NorthSideSox72

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 21, 2014 -> 01:56 PM) Adolfo has some of the highest potential in the entire system. He'd be much higher if he weren't 17 and so far to go to hit that ceiling. This. He is of course a huge wildcard, and he may never get above A ball. But his raw power potential, athleticism, plus arm strength and decent speed make for a very nice tool kit. Huge potential, huge questions.

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Jan 21, 2014 -> 01:13 PM) Um...the posting fee alone is $20M. Or even if you are only talking about the contract, $30M is like 1.5 years of his potential contract. Oh I know. I'm just saying, I think this kind of money for this pitcher is a huge mistake.

Please no at that money. I think spending any more than about $30M on this guy will end up being a mistake.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 21, 2014 -> 11:26 AM) If that means turn her into an ice sculpture, the Sox are in good shape. I like this post.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Jan 21, 2014 -> 10:25 AM) Thanks as always NSS. Was it the same form as always? The four writers making their rankings and averaging them out? Surprised to see Engel so low. Assuming Nieto isn't in the top 10, did he fall somewhere between 26-30? Same deal, yes. Five of us in this case (one Mod who helps us out but doesn't write much for the site directly), we basically do a voting system similar to, say, college football/basketball polls. Nieto just missed the list, he's among the next 10 after the T25.

I thought Ross Gload would be a Wally Joyner-type starting 1B. I thought Ehren Wassermann would be an effective late-inning reliever. I believed in Beckham being an all star-caliber 2B. Prospects-wise, there were a ton of guys I thought would make it and be good who didn't. Nature of making predictions about prospects.

The Top Prospects list from FutureSox is being published in two pieces. Numbers 11-25 is at this link and now available, includes capsules on each player. Thursday we will release the 1-10 capsules, the full list, and the list of other players receiving consideration. Discuss...

By the way, if you want something written from a semi-foreigner's perspective (but who lived a long time in the US), and at an easy reading level, you could always go with The Lost Continent by Bill Bryson. It's a fun read, plenty of humor, some very interesting perspectives on American culture.

Blood Meridian maybe? Classic American writer, written in the past century, connected to US history. Other McCarthy stuff as well. You talk about thoee Presidents, so, are we talking non-fiction here? Because if so, in that Presidential view, I think the quintessential American among those founder types is John Adams, and there is an excellent recent biography of him. Andrew Jackson, same deal. Further on non-fiction, if you want history that moves like a story, Blood and Thunder by Hampton Sides is a great choice. Back to fiction, people mentioned Stephen King. Well, The Stand is very much rooted in American culture and the storyline has echoes of the classic American Western storyline. Kind of a long read though. Jack London maybe? The Call of the Wild, White Fang, To Build a Fire...

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Jan 17, 2014 -> 11:46 AM) Actually I think the issue (at least with us) is overestimating our ability to encourage and develop mechanical changes in hitters now that I think about it. We can do these things with pitchers, but both at the MiLB & MLB level we can't seem to hold on to and then successfully implement any sort of real changes. Because of this we aren't clearing our margin of error, i.e. we'll say take Player A who needs X amount of work and we think we can pull it off which means the tools advantage that Player A has over Player B will translate into a better MLB player. But we've been too aggressive & have had too little results. We seem to be scaling back on our hitters a bit but still doing so without falling into the range of the offensive version of Broadway/McCulloch territory. At least I hope that's the case because we need ceiling but OTOH developing hitters hasn't exactly been a core competency of the organization. I agree with you, but I think that is sort of a seperate subject. I'll also say though, first, the org has a very different set of coaches now than they did a few years ago - so I am not sure you can say this problem with hitters will continue the same way. It might or might now. Also, I don't think you can just give up and say we can't develop them so let's draft pitchers - because you are then closing yourself off to HALF (at least) of what you need to develop to be successful. You have to keep trying, make more changes, and try again until you get it right.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Jan 17, 2014 -> 06:44 AM) Scott Podsednik was a terrible baserunner, people complain about De Aza's baserunning but Podsednik was the king of making outs on the base paths. In 2005 Pods made 46 outs after reaching base (23CS+14PO+9OOB). Also, Pods really tended not to hustle to 1st. People seemed to miss this because on occasion he'd turn it on, and when he did he was as fast home-to-first as anyone and it was fun to watch. But a lot of the time, he just didn't use his speed as much as he should have, which makes no sense because that was his key weapon. Pods had a really nice impact on the '05 team and helped the cause to win the trophy. But it was almost entirely because of a red-hot first half at the plate... plus the exclamation point in WS Game 2. Horrible on defense, inefficient on the basepaths (for most of his career), not much of a hitter in the long haul. That's why he couldn't stick.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 16, 2014 -> 01:33 PM) Washington sends the $25k check. I think he was getting at the fact that, on net, the Sox lose $25k. Not that it matters a ton. It still surprises me they didn't just trade for the guy. I just don't see anyone who has never played above A ball being able to stick all year. And if he is there as a bench guy, why did you bother? And what kind of development does he get out of that anyway? The only reason I can think of they did this, is that they wanted to trade for him but WAS asked for the world for him. Which makes no sense to me, since they didn't even protect him on the 40 man roster.

This is something we've never done before, and I don't know of any Sox-specific media site that's ever done it with a minor leaguer. Chris Bassitt wrote an article FOR us, instead of us writing about him. Chris tells the story of his partial season in B-Ham and their championship run. Kind of a cool perspective, from the player's angle. We have at least one more Sox farm hand lined up to do another one soon, so this may be an ongoing series.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Jan 16, 2014 -> 08:56 AM) So in other words, weather happens. Pretty much. Individual events, short term fluctuations, localized phenomenon are just not proof for or against global warming.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Jan 16, 2014 -> 08:43 AM) A composite ranking so far from 16 responses. I assigned #1=10 points down to #10=1 point. For consistency's sake, I want ahead and assigned Abreu as #1 to the couple of people who didn't think he was a prospect and bumped everybody else down one notch, because he technically qualifies as a prospect and I think we all agree he should be #1. 1. Abreu 160 points 2. E Johnson 139 points 3. Davidson 129 points 4. Semien 98 points 5. Hawkins 84 points 6. Anderson 82 points 7. Beck 54 points 8. Danish 37 points 9. M Johnson 35 points 10. Webb 22 points 11. Sanchez 17 points 12. Thompson 13 points 13. Barnum 4 points 14. May 3 points 15. Bassitt 2 points T-16. Snodgrezz/Zapata 1 point Heh. I'll give you a teaser... the FutureSox T25 list is coming out next week, but the list itself is complete, and the Top 10 looks very close to that.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jan 15, 2014 -> 06:51 PM) It's hard to link any specific weather phenomenon to global warming. If you add "or lack thereof" to the end of that quote, right there... That is what I wish everyone would keep in mind when discussing global warming, no matter where on the scale of the argument you reside. If everyone understood that simple point, you could have a decent discussion about it.

I for one think that scouting of minor leaguers has swung too far towards physical tools. I think we're missing out on good baseball players in some cases by doing that. And before anyone launches into the obvious here, I'm aware of how all this works. Stats in the lower levels of the minors, for example, don't mean a lot. And obviously, some of the time at least, success in the minors may be an illusion. That all said, when you have players who put up big numbers in the upper levels of the minors, I think scouting types are sometimes too quick to write them off based on things like a lack of a single, flashy plus tool, or the fact that a guy is say 24 vs 22/23. Not that those factors aren't relevant, because they very much are - but for some, those perceived tools have been allowed to crowd out performance nearly entirely. My personal view is, that trend will start to reverse itself in the next few years, a bit.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jan 15, 2014 -> 03:51 PM) 2.) A few people got on me on here recently for b****ing about the unbelievably cold weather that gripped the country for about a month straight. I made a crack about global warming and people attacked me for suggesting it was not real. My question to you then is: "What's with the f***ing 10 below temperatures all over for a month???" They were real and they were here and I froze my ass off and even had to buy long underwear cause I could take it no longer! You have to be trolling. But if not, let me put it a simpler way, without all the science mumbo jumbo... If global warming meant we couldn't have 10 below anymore... the record low in Chicago is 24 below, so that means we'd be warming by say 30 degrees... that means your expectation of what "global warming" is would make the AVERAGE July day in Chicago about 115 degrees. No one is saying the average July day in Chicago is going to be 115 degrees. No one is saying we are warming that much. If we were warming that much, that quickly, we're all dead in a year. What they are saying is we'll warm by a few degrees, maybe 5 or even 10, over decades. Which is plenty to do a LOT of bad things. And yeah, then there's the whole... Chicago is not the world. Thing. You have to be trolling.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Jan 15, 2014 -> 02:28 PM) Well the theory that the director actually wanted us all to realize is Bullock's "rebirth" towards the end of the movie. The scene where she is floating in the fetal position with the tether acting as her umbilical cord, her crawling out of the mud (primordial soup), walking on 4 legs, then 2 legs, then bent over, then erect, ala Darwin's theory of evolution. Those are the clues that were meant to happen. But others have thought maybe she died up in space, and the paradise island she happened to land next to was actually "Heaven", like in the show LOST. I REALLY wanted her to find a red shoe on the beach, so we'd know for sure that it was heaven and she'd be reunited with her daughter again. There are some other theories too if you google "Gravity ending explained" or something. The first graf isn't a theory, it is just symbolism. No secret there. Hadn't thought about the Heaven angle, that's sort of interesting. But I don't think that is what they were going for.

QUOTE (Tex @ Jan 15, 2014 -> 12:48 PM) Thank you for the suggestions, I will check them out. Currently we are considering Apostle Islands but Boundary Waters is getting interesting. My Scout Troop will be there starting around the first of july for ten days. I also was just contacted tofay about running a Scout camp in Alaska. My entire summer may change. Apostle Islands are beautiful. But if your plan is to put a canoe or kayak in the water there, just know you are getting into something big. Lake Superior can get big and angry real quick. I wouldn't advise going out there in a small craft unless you know what you are doing. That is where BWCA or Quetico are better options, perhaps. QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 15, 2014 -> 12:50 PM) Boundary waters was probably the most rewarding and grueling vacation i have ever taken BWCA is great, Quetico (the Canadian side park) is even better. Love them both.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jan 14, 2014 -> 10:17 AM) I'll be climbing this sucker in the summer, Mt. Rainier. Are you doing the Wonderland trail? Or just a straight peak ascent? QUOTE (Tex @ Jan 14, 2014 -> 07:39 PM) I just got back from Big Bend and will be back in March. This summer we will be travelling the upper Midwest, the itinerary hasn't been fully thrashed out. Upper Midwest? If you are looking for outdoor stuff, I'd have suggestions, depending on where you are going. For backpacking, Porcupine Mountains in the UP, or the Superior Trail in MN are both worthwhile. For canoeing or kayaking, Boundary Waters or Quetico.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Jan 15, 2014 -> 08:48 AM) I agree with the latter. I think there's a definite chance he sticks with us even if offered back. That would be ideal. We don't have to hide him and he immediately becomes our top catcher prospect. As for the former, whose spot do you have him taking? If he is offered back, WAS will take him without a doubt. They get a guy back who they think is a fringe prospect, and make 25k to boot? Of course they will take him back and put him back in the minors. Why wouldn't they?

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 15, 2014 -> 08:20 AM) Bobby's last year with the Sox wasn't so good. His only year with Boston wasn't so good. He hasn't played the last 2 seasons, and probably won't be able to pitch this season. That would make next season 6 years removed from being good , with several back surgeries, one that almost lead to death, a rehab stint and not having thrown for 3 years. It would be a waste of time signing him to a minor league deal. And for what? The White Sox owe Bobby nothing. Throwing him bones doesn't help him. He needs to move on to reality and make sure he has his life straightened out. 1 in a zillion pipe dreams of being effective in the major leagues doesn't do that. I don't get this post. First, I think it WOULD help him potentially move on with his new life - if we are caring about that. Second, when is a minor league deal some big time-consumer? Have a scout watch him work out, if he can sorta pitch, sign a contract and send him to the farm (probably A ball at first, then AAA when/if he's up to speed). Third, the affiliates would LOVE to have a guy like that around. Fourth, really, look at who pitched in the Charlotte pen last year. A few are actual prospects... most are not. He's not going to get in anyone's way. I'm surprised anyone could see this as a bad thing.

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Jan 14, 2014 -> 09:17 PM) They rush pitchers quite a bit and I can't recall it ever biting them in the butt - Hector and Nate never saw Charlotte, for instance. All depends on what the braintrust thinks of him in late March. He's 25 in February, I expect him to be "challenged". Where Bassitt goes depends on what they think his role is going forward. If he is still a starter, he'll likely start the season in B-Ham, then go up to Charlotte if he does well and a slot opens up. If he is a reliever long-term (which he may be, and which he actually prefers doing), I could see him going to Charlotte to start the season and being a mid-season call-up to Chicago if he does well there. QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 15, 2014 -> 08:04 AM) That still doesn't explain why Axelrod would be considered "depth". I have no problem with him in Charlotte, but if he is on the White Sox, it is going to be another long summer. Axelrod does have value, in the role he's set for. Basically, would you rather have Axelrod (who dominated AAA and was borderline to bad in the majors), or a guy like Nick McCully or Tony Pena Jr or the like (who dominates AA or maybe does OK in AAA but hasn't seen the majors)? Neither are real starters in the majors, but I'd rather have Axe as my 7/8 guy. As the season goes on, if a real SP prospect comes along and needs the AAA slot, you can send Axe packing.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Jan 14, 2014 -> 03:26 PM) http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/cws/former...p;vkey=news_cws Nice story & personally I'd love to see a MiLB deal for this guy when he's ready to get on the field again. I think we owe it to him just for allowing Little s*** Guillen to make those comments without immediately canning his father. Bobby did a lot of nice work for us and on a pay scale that didn't come close to matching his performance and abilities. If he can show up at a workout and show a hint of still being able to pitch... I'd be all for a minor league deal. Worst case, he flames out in Charlotte.