NorthSideSox72

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 14, 2014 -> 03:05 PM) is there a more full list of names? I couldn't really find anything. Article here has a few more names.

One name I thought was interesting was catcher Kevan Smith. He's not a prospect usually noted among the top 20, or even 30. He's hit well and his catching game is improving, but he's going to turn 26 this year and hasn't seen AA yet. The fact that he was invited tells me the org still thinks he's got a shot.

Bassitt is well back on the list, he has half a season of AA under his belt and that's it. The depth chart is likely: 1. Sale 2. Q 3. Johnson 4. Danks 5t. Surkamp 5t. Rienzo 5t. Paulino*** whenever he's healthy 8t. Axelrod 8t. Stewart 10. Oh dear lord the entire team was injured in a freak gasoline fight accident Beck is the closest to ready of the real prospects, maybe Bassitt is behind him, but neither are major league ready and likely won't see the team in 2014. Axelrod is fine as that guy for depth. With Paulino injured, he likely opens the season as the #7, moves up or down based on injuries and returns. Then as Beck, Bassitt and Snodgress progress, they may start passing him when they are close to major league ready.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 14, 2014 -> 12:31 PM) I think he posted that on his twitter about a week ago. Yeah, its odd, FS re-tweeted this like a week ago... now all of a sudden today, the news media jumped on it. Must have been waiting for official word.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 14, 2014 -> 08:40 AM) That is definitely the highest I've ever seen Montas. And Semien at #2 is interesting.

QUOTE (woods of ypres @ Jan 13, 2014 -> 10:54 PM) I know Fangraphs broke down his swings, but has any of the sabr sites ever attempted a projection of JDA? Davenport translator (Eno Sarris at BP) puts him at .321/.446/.660 for his first full year. AS people said at the time... I think he broke the formula.

White Sox released a whole bunch of minor league pitchers... RHP: Cal Bowling, David Haselden, JR Ballinger, James Hudelson, Jason Van Skike, Jeremy Erben LHP: Max Peterson, Todd Kibby

If he can put up average MLB 1B production over the lenght of his contract, then he'll be worth the money (or better). Anything beyond that is a bonus.

QUOTE (Jake @ Jan 10, 2014 -> 11:56 PM) He was well within the top 10 in the SF organization, so shouldn't be a surprise. He figures to be a useful major league starter At one time, last in 2011. 25th in 2012, and has since had surgery and missed a lot of time. I like the pickup and think he may be useful, but he is in no way a T10 prospect in any org right now. Always take those MLB.com rankings with a huge pile of salt (though now with Callis in there, it may improve).

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Jan 10, 2014 -> 04:19 PM) Definitely approve. Well, yeah, Jose.

QUOTE (chisoxfan310 @ Jan 10, 2014 -> 02:58 PM) On his Baseball Reference page, it said he (Castro) was granted free agency so any top 20 list may not be completely updated yet. I double-checked and you are correct, he was granted free agency. Per BA, he hasn't signed with anyone yet. My mistake.

Just for fun, some brief pre-draft scouting reports on each of the three C's mentioned above... Fisher: So he's likely very raw at the position, converted from 3B, but pretty advanced with the bat. Which makes his draft year numbers a bit disappointing. Haupt: Not much to go on there, but the arm strength and him being more of a native catcher would hint he is more mature defensively at the position than Fisher. Wimmer wasn't even on any reports we could find, and is older. My guess he's behind the other two on any depth charts, but that is only a guess.

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Jan 10, 2014 -> 01:48 PM) Like your list. Probably closest to my own. Not Top 20-25, but based on position, left-handedness and hitting performance at Great Falls, let me add catcher Zach Fisher to the list of spects I'll be watching closely. A few of the other GF rookies; ZVoight, TShyrock, Jake Morris and CStringer may also be worth a follow this season. Any info folks can share on ZF is greatly appreciated. Fisher is interesting. Drafted low (27th rd) in 2012 our of NMSU, where he hit very well and started for 3 years, led the WAC in a few hitting categories that year. No scouting reports I can find at the usual sources, not sure why he went so low to be honest. He repeated Great Falls after putting up pretty uninspiring numbers there in his draft year, then tore it up in 2013 to get a late season promotion to Kanny. He was splitting time all year though, only got into 62 games in 2013, so the org may not see him as a starter. He posts good contact rates (K/PA in the 15% territory), has some power, but doesn't walk a ton. He DH'd a bit both years, probably as a function of having to split time with a couple other guys on the roster. He's still fairly young considering he had 3 years of college ball and repeated rookie ball, will be 22 for the 2014 season. Likely he's in the pot with other GF catchers for starting time in Kanny in '14 (the Bristol guys like Ayala and Barraza I'd suspect stay in Rk one more season). Of his competition (Dillon Haupt and Trey Wimmer)... Haupt is a similar age but was drafted in '13 in the 20th, and didn't put up any special numbers in GF. Wimmer is a year older, but was a '13 draftee like Haupt. Wimmer showed more power than Haupt, but a lower average and similar plate discipline ratios. The bottom line really is, these guys all split time in GF, all just played catcher or DH'd, and their numbers weren't wildly different. So likely the differentiating factors will be things we don't know - how their catcher defense looks, how they handle pitchers, and how they "look" scouting-wise. I can't find much info of that kind for any of them, so... I can't easily differentiate them. It should also be noted that the Pioneer League is a hitters' league, so their offensive numbers may be slightly inflated.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jan 10, 2014 -> 12:46 PM) Admitedly I only drive it to Galena or Madison but why did they have to do the entire stretch at once? It might be cheaper and ultimately faster (in terms of total time of work) to do it in one shot.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Jan 10, 2014 -> 11:58 AM) It makes you wonder what the Sox would have been able to receive had they traded Borchard, Wright, Rauch, etc. at the heights of their values as prospects. Of course, back then prospects weren't as overvalued as they are now. Borchard got Thornton, so that was pretty damn good.

I don't think the Sox should sign him, at the kind of money being kicked around. 4x20+ or 6x15+, plus $20M posting fee, I think that could really turn out badly. People seem to not notice this, but there is a history there with players and pitchers from Japan. The great majority of them end up succeeding for 1, maybe 1.5 seasons, then fall off a cliff. There are a very few exceptions, but they are just that. Too much risk for me, at that kind of money.

Balta is putting up some older clips now too. We now have video of about 40 different prospects. Leaving out a few that are no longer in the org, here is the current list of what we have: OF Courtney Hawkins OF Trayce Thompson OF Jacob May OF Keenyn Walker OF Jared Mitchell OF Jason Coats OF Mark Haddow OF Nolan Earley 1B Keon Barnum 1B Andy Wilkins 1B Patrick Palmeiro 2B Marcus Semien 2B Micah Johnson 2B Joey DeMichele SS Tim Anderson SS Cleuluis Rondon SS Tyler Saladino SS Toby Thomas SS Jeffry Santos 3B Trey Michalczewski 3B Chris Curley 3B Nick Basto C Sammy Ayala C Angel Rosario RHP Andre Rienzo RHP Chris Bassitt RHP Daniel Webb RHP Jake Petricka RHP Mike Recchia RHP JB Wendelken RHP Kevin Vance RHP Simon Castro RHP Storm Throne RHP Ryan Kussmaul RHP Dan Remenowsky RHP Joe Dvorsky RHP Kelvis Valerio LHP Santos Rodriguez LHP Spencer Arroyo

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Jan 9, 2014 -> 09:33 PM) The Lord of the Rings books are borderline unreadable. The movies are masterpieces. One thing I thought they handled very well was all the singing. That happened twice in the movies, and both were done very well. In the books, it seemed like it happened dozens of times, and it was usually grating to read.

Thanks everyone - we're happy to have these out there. QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Jan 10, 2014 -> 01:34 AM) Very cool stuff. I don't know how many of you guys live near each other, but a monthly (or biweekly, or weekly if your ambitious enough) recap video of what players moved up, down, "Helium watch", hot or cold, injury updates, ect would be pretty cool. I think people would enjoy hearing you guys talk about players and show video clips over the sound, rather than read text about them. Just a suggestion. We have previously done monthly hot/cold reports, or sometimes even weekly. In terms of videos, we'll push them onto the channel as we get them during the season (or even this offseason, if we dig up some more from 2013 that we missed). One new thing to watch for in 2014 - for the first time, we're going to have daily recaps on the site during the season. We have a poster here who volunteered to do this. So there will be content on FS every day, during the season. This is in addition to all the feature, draft, news, rankings, interviews, etc. we already do. ETA: We've rarely ever done the podcast type thing you discuss here, but it is an interesting idea. Two of us live in the same suburb of Chicago. The other current writers are in Tennessee, and the UK.

FutureSox now has a YouTube Channel. These are videos we shot ourselves in 2013, of about 30 different prospects. This article lists who we have video of so far, on the channel. And this is the link to the channel. This is exclusive content. For some of these players, you can't even find videos on the internet. So bookmark it, and subscribe to it for updates. We'll add more in 2014. We're pretty proud of this one.

QUOTE (Jim Busby @ Jan 9, 2014 -> 04:34 PM) Did the Chicago White Sox Sign Simon Castro RP Again. He still on the (20) best Prospects He wasn't an FA, they didn't have to re-sign him. He's still under team control. He certainly doesn't belong on any T20 list, though MLB.com may still have him there. I wouldn't completely rule him out as a reliever yet, he may find a way to make that work. But he's not even T30 for me, probably somewhere 30-40 (closer to 40) in this system, in my view.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jan 9, 2014 -> 03:51 PM) The Lord of the Rings movies far outdid the book in almost every aspect in my opinion. And I love the books. I was very impressed with not only the beautiful look and feel, but really felt they added a lot of depth to Boromir. Really enhanced that character, and I think the actor deserved a supporting actor nod for the Oscars.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 9, 2014 -> 02:20 PM) Just so it's said, pretty much all of this isn't true. And one more link for good measure. I've read that first one before I think, it sure sounded familiar. It reminds me of the book that quy wrote about the evils of recycling, the name of which escapes me (but which I read). It is good for pointing out some flaws, but it then makes unfounded leaps while taking in external costs and additions without doing the same on the other side. That article does not come close to saying it isn't all true - in fact it reinforces it is mostly true, but that (duh) it is a prototype idea that will have a lot of variance when studied in greater detail for true cost. I am not an engineer at all, but I have read articles on this, positive and negative, and I am sold on it being worth pursuing, at least to the point of getting real, practical cost and efficiency measures for a few given routes. Then an actual decision can be made.

Posted this in the FS forum. He's minor league filler, nothing more.

I also think that Elon Musk's idea of above-ground tube systems (hyperloop), which will be much faster and much cheaper to operate than HSR, are a better long term plan anyway. Can be operated using mostly solar energy from the tubes themselves, equipment is cheaper, land acquisition is easier in some ways, it is much cheaper to build and dynamic trip costs are much lower. It just makes so much sense. If you want to go full-leap, that is a better way to go than HSR, IMO.