Ozzie Ball

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Sep 12, 2010 -> 01:09 AM) Would the point have gotten across if I named some no-name rookie ball player who had similar rates? It would have been as worthwhile as comparing a 21 year old in rookie ball to the best hitter of his generation in the Majors.

QUOTE (GoodAsGould @ Sep 4, 2010 -> 03:42 AM) Part of it is because how Beckham and Sale flew through the minors though. I know what happened, but it's not an excuse. Good systems have depth. You can't just rely on your #1 picks.

QUOTE (scenario @ Sep 4, 2010 -> 02:06 AM) The ranking I'm with fathom. I wouldn't be surprised at all if this system ranks #30. It's thin top to bottom.

Oblique strain for Short.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Sep 3, 2010 -> 05:34 AM) Almost 23 years old in rookie/A ball? The system is worse than I thought. Low-A at 22 one year out of college isn't that bad. A good 2011 season and he'll be hitting Double-A at 23. The numbers/scouting reports are there.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Sep 2, 2010 -> 11:08 PM) Alright, I've pretty much lost track of our entire system (mostly due to it's ineptitude and injuries to guys like Mitchell and Thompson). Sorry, Chase Blackwood and Ryan Buch don't do much for me. The question is who's put themselves on the prospect map this year? I mean legitimate prospects. Not some 26 year old in AAA that had a good year. Anybody to look forward to going into next year? Thank you for your time. What's wrong with Buch? He's as legit as any other pitcher in the system and he certain doesn't belong in the same class as a Chase Blackwood.

QUOTE (J.Reedfan8 @ Sep 3, 2010 -> 04:15 AM) Watch out for guys like Micheal Blanke and as mentioned Saladino in a couple years. Tyler is one of my favorite prospects currently in Kanny and IMO, Blanke will probably be the sox best catching prospect (no matter what happens to Flowers) next season. I'm biased toward a couple of prospects who I've seen play before and or who I've met personally (Dan Black for example) that I'm alittle blind to hope they can succeed/be good. I call it, the Jeremy Reed effect. Ok. Second time you've said this now. Are you basing this opinion entirely on the numbers he is putting up as a 21 year old in rookie ball, or is there some glowing scouting report that I've missed?

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Sep 2, 2010 -> 01:22 AM) Sale may be a reliever in the future. With his mechanics you could risk an injury like Strasburg if he is pitching 100+ pitches. Conversely as a reliever you may get 10+ years of success. I think the Sox are going to have to make a difficult decision. I'd let him break down before I'd even consider moving him to the 'pen. If he shows that his body can't handle 200 innings a year, then, and only then, would I would move him to the bullpen.

QUOTE (IChaseBlackWood @ Sep 1, 2010 -> 02:41 AM) One hell of a night for Blackwood!! Signing off in style.

Charlotte Dolsi Birmingham Winston-Salem Jones Kannapolis Bayne Great Falls OFF Bristol Casey

QUOTE (danman31 @ Aug 31, 2010 -> 02:22 AM) 22 years old with mediocre K numbers. Good for him, but I'm not going to call him a prospect yet. Glad you said it. Saves me the effort.

Charlotte McCulloch Birmingham OFF Winston-Salem OFF Kannapolis Wickswat Great Falls PPD Bristol Young

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 24, 2010 -> 11:14 PM) He'd be perfect for it. I don't know. He's still very raw. Facing that level of pitching may be a step too far for him at this point.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 24, 2010 -> 08:31 PM) A lot harder than 81 I'm sure. He's not a knuckle-baller. Well, obviosuly. I know there were some reports of him hitting 95 on occasion around the time of the draft but that he was usually more 88-91.

QUOTE (girlslikebaseballtoo#26 @ Aug 24, 2010 -> 07:07 PM) I'm not certain if he has or not ..I can find out though. I'm sure they probably know ..Chase said Heidi threw an 81 mph fast ball the other day ..if it hurts so bad that he's dreading going up, I'm sure it's noticeable. You would think so anyway. How hard does he usually throw?

Charlotte Torres Birmingham Edwards Winston-Salem Sauer Kannapolis Buch Great Falls Upchurch Bristol Billeaud

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Aug 24, 2010 -> 12:00 AM) I agree, but that's because, at least in my mind, he is only 19 years old and is showing such great command and strike-out ability. Rienzo is really impressing me, but Heidi is doing it at such a young age, it's exciting to think of him possibly making it to the bigs around age 22. Let's not get crazy now on Heidenreich. Rookie ball numbers without some kind of track record or glowing scouting report are relatively meaningless. Hitters at that level will swing at anything, making the BB/9 a little less impressive, and hitters at that level will swing at anything, making the 6.85 K/9 completely unimpressive.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Aug 20, 2010 -> 10:44 PM) Not to be a pain, but could someone please try and post what Morel, Wilkins, Phegley do on a day-to-day basis? I am at school now, and for some reason the boxscores do not load properly on my computer, even though I use Google Chrome on laptop and at home. Even when I try internet explorer, it messes up and I can't read it. And guys like Arroyo, Reed, Petricka, and our other top pitchers line when they pitch would be great too. Thanks if anyone does this. There's always the FutureSox Twitter.

Charlotte Torres Birmingham Edwards Winston-Salem Sauer Winston-Salem Kannapolis Buch Great Falls Upchurch

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 06:44 PM) The only bad thing about Reed's performance is the home run he allowed. You're going to walk people, it's a part of the game, and he was still striking people out. Home runs are a part of the game too. On average 1 in 10 fly balls are going over the wall, so it was bound to happen against Reed at some point.

Continued...

And the 2010 draft keeps getting crazier. Barret Loux to become a FA on 9/1:

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 02:50 PM) First, the answer to this is simple - if you are going to college, don't enter the draft. No one is taking away your money then. But perhaps a better way is to have a slotting system that teams have to follow, period - not just a suggestion. They establish slot money values, and teams can only vary from that (up OR down) in their offers by 10% or something. Might work better. But if you allow teams to get into these continuing bidding wars in the draft, you will exacerbate the problem of having a handful of teams being good all the time, and that is not good for baseball. Player payroll at the major league level, versus draft money - those are different animals. IMO, the best way to make teams more competitive in baseball is to make the ground even at the bottom - the draft. But the ground is even at the bottom. It's not like you have to spend $25m+ a year to be competitive in the draft. The difference between being a team that sticks to slot anda team that spends in the upper tier, is what, $4-5m? With the way revenue sharing is even the lower revenue teams can afford to part with that amount - and many do. It's a myth that just the top teams spend big money. Look at what the Nationals have spent these past two years, the Pirates spent well over $10m this year, the Royals consistently spend $6m, $7m, $8m+, the Indians spend over $8.5m this year, the Orioles spent over $8m. All of those teams have spent more this year than the Yankees, yet it's not going to guarantee them long-term competitiveness. Introducing a salary floor, or forcing teams to spend a certain % of their revenue on salary would be a better way to make the league more competitive in my opinion.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 02:10 PM) 1. The system needs to change. The slot system is a good idea, but only if its enforced harder. Players who refuse to sign after being drafted, if they were given an offer of at least slot money, should be ineligible for any draft bonus any kind in the future. That's a good start. 2. Despite not getting Grimes and Terry, this is the third straight draft by the Sox that I am pretty happy with. Looks quite good to me. Too bad 2009 got hit by the injury bug. 3. Until the system is fixed, I agree that we should be trying to be at least competitive in our draft spending, and find a way to get a few more guys. That's a horrible idea. Penalizing the players for refusing to sign is absolutely not the way to go. What if you're a top high school prospect (i.e Auston Wilson) who says to teams "don't draft me I'm going to college", then some team drafts you in the 12th round and offers you slot money ($60k-ish). Through no fault of your own you've just lost $2m+. You'd basically be forcing all players to sign out of high school for far less money than they deserve. Either that or you'd get all the top prospects renouncing their U.S. citizenship and moving abroad so they could be signed as IFA's. Neither one of those is a good thing. The slotting system should be removed and the signing deadline brought forward. If teams want to spend more money in the draft then they should be allowed. There's no cap on payroll's, so why should there be a cap on draft budgets? It's a completely legitimate way to allocate your funds, after all.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 16, 2010 -> 01:58 PM) Wow, Serafin went from solid in Low A to awful in High A. 4.55 FIP in Low-A, 4.65 FIP in High-A. In other words he wasn't as good as the numbers suggested in Low-A, and isn't as bad as the numbers suggest in High-A.