NorthSideSox72

QUOTE (flavum @ May 31, 2012 -> 11:28 AM) Does anyone know if the new rules and slotting will get players signed and playing sooner? Is that August 15th deadline still in play? I seem to recall they made the signing period shorter, but I don't remember the new date.

QUOTE (OilCan @ May 30, 2012 -> 10:17 PM) Just a few players left before the 2012 draft. GET EM WHILE THEY LAST!!! Still a couple guys from the Top 25 at the beginning of the season that are available, and a few others who will likely be on the next one. Also, after the amateur draft, there will be lots of new blood to choose from. A new FS Top 25 will come out sometime after the draft, probably close to the signing deadline.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ May 31, 2012 -> 06:55 AM) What position prospects would you rate higher? Mitchell, Thompson, and Saladino for sure. Probably Walker. I'd put him in the next tier with Semien, Ravelo, & Phegley (as I think his numbers go back up). We probably have enough pitching prospects to ensure he's not in the top 10 this year, but I do think he's one of our more interesting prospects. Interesting to Dan's point earlier... that the top prospect will likely be the weakest in years. I agree. But whereas in some recent years, where you have a few guys at the very top that are intriguing, then a morass of nothing... I think the 5 to 15 spots in the system will be stronger this year, while the 1-5 spots will be weaker.

Shirek's numbers continue to slide. This happened last year too. As a starter, he does well at first... then the K numbers drop, and the AvgA goes up. Walks stay the same. Last year, his numbers as a reliever were much better than as a starter. He's a guy who can hit 95, but on a small frame, and he's primarily a fastball-sinker pitcher, with only mediocre other breaking pitches. Why the hell do they keep running him out there as a starter? He's got reliever written all over him.

The return of Andy Wilkins.

And CLE lost. 1.5 up. Two straight sweeps, 8 wins straight, 11 of 12. Booya.

Gameday makes it seem instead of 3-1, it should be 1-3 count, based on pitch location. Umping awesome.

QUOTE (chw42 @ May 30, 2012 -> 02:54 PM) 4 runs on 11 hits so far...not real efficient. The Sox have been hitting insanely w/ RISP lately, they were due for a bad game. If they do that and STILL win, that's a GOOD thing.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ May 30, 2012 -> 02:26 PM) It's been interesting reading a Rays message board after the Q incident. After he was thrown out, they all were saying "f*** AJ!" "AJ is an asshole", and basically everyone blamed AJ for the throw behind Zobrist, and also no one there said anything about it being a bad call. Then, when De Aza got hit, someone said "Good, I hope his career is over", and later referred to De Aza as a baby back b**** who can't keep his legs together, and getting hit was his own fault. THEEEEENNN, someone posted about hearing the possibility of Howell hitting De Aza on purpose, and they said it's nearly impossible to have that kind of control, and that AJ fouling those pitches in to Molina seemed more likely to be on purpose than Howell trying to hit De Aza. Wow, that's some quality ignorance.

For those who CAN'T READ... Political discussion ends now. Deletions and suspensions will follow if further posts are made of that variety.

QUOTE (JohnCangelosi @ May 30, 2012 -> 02:05 PM) Why do you say "idiot"? Just challenging your belief system here, as it seems to be dictated by the mainstream media. If you actually reviewed the facts you might be surprised on what you find on this issue, as strange as it sounds. Let's end the political talk here and now.

QUOTE (Baron @ May 30, 2012 -> 02:04 PM) Thanks alot Nate Jones Hard to blame Jones. He had no warm-up time to speak of, and is out there almost 2 innings now, when he usually pitches 1.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 30, 2012 -> 02:03 PM) Side of the knee, which resulted in him being taken out. Yeah, again, incredibly difficult to do intentionally. Weird.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 30, 2012 -> 02:00 PM) Both. De Aza was at 2b, HOwell turned around, threw, plunked him in the side of the knee. Throw was no where near the bag. OK, so first, there is no beaning, unless it hit his head. Was he hit in the head? Second, that is a really low percentage shot - trying to hit a runner on the move in the legs with a pickoff throw? There is probably a 90% chance you miss and it goes into center field. And a 10% chance it hits him and does little or no harm. Seems hard to believe it was intentional, but, I didn't see it.

OK wait a second... I see talk here of a "pickoff beaning", and also a knee injury for ADA. Which is it? Or both? WTF???

QUOTE (ScottyDo @ May 30, 2012 -> 01:32 PM) First pitch fastball dead between the shoulder blades. So the AJ one was probably intentional, but the Beckham one probably not. OK.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 30, 2012 -> 01:30 PM) AJ spiked the s*** out of Zobrist at 2nd base on a forceplay to try to break up a DP yesterday. Ohhhhh, well that helps a bit. Did the Beckham or AJ HBP's today look at all intentional? Seems really unlikely the Beckham one was on purpose.

SO, for those of us who can't watch the game... looking at Gameday, it seems like... Beckham and AJ were both hit by pitches so far today... and then a pitch behind Zobrist got Q thrown out. What are the missing pieces here? Something about a spiking?

QUOTE (sunofgold @ May 30, 2012 -> 11:28 AM) DA tar that alex rios rf What the heck does that one even mean?

QUOTE (Jake @ May 30, 2012 -> 09:15 AM) The nice thing is that Peavy got quite a few innings last year, which was valuable in building a "base" so to speak for this year. I really don't expect him to have problems down the stretch, even if I flinch every time he releases a pitch and does anything but his normal follow through, etc. QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 30, 2012 -> 09:18 AM) This is why pushing these guys last year was so important. If you run a marathon, you can't train by running 400's. Yes. It amazes me how many people were all up in arms about how bad Peavy was last year, and how they shouldn't have let him pitch. That's what last year HAD to be for him, just as it is for other pitchers coming off major surgeries. You miss a year, then you spend a year sucking at picthing but getting stretched back out, THEN you have a chance at a good year, maybe. By the way, I am not saying all three guys are going to collapse. I just think its likely that 1 or 2 will fade and be gassed before the season is over, so they'll need to give them more than just an extra day of rest here and there. I hope I'm wrong.

There were two "tests" for this team coming into the season. One was, how would the Four Horsemen of Underachievement from 2011 do? Well, Dunn is back to his old self, Rios is doing pretty good, Peavy is doing very good... and Beckham, well, the jury is still out. So 3 out of 4, at this point. That's great. The other is still to come. Peavy, Sale and Humber would all have to dramatically increase their innings pitched from last year, to stay starting all this year. Chances are, one or more will fade, probably starting around August. So... how those three hold up, and how any fill-ins the Sox use (Axelrod, Quintana, Castro, Doyle, whomever) perform. That's the second test, and at this point, that is what will make or break the team's playoff chances, in my view.

So, Dylan Axelrod is mortal. Actually, some pretty bad starting pitching in all the games. Mitchell has 7 triples, in about 1.5 months of play. Wow. I knew that park had big alleys, but still, that's impressive.

Rangel Ravelo, 3B Born 04/24/1992 in Hialeah, FL 6’2", 210 Throws: R Bats: R OVERVIEW/SCOUTING INFO Ravelo was drafted very young (18 years 1.5 months on draft day) and very raw. Scouts have projected him as an above average to plus hitter, and raved about his and-eye coordination. He also is projected as above average or plus for power. Negatives offensively include limited ability to hit breaking pitches, and a lack of speed. Defensively, while he has a strong arm, there are questions about his ability to stick at 3B due to lack of range, and he may have to move to 1B. Given the Sox drafted him a little higher than others may have, they seem to feel he has a good chance to hold at the position. So far, Ravelo's results offensively have been given to a high average, decent contact rate, but low walk rate and minimal power. He's still only 20, and the questions at this point seem to be about whether or not he will add the power he has been projected into, if he can increase his walk rate, and if his defensive abilities can keep him at third base. At this point, power has increased a little, but not dramatically, 2 years in. His walk rate is going up. SCHOOL NOTES Rangel played at Hialeah HS, and may not have been noticed at first, except that he was a teammaate of the 3rd overall pick in the same draft, Manny Machado. But he also had a very solid spring in his senior year, to jump up the boards on his own. SIGN/DRAFT Drafted by the White Sox in the 6th round of the 2010 draft, at age 18 out of Hialeah High School. Signed quickly, on 6/16/10, for a bonus of $125,000, more or less slot-money. MINORS Rangel's professional career started at Bristol (Rk, Appy), as is the case for most White Sox high school draft picks. His 2010 numbers were uninspiring, posting a .254/.291/.335/.626 line. His K/PA rate (14%) was OK, especially for a guy who recently turned 18, but he didn't walk much (5% BB rate). Only 11 of his 44 hits were of the extra base variety, 9 of those being doubles. But he broke out in 2011, posting a .384/.410/.507/.917 line in just 20 games repeating Bristol, before being promoted to Low A Kannapolis at age 19. There he hit for a very good average and increased his walk rate a little (to 7%), but still showed little power posting a .317/.368/.373/.740 line. 9 of his 51 hits were for extra bases. His K rate went down a bit to 11%. Here in 2012 (as of 5/29), his walk rate is about the same as last year, and his strike out rate has increased but not to any alarming extent (14%). The sacrifice in contact seems to be directly correlated to his power potential: his SLG has gone from .373 to .438 at Low A Kanny, accompanied by only a .007 increase in batting average. He's also stolen 4 bases (no CS) so far this season, which is double what he has in his previous two seasons combined. Hard to tell if it is a function of what they are trying to do to develop him, but... all those XBH occurred in his first month or so of play. So, 16 of his first 49 hits were for extras, but also 24 of his 26 K's. But since May 19th, all 8 hits have been singles... yet he's only struck out twice in that time (5%), while walking 5 times (14%). His current line on the 2012 season is .324/.382/.438/.819. PERSONAL/OTHER STATS/REFERENCE MILB page Baseball Cube page FutureSox Draft Profile Baseball Instinct report update in 2012

QUOTE (2nd_city_saint787 @ May 26, 2012 -> 11:56 AM) Any new news on this guy, just saw that mlb.com has him as our #6 top prospect and Ive never heard of him. Coming here I like what I read about him. Before issues with elbow tendonitis, he was highly thought-of. But elbow issues make people leery, certainly they do for me, so no way I'd put him that high at this point.

QUOTE (danman31 @ May 29, 2012 -> 11:25 AM) Except Ravelo doesn't have good plate discipline. That's an isolated stretch. He still doesn't walk enough for a guy with no power. Lately. Lately. 2 K's in 10 games, and 5 walks, is good plate discipline. I wasn't saying he's always been that way.