29andPoplar

I presume some of you draft guys are on it, but do we have a scouting report on Jordan Danks anywhere? I'm not sure why but I have a Brad Wilkerson comparison stuck in my head. Someone please tell me I'm wrong.

It will be interesting. Boras client and fathom mentioned talking to his BA connection yesterday who indicated Boras told teams he'll be asking for 1st round money for Danks to sign. So this is the first signability reach of this draft for the White Sox. I'm expecting 3-4 more today.

Kevin ... forget it. This guy has his mind made up that the Sox have had a terrible draft because ... well, just because.

The questions/speculation you pose don't have answers. Maybe the whole decision making process will come out in the press, I would expect it would. Even then, who knows if we're hearing the truth. As mentioned in another post I made, I completely agree it's not a good idea to draft the GM's son except in highly unusual circumstances. On the surface, and by anyone's reasonable judgement, this looks like an overdraft. We'll see how it pans out. That's all we can do.

Not Kyle. Kenny Williams Jr. Same dad, different kid.

I disagree with this drafting of Ken Williams Jr., it's just not a good idea for a lot of reasons. A whole heap of extra pressure just landed on this young man and taking the GM's son reeks of nepotism. To pick him on the 2nd day is not a big deal but there is every reason to believe taking him in the 6th round is a major overdraft. Now, I hope Kenny Williams Jr. goes out and proves me completely wrong. The other picks ... I could care less if they have a scouting video on mlb.com or if they've been hyped and rated highly by Baseball America. None of that matters. Supposedly they have a bunch of new scouts so you let those scouts do their job and you trust them. If in the rearview mirror it doesn't work out, you go and find new scouts or new front office people or whatever. How many so called draft experts on this board said the White Sox would snag Jordan Danks just as soon as they could? Well that didn't happen and maybe just maybe these scouts know something about these players that me (definitely) and most everyone else on this site (highly likely) do not.

A curious pick to be sure. Drafting a 3B high in the draft ... hmmmm. Good news is, he didn't strike out a bunch either, only 25 times. Still, it's a seemingly odd pick, we'll have to hear their rationale. Any chance Jordan Danks will be there next round? They didn't overdraft him that's for sure, despite how many times I read on this site they would.

I bet he doesn't get past the Cardinals though.

Rock I feel good about Beckham but I'd feel oh so good about Jessica Alba.

Nice stats on Beckham for a super regional college team: .397, 24 HR, 65 RBI, 1.286 OPS, 17 SB Looks like he can do a little bit of everything at the college level.

They tend to take guys they've zoned in on.

So now which way do you go, Wally World (Wallace) or Smoak 'Em If You Got 'Em?

Posey to Giants.

"It must be the shoes"

Supposedly they have spent all sorts of time scouting Brett Wallace so that's my call. If it's him that's fine by me. Pure bat and Konerko's replacement in two years. Plus I won't have to deal with quickman following the guy's career with another team and saying "what did I tell you, what did I tell you".

More or less I suppose. His actual reason are one, he thinks it's bad business because so many players don't pan out (of course there's an argument against that). And two, he thinks ever increasing draft bonuses are bad for the game.

That was a freaking moon shot, I was on the deck of the Bullpen Sports Bar and practically got whiplash watching it sail out to CF. I remember seeing a few roof shots in person ... Tom Egan, Luzinski, Kittle. Dick Allen hit one into the far right CF upper deck at Comiskey, it just barely caught the seats or it might still be sailing.

Interesting point. Actually he did play a lot of games at the Polo Grounds, with its notoriously short distances down the lines and overhangs that made fly balls home runs. The Yankees shared the Polo Grounds with the NY Giants from 1913 to 1922 and Ruth wasn't thrilled about leaving there for Yankee Stadium when it was built in 1923. Of course, Yankee Stadium had a short porch in RF as well ... very short. Also of note is Ruth hit a ton of home runs in League Park in Cleveland. League Park was more or less the predecessor of Cleveland Municipal Stadium which is where the new Cleveland Browns stadium now stands. League Park was something like 291 feet down the RF line and I recall reading Ruth hit a bunch there. By the way the League Park site is still there and there are still a few rememberances of the ballpark standing even though it was torn down more than 50 years ago. I don't remember reading what the dimensions at Shibe Park in Philadelphia were, although Ruth did play there a lot when it was the Philadelphia Athletics. Not trying to disparage Ruth here at all, just pointing out some short RF distances in the old parks. Conversely, Willie Mays' HR numbers probably suffered because he was a gap hitter. He played 6 years at the Polo Grounds where the dimensions changed drastically from the foul poles to CF and then of course later at Candlestick in SF where a whole bunch of HR's were knocked down by those crazy winds.

Right, no way should any of the pitchers be traded. The team is built on pitching and that's why it's in first place at the moment. I remember reading here how Contreras should be dumped for nothing ... that's not the way to do things if you're trying to win. You collect pitching because inevitably there will be some attrition or guys will need a breather. If over the course of the next few months, Loaiza can give them a few decent spot starts and some bullpen innings, it will be well worth it and then some. A pro rata portion of the MLB minimum is peanuts. What remains to be seen ... whether Loaiza will spend any time in Charlotte to get back into a groove or whether he goes right onto the 25 man. I haven't listened to the radio today so I don't know. The obvious guy to be demoted is Wasserman but it's also worth noting that Uribe and Ozuna have had very little playing time. I would be against going with 13 arms, that's too many in my book, but stranger things have happened in baseball.

Agree completely based on the (small amount) of research I've done. I think Castro would be an overdraft there and there are doubts about his hitting.

Jason, I just don't think they'll go with a high school guy. Call it a hunch. Now if Smoak is on the board they've got to think really hard about passing him up. Heir apparent for Konerko when his deal expires after 2010. Then again, the same could be said for Brett Wallace. Aren't the Giants all over Smoak though?

The Diamondbacks GM publically gave Williams credit, he said KW was badgering him about Quentin for a long time.

He'll drink High Life, along with Busch. If they still made Falstaff, he'd drink that too. Back to topic, the rant was a motivational ploy. Goofy perhaps, but that's Guillen. He told people in spring training he wouldn't wait too long to go ballistic on this team if he felt they were underachieving. Williams is too busy to be dealing with this stuff so I'm sure it'll blow over from that angle. The relationship with Walker is probably wounded but nothing cures baseball relationships like winning.

He drinks Blatz, Schlitz, PBR, and Grain Belt.

Hey aren't you the guy who has a big huge flag for every other NL team ... and don't you hang it on your garage when said team plays the Cubs? That's you, right?