Our southside hitman (Rob) was on a Conference Call with Rick Hahn yesterday, hosted by the Sox, where he and a few other writers got to ask questions. Most were focused on the farm.

 

Here are the key highlights, particularly those involving prospects, player development, and the younger talent on the team. There are a few interesting things in here not previously reported.

 

Interesting to read his thoughts on Basabe. I think people that feel the Sox didn't do well enough in the Sale trade need to take a step back and show patience. While Basabe may only have a current FV of 45, developments in his game can easily push that to a 55 or 60. If he can translate that athleticism to discernible baseball skills, he could be a great player down the road.

 

Also interesting that they seemingly haven't closed the door on Diaz starting, even if he's going to start as a reliever.

Interesting to read his thoughts on Basabe. I think people that feel the Sox didn't do well enough in the Sale trade need to take a step back and show patience. While Basabe may only have a current FV of 45, developments in his game can easily push that to a 55 or 60. If he can translate that athleticism to discernible baseball skills, he could be a great player down the road.

 

Also interesting that they seemingly haven't closed the door on Diaz starting, even if he's going to start as a reliever.

I think people are concerned about our continual failure to help these 45 FV prospects unlock their potential, but honestly if we can't start doing that this organization will be a failure no matter what. We need to acquire these kinds of players at the back ends of our trades + draft them and build them up to have any chance at being good, otherwise we'll end up in the same place we were last year - a few all-star level players with giant holes everywhere else.

Winston-Salem's OF defense should be very solid with two potential CFs out there. I wonder if they're going to bump Call to LF or RF while he's there. I also hope Call forces the issue and gets to Birmingham so he can continue to get reps in CF.

The July 2 thing had to be about Robert I would think. You can't go over anymore when the next period begins as far as I know.

The July 2 thing had to be about Robert I would think. You can't go over anymore when the next period begins as far as I know.

Here's the full quote from Hahn:

 

Certainly we are only talking theoretically, yes, we would consider going past the signing limitations and incurring a tax in this year’s signing period. As you know this is the last signing period prior to the new CBA rules taking effect July 2. Although we have not as of yet under the currently international rules moved into that penalty realm on international signings, it is something we have discussed internally.

 

It's painfully obvious IMO he's talking about Robert. Obviously I can't say they will land him with any certainty, but I'm very confident they will be one of the most aggressive teams in pursuing him. We have to be sitting on some cash and aren't linked to any of the top guys in the 2017-18 signing class. Throw in the Badler comment and it should be easy to connect the dots here.