NorthSideSox72

QUOTE (scs787 @ Mar 24, 2014 -> 01:00 AM) That write up on Lopez is extremely encouraging. I hadn't heard much of anything about him, or at least enough for his name to stick. When we (FutureSox) did our most recent top prospects list, he was actually on the back end of my list initially... but I felt he should be down a few slots because the injury and missed time, so he just missed my list. He's been on the radar, I just don't know anyone who has ranked him THAT highly.

Also saw a report from Chris Mellen of BP about a deeper prospect, James Dykstra. FB 90-93 with life when down, good change, tight curve, RP profile.

QUOTE (oldsox @ Mar 22, 2014 -> 07:10 AM) What is his injury again?? QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Mar 22, 2014 -> 07:41 AM) Is Lopez injured? He hurt his knee training in the offseason. Had to have surgery. It was an ACL tear, happened in early November, typically it is a 6-8 month total recovery (according to Adam), but he was ahead of schedule last I asked. Figure safely it's 7 months, from early November, so you'd be looking at early June return to action.

QUOTE (oldsox @ Mar 22, 2014 -> 08:15 AM) Northsider, why would they keep Purcey, Heath, Omogrosso, and Molino? Purcey is a major league-ready LHR, and they don't have any others. Molina was a prized trade return who they only recently converted back to relief, so they'll give him a chance. Omogrosso has major league experience as well, and isn't a bad arm to have as depth. Heath? No idea why he's still around. Doesn't have the major league experience Omo and Purcey have, doesn't have any potential ceiling left I can see... I don't get it.

Zoom points out a key factor - the playoff invoices. That's annoying, the team gets a free float of your money basically. You can elect not to pay, but then you lost your account and would need to start over. One other thing - part of the reason we are successful with getting our unused tickets sold for at least our cost (sometimes more overall), is that we have a premium seat location - specifically the FRONT ROW. Row 1 sells dramatically better than row 2. Keep this in mind when the club tells you your location - think in terms of what would sell better in the open market. It took us a few years to get to the front row. The good news is though, if you go UD, especially in a down time like this year, you could get to the front row quickly. Maybe even right away if you get lucky. All the more reason to start things up in a down year.

Arroyo gone, a few other moves... still have this list of AAA possible/probables: ALREADY ASSIGNED TO CHARLOTTE: Rienzo (Starter) Surkamp (S) Leesman (S) Molina De Los Santos LIKELY REST OF STAFF AT THIS POINT: McCray (S) Axelrod (S) Petricka Heath Omogrosso Purcey T Thompson EVERYONE ELSE IN NO REAL ORDER: Zaleski Carroll Sal Sanchez Kussmaul Frazier Pena Jr Crawford Doyle Cleto Poveda Robles Plus then someone like Beck, McCully or Vance could sneak in from AA.

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Mar 21, 2014 -> 01:40 PM) MiLB rotation unclogging move. Yeah, with a lot more of those still to come. AAA pitching stack is still enormous.

I've been part of a group of 4 that shares ST since 2004. We're currently in the front row of the UD, over home plate, 3B side. Been in these seats for a number of years now. 4 seats. I think for one person, full season is tough to justify unless you are a real ballpark addict or have lots of money and time. Depends on your style though - do you like to go alone? If so, if you want a single seat, you can often sneak into better seats than others to help them fill in those blanks. Or are you thinking 2? 4? Four seats is great because you can bring friends, or if you have kids, bring them easily. Overall my suggestion to you is, find a partner or a few partners - just make sure they are people you are cool with, especially if there are more partners than seats. In terms of how to get them, call the ticket office and they give you to a rep, who can tell you what seats are available, prices, etc. Simple from there. There isn't a waiting list nowadays. Price-wise, ST holders get a discount from face value that ranges from 15 to 30%, depending on what seat zone you are in. We are in Premium UD, and it is about 18%. Plus of course, you don't pay ticketbastard fees, etc., so you save even more that way. And there are side benefits, most importantly post-season privileges - different packages carry different postseason bits, so ask about that. There are little things too like discounted parking, some occasional gifts, ST-only events with auto sessions, etc. The key question to ask is, how many tickets won't get used, and what is your plan with them? We do a ticket draft in March, and the remaining 40-50 tickets are left. We sell Cubs, Yankees and Red Sox at a profit, sell a bunch to friends (or on here) at face value, then there are the left-overs - which we list on stub hub (along with the Cubs/Red Sox/Yanks). Important to know - you can go to your tickets on whitesox.com, click to sell them on 3rd party, and it sends your browser to list on stub hub electronically. That is a huge benefit. There are fees taken out, so you'll only get like 85% of your list price back, but that is better than nothing and a lot easier than trying to list paper tickets and send them out manually. In the end, we usually about break-even on our unused games, which is all we really want to do - so we're left with getting a 18% discount on the games we go to, plus all the ST benefits. I could go on (already did), but PM me if you want to know more.

Lopez at 12 and Engel at 14 are interesting. See the catch-all thread for some pipeline discussion about their list. Lopez at 12 is VERY interesting, now that I think about it, especially given his relative age and that he'll miss time this year with an injury.

FutureSox and Callis had some nice back-and-forth over twitter. Highlights... --Callis on Braulio Ortiz: One of best arms in system, 93-98 w/ sink, RP b/c need ssec P, contol --Callis on Adam Engel: Might have been best college athlete in 2013 draft. If adjustments stick, huge steal. --Callis on toolsy OF's, said Hawkins most likely of those 4 big names (Hawkins, Thompson, Mitchell, Walker) to make impact in MLB. Also that Hawkins was young and rushed, though K rate very scary. Thompson seems to progress slowly but surely. --Callis on Bassitt: Back-of-rotation ceiling, my gut says RP. Fastball easily best pitch, so-so secondary.

This year? I'm liking NDSU. All time, hands-down, the Loyola Marymount team after Hank Gathers died. I'm surprised that hasn't been made into a movie yet.

The list of available tickets is NOW UP, in the original post. A few games are priced below face value, all others at face value, per ticket. If interested in any, PM me.

QUOTE (floridafan @ Mar 20, 2014 -> 03:35 PM) Eric Grabe was released today. It was fun while it lasted. Hope everyone here enjoys the upcoming season! Always sad to hear anyone being released, but especially when we have contact with them (if indirectly). Hopefully he gets on with another org, and thank you very much for your contributions here. You are of course still always welcome!

It did, we're just working on getting it housed and streamed. Future ones, if we can do them, will go up faster. But this our first, so some technical hurdles need to be crossed.

Jeff (Ozzie Ball) is wrting a series of positional previews, a State of the System type look. The first one is up: Catchers. Feel free to discuss, and we'll put links to the new articles in the series here as they go up.

QUOTE (Baron @ Mar 19, 2014 -> 04:31 PM) Matt Davidson is looking even more comfortable the past few days Yeah, though I still think he starts the year at AAA barring some trade action involving Gillapinger. Super 2 timing is at play, and they may want to give Gillaspie a chance to increase his value, plus they aren't in a rush for Davidson. Long term of course the job is his.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Mar 19, 2014 -> 03:12 PM) Guys get moved to 1B from 3B at a young age because they are terrible defensively. He'd likely be as bad as Braun at 3B if he were to be played there. Yeah, Wilkins was a bit of a mess at 3B from what I read back then. Same thing has happened to Ravelo. If either could play third, that is where they'd be. That said, Konerko and Dunn are gone in a year at most, so if Wilkins rakes in Charlotte, it is not impossible he has a shot at the team in 2015. Possibly even late 2014 if Dunn is traded mid-season.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Mar 19, 2014 -> 03:45 PM) In the low minors, Adam Lopez is absolutely the most intriguing arm for me to watch this year. You may have to wait a while then, as he's coming off knee surgery and will miss some time at the beginning of the season. I like him too, but missing some time like that isn't ideal for a guy already slightly behind the age curve and at the edge of the radar. For low minors arms, I'm looking hard at everyone in that Kanny rotation, as well as Olacio, Ortiz and Hansen in W-S's rotation, Recchia (who may be in AA), and some relievers: Montas (who may start), Ball, Throne and Wheeler.

I've been slowly updating my big board. Not going to paste the monstrosity in here again just yet (might save that for an FS article closer to the end of ST), but a few things stood out in terms of what units on what teams to watch... --I really like the probable Kannapolis rotation as something interesting to watch. Lots of talented arms all with broad spectrums of variable assessment: Danish, Mitchell, Brennan, Goldberg, Freudenberg --Birmingham rotation seems solid the first 4, and all are guys who could be in Chicago within a year, so that is worth watching: Beck, Bassitt, Snodgress, Jaye. No idea on the 5th though, could be any of Cose (who is wildly inconsistent), Recchia (one of my deep sleepers), McCully (who I am guessing they put back in the pen where he's had success) or Blough. --Winston-Salem's Lineup looks like a fun watch, particularly the likely outfield: Hawkins, May and Coats. Barnum and Anderson should be in that lineup too. --B-Ham outfield will be the three toolsy guys - Thompson, Mitchell, Walker. Hopefully one of them pops, they are all very athletic and that should be a fun outfield to watch defensively. --Charlotte's skill infield should be a focus. Depending on how things shake out, between the 3 infield slots, you are looking at some combo of Semien, Sanchez, L Garcia and Davidson. They may have to rotate around. --None of the bullpens jump out at me. They all seem to have a couple interesting guys, then not much behind it. --My sleeper unit is Kanny's infield: some combo of Rondon, Stringer and Shryock, maybe with Voight. Voight isn't a prospect but he's a good bat, and I think all the other three have some intriguing potential.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Mar 19, 2014 -> 01:43 PM) So who of the remaining 38 players are on the bubble? 13 of them. Sorry, couldn't help it. It was summed up nicely earlier. Assuming those who are hurting end up healthy, there aren't really many question marks. Bench is De Aza, Keppinger, Konerko, and either Gimenez or Nieto. Last bullpen slots to Veal, and either Cleto or Webb. If there are lingering injuries (Beckham, relievers), guys like L Garcia, Semien, Petricka all have a shot.

I'm thinking Chris Bassitt is the right value point for a trade for Nieto. Just my random guess. Teens-ranked pitching prospect with some success at AA, looks likely to be at least a middle reliever, more likely a late inning reliever, could possibly be a back end starter. Less ceiling than Nieto in value, but pitching and catching are king and the Nats clearly don't need the catcher here. Possibly Myles Jaye, or maybe if the Sox are stretching to get Nieto, Jake Petricka could be intriguing for them.

QUOTE (IowaSoxFan @ Mar 19, 2014 -> 10:53 AM) I believe he is referring to Koleks 35 K in 15 IP which is 21 K/9. QUOTE (staxx @ Mar 19, 2014 -> 11:08 AM) Correct. Sorry, missed that, and... wow.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 19, 2014 -> 12:21 PM) Keeping a potential starting catcher in the organization without having to pay the price to bring another one in here. If that is the plan, and since they have to know his chances of being ready to start this year are near zero... I will admit it is a novel approach. Catchers need more time to develop (typically), especially in pitcher handling and game control, as well as defense. Often they spend a year just before he majors being on a major league bench getting that exposure. It is possible HahnCo are looking to do this backwards - give him that year now, then send him to AA or AAA in 2015 to get more reps (unless by some miracle he looks major-league starter ready as a hitter in 2014). I just doubt that is Plan A. I really still think they picked him up to get a $25k look at the guy, with a slim chance he may actually work out, but more likely they try to trade for keeping him.

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Mar 18, 2014 -> 03:22 PM) I view tools and skill to be pretty much the same thing. Different players are going to have different skills that are part of their overall toolset. QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Mar 18, 2014 -> 03:30 PM) See I see "skill" as what you develop, tools as something like ability. Like a pitcher may have a crazy good arm, but his path to developing command and control is a "skill." Avisail has great strength, speed, hand-eye coordination. These are his abilities, gifts, tools, etc. But the "skill" of hitting is pitch recognition, pitch selection, muscle memory, body control, swing mechanics, mental planning, etc. Anyway I'm not saying I'm the authority on how those words are used, but that's what I've meant when I've used them. Eminor covered it. The way scouts speak about this, tools are physical (and mental) abilities, and are the raw variety. Skills are specific to a job, like baseball player, and have to be developed from the tools. Running fast is a tool, becoming a good baserunner or having effectively good range in the field are skills because you have to add certain mental capabilities and routines. Throwing a ball hard is a tool, throwing it accurately to the right place in the right situation is a learned skill.

Phegley's D and pitcher handling was said to be pretty bad, and Josh even acknowledged that today. He needs to play every day if they think he has a shot to be a player in the majors some day. I wonder how much of this is Hahn playing chicken with Washington. Nieto making the roster and staying for a year would be a very surprising thing, and frankly I don't think it helps his development overall. If Gimenez looks like he can handle it, it should be his job. I'm also a little surprised Miguel Gonzalez is out of camp already.