harfman77

I would be fine with adding Jay, gives Jackson a platoon partner and gives insurance against further injuries in the OF. An OF of Jay, Jackson, and Eaton defensively would be top notch and Jay gets on base at a decent clip. Johnson, Tatis Jr, and Beck for Shields, Jay, $35M and the #71 draft pick.

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ Jun 1, 2016 -> 06:55 PM) Corey Ray is not going fall past the top 5. Alec Hansen at 26 maybe a reach, and there's no way that Matt Mannig is going to fall to the second round. Law has Ray going in the teens in his latest mock. If Manning doesn't get selected in the top 10, he will slip at least to the comp picks he is asking for $4-5M and the teams from 11-24 can't pay that.

My wishlist as of now: 1.10 Corey Ray - Lou, CF - seems to be slipping and this would be a really good fit in a lot of ways 1.26 Alec Hansen - OU RHP - Guy entered the year as the choice to be 1.1 could be a good spot to save some money on a guy and have him rebound for you at some point. Back in the rotation and has 29 K's in his last 20IP. 2. Matt Manning - HS RHP - Athletic multi sport athlete that the Sox tend to love. Would eat all of the money you saved on Hansen and more. Spencer Adams v2 3. Ronnine Dawson - LF OSU - Guy with a lot of athleticism and ability. Has a solid power/speed combination. Hit .329/.423/.617 this season with 13 HR and 20 SB. 4. Spencer Van Scoyoc - HS LHP - Runs fastball up to 92 with a plus breaking ball. 5. Joel Booker - Iowa CF - Senior hit .370/.421/.532 with 23 SB's. Need to start saving money and this guy could help while not breaking the bank.

QUOTE (raBBit @ May 28, 2016 -> 12:56 PM) Sox won't take Collins over Rutherford. Cal Quantrill is rumored to have a deal with the Pads at one of their picks 24/25. BA has him going to the Padres at #8 on an underslot deal. Could be they are the team trying to slip Rutherford down the board and draft him at 24 and use savings at 8 and 25 to give him a Cameron type deal.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ May 25, 2016 -> 06:01 PM) The first round picks have been much better on paper. Barnum, however, was a massive reach. Yes, they have spent most of their international money, but they have in no sense been "All in" like the Cubs, Redsox, Dodgers etc. And it doesn't cost THAT much money....the Laroche savings would more than cover it. But they are nowhere. And no, I don't see any much out of Williams that he really wants to build an organization, as per the last 2 offseasons. And this year, they could do some savvy reaching IF accompanied by signing them below slot. We'll see if that happens. Barnum was definitely a gamble. The kid had probably the best raw LH power in that class and he was available there because he couldn't project at another position and teams were afraid that he would not make enough contact to make that power useful. The Sox rolled the dice on him improving as a hitter and lost. That happens, if he would have put it together you are looking at a home grown guy who would have been a perennial all star. Sometimes you have to take those gambles. The pick looks bad now, but at the time I think most people were pretty excited about it. Comparatively, people were disappointed with Broadway, McCulloch, Mitchell, and Walker as soon as their names were announced. I think the strategy will be to grab two college performers and a HS with the first three picks and to take some gambles on upside in International FA. I know we get frustrated to see other teams outspend the Sox consistently in LA, but at the end of the day, those teams are getting much from those high dollar acquisitions and by the time they are 20, those guys that signed on the cheap have just a good of shot at the majors as the high dollar guys do for the most part.

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ May 25, 2016 -> 04:12 PM) The only reason why his pith recognition is behind is because he spent half his time playing football. Because his time is fully devoted to baseball, his pitch recognition will only improve. Lookup any souring report on Taylor Trammell and they all praise his ability to hit. And he has something you can't teach in that the guy is a freak athlete. By your logic of not wanting the Sox to draft toolsy players, I guess you don't want the Sox to sign any left handed power hitters in free agency either. Just because the sox have had raw position players falter in their system for whatever reason, it doesn't mean that Trammell or another toolsy player is certain to fail. Also keep in mind that this is a new regime. That was the same argument used for Mitchell and Hawkins. No thanks. I didn't say I don't want the Sox to get players with tools, I am saying they need to prioritize contact over power as many of the power guys they have acquired never make enough contact to make it to the majors. Poor pitch recognition does not equal toolsy, it equals a player that can't hit advanced breaking balls.

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ May 25, 2016 -> 02:58 AM) I really hope that the Sox draft Taylor Trammell. He's a high school outfielder from Georgia and he's 6'3ft 195lbs. He played both football and baseball and had some big time D1 offers but he decided to play baseball only going forward. He's pretty raw when it comes to pitch recognition but he's shown that he can hit and I've seen his speed tool graded at 75+. I think that he will be there in the second round. Is he related to Bubba? No thanks on the raw pitch recognition, I have seen Sox get guys like that too many times that end up fizzling out. Give me a guy with great pitch recognition and let him try to develop power in the minors.

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ May 24, 2016 -> 12:25 PM) New mock: 10. OF Blake Rutherford (slot) 27. SS Gavin Lux (under slot, projected to go lower) 49. 3B Carter Kieboom (over slot) Wheres that from? I can't see the Sox not taking a pitcher with any of their first three picks.

Cuban outfielder Yadiel Hernandez will host a showcase for clubs on May 18, MLBTR has learned. The 28-year-old corner outfielder held a showcase back in February that was reportedly attended by as many as 25 Major League teams but hasn’t held a large-scale workout for clubs since being declared a free agent by MLB on April 21. Hernandez’s age and professional experience in Cuba make him exempt from international spending pools. He’s a left-handed hitter with excellent plate discipline and a knack for contact, and Baseball America’s Ben Badler has previously opined that Hernandez has a chance at hitting 10 to 15 homers over the course of a big league season. He’s a career .324/.449/.487 hitter in 514 pro games in Cuba. http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2016/05/inte...e-signings.html Could be a solid addition to the mix. Not sure what his defense is like, but he checks the other boxes for being a guy the Sox could really use. Not sure how soon he could get to the majors, but I would think he could be available by the trade deadline. A nice way to acquire some talent without disrupting the farm.

The Sox are tough to read definitely. The track record says college pitcher given their successes there, but its hard to find one that fits at 10. A college bat makes the most sense there, but you couldn't fault them for grabbing a high ceiling prep there. I really the odds are pretty strong that they pass on a college pitcher at 10 and grab one at 26. Hansen and Sheffield are both guys that were considered to be top 10 guys that should be around then though both come with a degree of risk.

Law has his first mock draft up. Has Sox taking Dakota Hudson at 10. Also has Collins going 11 and Perez 14.

My guess as of today: 1. Phillies - Kyle Lewis 2. Reds - AJ Puk 3. Braves - Jason Groome 4. Rockies - Delvin Perez 5. Brewers - Corey Ray 6. A's - Nick Senzel 7. Marlins - Riley Pint 8. Padres - Blake Rutherford 9. Tigers - Zack Collins 10. Sox - Matt Manning

I think Calhoun could work. The Sox could also target Jered Weaver to shore up the rotation taking on some bad salary from the Halos. A deal like Fulmer, Michaelzeski, Guerrero, and Hawkins for Calhoun and Weaver could be enticing to them. It gives them three legit prospects that will likely be MLB players and a wild card in Hawkins if they can get him on track. The Sox take on the remainder of Weavers $20M salary and see if they can help him get right. Weaver is a pending FA, the one hangup would be a full no trade clause that he would need to waive.

QUOTE (hi8is @ May 12, 2016 -> 01:57 PM) Pretty hysterical that BA has Ray going to us at 10 and Law has him at number 1. That is the kind of draft it is this year, pretty weak overall and the talent is all bunched together. Any of the top 20 or so guys could go anywhere. In Laws article he has Collins ranked 20 and says the A's are on him at #6.

My board would be at this point: 1. Puk (from my town) 2. Ray 3. Perez 4. Pint 5. Collins

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ May 11, 2016 -> 08:19 AM) Not only is this very premature (it's May, not August), it's completely inaccurate. The Sox draft strategy has changed dramatically in recent years, they've used their full pool or virtually so every year and even went over into penalty range for Rodon. They haven't been doing safe "reaches" with key picks in years. They actually work the draft to get a handful of signability guys by playing with the pool. In the international world, they've gone from a 2008-2012 period of being basically dead, to now spending at or near their pool limits and bringing in legit prospects, some of whom are now in full season ball. If you want to argue this was a year to go over, I actually agree with you. But the rest of your post is hyperbole not grounded in any fact, unless the clock went back to 2009 or something. To further the point first round picks since Hahn has been GM: 2015 - Carson Fulmer - Top college pitcher available in the draft, high probability player 2014 - Carlos Rodon - The consensus top college player in the draft, projected most of the year to go 1.1 2013 - Tim Anderson - Considered by some to be a reach, highly athletic player with little baseball experience, junior college player 2012 - Courtney Hawkins - High upside player, compared to Matt Kemp for having power and being able to handle CF 2012 - Keon Barnum - High upside player - huge LH power but falls because he is likely a 1B only So, they have gone out and got the two best college pitchers at their picks and three high ceiling, low floor guys.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 10, 2016 -> 03:32 PM) Rolling them into the draft when they turn 18 is quite literally the most fair system of all. It is crap that one group has one set of rules based on where they are born. I see no good reason for kids being free agents at 16 just because they are living in the DR, versus being subject to the draft because they are born in the US. I think there is a lot of validity to this. If they enter into the draft with 18-23 year olds, they are going to get drafted a lot lower than those more polished players. Which is a big issue that comes into play with a singular draft. I have said before that I think MLB should consolidate all the international academies under their umbrella. Let the kids train at their facilities and run leagues for them, providing them room, board, and education. When they are 18, they can enter the draft or go to play in college someplace and try and improve themselves or try and make another run at MLB as a college player.

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ May 10, 2016 -> 03:23 PM) The International system is modern day slavery, it's very f***ed up and lots of shady stuff going on behind the scenes. It needs to be fixed. And no, I don't think the answer is an international draft Modern day slavery based on what? Paying 16 year old kids exorbitant amounts of money to play a game that they choose to play? Thats not how slavery worked. In a country where the median income is around $1300 annually, a $35K plus bonus is more money than most people in the DR ever see. Yes there is a lot of shady stuff, the Sox can attest to that from their own dealings. Whenever there is a large amount of money on the table there is going to be corruption, baseball has allowed that system to flourish with the current system, a hard cap would do nothing to remove that corruption.

QUOTE (bmags @ May 10, 2016 -> 01:18 PM) Why on earth would anyone want Jose Reyes? Horrible person. Horrible shortstop. I'll take our .630 OPS over that P.O.S. anyday. You don't, but he is going to get DFA'ed either way. You take on that bad salary to get Gray and solidify the rotation for the next several years. Bringing Gray in gives you five starters for 2017 when Latos walks at the end of this season and Fulmer comes up. If they won't give up Gray, then the Sox could take Hoffman instead. It is a lot of $$ to take on, which is a major hangup, but if they can find $30M to buy out Reyes they could by themselves a rotation member under control for the next six years which should put them money ahead.

CarGo, Reyes, and Gray for Danish, Guerrero, Lowry, and Engel. Sox take on dead/bad money and an underperformer in Gray who still has upside. Rockies get some pitching prospects that all have a MLB floor and could end up as rotation pieces and a high upside guy and AFL MVP in Engel.

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ May 9, 2016 -> 05:29 PM) That's the best suggestion I've heard. It keeps competitive balance, you can trade slots, hard cap with a luxury tax. The players and buscones might hate it, as it would potentially lower bonuses but it's best for the league. Its not necessarily best for the league, it is best for the few teams that don't want to pay the tax on oversigning.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ May 9, 2016 -> 10:28 AM) I get that the pools should be different, and I am all for trading slots. But I also think it needs to be plain old capped. You get X dollars. You go over up to XX% (maybe 20%), you pay a luxury penalty. After that? No signings approved in the period. End of discussion. Thats tough to implement though. One year you could have 200 players worthy of getting signed but can't be because teams are hard capped. Or other years when there isn't as much talent where the pools are artificially inflated for the shorter supply of talent that would have the same affect as the current system. Really the only reason that Sox fans feel that there should be a hard cap is because it feels unfair to us that other teams utilize the rules to their advantage while for one reason or another our FO refuses to take that approach. All that said, there isn't really a team that has benefited tremendously from the overspending approach. I don't see a practical way to fix the current system other than going to an international draft.

I really wanted him last year when he first tried to defect. This time around, I would still have some interest, but not to the level it was last season. I think he could be a real asset in the #2 slot to move the leadoff guy forward and set the table for the middle of the order bats. Padres are supposedly the team to beat for him.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 1, 2016 -> 12:31 PM) The bullpen is full. Heck with Aumont they actually have another guy they could put out there, and that isn't counting a guy like Carroll or Turner they could use as a long guy. They could make room for him in the bullpen and use him as a long man and try to work through whatever issues they think he may have and transition him into the rotation as a spot becomes available.

QUOTE (Dunt @ Mar 10, 2016 -> 10:57 PM) Baseball America posted their draft board today, would hate for it to go this way as a Sox fan http://www.baseballamerica.com/college/201...hzmFySw.twitter Granted it is just a rating list, but if the draft went that way it would be amazing for the Sox. 10. Buddy Reed 25. Jordan Sheffield 48. Kyle Funkhouser 85. Ben Bowden