NorthSideSox72

Had an off-convo with John Manuel from BA. Pretty sure Hawkins is not in the Top 3. Abreu, Johnson, and likely Anderson are your BA Top 3 (based on his hints about infielders). Davidson 4. Semien is likely in the 6-10 range, my guess. He wouldn't give straight answers, but that is the picture I got.

Concerns about Davidson's K rate and his glove, but still like the move. My opinion: Daniel Webb is the closer by end of 2014 if not before, maybe even out of ST. Also would say 90% that either Beckham or Keppinger are gone very soon, possibly both. Semien becomes the 2B. Rick Hahn is not boring. He's done a TON in basically a year.

Looking at the OOC resumes in the Top 25's... there's a lot of weakness at the top, and a lot of interesting teams at the bottom and just out of ranking. I get the impression there will be a LOT of movement in the polls in January. Should be fun to watch.

This thread is full of... wow. We have a poster saying they just don't care about school children being gunned down? Another one who has decided there is no such thing as a responsible gun owner? I sincerely hope neither actually believes what they typed.

QUOTE (G&T @ Dec 13, 2013 -> 03:05 PM) Who is his lawyer? Even if it's a public defender, call them. I'd imagine you aren't the first person to have this problem. Good call. His lawyer or a PD may be able to get him to relay instructions or even get a release of some kind from the defendant.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Dec 13, 2013 -> 03:17 PM) In Chicago its all about who is on the lease with the landlord. If he's not on there, then you have all responsibility for items in the unit and the rent. Responsibility is not the same as ownership. Even if you are responsible for getting it out when you leave, that doesn't mean you can take possesion of it, give it away, or sell it, if it does not belong to you.

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ Dec 13, 2013 -> 01:39 PM) I do have one but it's just more for saying that we have one. It has basics like when rent is due and such. I didn't put clauses in there to protect myself from an incident like this. My landlord knows he's there but he's not on the lease. That's why I'm thinking that he really doesn't have protection? May not have certain types of protection, but that is not the same as releasing control of his property to you by being there. I'd be very careful just discarding his stuff. That's all I'm saying.

Also, I have to ask (not directed at the OP)... how the hell does a guy with a criminal history even get a job as a medic?

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ Dec 13, 2013 -> 12:46 PM) His family disowned him. I was going to try to visit him to see what he wanted done but I run the risk he will refuse to see me. I was just thinking of calling the Salvation army and letting them go buck wild. With his priors, is it safe to say he's going to the slammer? I'd think you cannot simply give away his property, unless he abandons it by choice (as in, written word, signed by him or his legal representative). That could get you into trouble. If he is in default of his rental agreement with you, you essentially have to go through a legal process of kicking him out. Once that is done, you'd be able to give some period for his belongings to be moved. Then after that, you could do what you want to. But that process could take some time. Like, a long time. For that matter, do you even have a rentla agreement with him in writing? Can you find a friend? Anyone he knows? Who could take his stuff? You could also talk with your landlord (if you don't own the place), they may have some ideas. Sorry you are in this position.

QUOTE (oldsox @ Dec 13, 2013 -> 10:03 AM) Northsider, thank you for that post. It is the perfect summary I was lookling for. You guys really do good work. Thanks!

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Dec 12, 2013 -> 02:32 PM) You could also say after getting time in the bigs last year and being brought back to AAA could hurt his confidence especially after thinking he has a shot of making it.. Or we could just start him at 3B but I don't think that would be the right thing to do for him I really don't think so. The guy moved up three levels in a year, he played in the AFL, and touched the majors. He's young, this isn't a 26 year old who has played 2 years of AAA and is itching to get his only shot. Also, just for reference here, I interviewed a couple dozen different minor leaguers this year, half in person and half over the phone. Some of them stuck out for various things. Semien came off, to me, as somewhat shy, confident but not cocky, high baseball IQ, very flexible about where the team might play him (2B, 3B, SS), and a simple, focused approach to the game. I don't see that personality type getting easily butt-hurt because he isn't in the majors permanently now. I could be wrong of course - I just don't think this is a Courtney Hawkins type personality we are talking about.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Dec 12, 2013 -> 02:39 PM) The leaps & lost time are valid arguments. I'm just not sure Phegley is anyone we want to bank on by any means. Hahn probably likes him more than anyone here & Hahn's still seemingly doing everything in his power to put other guys next to him as well as in front of him. With Phegley having options though, if you get a real starting catcher and use Nieto/Flowers/Other as a backup, you can give Phegley PA in AAA, monitor his approach, and if someone else thinks he's ready to be a starting big league catcher then you should be able to get something out of him, maybe not a ton, but maybe an MLB reliever or something. I agree, I'd rather have someone better, and Phegley in AAA is not the end of the world. But, if they can't acquire legit starter, I'd rather give Phegley a try than Flowers. Best approach if they don't get someone, to me, is to give Phlowers and Nieto equal time in ST to see what you have, and go from there. My inclination is to go Phegley as a starter with Nieto backing up if he shows he can handle that. But really, I wouldn't have picked up Nieto in the Rule V to begin with, I'd rather have done a prospect-for-prospect trade for him. He could have been had for a relatively marginal guy, and then you can put him in the minors to further develop.

I've said before, though it sounds odd, I think Phegley has better potential as a hitter than Flowers does. Keep in mind that you can't look at Phegley's numbers in the minors at face value. Look at his jumps, how little development time he actually had at any given level. He didn't have a full, healthy season until 2012, at which point he was in AAA with very little development time at other levels in terms of games played. Then in 2013 (and even late 2012 really), once he had a year to adjust to level, he exploded.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Dec 12, 2013 -> 12:58 PM) I think you mean Nationals there instead of Astros, though that would be a cool rule if the Astros got everybody's Rule 5 picks that didn't stick. I fixed that typo like an hour ago. Sorry.

This was linked in the Nieto thread in PHT too, but figured it should be mentioned back here for any discussion of the minor leaguers involved. Here is the article.

Shoemaker was selected by FLA in the AAA portion of the Rule V draft. He gone. Closing, archiving.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 12, 2013 -> 10:55 AM) Small correction, they have to offer him back to the Nationals, not Astros. Fixed, along with incorrectly putting Shoemaker with ARZ instead of FLA. Sorry, tough to get all that down in a hurry while working on other things.

FutureSox write-up of the Rule V draft selections (and one player lost).

Bizarre.

I find it incredibly hard to believe the Sox would draft anyone, let alone a catcher, who has never played above A+. That just seems like a ridiculous idea. If they really like the guy, they can probably trade for him without losing much. Why go the Rule V route and put him in a position where he'll almost certainly fail? And then end up back with the other team anyway? I really don't see it. I DO think the Sox will take someone though - either a LHRP or, maybe, Carlos Perez from HOU.

Should've mentioned, when I say it was an even trade for the Sox, I mean value-wise in a vacuum. It fits the Sox needs and deals from relative stengths, so even if value is even, it is an overall positive for the team.

Jacobs fits in with the crowd of toolsy, flawed OF's in the Sox system, like Thompson, Mitchell, Walker. Jacobs has power and speed, his defense is suspect in CF but OK corners. He has serious contact issues, almost as bad as some of those others. But he's older with less ceiling than Thompson. He was also off the 40 and theoretically Rule V eligible. Keep in mind that, on the off chance someone grabs him (which I'd put at like a 2% chance), there is likely a plan in place for different player or cash to go to AZ. That is why it hasn't been announced yet, and why he is a PTBNL. For me, Jacobs is a 10-20 guy in the Sox system, closer to 20 for me, though this is all subjective. And he is in a pool of similar talent, behind an OF that just got young at the MLB level. He was pretty expendable, and his loss doesn't hurt the system much. Overall for the Sox, I like the trade - but I am also not quite as high on Santiago as some others. I think he'll have issues repeating delivery and staying in the strike zone, though there is upside there to be a mid-rotation starter. More likely he is back-end. That plus Jacobs, to me, is pretty even-steven for Eaton. But as fathom and others have said, we'll know a lot more in a few years.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 9, 2013 -> 12:39 PM) Any velocity idea for Molina? Haven't seen any reports.

A few highlights so far from the winter leagues... VZ --Carlos Sanchez .346/.422/.428 in 159 AB, 20 BB vs 27 K, 4th in VWL in AVG, 5th in OBP --Andy Wilkins .314/.395/.476 in 105 AB, 12 BB vs 17 K - also hitting well --Trayce Thompson was released after posting a .045/.120/.045 line in 13 games - ouch --Nestor Molina: 3.05 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, 17 K vs 4 BB in 20.2 IP - nice after his 2013 debacle DR --Dan Black currently 5th in DWL with .856 OPS, 4th in slugging at .484, 2nd in HR with 5 - just keeps hitting --Leury Garcia .232/.344/.317, 11 BB vs 14 K, in 23 games --Tony Pena Jr (not that one, the other one): 2.57 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, 24 K vs 4 BB in 21 IP AUSTRALIA --Jacob May holding his own and running a lot: .273/.360/.394, 7 BB vs 4 K, 9 SB (2nd in ABL) in 10 ATT, in 17 G --Joey DeMichele with some odd numbers: .263/.291/.539, tied for ABL lead in HR (5), 4th in SLG, but 19 K vs 2 BB in 76 AB

Actually got to catch a flick - saw Gravity with my wife. Definitely recommend it. The general plot line is pretty simple, and there were a couple "you just had to do that, didn't you?" moments... but it was one of the most end-to-end intense movies I've ever seen, very tightly constructed and produced. It gets intense like 2 minutes in, and stays there basically the entire time, which is hard to pull off. Truly edge of your seat stuff. And Sandra Bullock was pretty great.