[2015 White Sox draft pick discussion]

MLB.com top 10 pick mock from Callis and Mayo:

 

8. White Sox

Callis: Walker Buehler, RHP, Vanderbilt. Chicago scored with a college pitcher (Carlos Rodon at No. 3) in the 2014 Draft and could do look to do so again this June. Funkhouser would be an obvious consideration, but if he's gone, Buehler has a better chance to be a big league starter than fellow Vanderbilt righty Carson Fulmer.

Mayo: Funkhouser. He could go higher than this, for sure. But the White Sox have liked big, strong, durable college arms in the past. And unlike many other college pitchers this year, Funkhouser has been completely healthy and a steady performer.

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/121103208/ji...s-in-2015-draft

[State of the System Series]

Next up are the corner infielders:

 

http://www.chicagonow.com/future-sox/2015/...corner-infield/

 

Trey Michalczewski leads another thin group, but at least a few of these guys have impact potential.

[4/29 Games]

Final lines:

 

Danish- 6 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 6 SO, 7 GO/2 FO

Johnson- 5.2 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 6 SO

Fry- 7 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 4 SO, 10 GO/0 FO

[2015 TV Thread]

Anyone know what this Scrotal Recall show on Netflix is? British?

Yes, British comedy. I watched the first 4 episodes which were mildly amusing, but didn't feel compelled to see the last 2. If you're interested in this type of British show, I'd recommend both Plebs and The Inbetweeners, which are/were excellent, if they're available over there.

[State of the System Series]

Taking a look at the organizational strength by position, starting with the catchers.

 

http://www.chicagonow.com/future-sox/2015/...stem-catcher-2/

 

Not the most inspiring list of names, headlined by Kevan Smith, our #21 prospect. Hopefully someone can step it up this year.

[July 2nd (2015) prospects]

Lucius Fox officially declared an international free agent and is eligible to sign from July 2.

 

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/lucius-fox-...y-2nd-signings/

[2015 MLB Draft]

good point.

 

i would like to consider 1 thing. the pro's who does this baseball evals, all think that Swanson, Bergman, and Newman can stay at ss, but they also can see them moving to another infield position if the team needs them there.

 

the other point, they are saying Newman is a #2 rank prospect, ahead of Swanson and the pitchers, that is what i am confuse about.

I don't know about all the experts, but Law definitely doesn't think of Bregman as a SS.

 

Chris (Baton Rouge, LA)

You mentioned previously that speed was not a plus for Alex Bregman yet he leads the SEC in stolen bases (21-26 or so). Is he just getting great jumps? On a team (LSU) that has multiple guys with terrific speed, he does not appear to the untrained eye to be that much slower than Laird or Stevenson, at least on steal attempts. Are you reconsidering his ability on staying at SS given his success (1 error) there so far this year?

 

Klaw (4:04 PM)

Errors don't tell us anything about a player's ability to field a position, and no, he's not any better of a runner even though he's stolen a few bases. He's an incredibly smart player and he'll make a very good second baseman.

http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/chat/_/id/...sider-keith-law

[4/21 Games]

Luis Martinez:

4.2 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 4 SO.

 

Rondon 2-3, 2B, HR

Already equalled his HR tally from last year (1).

[4/20 Games]

Timmy gets his hits.

And 2 steals for him today. Up to 6 on the season now. Only had 10 all of last year.

[4/20 Games]

Ugly start for Montas:

5 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 6 BB, 4 SO

 

Feels like it hasn't been a great start to the season for most of the top arms, though I haven't been looking too closely at the numbers.

[2015 MLB Draft]

for me who is a complete amateur, a fan, who likes the draft and prospects. my wish list is constantly changing, esp with new info coming out, esp in the injury front. i really like Swanson, maybe Buehler. i also like Happ, but that is about it for the favorites that were listed pre-school yr.

Buehler concerns me a bit. His raw stuff is very good but there is no deception to his delivery and his fastball is flat. That combination is not a problem in college but I'm not sure it would work in the higher minors, let alone the Majors.

[4/18 Games]

Josh Norris @jnorris427 · 3h 3 hours ago

 

Robinson Leyer was 93-96 T97 in the first, fanned two including Billy McKinney swinging on 84 mph CH. #WhiteSox

 

Josh Norris @jnorris427 · 3h 3 hours ago

 

Leyer ends the second by freezing Jacob Rogers with 98 on the inside black. #WhiteSox

https://twitter.com/jnorris427

[4/12 Games]

Final line for Montas:

5.1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 8 SO.

 

Excellent start to his season.

[4/12 Games]

HR for Barnum. Nice to see some early signs of life from him.

[4/11 - Twins vs White Sox]

I've been saying this all offseason - we won 73 games last year. We didn't get 10 games better this offseason let alone 20

But I thought Robertson was going to prevent 20 blown saves and make this a 90+ win team all on his own. Is that not how it works?

[Minor League Affiliates]

Couple things: Love the aggressiveness for Brian Clark at WS. I really like him as a sleeper prospect. 2nd, I'm pretty sure Merkin said that Adams is for sure going to Kanny.

I like it if they plan on having him start, less excited if they're pushing him as a potential fast moving reliever.

[White Sox @ Royals 7:10 CT]

The forecast for game time has got worse. Hopefully they do get rained out tonight, and make it up in August.

 

I assume they'll insert a 6-man rotation once in a while--especially in August. If they can get 95 starts from Sale, Shark, and Q, I'd take it. And have Sale in line for 163, the wildcard game, or Game 1 of the ALDS...which would be his 32nd start.

 

Samardzija 32

Quintana 32

Sale 31

Noesi 31

Danks 10

Rodon 22

Other 4

 

This would be nice.

This is optimistic. On average, teams will use 10 starters per season (Sox used exactly 10 last year) and will need, on average, 32 starts from starters outside their top 5 (Sox had 26 last year).

[2015 MLB Draft]

Can't tell if that Mock Draft was put together prior to Aiken having TJS. My guess is yes. No way Rockies take him that early now at #3.

It's from March 20, so definitely before.

[All New Soccer Thread ~ All Levels ~ All Leagues]

FIFA has announced it will distribute £142m to clubs as compensation for the release of players involved in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

 

A total of £47.5m was given to clubs with players involved in last year's World Cup in Brazil, with the compensation distributed to teams for the 2010 finals in South Africa £27.13m.

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/12...-2022-world-cup

 

It will be interesting to see how this all works out logistically and what the fallout will be.

 

From an English perspective, one of the reasons continually given for the lack of success in major tournaments has been that the players are burnt out by the end of the season due to not having a winter break. I guess the World Cup will be played roughly half way through the Premier League season, at which point the players should be at their peak in terms of physical fitness, so perhaps we will see a performance that is not an utter embarrassment (one can hope, anyway).

[Vacation/Travel Thread.]

I'm going to Spain March 12-22nd. Madrid for 5 days then Valencia. Trying to go to a soccer game though I can't really figure out how tickets quite work. We're right next to real madrid stadium do I'd love to do that but it seems they only have "vip" section tickets on sale. Anyone have experience buy tickets to big soccer team games? Do they usually make tickets available closer to the game? Right now the date of the game isn't even set in stone so I'm not sure if it's sold out or if tickets just aren't available yet.

 

 

Also any Spain recommendations would be great.

You have probably figured this out by now but you just have to wait for the tickets to become available to the general public (for Real Madrid anyway), which typically happens only 5 or 6 days before the game, otherwise you would need to be a club member. You can buy tickets for the game on the 15th now (Real vs. Levante), and it looks like there are still around 4,000 tickets available so you shouldn't have any problems getting a seat.

[Rodon believes he's ready now]

I believe there are 2 financially sound deadlines to wait for on Rodon, correct? The "extra year of control" dead that will pass sometime in early May, maybe? And the "1 less year of arb" deadline, which is usually sometime mid-June, right?

April 25th per Keith Law (talking about a different player but the same rule would apply to Rodon):

 

Gary (GA)

So can ATL delay Folty's free agency by a year if they keep him in the minors until mid-May or so?

 

Klaw

Two weeks. Call him up on April 25th and you're golden.

http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/chat/_/id/...sider-keith-law

[2015 MLB Draft]

John Manuel @johnmanuelba · 4h 4 hours ago

 

Scouts in NC being informed that #Duke RHP Michael Matuella will not pitch this weekend due to forearm tightness #mlbdraft

 

Michael Lananna @mlananna · 4m 4 minutes ago

 

LHP Nathan Kirby today for @UVABaseball against Marist: 5.1, 3 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 9 K. 97P-61S. In line for the win with the Cavaliers up, 8-1.

[Baseball Prospectus T101]

That list is beyond awful. Having Bryant at 5 is criminal. Anderson above Rodon is just not true. And Bundy and Syndgaard above Urias is terrible.

 

That list is poorly thought of.

Ehhh. 5th is still really, really good. It's not as if Bryant doesn't have any faults too. The four in front of him play premium positions (and play them well). Bryant may be a LF and he strikes out a lot so might have trouble hitting for average.

 

Again, Urias is 10th and hasn't pitched above A+. I wouldn't get too worked up about the difference between players ranked 8th, 9th and 10th.

 

 

[MLB.com Top 100 list]

http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/...ll30farmsystems

 

It's behind a paywall, but Keith Law ranks the Sox system as 12th(!) this year. A huge jump from 27th last year, he noted that the Sox acquired four top 120 prospects in the past 24 months and didn't give up premium guys for Shark.

Only 12th? Law is such a hater.

[MLB.com Top 100 list]

From Kiley's prospect chat:

Comment From Chris

Do the White Sox have three in the top 50?

 

Kiley McDaniel

I've got an early working top 100 and the Sox have two in the top 50, then a third around 65. Subject to change, though.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/kiley-mcdan...cts-chat-12315/

 

Assuming his grades have remained the same since he did his White Sox list, that would be Rodon and Anderson in the top 50 as 60 FV guys and Montas around 65 as a 55 FV.