Y2Jimmy0

The White Sox very much considered drafting Marcus Stroman in 2012. Many thought he would be their pick. They selected Courtney Hawkins instead. I would absolutely look to see what it would take to acquire him.

Luis Robert promoted to AA Birmingham Steele Walker promoted to High-A Winston Salem Zack Burdi to AA Birmingham

This is what Law said about the draft as a whole: Have I mentioned yet that it's a bad draft class this year? I've been involved in 18 drafts now, between my time with the Blue Jays and the past 13 years with ESPN, and it's the worst college pitching crop yet, while the high school pitching crop is definitely down from the past few years -- at least where the first round is concerned. There's some depth in the prep class, both hitters and pitchers, so teams with multiple picks may still do very well, but the first round is likely to be dominated by hitters as teams flee to the perceived safety of position players, especially college guys.

Sox are just being extra cautious. Robert hit multiple balls over the CF wall in BP tonight. Should be back this weekend.

He's 100% unexciting. He's much more exciting than Adam Engel however. Tilson is hitting .371/.437/.516 with a wRC+ of 152 at Charlotte. He's likely a nothing but it's better than watching Engel produce (.152/.200/.303 batting lines) regularly.

About a month out and this makes the most sense. Vaughn is a no brainer if available.

I think it's obvious what they did. Their system sucked ass. They wanted to integrate the system with baseball players which they did. His 2016 and 2017 drafts lack some upside but they went with safer college types. While that could potentially hurt system rankings, they will have more big leaguers, guys to trade and better minor league teams in theory. They built a base. We all want more HS guys. That's a fact. I think in 2018, they truly took the BPA (on their board) in the first 3 rounds and they made an effort to splice in some HS talent. I think the need to spend picks on guys with similar profiles to insulate a downtrodden system is over. That doesn't mean HS guys in the first 2 rounds necessarily but I think it means they aren't averse to it. I would expect lots of pitching and college pitching in rounds 3-10.

He cannot catch though. Like at all.

I actually think Madrigal will get better as he moves through. The baseballs in AAA and the big leagues are a game changer for a guy with his contact skills.

This is absurd man. He was a high bonus 6th rounder. Curbelo was one of Keith Law's top 50 players in the class. He possesses raw power but he just hasn't hit. It's not looking good for him. He absolutely has tools though that he hasn't converted. He's also likely not even a top 30 prospect in the system at this point so focusing on him seems pretty extreme. HS guys bust out all the time. The Sox should keep swinging on similar profiles though.

What is your answer when Robert, Basabe, Adolfo, Gonzalez and Rutherford are all in BIrmingham together?

Is there any chance they'd promote Robert to AA and then send Rutherford down to Winston-Salem once Basabe is ready if he's still struggling?

I wanted Martin Maldonado. I believe he was asking for multiple years though and Sox weren't interested. I've heard that they had legitimate interest in Grandal though. We will likely see Collins and Zavala this year but I wouldn't be surprised if they sniffed around Grandal again next offseason.

I wrote these two articles last month to offer some context on their drafts. http://www.chicagonow.com/future-sox/2019/03/white-sox-should-be-pleased-with-third-pick/ http://www.chicagonow.com/future-sox/2019/01/sox-draft-philosophy-focused-on-long-term-results-not-top-100-prospects/ I think it's generally too early to judge any of Nick Hostetler's drafts. With that being said, the system does lack upside. The lack of HS talent really shows. The drafting method of the past few years has insulated a terrible system with talent and I believe there are a lot of big leaguers in the system. While the lack of upside is apparent, having many big leaguers helps with trades and filling in around stars. I'm a big fan of the Zack Collins pick and I understand Jake Burger with that particular selection. Their 2nd round strategy leaves much to be desired but it's still too early to judge the drafts IMO.

I think the Sox end up with Andrew Vaughn and that pick would be a no brainer. If Vaughn and Rutschman are both off the board, I think the Sox would either take Witt Jr or Lodolo honestly. I don't buy that they'd reach on the next college hitter with a HS phenom on the board. It doesn't make sense. They could go Lodolo though. I've heard they are very fond of him. Hahn went to UNLV to see Stott during spring training. I just don't see any scenario in which he's the BPA.

Madrigal has the flu apparently

Haha that's 100% okay. I'm just the messenger in this case.

Any link to this?

I don't know where Elijah Tatis would rank on a top 30 international list or anything but $500K is a real bonus. I think Fernando only got $700K. Lenyn Sosa was signed for $350K. He becomes part of their international class on J2 and likely joins Yolbert Sanchez. This leaves them with about $2 million in international space. I really wish one of the scouts wouldn't have mentioned the signing prior to J2 though. That was pretty much on the record to Rojas and that type of detail is frowned upon.

Some of it is timing, yes. I don't think Rutschman gets past Kansas City but I think Mike Elias goes HS. I read Astroball and he was the driving force behind drafting Carlos Correa when nobody else was really on him and then they saved $$ to spend on McCullers. Situation is obviously different in Baltimore but they are so far away. I could see them going with Witt or a diff HS guy for a discount and trying to import more talent into their system that better fits their organizational timeline.

I'm with you on this. I also just don't believe that Baltimore is definitely taking Rutschman.

I actually don't think they could have taken Tatum. If Boston thought that LAL would take Tatum, they would have just stayed at #1 and taken him instead of trading the pick to Philly. They made the trade because they knew they could get Tatum at #3

I've been echoing these sentiments about taking hitters as well but I have some caveats. If they are averse to taking a high schooler (they shouldn't be) then I would prefer Nick Lodolo to one of the 2nd tier college bats. If Vaughn/Adley are off the board, I hope they just take Bobby Witt. I also don't believe that Baltimore is locked on Rutschman though. I could see them under-slotting a high schooler at #1. Rutschman just doesnt make a ton of sense for their timeline and it doesn't really fit the path that I think Mike Elias desires.

Romy Gonzalez is injured and behind schedule. I was told it is a hamstring and he should join Kannapolis thereafter.

We are putting together affiliate rosters. Outfields should look like this at the outset: AAA Charlotte LF Nicky Delmonico CF Charlie Tilson RF Brandon Guyer/Preston Tucker AA Birmingham LF Blake Rutherford CF Luis Gonzalez RF Joel Booker Micker Adolfo (DH initially), Luis Alexander Basabe DL A+ Winston-Salem LF Craig Dedelow CF Luis Robert RF Tyler Frost Bench: Jordan George, Zach Remillard A- Kannapolis LF Alex Destino CF Steele Walker RF Logan Sowers OF Ian Dawkins