royoung

Hawkins homers, his 16th of the season. May swipes his 37th bag. Narvaez doubles and walks. Now batting .328 with a OBP around .450 in 23 games with the Dash.

QUOTE (flavum @ Jul 23, 2014 -> 08:44 AM) http://www.milb.com/scoreboard/index.jsp?c...mp;ymd=20140723 Day games. Nice I love the day games, helps pass the time in the office in the afternoon.

Don't look now, but Nestor Molina has a 0.57 ERA over his last 15.2 innings. He's given up five hits, walked one, and struck out ten over that span. I know he was horribly misjudged by Kenny Williams and whatever scout said he was close to being a major league starter, but could he be a useful bullpen piece?

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Jul 21, 2014 -> 10:56 PM) Spencer Adams has struck out 9 in 4 innings, walking 1 and giving up 6 hits and 2 runs. 23 strikeouts to 2 walks in 17.2 IP now. His BABIP must be insane. Micker Adolfo is 2-3 with a double and a homer. I did a double take when I saw Adam's line. That is filthy.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 18, 2014 -> 09:01 AM) In addition to Johnson, there were a number of other nice pitching performances last night. Dykstra with a nice A+ debut: 6.2 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 8 K. Recchia 1 ER in 6.1 IP, keeping his ERA under 3 (though he only K'd 2). Lowry came back from DL and threw 5 1-hit innings, 2 walks and 6 K. Luis Martinez in AZL went 5 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K and he's still just 19. Luis Martinez, signed for 250k out of Venezuela, was one of Marco Paddy's first signings.

http://www.chicagonow.com/future-sox/2014/...y-in-charlotte/ recap posted. Home run derby in Charlotte, strong starting pitching throughout the levels.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 17, 2014 -> 11:47 AM) To Keith Law's credit (can't believe I am saying that), he had a funny tweet during the ASG about Sale. Said something like "I told you Chris Sale was destined to be a reliever". He ate his crow. He has. I've read Law answering questions about poor deliveries in prospects and saying something to the effect of "Well it worked out for Sale..." Chris Sale's sucess has obviously rocked Keith Law to his very core.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 17, 2014 -> 10:05 AM) Paul Goldschmidt was the MVP runner up last year, led the league in homers, won a gold glove and a silver slugger. He's having another great year this year too. He was also never ranked as a top 100 prospect. Robinson Cano is considered the best 2B of this generation of players and he is widely considered the best in the game at his job now. He signed a $240 million contract over 10 years. However, he, too, was never a top 100 prospect. These rankings are nice, and I'll never discourage them from being posted or discussed, but they are ultimately meaningless. The list goes on and on with guys who made it who were never highly ranked prospects, I agree Wite. Its an awesome thing about baseball, talent comes from all difference places at different times for everyone. However, the overwhelming majority of stars were on these types of lists and while there are plenty of busts, it's still relevant.

Also surprised he ranked five 2014 draft picks in the top 50....seems high to me considering most have a extremely small sample size or none at all in professional baseball. I guess he believes it's an excellent draft class?

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Jul 17, 2014 -> 09:42 AM) I agree. I saw Jason Parks tweet about him saying what Baez' ceiling and floor were. His ceiling is MVP caliber but his floor his AAAA player. I guess when you have MVP potential you should be ranked in the top 50 even if you are scuffling a bit. I'm surprised he didn't drop more though.

http://www.chicagonow.com/future-sox/2014/...all-star-break/ Nice games from Great Falls, Arizona, and the DSL team. A name to perhaps keep an eye on is Kevin Escorcia, who was scouted and signed by Marco Paddy out of Colombia a couple years ago. At 19 I guess you could consider him a little old for DSL, but he has an 11.20 SO/9 and only a 2.01 BB/9 rate.

QUOTE (Bruce_Blixton @ Jul 16, 2014 -> 08:09 PM) Pretty blah day so far, Ravelo and Kevan Smith both 1-2 with an RBI, Snodgress doing his unimpressively effective thing as usual. Jason Coats providing the only offense so far with an RBI double in the 3rd. Things getting heated for Kanny today, the manager, hitting coach and Trey all have been tossed from the game. Serious question: Mitchell has almost 100 ABs at Birmingham now and has put up 1.000+ OPS, is he back in the prospect conversation for us? After last season it's been hard not to remain skeptical but he's made the Southern League his b**** over the last month. If he can't get over the hump of AAA why should we think he could do anything useful in the majors? Sadly he's a non-prospect to me.

It would be a cash dump for a reclamation project that we gave up on in the first place. No thanks

QUOTE (ron883 @ Jul 15, 2014 -> 09:42 PM) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Abreu_%28baseball%29 Is it official? i hate this nickname. I don't even understand how hawk came up with this one. I don't think Wikipedia can be counted on to make anything "official." I've only ever heard Hawk call him that...so I would say no.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 15, 2014 -> 10:38 AM) http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/07/brad...unted-deal.html They are offering him exactly 40% of the slot. Ok that makes sense for them to do that, though it's a very s***ty to do to Aiken.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 15, 2014 -> 10:32 AM) If they made him a formal offer during the allotted time frame, he can't become a FA. "there is now a provision that if a player fails a physical and the team fails to offer him 40 percent of the assigned value of his pick, he becomes a free agent. In that case, the club's draft cap would be reduced by the value of his selection. Loux was declared a free agent after a similar situation in 2010." http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/draft...12/2612723.html EDIT: Slot value is 7,922,100 and they reportedly offered 3.1 million would would be below 40%. However, I don't see why they wouldn't just offer exactly 40% and avoid this. EDIT: 3,168,840 is exactly 40%. Crafty Astros

QUOTE (scs787 @ Jul 15, 2014 -> 10:28 AM) He just goes to college if he doesn't sign. I don't believe that is an option since he signed a professional contract which was negotiated by an agent. I think he will file a grievance and aim to become a free agent similar to Barrett Loux.

Still nothing for me

I was surprised to see Jose Abreu acting brash and goofy at the Derby. Thought he was a quiet guy, glad to see he can have some fun as well.

Apparently Frank Thomas said he's "disappointed" Jose Abreu didn't choose to participate in the Home Run Derby. I say apparently because I got an ESPN alert saying so, but can't find the original source. Anyway, if true, my reaction is shut up Frank.

Oh I see you were responding to the original post not mine. Yeah I never called Mizzou a top school haha. It's semantics anyway, not worth quibbling over.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jul 11, 2014 -> 01:10 PM) A person that works with the baseball team apologized to people in my class for having to cover such a god awful team. You did to say top SEC program "Compare that to being the big man on campus at an SEC school, being the Friday night starter pitching in front of packed stadiums with crazy fans, I can understand the appeal." I couldn't care less if he chose Mizzou or Utah State or if Mizzou is a top or bottom school, he picked the school and it's completely understandable to be excited to play college ball.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jul 11, 2014 -> 10:46 AM) LOL at Mizzou being a top SEC baseball program (and I went to Mizzou) I just said SEC school, not a top SEC baseball program. Surely they can fill the baseball stadium for his starts?

Jerry Crasnick ‏@jcrasnick 8m The #Yankees have acquired pitcher Jeff Francis from the #athletics in a trade, source says. I hope I have to eat these words, but I don't see Danks going to the Yankees. They are acquiring cheap, stop-gap type starters. I don't think they will want to give up prospects/inherit Danks salary.

It's a risk/reward type of thing. He was thought of as a 2nd rounder but teams were scared off by his medicals and commitment to Mizzou. If he stays healthy, big if, he has the stuff to go in the first round. If he goes in the middle of the first round, he'll get 2.5 million and he'll have the perks and excitement of attending school and playing college ball. I believe it gets understated, but when you are in the low minors life isn't all that glamorous. Compare that to being the big man on campus at an SEC school, being the Friday night starter pitching in front of packed stadiums with crazy fans, I can understand the appeal. If you can get more money and enjoy the college experience, can you fault him for wanting it all? All that being said, if he gets hurt in college he will end up with next to nothing and he's already had Tommy John once.