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It's funny how even just a year ago, these signings were reported with sources from online articles. But in 2013 with a few searches on Twitter, we get information faster than the beat writers do.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 11, 2013 -> 02:37 PM) According to Buddy Bell they want their players challenged and don't really care as much about statistics because of it. Even though it's coming from Buddy Bell, I don't think that's the right approach. A guy like Keenyn Walker is the perfect example. His average dipped from .280 at Kanny to .240 in WS after the promotion last year, and he only played 37 games at WS to finish off the season. He should absolutely be starting the year at WS and continue to work on his swing, and prove he can handle Advance A hitting before promotion. As a result, he's barely hitting above .200 this year, and as it looks now, it's a long shot for him to make it to the majors.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 10, 2013 -> 09:06 PM) When it's time, they will probably push Mitchell back up to AAA... Early's not a serious prospect, so he becomes the 4th OF or part-time DH. They might just as likely push Early up and have an outfield of Mitchell/Walker/Hawkins/Thompson all together in one place...although there's also a decent chance they push Thompson up in August to Charlotte and give Hawkins one month in AA and the AFL season after that. At any rate, Walker, Early and Mitchell aren't going to be getting in his way. Seriously? People are talking about promoting Hawkins this year when he's still hitting .220 with 8 walks and a 50% k rate? This has got to be the most ridiculous suggestion I've read in FutureSox this year.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Jun 9, 2013 -> 11:22 PM) That's why I said cut/trade Curley. He is having a good year, but he is like 25 years old in High-A. The best move is to move Curley to third and bench David Herbek. While the main goal of a minor league team isn't to win, but you still want to field a team of good players out there so your core prospects have a better chance to develop, so it won't make sense to get rid of your most productive hitter this season, even if he's 25.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 8, 2013 -> 05:00 PM) We won't sign him unless someone in the top 10 surprises and won't sign, but at this point, you keep him away from other teams and start getting to know his family and such if you want to draft him in a couple years. Reading the draft rules from the other fronts apparently you lose the slot value of the draft pick if you fail to sign any picks from first 10 rounds. That's why we took mostly under slot guys with a couple of possible over slot guys in those rounds. With Anderson not being in top 30 in any boards I've seen, there is a possibility he will sign for under slot as well. We should have some $$$ to spend on guys from round 11-40. Looking our picks today, there aren't many tough signs with the exception of Matt Ball, Engel, and this Rodridguez kid. The sexy move is of course put all the marbles in and sign Rodriguez, and one of Ball or Engel, if we are up against the cap at that point.

QUOTE (beautox @ Jun 8, 2013 -> 08:53 PM) Micah Johnson 2/3 with a BB, 2 SB (second and third) and 2 CS That's Michael Johnson with 2 CS. It's often easy to confuse those two. It's wonderful to see Micah get back on track in the baserunning department after being slow down recently.

I just saw some of highlights of the Twins Pick Kohl Stewart. He's a high schooler at St. Pius X High School in Houston. For some reason their school uniform is exactly the same as the Sox's black and gray uni's. Yet their mascot is the Panthers. Anyone know if we sponsor any high school down there?

QUOTE (bbilek1 @ Jun 6, 2013 -> 03:07 PM) You should take another look at their stats this year. We don't need to argue over sample sizes here. You would be nuts to think Flowers will not be in the 200 strikeout neighborhood if given 600 PA a year. I know Thompson has improved his K rate this season, but he's well on his way to 200 strikeouts the past two minor league seasons given a 162 game season. Until I see solid improvements from him in a full season, I wouldn't shred the label from him.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jun 6, 2013 -> 09:13 AM) No way. Jerry Owens would have been considered a great prospect from that point of view. The power is a great start, but the K's are incredibly troubling because of how often he is doing it. Tyler Flowers put up fantastic minor league numbers, but showed signs of trouble with his K rate and it's coming to fruition now. You HAVE to be considered about the K/rate. They are important, but K%, BB%, and HR/PA are far more important for a player like Hawkins. I don't want him hitting .300 with 10 homers, I want him hitting .250 with 40 homers. Comparing my expectations of Hawkins to Jerry Owens is unfair. Hawkins has legit power we can see that. Even if he aims to hit for average and get on base, he will hit more than 2 HRs a season. If Owens can hit for 15-20 HRs and get on base, he would have been a great prospect. I DID say THE K rate is important, and so is OBP, hence BB%. I think these secondary skillset should be the focus for Hawkins throughout his minor league career. I don't care if he's hitting 50 HR a season if he's hitting .200 while striking out 250 times a year. To each their own. I think a .300 20 HR hitter is more valuable than a .250 40 HR guy with contact issues.

Flowers and Thompson as well.

Looking at his K total per game is not any more useless than looking at his HR/AB. The true indicators of his development as a useful hitter are his BA and OBP.

The HR rate is cool and all, but I would MUCH rather see a line of 3 for 5 with 2 doubles and no K's We know Hawkins has power, but without seeing any game videos and just looking at the boxing score, it seems like he's swing for the fences every time, as evident by his 10 HR, 50 K and 2 doubles in 95 AB's. Until he changes his approach and start making better contact, I wouldn't get too excited about him. We have too many guys in our organization, top to bottom, who can hit the long ball, but also strikeout over 200 times a year.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Jun 2, 2013 -> 12:52 AM) Semien starting to heat it up. Up to .279 with .380 OBP. Rangel Ravelo continues to hit. Hitting .386 at W-S. Still needs to show some pop though, especially for a 1B. I like Semien, I really hope he makes it to the majors. But he's had one good game the past two weeks, cooling down considerably. I also can't take Ravelo seriously. He's a good contact hitter playing in a power position. But he has hit exactly 3 homeruns in 900 minor league plate appearances. That's unheard of for a 6'2" 210 lb guy.

It's hard to imagine this guy is already turning 33 next year. It wasn't too long that this kid walked into our classroom and introduced himself to us during a high school Chemistry class in which his mother was our teacher, while he was at Double A in Detroit.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ May 23, 2013 -> 02:01 PM) Meh. Unless Hibbert was standing under the basket and never guarded Battier or Bosh he wasn't going to be able to do anything on that play. On the prior possession where LeBron got a layup it was a different story though. That last possession was a well designed play by Spoelstra (pains me to say that) and a huge f*** up by George. He got himself way out of possession and had no chance to even slow LeBron down once he caught the ball. But you have to consider there is no way Lebron won't go to the basket for a game winning layup without a rim protector, especially after what happened at the end of regulation. I would rather let the perimeter guys beat me than to give up the layup, and they only need a 2 to win, so they would like to get something at the rim versus taking a 3. So it's either Frank Vogel didn't expect a layup from Lebron, or he expected Paul George to stop Lebron from getting to the rim. Both of which are mistakes regardless. He should have put Hibbert in, twice.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 23, 2013 -> 11:20 AM) Pressey supposedly looked really bad at a workout yesterday. As for Shabazz, I'd rather have Caldwell-Pope. Shabazz reminds me so much of Xavier Henry. I see a hybrid of Nick Young and Xavier Henry. A wing who can score, but provides nothing else. It's very disappointing that just 3 years ago, this guy was going to be the next Kobe, killer instinct and winning attitude and all. Now he probably won't even be a starter in the league.

Was really hoping to rain out tonight's game so we don't have to run into Buchholz who is pitching out of his mind.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ May 22, 2013 -> 03:53 PM) I've seen video. At 2nd, he starts a walking lead, then reaches a point and sort of walks paces in place, facing the pitcher. From 1st it is a similar thing, but he is facing 2nd base instead of the pitcher. Is there a link to the video?

Micah Johnson caught twice stealing third base today. I would like to know what's his stl % on third base this season. From what we read before, he uses the regular lead instead of the walking lead when stealing third base.

looking at the hands, he's guaranteed to be better than Tyson Chandler. /half green

I thought all the Rose mockery will stop now since we mostly likely seen his last days in a suit

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 22, 2013 -> 01:31 PM) That's not an answer. If there's no top line scorer in the draft, but there is a top line defender... Right. And their defense was one of the worse in the league. Their offense would automatically improve if Kyrie stays healthy this year, Waiter progresses naturally, and they don't have to start Tyler Zeller at center. Drafting Noel really fits the need for them.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 22, 2013 -> 12:57 PM) This is exactly who I was trying to think of earlier, but was too lazy to look him up. I'm not so sure about McLemore, but I really think Burke has a pretty good chance to be a very, very good player. I'd rather take a guy like that and worry about fitting him in to my roster if I am the Cavs right now, then to take Noel with the #1 pick. But again, that is just me. Thabeet to Noel is not a fair comparison at all. Thabeet was no where near the athlete and certainly wasn't as mobile as Noel is at all. Thabeet was just known for being tall, and from what I hear, the dude has the brain of Javale McGee. I don't know if you know how good Kyrie Irving is, but he is a franchise PG by all means. Would you draft Burke if you are the Bulls and you have Derrick Rose already?

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 22, 2013 -> 10:54 AM) He also has a blown acl and cannot score. But hey, thanks for being a tremendous prick about it. He has a similar built and athleticism as Chandler when he came out of high school. He can get garbage points just off dunks and put backs with his size, and even only 90% of his athleticism going forward. He can easily provide 10-12-3 blocks a game two years down the road. A 7 mobile footer who can defend and patrol the paint is hard to come by in this league. He might not be as talented as past number one picks, but he's the kind of player you need if you want to build a championship defense. I don't really see Burke and McLemore making sense here when they already have the backcourt of the future in place. Potter and Oladio is nice, but they certainly aren't worth the 1st pick. The most important thing here is Varejao is only guaranteed through next year, and the Cavs have a team option to decline his $10 mill contract. The only guaranteed players on the roster are Noel if they take him, Thompson, Waiters, and Kyrie, all still on their rookie contracts. Drafting Noel really would allow them to do serious damage in the Summer of 2014, bringing back a certain SF that they crowned as the King.

I am curious, how long are Euro League games?