NorthSideSox72

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ May 17, 2013 -> 07:51 AM) I doubt it. He's hot right now. His bat was never in question. He's finally healthy and has been for a significant amount of time now. He's probably not as good as he's been lately but there's no reason to not believe in his bat. His bat was his strength when we drafted him and he's always had projectable power Also, consider this... his ITP condition has a lot to do with blood makeup and body chemistry (had a family member go through something similar, almost killed him). If you were him, even if you wanted to consider enhancing that way... wouldn't you be pretty worried about, I don't know... dying? Seems like he is the last guy who would want to be putting harsh chemicals in his bloodstream.

QUOTE (Jake @ May 16, 2013 -> 11:48 PM) In other words, they are unconvinced by the hot start. I'd show caution too with his iffy track record. Could be him finally catching up after the illness and somewhat quick promotions, or it could just be a blip Good to be cautious. But we're a month-and-a-half in now. He is not likely to keep hitting THIS well, but I also don't think it is just a blip. About that write-up too... if he can be an "average receiver", that's a win. He has a plus arm, and was drafted as an offense-first catcher.

Catcher Jose Barraza, 2012 7th round pick, had TJ surgery. Out for the season. Says he hopes to at least DH a little in AZ fall instructional league.

Linky. Enjoy.

QUOTE (Lillian @ May 16, 2013 -> 11:22 AM) I read the short article before I posted, but it didn't reveal much. Welcome to the world of evaluating 16 year olds. How much can you really tell from a kid that age?

QUOTE (bbilek1 @ May 15, 2013 -> 12:02 PM) I kind of had irrational hope for him because of his name when we drafted him. I imagined him coming out of the pen like Charlie Sheen's character in Major League. He's got a live arm and is still very young. He also has games where he looks outright dominant. I wouldn't write him off just yet.

QUOTE (flavum @ May 15, 2013 -> 10:02 AM) http://www.milb.com/scoreboard/index.jsp?s...mp;ymd=20130515 Kannapolis and Birmingham day games. W-S loses 9-2. Nothing much good to report on offense, it was a Sunday lineup of sorts. Leyer struggled with control again, he's a hard guy to figure out. Storm Throne may have a cool name but he has been pretty bad so far in minor league play. Kind of surprised they added him from extended spring, I thought maybe he figured something out (he does have serious velocity on the fastball), but so far, it doesn't look like he has.

As the father of two young daughters, I just want to say this bothers me a lot. The thinness is part of it, but so is the effort to make her more adult and attractive. This was supposed to be a teenage girl, chubby cheeks and all. Changing this is just... not right, to me. Bothers me.

Jaye from Kanny to W-S (and starts tonight) Buch from B-Ham to W-S Brase from W-S to Kanny Collop released ...leaves 1 open roster spot in B-Ham.

With the pitching depth the Sox have, contracts and young guys... doing a gut rebuild would be an incredible waste. Very few teams have the pitching the Sox do, plus the Sox have a few good young arms coming up. First, I think it is still a little too early to wave the white flag. It just seems unlikely to me that the offense and defense will continue being this bad or even close to it. But if in June sometime, it looks like the team really is this bad at hitting and/or defense... then you look to shed contracts ONLY for players that are not important to your 2014 plans. Get what you can for them, if no one bites with anything of value, then hold. Then in the offseason, the Sox probably can trade an arm, plus have that additional money from the contracts coming off, to address some holes on the field.

QUOTE (Jake @ May 13, 2013 -> 11:45 PM) We shall see. He's had two straight full seasons of sub-.700 OPS baseball. I'm rooting for him. True but misleading. 2011 he started at AA (where he had only played a few games previously), then went to AAA for the first time, so he had a season where he was basically new at a level, and was promoted before the season was up. 2012 was his first full season in AAA, and there yes, he had a .680 OPS. Also, look at his contact and walk rates... his K/PA has been pretty consistently around 15% the last few years, which is pretty good. His walk rate has gone from 4.7% last year to 7.1% this year. I'm not saying he is going to keep up this torrid pace - he won't. I'm saying I think the bat can play in the majors. I'm more concerned about his defense, sans arm. And his ability to handle pitchers, which I don't know anything about.

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ May 13, 2013 -> 08:04 PM) Hard to say. It's always possible he's gotten better. Improving the eye at the plate leads to magnificent things. Just look at Viciedo right now with the small, but delicious, sample size. Phegley was highly touted for the bat when he was drafted, as a supp pick. He started well out of the gate too, then had health issues over a multi-year period. He's finally been healthy a full season last year, and offseson going into this year. That, too, will do magnificent things.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 13, 2013 -> 01:05 PM) I think whoever recommended John Danks to the White Sox did a pretty nice job. And I don't think anyone could have predicted Dunn's epic collapse. People thought he may come down a little, but no one predicted this. I can't see blaming the Sox on that deal.

I do think it is valid to question Bell's performance. The drafting has been getting better by all accounts, and now international spending is up dramatically. So where are the results from those few years? The argument against Bell is that the Sox have been really bad at developing position players. There is no way around this as fact, and Bell has some responsibility there. The hard part is... how much? How much falls to people above or below him? How much credit does he get for the pitchers, who have done well in general? I don't know how much input Bell has with pitcher development. Does anyone? I think it will take another couple years to really see the fruits of the labors in changing draft strategies, increasing international spending, and a more level playing field in draft bonuses. So I don't think it is time yet to go asking for Bell to get fired, unless you know something about his techniques causing specific problems (which, again, no one here really knows). And I wouldn't get too wrapped up in slow starts for certain guys. Sanchez is still awfully young and has plenty of time to adjust. Thompson is just getting hot now. Walker missed time and had two significant injuries he is recovering from. Saladino is putting it back together, somewhat. Semien is looking awfully good. Hawkins' struggles are well-documented but he is just real raw at this point. These are all names to keep an eye on this year, in terms of position players - let's see how the full year goes.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 13, 2013 -> 02:52 PM) Right now I think they're using the DH and 1b spot to get both into the lineup. Yup. Which means they both get playing time, but Black needs to show some space between him and Wilkins in order to get a promotion first.

QUOTE (baseball17 @ May 13, 2013 -> 01:40 PM) Leesman will be in Charlotte in a few weeks. During the DFA he wasn't allowed to do anything, so it set him back a few more weeks. It's not about a spot opening up, he is building his innings back up. Also, Shirek is doing very well in Korea. Both good know. Where are you finding Korean baseball numbers? Just curious. QUOTE (witesoxfan @ May 13, 2013 -> 02:03 PM) There are several reasons why you pay attention to the age of a prospect and what level they're at. For starters, old prospects have less time to adjust to higher level pitching before they exit their prime years (typically considered to be anywhere between the ages of 25-33, but a much narrower 28-31 are considered to be your peak years). They are also going to be full developed physically and really have nowhere to go but down from that point - they'll can get smarter as a player, but they'll get slower, weaker, and more fragile too. Secondly, older prospects do have the ability to control that, and they do so by performing to the point where the organization is forced to move them up. Cyle Hankerd absolutely had a chance to prove himself - multiple chances, in fact - and in 1200+ plate appearances at the AA level, he put up a split line of .254/.325/.361/.687. That is bad. Black might show up in some Sox top 20 prospect lists come midseason or end of the season if he keeps hitting. He won't be thought highly of, but if he keeps hitting, he'll be impossible to be ignored. Great points. I'll also add, Jimbo seems to be looking at this as some sort of personal affront. No one in the front office is going to keep guys down for the heck of it. I may disagree with their handling of some players in certain circumstances, but I have no doubt they are putting the guys at levels according to who they think is most likely to succeed. As for Dan Black, he's got a couple filler guys ahead of him (Loman, Gallagher), who aren't going to be in his way if the Sox think he's got something. But he's on a team with Wilkins, who has been a more highly considered prospect at 1B for years now. We'll see how it plays out.

QUOTE (Jimbo1965 @ May 13, 2013 -> 01:08 PM) It still shows Hankerd attached to Sox in MILB.COM with no stats for this year. I'm glad Leesman is back. Hankerd and Shoemaker have good stats so it baffles me when they are not considered prospects. It just makes sense that if they can do it at one level they are at least considered prospects at the next level until they actually fail. Shoemaker has been kind of a favorite of mine for having good stats but they move him so slowly. I was looking forward to him in AA. Part of this depends on your definition of "prospect". For me, Shoemaker is a prospect, but he's fringey. I figured him for AA coming into the season, and if he had hit well there, I think he'd have been more on the radar. He's certainly hit well on his way up, but he's been consistently old-for-level, and he's unfortunately in the one positional crowd in the Sox system that actually has some depth (OF). And I've never heard anything stand out about his defense either, though I haven't heard anything bad. That all said, I'd prefer with guys like him (and Dan Black is another example) that, if they continue to hit at a high level like that, even if tools-wise they don't rate very high, they should challenge them to see who shakes out. That may still happen for Shoemaker, but now with missing most or all of 2013, he's going to be pretty behind, trying to remember how to hit, while being 1-2 years too old for his level and stuck behind guys. Not an impossible task, but, a very tough road. Obviously I hope he makes it happen. Hankerd is a 28 year old who has been in A ball the past couple years, and never got above AA. His AA numbers were nothing very good either. His big numbers last year at both levels of A ball came in limited action as well. He hasn't played this year, but is not on the DL. I had thought he went to another org, I read somewhere, but maybe I'm wrong on that. He is likely out of baseball now, in this case, but again I don't really know.

Hankerd was a minor league ringer, not a prospect really, and he went to another org. Shirek was just stuck behind too many people, and elected to go pitch in Korea. He may show up on major league radars again in the future. Leesman was indeed a prospect, always sort of a mysterious one. He was put on waivers recently, claimed by Texas, Texas assigned him to AAA, he rejected the assignment and went FA, and the Sox picked him back up. He was injured in the playoffs last year, and was still just recovering when he was waived. So he's probably back in AZ now, waiting for a chance with Charlotte to open up.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 12, 2013 -> 09:55 PM) How good is his defense? Which positions can he play confidently? I've tried to dig up scouting reports on Earley, haven't seen anything yet. Hard to say for sure if he's "real" based just on his numbers, when he's 25 in AA (which isn't OLD, but it isn't young either, probably more old than young).

QUOTE (ChiSoxJon @ May 12, 2013 -> 10:11 AM) Looks like Brady Shoemaker will miss the rest of the entire 2013 season with a torn labrum in his right shoulder. http://www.wthitv.com/dpp/sports/high_scho...ry#.UY-wXcqG4eo http://www.sycamorepride.com/showthread.ph...rgery-%284-3%29 Yeah, we discussed that here back in March I think. He is technically on W-S's DL. His girlfriend was tweeting about the surgery, and before then, we'd had the info posted here.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ May 10, 2013 -> 10:35 AM) Did you spell your name with a K because you knew you were going to be a strikeout pitcher? I think it is because it makes him sound like a Viking.

Next up in our series of FS Prospect Interviews is Erik Johnson, who we are tenatively scheduled to talk with next week. So... what questions would you ask Erik? We'll take some ideas from here to add to our own questions, hopefully. Let's hear 'em.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ May 9, 2013 -> 11:47 PM) I was hoping Micah Johnson could reach W-S sometime in June, now I am thinking he could get there before May is even over. He clearly is not being challenged in Low-A ball. .303/.389/.477/.866, 6 2B, 5 3B (leads league), 29 SB (leads the world), 1 HR, 16 RBI, 14 BB, 27 K I guess you could argue hitting .303 in Low-A really isn't worthy of a promotion, but that OBP and SB is really exactly what we could use in a couple years. QUOTE (danman31 @ May 10, 2013 -> 12:15 AM) Promoting a guy based on stolen bases seems like a bad idea. He needs to get on base to steal those bases at higher levels. He's doing well, but no need to rush him. Also keep in mind that the 2B in W-S is Joey DeMichele, who is just now starting to hit a little. There is no way they demote him, but he's not ready to jump to AA either. So... Johnson probably isn't going anywhere for a while. Tyler Saladino is playing 2B in B-Ham, with Semien at short. If one of those two guys moves up to Charlotte at some point, AND if DeMichele is hitting in W-S, then you'll see them all move up a level, I'd think.

B-Ham's offense has been ridiculous lately. Viciedo a couple hits today. Remenowsky is back, a little shaky in his first appearance.

QUOTE (ChiSoxJon @ May 9, 2013 -> 06:05 AM) Barnum to return from DL and report to Kannapolis by mid-June I saw the return-by-mid-June info, but, has someone said he's headed for Kanny? Probably is, just wondering if you heard that from someone.