thxfrthmmrs

QUOTE (KagakuOtoko @ Jul 27, 2017 -> 09:10 AM) I am looking forward to the fights this weekend. I'm travelling to Madison with some buddies. We're going to drink, make bets, and watch people beat the souls out of each other. Jon Jones is easy money, pay off your house. Jones fought once in the last two and a half years and wasn't anywhere near dominant in his only fight. I think this will be a tough fight for him. And it's not easy money of the fight might not happen!

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Jul 26, 2017 -> 10:49 PM) Are we really even mentioning the majors for Hawkins because he's gone 4 weeks hitting .256/.320/.412, bringing his overall line to a whopping .185/.239/.327? Dude is dead as a prospect. I'm holding out 1% hope that Hawkins becomes a second division starter in the big leagues, given that we also thought Matt Davidson was dead as prospect 2 years ago.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jul 26, 2017 -> 10:34 PM) Definitely does. On a breaking ball no less! On an unhittable Jake Arrieta curveball no less!

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Jul 26, 2017 -> 08:57 PM) Hansen > Adams Guerrero > Adams No love for Guerrero on this board or he just gets lost in the long list of pitching prospects we have. Adams to me is on par with Stephen.

Great to see Kopech finishing the year strong. Give him two more starts to hit 110 innings and let him rest his arm for the rest of the year.

QUOTE (Username @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 06:54 PM) The more I look into this guy the more I like it. Didn't realize he's 6' 4" 205 and can apparently run. A good athlete apparently. Good catch on the frame, might hit for more power in the next couple of years as he gets more comfortable with the refined swing.

Looks like he's more well rounded than Tilson, and much more likely to pan out than Basabe. Average to above average tools across the board, and Longenhagen thinks he a more true 5 tools player than many players with that label. QUOTE (Hatchetman @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 06:29 PM) initial reaction is yuck. Would rather some 19 year old in low A. So you would take another Basabe? I would rank this guy over Basabe in our top 30 right now.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 08:57 AM) Good discussion in here. I am equally nervous about player dev. That's not to say Collins is written off to me, just that I've significantly lowered Collins down in my head. And that's a big shift. We've blamed for years the lack of farm output on drafting long-tail players like Mitchell/Hawkins/Walker that had poor hit grades and never improved. Well this was our draft of polished college hitters. Collins/Call/Fisher. All good OBP. Good college production. They've all stumbled at the first big challenge (I recognize it's sort of unfair for Call). I keep saying it, but I was reading the longenhagen bio of Jimenez, which talked about all the mechanical updates Jimenez made in the past two years to go from raw to possible 70 hit grade. I just don't know the last time I've ever read that about a sox player. And I don't know if Jimenez did it himself. If I recall, for years the sox philosophy was let them carry what got them there for as long as they could and then fix it when it's broken. Sure seems like that's the same. Still same guy at top (Bell). We've heard of all of the changes, but all of them were a bunch of essentially first year guys. Why would we take that risk before the rebuild? We couldn't hire some player dev guys out of Arizona that turned AJ Pollock and Peralta into above average offensive players? It just seems like for hitters we are relying on them to figure it out on their own. And I hope they can do it. Most on this board were soured by the Shields Tatis Jr. trade, but do we actually think Sox can turn help Tatis tap into his offensive potential? I've been preaching a lot around here lately on focus to build up a quality developmental program in the minors for long term success. If the player developmental guys in Houston or AZ know what they're doing developing hitters, why aren't we spending the extra $$$ to pry those guys away from those orgs. If refining swings through data analytics is what's helping guys become better hitters today, why aren't we spending to build up a team of hitting coordinators who are fluent in analytics. The cost of it would barely make a dent on the financial savings we're accruing on the big league roster. This rebuild shouldn't just be about selling the big league roster to build up the farm, it's also a good opportunity to get rid of coaches and coordinators who have not show success in developing the young guys. Until I see guys like Moncada, Collins, or Rutherford who have questionable hit tools finding their strides offensively, I'm still cautiously optimistic about our farm system.

QUOTE (yesterday333 @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 12:40 PM) No one is saying you cant disagree but every time Collins (or any other player we drafted) gets brought up, people have to chime in with, "we could've had this player I wanted." It gets pretty old. Sox aren't perfect at drafting, no pro sports team is. However, the Sox seem to have struck out on every positional player they picked over the past 15 years. What is wrong with someone revisiting the decisions that the team has made if they don't agree with?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 24, 2017 -> 09:01 PM) He is making less than Felicio, I mean come on. I think he may make less than MCW now. I mean go on YouTube to search for MCW in 2016 and watch what garbage $2M will bring you these days.

QUOTE (rodh @ Jul 24, 2017 -> 11:45 PM) Following is part of a post I made about Collins back in August 2016. [ I follow the draft with great interest and suffice to say I was not a fan of the Collins pick and have a draft bias against his profile as a hitter. While his College stats show he 1. Has plate discipline (high walk total) 2. Good batting average 3. Good power the fact that he struck out between 4-5 ABs (excluding walk count) is very concerning. As the prospect transitions to professional ball their strike out rate tends to increase especially as they move up to higher milb levels. ] The premise of my analysis in my previous post is if a College hitter strikes out every 4-5 ABs against college pitchers then it is unlikely they will succeed against superior professional pitchers. Looking back thru WSox draft history there are many failed prospects who fit this profile and it is difficult to find any that have succeeded. Maybe mechanical changes can help Collins (i.e. tone down that big pre-swing waggle) but I just don't like selecting a College hitter like Collins this high in the draft. This years draft crop of College hitters had better contact rates and it will be interesting to follow their progression in milb. He only hit .300 his first 2 years at Miami. That isn't a great BA for a college hitter, certainly not for a first round pick. If the that is the real Zack Collins, and the .360 hitter from his junior year is just an outlier, then based on college and pro stats in 3 out of the last 4 years you have a below average to poor hitter, someone who can work the count and also strikeout a bunch at the same time with average to above average defense. That adds to about a .220/.320/.400 hitter at the big leagues if he gets there. But of course he won't hit .220 every year, some years he may hit .240 and become a viable starter (much better than what we get out of Narvaez and Kevan Smith), and some years he may hit below the mendoza line and work himself back to the minor leagues. That's what I expect out of Collins at this point.

QUOTE (steveno89 @ Jul 24, 2017 -> 11:06 PM) What did burger do to justify going from a 55 to 50 overall grade since getting drafted? .980 OPS not good enough? The rest of the grades I agree with, is have burger above Fulmer though. MLB.com always do that. IIRC I think Robert was either a 65 or 60 FV prospect on the international list. Right after he signs with Sox and placed in the Org top 30, he was bumped down to 55 FV. Kevin Maitan or ATL also had the same treatment. It's like they want to hype of these prospects in the International 100 or Draft 200 list, but then bump them down when they are measured with minor league prospects who already have some seasoning.

QUOTE (Tony @ Jul 24, 2017 -> 09:05 PM) Because this organization is loyal to a fault, and most of our minor league coaching staff are former White Sox. As a sports franchise, loyalty to former players should not take priority over winning and talent development. If a guy isn't the best person for the job, there is no reason you should hire him. The fact that we keep going the former player route clearly shows this organization have not figured out what it takes to develop positional talent.

QUOTE (flavum @ Jul 24, 2017 -> 08:15 PM) I'm hopeful for Collins becoming a better hitter, but the Sox front office better be looking long and hard at the people instructing these guys in the minors. They cannot afford having bad hitting results anymore. I'm afraid guys who are still far away like Rutherford, Robert, and Collins will not develop to their potential in the hands of this system. You would spend $50M on one 19 year old kid, but not $5M on better coaching staff and data analysts across the system?

WWE is definitely go all in to expand in the Indian market by bringing back Kahli. Unfortunately that's going to going to hurt their ratings in the US. SDL was the A show for most of last year when AJ was the heel champ, but literally no one in the US wants see a Jinder-Kahli alliance running the show for the rest of 2017.

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Jul 24, 2017 -> 09:44 AM) Curbelo was there and now it's Nunez I believe who is also a big INT signing. Nunez is now a full time 3B I think.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jul 24, 2017 -> 09:19 AM) yeah thanks for that. I've been following him now too. Anxious to hear what kind of standing he is in with scouts. We haven't had too many DSL kids come over at 17 and play as well as Sosa is. Also part of the Sosa fan club here. I mentioned the same thing last week. I'm hoping he plays well enough to earn a promotion to GF in the coming weeks. The SS position there looks pretty weak.

I think many players are now using data analytics to refine their swing to perfect the exact lauch angle. Result: 2017 is already setting homeruns in total HR's, and more HR's were hit in the month of June than any other month in history of baseball. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washington...-than-steroids/ https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/10/sports/b...re-iphone-share If we could implement these types of tools in the minor leagues, then it could completely change the game. I'm not surprised some teams are already doing it given how well prospects have performed once they come up. EDIT: I didn't read the OP's entire post and I was also thinking Astros must have adopted the new age hitting philosophy, given that Altuve at 5'6 is now a homerun hitter, Springer became a completely different hitter, and some journeyman named Marwin Gonzalez is hitting like Miguel Cabrera.

QUOTE (oldsox @ Jul 23, 2017 -> 05:10 PM) Have you been to one? You gonna compare it to the Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, or the hospital closest to your home? If your kid is hurt or sick, you gonna send him/her to the DR? Why take chances. If he is hurt, get him over here and fix him, then re-hab him here, and develop him here. You seem persistent in making generalization that all medical personnel over there are witch doctors and extremely incompetent at what they do. Do you actually have first hand experience of medical treatment down in DR, specifically at the facility Robert is getting treated or the doctors that are treating him? If not, just stop making ignorant ass culturally insensitive comments. For god's sake the Sox could have had their very own doctors down there to look Robert, or have sent him to high end medical facilities over there to get treated. The Sox aren't stupid, they will do their best to get Robert the treatments he needs.

For an organization wth a top 3 farm systems, our minor league teams sure lose a lot of games.

I think this is one of the biggest surprises we've seen in the NBA for a while, and could certainly be the biggest breakup since Shaq and Kobe if Kyrie no longer wants to play with Lebron. Looks like Cleveland is pretty much done after next year.

I always wonder why teams don't spend more for better analytics, scouting, marketing, coaching and player development staff, etc. when we could shell out $5M a year for a relieve pitcher. I don't know how much the White Sox or other teams spend or if there is already increase focus on these areas but I feel like each of those areas contributed greatly to team success so it would be silly not to. For example, we always heard that xxx team is great at developing hitters but not the White Sox, or xxx player is not the type of player the Sox could develop. Well, what exactly do teams like the Cardinals, Braves, Cubs, or Astros have that we don't? Why do we keep allowing the failure of hitting development to be ok and then blindly spending hundreds of millions to field a sub .500 team? If what it takes is better coaching and training staff, better (and more) scouting, then why don't we increase expenditure in those areas? Or is player development completely based on luck and we just keep striking out the past decade?

QUOTE (Brian @ Jul 21, 2017 -> 06:12 AM) Haters everywhere Hating against who? Lesnar or Reigns?

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Jul 20, 2017 -> 09:52 PM) 110 maybe? That's just me throwing s*** out there. I'm guessing him and Cease get shut down semi soon. I think so too, don't think he will throw anymore than that, given that it would be double his totals last year. BTW, still SSS, but Lenyn Sosa is doing pretty well in AZL as a 17 year old rookie. I don't think we've seen anyone from the Sox who played well as a 17 year old in the states in the LatAm era. Hopefully he is one of those low profile signings we've hoping for that really blossoms in his late teens.

So we definitely willl see him put over RR on the way out.