguely as possible: To what extent is FutureSox solely a labor of love? Is there any money made? Does it pay for itself? We do not get paid whatsoever. FutureSox sits on the ChicagoNow network. Jason would have to speak to the details of the contract/arrangement, but the basic idea is that they pay for all the infrastructure costs, and we just blog. I believe some CN blogs, when they get consistently big numbers, become eligible for some money. But CN has 350+ blogs, and being a very niche site, we rarely crack the top 50 in hit counts (though it happens occasionally). FS used to be independent, and then Jason had control over ad revenue, but I'm pretty sure even if we went indy again, the ad revenue would be very small. Like, enough to cover costs, maybe. So it's a labor of love, pretty much purely. When I went on that trip last August to see the teams in person, or when Balta goes to nearby games to report, we pay for that out of our own pockets. I suppose it may be career-aiding for some people, but that's about the only potential financial reward in sight.

Our Prospects of the Month for June are posted on FutureSox. The hitting side of the equation was really tough, there were a solid dozen guys who could have made a case. Who do you think should have won or been included who wasn't? Impressions of some of these players?

We'll do a favorite tools one soon.

FutureSox post on the other three big signings with some details.

Rondon to A+ could go badly for his bat. But the alternatives - Jirschele, Stringer, Shryock - really aren't good either. Kind of have little choice there.

FutureSox write-up on Nunez from Jeff (Ozzie Ball). Good overview.

FutureSox will have some material up on Int'l signings.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Jul 1, 2014 -> 08:52 PM) Yea that's definitely minor NSS. Just a terrible year for our Org in terms of injuries to important players. (minors and majors) I so wish I could give more background here, but I can't. The only information we got that could be disseminated was that it was a wrist injury, and minor enough that he was kept day-to-day. This update tells me they likely didn't know it was a fracture until later. Merkin wrote that it happened on a HBP, a number of games before he stopped playing.

Recap posted, sorry for the delay. But it is action-packed!

By the way, I think it is worth noting that there are four guys in the Sox system who are on track for a 20 HR season. That's a nice set of power.