caulfield12

Has a prospect outside the Top 20 or Top 30 ever gotten a contract like that without playing much or at all? Singleton with the Astros and 1B White with the Mariners come to mind right away...

Scouting grades: Hit: 60 | Power: 60 | Run: 40 | Arm: 50 | Field: 45 | Overall: 55 The Tigers selected Keith in the fifth round of the shortened 2020 Draft and talked him out of an Arizona State commitment with an above-slot $500,000 signing bonus. Injuries -- including to his right shoulder in 2022 -- limited him to only 113 games over his first two full seasons, though he did stand out in the Arizona Fall League in '22. Finally healthy for much of 2023, Keith broke out with a .306/.380/.552 line and 27 homers in 126 games between Double-A and Triple-A. His 68 extra-base hits and 280 total bases ranked third and fifth among Minor Leaguers, respectively. In January, the Tigers rewarded him with a six-year, $28,642,500 contract extension with club options through 2032. Using a quick and short left-handed swing, the Mississippi native does a nice job of marrying quality contact rates with noticeable impact at the dish. He elevates well and rarely expands the zone, leading to the high slugging percentages and extra-base-hit rates. With Triple-A Toledo, he maxed out with an exit velocity of 110.1 mph and slugged a 473-foot homer (per Statcast) that ranked as the fifth-longest in the International League last season. Higher EV's and more tape-measure shots (473+ feet) should be in his future as he grows more comfortable getting through long seasons. The Tigers moved Keith -- a below-average runner with a stocky frame -- from third base to second on a near-full-time basis by mid-August last season out of the belief his reaction times and throwing motion work better at the keystone. He’d be a bat-first player at either place, but there is a clear lane for Keith to seize a spot in the Majors and join Spencer Torkelson and Riley Greene as homegrown premier talents in Detroit. mlb.com

Tigers (4) 13. Max Clark, OF (ETA: 2026) 22. Colt Keith, 3B/2B (ETA: 2024) 25. Jackson Jobe, RHP (ETA: 2025) 60. Jace Jung, 2B/3B (ETA: 2024) With the No. 3 pick, the Tigers were virtually guaranteed to take one of the Big Five in the 2023 Draft class and went with Clark -- an Indiana prep outfielder with plus-plus speed, a strong arm and a left-handed swing that plays to all fields. Much closer to the Majors, Detroit has developed Keith and Jung into a pair of infield sluggers with plus power, and the pair should impact the MLB roster at some point this summer. Jobe might have the highest ceiling of the group as a potential ace with multiple 60-grade pitches and plus control. The only thing holding him back is potential durability after he missed much of the first half last year with lumbar spine inflammation. MLB.com Since when was Indiana a prep baseball powerhouse? Tigers Guardians and Twins all better positioned with farm systems right now. Schulz pretty much has to be Randy Johnson Lite...and Montgomery something close to Robin Ventura.

Mahomes has a much better personality than Brady...and Andy Reid is a guy who's difficult to dislike like Belichick. With Taylor Swift mixed in...somehow eems almost inevitable from a marketing standpoint.

Can we please hire Dan Campbell to replace Pedro Grifol...??? Talk about opposites. Btw, go LaPorta and Kittle!

Not so quick for Mahomes...on course for #3. That was REALLY dumb, Flowers. Game set match. Way too many mistakes by the Ravens after a historic regular season.

Not looking good for the Ravens/Jackson. Wouldn't he be something like 1-4 in the postseason if the Chiefs win?

Whatever they do...it's important to improve the big league team with at least one player as quickly as possible. Unless they get the ideal prospect haul...see Adam Eaton deal, where two guys were there and Dunning just a couple of years away. That's unrealistic for Cease, obviously. At least for now. Red Sox and Mariners just seem to have no discernible direction right now, along with the Angels and Rockies.

Colorado...Pittsburgh...Philly...NY

Mariners (4) 37. Cole Young, SS/2B (2025) 38. Harry Ford, C (ETA: 2025) 79. Gabriel Gonzalez, OF (ETA: 2026) 87. Colt Emerson, SS/2B (ETA: 2026) The Mariners still have a pretty young group in Seattle, so there presumably can be patience in letting this exciting quartet of hitters develop. This foursome, however, may push the envelope anyway. The Mariners clearly have a good thing going in drafting high school bats in the first round, with their last three picks -- Ford in 2021, Young in 2022 and Emerson last year -- all landing on the Top 100 with up arrows next to their names. mlb.com

https://www.mlb.com/news/tigers-sign-colt-keith-to-6-year-extension

Can only assume Banister wasn't high enough on him...last really solid season (based on contract value) was 2021 SF. Or they simply feel that already have enough arms for ST already. Washed up Rosenthal and Diaz quite fitting top two.

He would obviously play CF after Robert is dealt and be one of the veteran leaders at 28 of the "hastened" rebuild. Stassi and Maldonado are unlikely to make it through the season anyway.

Too bad not the Giants’ version of 2021-22.

About right. Like end of Machado and Wheeler debacles.

Exactly like Bloom dealing with Henry and Fenway Sports Group…forced to dump Betts for 15-25 cents on the dollar, then vilified for it. Then criticized for signing Devers after losing Bogaerts. It will be fascinating to see how they fill out the 4/5 spots in the rotation and those two temaining OF spots. Just like the “on the cheap” Korean and Japanese bullpen. Will it actually work? Then there’s leveraging Kim’s massive fWAR this year in trade (walk year), after the Korean Series is over. Can they trade him despite being in WC position? Trade Bogaerts and/Machado? Darvish or Jake Cronenworth, their own version of Benintendi after 4+ fWAR the previous year? Not trading Hader, Snell, Wacha and Lugo hurt too. See Angels. Between a rock and a hard place. Have a feeling this year’s team will outperform 2023, with Tatis and Bogaerts way off career highs due to injury and sheer number of months of inactivity. All comes down to pitching.

Where’s your trade proposal? (Feel like Nikki Haley trying to get just one head-to-head debate scheduled, lol.)

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/padres/story/2023-01-18/column-padres-are-big-players-in-latin-america This article explains pretty well why we are the opposite of the Padres in every way on the international front…but it has a lot of important lessons for Preller’s success in building the farm system completely within the span of less than one decade. Note the biggest problem from churning so many prospects through is the Padres use those prospects to trade for major leaguers (KW mode)…but the consequence is almost no cohesion and chemistry despite the sheer amount of talent accumulated because they don’t advance together through the minors and learn how to win together like mid 2010’s Royals and Cubs prospects, or the current Orioles. I think this article in particular explains the lack of success in the Dominican as well since 2008…as well as the Pacific Rim. There’s more knowledge contained here than in all of Haber’s quantum computers. It’s almost amazing why no more than 4-6 teams (Dodgers obviously) follow this very simple formula. Elias and Rays and Braves and Guardians and Brewers as well. Of the roughly $150-175 million AJ Preller has spent (including the last two consensus international #1 prospects), the biggest success has been Adrian Morejon, arguably. The sum total of all their fWAR is WELL below Fernando Tatis, Jr., alone. Details… (OF Jorge Oña and RHP Michel Baez were among the Padres minor leaguers released this week. Both Cubans were signed during the Padres' $80 million spending spree in the 2016-17 international (signing period), with Oña signing for $7 million and Baez signing for $3 million (Luis Patino, in contrast, signed for $130,000 that year). Injuries played a role in their stunted development and ultimately forced the Padres to take them off the 40-man roster.) Another example, the Padres blew through their spending cap in 2016, signing Cuban left-handed pitcher Adrian Morejon ($11 million) and Dominican shortstop Luis Almanzar ($4 million) as well as the highly-touted Anderson Espinoza and Jarlin Susana (last piece of first Soto trade). The Padres paid a hefty penalty ($20 million fine) for their spendthrift ways back then; nowadays there’s a hard international cap and signings like this wouldn’t be possible.) Long story short, they only have to be right once every ten $5-6.5 million signings to still get a positive ROI out of two Andrew Benintendi’s worth of spending over a decade. Lottery tickets turned into Top Ten members of the farm system transformed into the likes of Juan Soto. Classic KW here…the Freddy Garcia deal for three prospects stands out in particular now. Just like finding the next Nvidia, Netflix or Amazon on the stock market. You get 8 busts, one break even and one generational wealth creator if you’re really lucky. Except the White Sox have NEVER supplemented June draft picks enough on the international side of things to build up sufficient depth…exposing their second and third string lack of depth like 2021-2023. Despite TERRIBLE net losses on two Soto trades, Clevinger, Nola and Ty France, they’re once again a consensus Top 5 farm system, rising from #28 almost all the way back to the top in roughly 3-4 years. Finally, Padres drafting a number of their better prospects outside the Top Ten in the first round…James Wood (traded away), local product Dillon Head for example, just look at the June draft positions of their Top Ten pitching prospects as well…not to mention leveraging CJ Abrams into Soto instead of Nick Madrigal from the same draft being magically “transformed” into Kimbrel. Don’t bother reading this for all I care…simply read the attached article in order to “see the light.”

According to a fan survey done by The Athletic's Dennis Lin, the confidence in president of baseball operations A.J. Preller has been declining by the fanbase. In the survey, only 5.3% said they were very confident in him, and 19.1% said they were somewhat confident in his ability. On the other hand, 27.5% of the fans surveyed said they were unsure, 26.7% were not very confident, and 21.4% were not confident at all. This is a stark difference from where the team was even a year ago, and it's a direct result of the lack of trust in the front office. https://www.si.com/mlb/padres/news/padres-news-confidence-in-a-j-preller-seems-to-be-decreasing-among-fans-based-on-survey-ml0802 https://www.si.com/mlb/padres/news/padres-release-2-formerly-high-paid-international-minor-leaguers-rks97

Luis Silverio…Anderson Gomes, etc. Can scout Brazil for the next Andre Rienzo…Krause’s last official assignment with Sox.

Did Mike Cubbage ever have a sandwich? Did we actually sign the guy now?

Hyperbole and overreaction is good for riling up the masses…

11 hours on a private jet to get there?

“If the Chiefs advance to the Super Bowl on Sunday, hold on to your foam fingers. With the possibility of Swift attending the big game on February 11, it becomes a perfect storm of opportunity for CBS to show her throughout the broadcast to presumably their biggest audience of the year. (Swift is scheduled to perform an “Eras Tour” concert in Tokyo on February 10 and has not spoken publicly as to whether or not she plans to attend.) “There will definitely be discussions at a high level about how that’s going to be handled. If indeed it happens, they’ll figure out what seems to be a reasonable amount of shots,” Jeff Fellenzer, Professor of Professional Practice Sports, Business and Media at USC, told CNN. CBS did not return CNN’s request for an interview regarding their broadcast plans or strategy for Sunday’s game or the Super Bowl by press time. What is a sure bet? The game – including Swifties or not – will have eyeballs.” https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/27/entertainment/taylor-swift-nfl-games/index.html