PolishPrince34

This is making me nervous. Nola has very limited upside.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Apr 10, 2014 -> 08:58 PM) Seems like there were some defensive issues behind Danish but he also struck out 5 in 3 innings. Have we had any reports on his velocity so far this year? I heard 90-92 in his last start

Brady Aiken is definitely in the equation for the Top 3 picks.

Baseball America has detail report on the White sox players they signed from 2013

Trea Turner should be out of the running at #3. Positives are speed and defense, but way too many flaws as a hitter. Has a very awkward swing that will not generate any power. Not a fan of Turner.

Definitely in on Delgado, but highly doubt he's available right now.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Feb 8, 2014 -> 01:07 PM) An international draft is inevitable either way. The Sox should employ the exact same strategy the Yankees intend to do. Hahn has been making comments about all the money that they are putting towards the international talent maybe he wasn't just alluding to Abreu. And when have the White Sox gone over the slot. Remember Jerry is our owner and follows the book with the slot recommendations

I'm extremely worried the Yankees will go all out this signing period. Reports are coming out they will spend up to $18 million or more and to try to go after every major player to rebuild their farm system. This is bad news for the rest of the league. Bad year to have only $5 milllion to spend. Also, worried some more teams might join in because talk of a 2016 International Draft and all the penalties would be thrown out the door with the spending overtures.

Keith Law just ranked White Sox 27th . Shocked by how low he had us. I thought we would be closer to 20.

QUOTE (Joshua Strong @ Jan 27, 2014 -> 11:30 PM) What ever happened to Luis Castillo and the other players that we're signed by Marco Paddy when he first joined the team? They are 17 years old. Still long time away before we really start hearing about them. Hopefully in the next year or 2 they will make the transition over to America and start playing in Rookie Ball.

Good stuff

In the chat, John Manuel also mentioned how the White Sox aggressively push the prospects in the minors: DeMichele, Walker, Hawkins, and hopefully not Anderson. Sox need to reflect and realize this isn't working the aggressive push on such raw high ceiling players.

I was able to get to the Chat with John Manuel did on the White Sox for Baseball America the last 20 minutes. I wish I was there from the start because he answered a bunch of my questions on players we don't hear too much about. Tried to get more info on Jason Coats, Sammy Ayala, Cody Winiarski, Euclides Leyer, and Kyle Hansen but cut the chat short. Check out the chat on Baseball America some good info on some of our prospects.

My Final Top 25 Propsect list. Organizational has made some steady progress this past year. Now let's hope the White Sox start developing some hitters for the ball-club. 1. Abreu 2. Davidson 3. E. Johnson 4. T. Anderson 5. Hawkins 6. Semien 7. Beck 8. M. Johnson 9. Thompson 10. Zapata 11. Webb 12. C. Sanchez 13. Danish 14. Snodgress 15. May 16. Petricka 17. Olacio 18. Engel 19. Barnum 20. Michelczewski 21. Montas 22. Walker 23. DeMichele 24. Jaye 25. L. Garcia Others to keep an Eye On Andrew Mitchell Euclides Leyer Brad Goldberg Kevin Vance Cody Winiarski Sammy Ayala Kyle Hansen Chris Bassitt Kevan Smith Tyler Saldino Rangel Ravelo Jason Coats Cleuluis Rodon

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/04/sports/b...ncher.html?_r=0 http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1837558...akas-abused-arm Hopefully this will scare people off. Injury waiting to happen.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Dec 26, 2013 -> 11:10 AM) Irabu and Dasiuke were huge costs that never worked out, Darvish is the only one that I think is really all that special. Nomo had a nice long career. Outside of Darvish I'd take Count over all of them, and El Duque was a masterful pitcher, one of the mose entertaining guys I've ever watched pitch. His cousin Livan wasn't too shabby either. And let's not discount all the position players either, nor arms like Chapmann. Cuba beats the dogs*** out of Japan from an athletic standpoint IMO, and some of their pitchers have been pretty good. I'm not against signing Tanaka for a reasonable rate. We're not getting one. Don't see the point in giving a guy 7 years guaranteed and huge money per who has never pitched in MLB, doesn't have Darvish's stuff apparently, and probably isn't going to do much for us in the first year or 2 given where we stand as a non-contender. I would definitely take the bet that the Sox can come up with a similar caliber pitcher through other means at an excellent price over the time they'd have to pay Tanaka. I really see absolutely no logic in trying to outbid anyone for this guy. It's a terrible move & one we'd regret. Outside (of course) from the fact that Darrin Jackson would be ALL OVER this & would entertain the s*** out of me during every one of his broadcasts which Tanaka would start. Another huge miss was the Yankees signing Pitcher Kei Igawa for huge money. That might have been the worst Japanesse signing of them all. Again I'm passing on Tanaka because it's going to take a 7-8 year deal to sign a pitcher. Never see Reinsdorf signing off on that decision. Way too many years for a pitcher. Plus a pitcher whose pitch counts were ridiculously high this past year in Japan.

Let the madness begin on this bidding war. Sox will stay on the sideline and that will be the smart thing to do. My prediction Tanaka will get a contract over $120-$135 million plus the $20 million posting fee. I believe it will go down to the Cubs and Yankees getting Tanaka in the end. For every Darvish their around 5 who don't even come close to fulfilling their expectations (Dice K, Irabu, Kaz Matsui, Fujikawa, the list goes on). This is when Theo gets way over his head and starts making decisions that isn't best for the organization. Before Theo left Boston, he signed the past 5-7 years and left them some of the worst contracts (Crawford, Beckett, Lugo, JD. Drew, Lackey, Dice K, Adrian Gonzalez, and Edgar Renteria) those are just off the top of my head. The common theme to all those deals is the ridiculous amount of years and dollars giving to these players. I do hope Cubs get Tanaka and again have another Soriano contract on their hands. Theo needs to learn and stick by what he's good at and that's player development. All of these long term deals that have been going out for the past 7 years have never panned out. Hahn has really impressed me this offseason and I'm sure he will continue his smarts by taking a seat on the sidelines to the crazy bidding war between the Yankees and Cubs.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 19, 2013 -> 08:34 AM) I'm surprised how many people have Tim Anderson outside their top 5. Walker at 18 is interesting. I'd be curious what your thoughts are on him at this point. Definitely. I still think their is still a lot of potential in Walker. Last year was a wasted year in the off-season he had major shoulder surgery and knee surgery. The problem was Walker and Sox rushed him back and was never fully healthy at the start of the season. Sox should insisted and made Walker rehab those injuries a little longer and I believe we would saw better results. I think Walker probably has the best plate discipline in our entire system, defense is solid, potential lead-off type hitter, and has above average speed on the base-paths. This is a make or break year for Walker. Hopefully it was the injuries that made for a disappointing season in 2013. Hit tool is the key question in the equation.

1. Abreu 2. Davidson 3. E. Johnson 4. T. Anderson 5. Hawkins 6. Semien 7. Beck 8. M. Johnson 9. Thompson 10. Webb 11. C. Sanchez 12. Danish 13. Snodgress 14. May 15. Olacio 16. Engel 17. Barnum 18. Michelczewski 18. Walker 19. Montas 20. A. Mitchell

No thanks

Absolutely love this deal. Getting one the elite 3b prospects in the minors and controlled for the next 6 years.

QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ Dec 10, 2013 -> 11:10 PM) Viciedo is absolutely part of the young core. He might flame out, but he has equally as good a chance of being a premier power hitter. He has some of the best hitting tools you'll ever see. LOL-Viciedo has some of the best hitting tools you'll ever see. You need to watch some more baseball after making that observation.

QUOTE (Jake @ Dec 11, 2013 -> 01:38 AM) I know exactly what you mean. The usefulness of that kind of thinking is determining whether you should have been able to pull off an even better deal, though. The Pods and Vizcaino deal is our example of a deal that works out for everyone, but I think you could still legitimately question that deal on the basis that maybe we could have done even better for a premier hitter like Lee. We also saved a lot of money in Pods/Vizcaino-Lee trade and used it to pick up AJ, El Duque, and Iguchi. 5 huge parts to winning in 2005

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 10, 2013 -> 12:42 PM) Only one of those was a position player. You expect pitchers to eventually need the surgery because their entire job is to throw. On the contrary, the MRI for Eaton suggested that it had healed up. Ok how about Xavier Nady and Freddy Sanchez