caulfield12

Can anyone make the case for Justin LeBron?

CF draft candidates rounds 2/3 1. Caden Sorrell Texas A&M, OF mate of LaViolette 2. Eric Booth Jr. Vandy recruit 3. Trevor Condon Etowah GA 4. Blake Bowen Oregon State recruit 5. Brady Harris Florida 6. Tre Broussard Univ.Houston 7. Jake Brown LSU, OF mate of Curiel

Pick two FIND the best CF prospect and pay him a bundle Dream guy to fall but pretty unlikely... "On the offensive side of the ball, Sawyer Strosnider is a name that intrigues me. The TCU outfielder is a draft eligible sophomore and has all the tools in the world. He is a tremendous athlete with a sturdy 6’2 200 pound frame. Despite that size, he projects to be a center fielder in pro ball. Strosnider has plus speed and power. There are some hit tool concerns, but they are not extreme. He did hit .350 in his freshman year at TCU last season. The one thing he will need to solve is left handed pitching. He only hit .204 against lefties his freshman year. Even if you have all the tools, being unplayable against left handed pitching limits the ceiling. Right now, MLB Pipeline has him ranked as the 10th best prospect. There is real 5 tool upside here. If he solves his issues against lefties, the Nats may not have a chance to take him due to his upside. However, if he falls to pick 11, he is a name to watch." from a Nationals fanboard

A 45 grade runner isn't a true five tool guy. Wasn't Madrigal supposedly at 50 coming out of Oregon State? His first step quickness/agility/instincts on defense make up for it...there seem to be zero questions about sticking at SS after dramatically cutting down on error totals in his sophomore season.

Sure....max out the potential trade returns for Vargas Sosa and maybe/probably even Meidroth over the next two seasons. Let Quero hit somewhere in the lineup at least 5 times per week. Dump Mead.

LHP Gregory Soto to Pirates 1 year $7.75 million $84 million projected OD payroll atm https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/mlb-pirates-aim-for-record-high-payroll-eyeing-top-market-reinforcements/ar-AA1R3Sbl Aiming for $100 million payroll in 2026

No. They can afford to wait until the trade deadline. SD is no longer a realistic threat. SF has a year or two to go in terms of being an NL West challenger, short of signing Tucker/Bregman/Alonso, etc. The Dodgers just brought in Rocco Baldelli, who goes way back to Friedman and his TB days, specifically to work on the outfield play of those four top guys in their system.

My tropical fish got the ick and were quickly goners. No such luck with Benintendi.

And better than Vargas/Mead/Sosa as well...

Crawford has to be a LFer if he's anything like his dad in terms of arm strength. Probably fringey for CF and plus in left.

That's exactly what Steven Matz got to replace him. He's a swingman now...but predominantly LHR for StL. White Sox would have to pay roughly $16-18 million to Fairbanks. Few teams will be willing to pay an aging Robert Suarez $23-25 million, so Fairbanks will have a plethora of suitors with E.Diaz now off the board.

2028 projected Sox lineup LF Baldwin*/Benintendi CF ??? Everson Pereira for now...but doubtful he's the long-term answer. RF Braden Montgomery 3B Colson Montgomery/Caleb Bonemer SS Roch Cholowsky 2B Billy Carlson*/Sam Antonacci 1B C.Bonemer/C.Montgomery C Teel/Quero Need to get lots of speed/athleticism into LF and CF, since Billy Carlson would constitute the only plus runner across all the position players, other than possibly Baldwin (if he can actually stick long term as a starter.)

"He’s not a runner, though he’s smart on the basepaths. That lack of pure speed won’t impact him as a defender; he uses what he has in short spaces very well. That, along with his plus instincts, allow him to get to most balls at shortstop, where he profiles as a plus defender with a plus arm. A leader who was a high school quarterback, he serves as the head of his infield in the same manner. His tools and makeup make him look like the kind of player who could be big league ready in a hurry." https://www.mlb.com/milb/prospects/2026/draft/

Scouting grades: Hit: 60 | Power: 60 | Run: 45 | Arm: 60 | Field: 60 | Overall: 65 Cholowsky, the son of former Minor Leaguer and long-time scout Dan Cholowsky, was a top 50 player as a two-sport athlete from the Hamilton High School program in Arizona that produced Cody Bellinger. His commitment to UCLA priced him out and he ended up the highest-ranked player not selected in the 2023 Draft. After a solid freshman year with the Bruins he vaulted himself to the top of 2026 Draft boards by posting a 1.190 OPS with 23 homers as a sophomore, and is considered by some to be the best all-around college shortstop prospect since Troy Tulowitzki. A 6-foot-2 right-handed hitter, Cholowsky has the chance to have four plus tools when all is said and done.

Burruss is just too small to risk with a #1-1 pick. Comes down to the two college SS's and prep LHB Colt Emerson at this point in time. Cholowsky and Justin LeBron are both very good or even great athletes but not pure speed burner. https://www.justbaseball.com/mlb-draft/roch-cholowsky-ucla-shortstop-2026-mlb-draft/&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwi_pLiu57GRAxVjHjQIHSEAHcIQFnoECAIQAg&usg=AOvVaw35sWG9M_kqc8twG9Ndhu6I

Cholowsky makes a ton of contact with an 18.3% swing-miss rate in 2025 with an 11% mark in-zone. He’s great against breaking balls as well, with an 80% contact rate and .323 xwOBAcon vs. spin. There’s 60-grade swing decisions here, with a Z-Swing minus Chase% >45% and poor swing rate at 20%, which is a positive indicator for me. He’s got plus power with a 112 mph max EV and 106.5 mph 90th EV, with his spray being fully optimized for damage to his pull-side. He ran a 41.5% air pull rate this year with all 23 of his HRs being pulled and his xwOBA to the pull-side is .260 higher than it is to the opposite field, which is off note, but not an inherent concern for me. He’s also shown some weakness vs. velocity when elevated in the strike zone, with an 69.5% contact rate vs. pitches 92+ mph in the upper third, which was also present in a small sample with the USA College National Team this summer, which is more of a byproduct of late-trigger than anything else as he has good actions in the box with an adjustable VBA. The contact quality in the aggregate has been solid, though. He ran a 31.3% barrel rate with a 36% sweep spot rate in 2025, in addition to posting a .375 xwOBAcon. He’s a great athlete who projects to handle shortstop long-term. https://medium.com/@AE-Draft-Blog/early-analysis-2026-college-hitters-7b1a60fef61f

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ooFmnzV_gGI&pp=ygUbdWNsYSBiYXNlYmFsbCBTUyBoaWdobGlnaHRz0gcJCSUKAYcqIYzv

https://www.perfectgame.org/articles/View.aspx?article=23786 You have those three very well-known collegiate players in the Top 5. Two outfielders and Liam Peterson out of UFlorida. A lot of high schoolers.

Are they/we going to have Adopt A Sox prospect .... except one different person/poster responsible for each of the likely first five to six/seven/eight possible picks at the top of the 2026 amateur draft? Like PR/hype guys from the 70s and 80s glory days of boxing? Seems Harold has mostly played that role in recent years...and a few others that follow college/amateur baseball and the minors most closely.

Carlson will/should stay at SS throughout the minors unless they shift him to CF. That seems highly unlikely. But Jackson Merrill made a seamless tradition.

You don't remember Aiken and JR Drew? Not ending up with Aiken actually helped Houston in the long run, ironically.

Phillips and Johan the only ones smiling...Harold recalling his non existent agent from the phone booth story. Did that the same Baltimore/MD lawyer remain his agent over his entire baseball career?

Now only have Boras threats for top pick not to sign lol with Sox. But that has gotten much rarer since the signing pools were fixed and interconnected with bonus espn allocated across the draft.

At lesst they didnt need Hahn's son for luck. 17 years since something went right lol in this kind of situation.

Well...no excuses with missing here.