caulfield12

Mid 2020...

I guess the real question is whether or not that's good enough for JR and the fan base, which might be left with only the Padres having a longer playoff drought if the M's can get in this season...

Well, Hostetler is definitely director of amateur scouting. Assistant General Manager Jeremy Haber Senior Director of Baseball Operations Dan Fabian Director of Team Travel Ed Cassin Special Assistant to the Chairman Dennis Gilbert Special Assistant to the Senior VP/General Manager Marco Paddy Special Assistant to the Senior VP/General Manager Bill Scherrer Special Assistant to the Senior VP/General Manager Jim Thome Special Assistant to the Senior VP/General Manager Dave Yoakum Special Assistant to Baseball Operations Jose Contreras Pitching Consultant Dave Duncan Major League Advance Scout/Special Instructor Bryan Little There's not typically a director of "pro scouting" for MLB teams, it's more of a collaborative effort between scouts, KW/Hahn and the three names I've highlighted above. Before, Buddy Bell was in a somewhat similar position (closest you can get to director of pro scouting), IMO Chris Getz's current position description is slightly different (more about minor league development/evaluation) than Bell's more "consulting" position, like Dave Duncan and Jim Thome.

Hostetler shouldn't be considered together with the other two execs. He's done a very good job and is a breath of fresh air, IMO. We added Hansen, essentially another high first rounder, in the second round. Luis Gonzalez looks like a good value pick, and Madrigal was the one I wanted all along. Collins has definitely come around, he had looked like a lost cause. Burger and Burdi you can criticize for various reasons, but the Burdi pick was all about adding another elite bullpen arm to the 2016 team, so I'll give him a pass (and many online publications/scouting services still are pretty high on him.) If you want to talk Hahn, you can talk about the boatload of FA's that have been failures under his tenure or the combined one (reign) with KW as official GM. That list includes pulling the trigger on Shields/Tatis (blame more on JR or KW?), Lucas Giolito, Carson Fulmer, Moncada/Kopech, Welington Castillo (the abysmal catching situation in general), Courtney Hawkins/Barnum/Trey M., etc. Hostetler is (much) more responsible for the amateur drafting aspect, and not the end results of the big trades than KW and Hahn have made.

Unless you really want to plant seeds of doubt in the fanbase...he would absolutely be destroyed. Maybe that's what he needs, a kick in the a--. But we seem to have so many fragile psyches, how would he be able to handle that kind of adversity? Would he simply fall apart?

Adolfo OPS under 800 but Basabe really picking it up again. Looks like they're (still) bound and determined to protect Rutherford by giving him the best possible match-ups...

8 walks in 3+. (But just two hits?) 5 ER, now at a not so sterling 5.20 ERA. 86 pitches to get just 9 outs.

President Donald Trump has given his approval to proceed with tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese exports, according to a source with knowledge of the situation. An announcement is expected on Friday. The president's green light came after a meeting Thursday with top economic officials, including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. The move represents a dramatic escalation of global tensions on trade just as Trump has picked fights with allies Canada, the European Union and Mexico over steel and aluminum. Beijing previously said it would respond to American tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese exports with retaliatory tariffs on $50 billion of US products such as cars, planes and soybeans. http://money.cnn.com/2018/06/14/news/economy/trump-china-tariffs/index.html Comment: Winning!

The New York attorney general's new lawsuit against the Donald J. Trump Foundation contains the bombshell revelation that 2016 campaign manager Corey Lewandowski sought to distribute (Trump charitable) foundation funds at the onset of the primaries, a propitious moment for candidate Trump. "Is there any way we can make disbursements this week while in Iowa?" he asked in an email to the Trump Foundation CFO and treasurer. At least five Iowa organizations received $100,000 gifts from the Trump foundation. source: cnn.com Bet those Trump kids are second-guessing their forays into politics about now...

Cease might be passing Kopech...even though he's not Top 131 on the FG list. We seem to need multiple sport psychologists for GIolito, Kopech/Fulmer and Anderson/Moncada.

Kopech and Moncada going south at the same time... ERA nearly at 5. Escapes based loaded, 2 out situation, still gave up 3 runs. 4.91 ERA. 77 pitches to get through 3.

You can get away with essentially two pitches if you vary speed, arm angles, location, etc. Jose Contreras is the ultimate example, the run he was on in 2005/early 2006 with the forkball/split and 95-98 MPH fb. Covey as well. His fastball/slider combination is good enough 80-85% of the time (at least for right now), but he still has the change and curveball to throw that other 15%. Of course, the main point with your secondary stuff is being able to get it over for strikes (or fool the hitter so much he expands outside of the zone)...and also that "pitching backwards" idea of getting ahead in counts early with offspeed stuff like Giolito did much more effectively last year.

Well, that was in the sense they would STILL need a 3B if they traded Moncada, who was the top prospect in baseball at the time, with Devers quickly rising behind him. They couldn't trade both, and weren't going to trade Benintendi, either. The irony is that Shaw has become probably the better player for the Brewers at 3B, but they never looked at him as the long-term solution in BOS.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/14/sarah-huckabee-sanders-gets-in-heated-exchanges-over-family-separation-policy-646861 Huckabee Sanders under fire and not handling it well on immigration Love the quote from Sessions at the end. Idiotic.

Robert popped out on the infield and walked so far.... Kanny down 4-1 early. Frost with inside the park homer, #9.

Only commonality with Garland is the idea of both as sinker pitchers...but Covey relies a lot more on the slider and pitching up in the zone with more movement and higher velocity.

The only realistic choice was Devers over Moncada...by that point in time. But not both.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2018/02/white-sox-outright-dylan-covey.html Funny thing is every team in baseball had a shot at him when we removed him from the 40 man roster prior to Spring Training on February 18...nobody saw this coming out of him. While Covey did keep the ball on the ground at a respectable clip (48.5 percent), the fly balls he allowed tended to lead to disaster. In fact, he surrendered 2.57 home runs per nine – the worst mark on the team and the third-worst figure in the majors among those who amassed at least 70 frames.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/13/sanders-harris-nicholas-bukoski-indicted-643894 Man threatened to kill Senators Harris and Sanders....

Or penalties for not spending a minimum amount on MLB payroll and minor league operations/scouting/development.

Well, there are a lot number of Americans who didn’t even know the difference between North and South Korea until recently...

https://sports.yahoo.com/white-sox-create-magical-day-seven-year-old-fan-battling-cancer-045220796.html

See Tommy Kahnle.

See the Indians. They made some pretty bad trades over the years when they were rebuilding (2001-2002 and after 2007), but the majority of talent was signed out of Latin America or drafted/developed, with a few exceptions (such as Carlos Carrasco as part of the Cliff Lee to Philly deal). I'd really attribute 90% of it to Antonetti's "savvy."

Humber never had the type of stuff/movement that Covey's showcasing right now....he got by mostly by guile and finesse, and was almost always in the low 90's and upper 80's. Nobody's going to value him as "the next Jose Quintana" until he has at least a 2 year track record of excellence. Kluber, for example (as mentioned), or Charlie Morton (although he's quite a bit older) would be examples of pitchers that suddenly elevated themselves from journeyman/pedestrian status into the upper echelon of the starting pitchers. Dallas Keuchel would be yet another. He's (now) arguably worth more than Avi Garcia was in the midst of his supposed breakout season last year, but the upside of trading him for prospects is far outweighed by the need for a pitcher like that for the 3-4-5 spots in the rotation (and maybe even 2, if he can sustain this over a couple more months.)