33 minutes ago, DH in the NL said:

Has anyone been watching Vaughn lately? With him being the best hitter on the team I wonder if he’s swinging at bad pitches because he doesn’t want to take the walks. Is he trying to do too much, or completely getting blown away?

Almost every AB I saw in the Oregon St series over the weekend was fine. He has a presence at the plate with a keen eye. I'm not panicking over small sample sizes. Some people have a very "what have you done for me lately" mentality in this thread.

I'm still kind of amazed that no college pitcher made a "leap".

In general the helium of prospects seems very muted this year (still early but not that early).

29 minutes ago, DirtySox said:

Almost every AB I saw in the Oregon St series over the weekend was fine. He has a presence at the plate with a keen eye. I'm not panicking over small sample sizes. Some people have a very "what have you done for me lately" mentality in this thread.

4-4 = He's the greatest!

0-4 = He's dead to me.

Kiley chat today. Some interesting draft tidbits.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/kiley-mcdaniel-chat-3-27-19/

Quote

John in Lima

12:26

How likely is it that Bobby Witt Jr slips past the top 5 because of age, hit tool or signability concerns?

Kiley McDaniel

12:28

maybe 25% at this point? there's been some buzz that Witt is the guy in the top 4 that could be the one to slide, due to hit tool concerns and maybe age would be a tiebreaker with him and Abrams. Still likely he goes in the top 5, but there's some chance he slides a bit. Should not get out of the top 10, regardless. Maybe 15% that Abrams slides out of the top 5?

Quote

Kiley McDaniel

12:33

Talked to a couple directors about this specifically the last few weeks. It seems, as our rankings suggest, that the consensus is Rutschman, Vaughn, Abrams and Witt, then lots of college bats. The question is which of the college bats is best and which one could be like Benintendi who is just starting the ascent now and if the draft was a few months later, they'd slide ahead of one or both of the HS bats

12:34

Misner and Bishop are the hot rising names and Stott probably has the most upside since he can stick at short and flashes hit/power. That said, Stott has some offensive questions and Misner has just been okay vs. SEC pitching while Bishop is 6'5 and the list of guys that really hit at that height is pretty short...so there's a reason they're a half step behind

Quote

Johnny

1:00

Any early high school names with signability concerns?

Kiley McDaniel

1:02

Jack Leiter, Joe Charles, Jerrion Ealy, Spencer Jones

Quote

Tommy Hunter Bishop

1:17

Could Shea Langeliers slip to the 25-30 range?

Kiley McDaniel

1:18

Possible. I saw him right after he returned from the hamate. Still plus throw/receive but real flat plane and little too aggressive at the plate.

Interesting that he mentions Witt as the one that might slide over Abrams.

Edited March 27, 20197 yr by DirtySox

5 hours ago, DirtySox said:

Almost every AB I saw in the Oregon St series over the weekend was fine. He has a presence at the plate with a keen eye. I'm not panicking over small sample sizes. Some people have a very "what have you done for me lately" mentality in this thread.

I agree. He is in a bit of a slump maybe but he has a 2.5 year track record of doing this. Also of course the season start pace was not his true talent level, he is a very good hitter but nobody is a .500 hitter in a top d1 conference.

Overall his ops is still 1.300 which is what he did last year, I still think he is the best or second best college hitter of the draft.

Maybe it is even good if he "only" finishes with a 1.200 or so ops because that means it increases the chance the royals don't take him at two.

Really hope that Rutschman drops to the Sox. Doubt it happens, but I think he would be a tremendous add.

Adley or Abrams. 

The Sox really need some more talent up the middle, the farm really could use an injection of youth and more athletic types. 

Abrams is a left handed Royce Lewis, I wonder if there are any teams who like him better in CF as opposed to SS, his natural and preferred position. 

2 hours ago, Joshua Strong said:

Adley or Abrams. 

The Sox really need some more talent up the middle, the farm really could use an injection of youth and more athletic types. 

Abrams is a left handed Royce Lewis, I wonder if there are any teams who like him better in CF as opposed to SS, his natural and preferred position. 

I think it's probably CF or 2B honestly. I'm not sure Abrams stays at SS 

2 minutes ago, Y2Jimmy0 said:

I think it's probably CF or 2B honestly. I'm not sure Abrams stays at SS 

Now I wanna see where Madrigal gets moved to...

15 hours ago, KnightsOnMintSt said:

Really hope that Rutschman drops to the Sox. Doubt it happens, but I think he would be a tremendous add.

Can't see it with the season he is having. So far he hit even better than vaughn. He might not quite keep this up but he would need a major slump or get hurt to not go 1 1 at this point.

Edited March 28, 20197 yr by dominik-keul@gmx.de

So any fun 2nd round names?

I don't know what a good swing looks like, so I typically just look at the 10 names above and below our slot and pick the profiles that I enjoy most:

- Matthew Lugo, Prep SS, according to notes, better defensively than offensively at this point but athletic and good speed. 6'1 and 185

- Jimmy Lewis (this guy is all over the place, Law loves him because he copy pastes any protypical sized pitcher into his top 20). 6'6 210 lb prep righty with low 90s fastball and 3 pitches

- Jack Leiter - Prep RHP, best curveball in class - go back to bloodlines

- Kyren Paris - Prep SS - youngest player in draft 

- Seth Johnson - RHP - Converted infielder showing plus stuff in Juco, seems like a nats pick to me.

4 hours ago, Balta1701 said:

Now I wanna see where Madrigal gets moved to...

Madrigal gets moved to 3B, which pushes Yoan to LF, which then pushes Eloy to 1B. But then Collins gets moved to 1B, which pushed Eloy to DH. However, Burger was the plan at DH because we have Madrigal at 3B, so once Eloy gets moved to DH, Burger is traded for Tatis, who will be struggling in SD. Tatis comes over and pushes Anderson to CF. Robert is then expendable, so we trade Robert for Machado because SD is entering a rebuild. But then Machado becomes the third baseman, and Madrigal doesn't have a position. 

I think we should just avoid drafting Abrams.

35 minutes ago, bmags said:

So any fun 2nd round names?

I don't know what a good swing looks like, so I typically just look at the 10 names above and below our slot and pick the profiles that I enjoy most:

- Matthew Lugo, Prep SS, according to notes, better defensively than offensively at this point but athletic and good speed. 6'1 and 185

- Jimmy Lewis (this guy is all over the place, Law loves him because he copy pastes any protypical sized pitcher into his top 20). 6'6 210 lb prep righty with low 90s fastball and 3 pitches

- Jack Leiter - Prep RHP, best curveball in class - go back to bloodlines

- Kyren Paris - Prep SS - youngest player in draft 

- Seth Johnson - RHP - Converted infielder showing plus stuff in Juco, seems like a nats pick to me.

I'm assuming that they are going to overslot whichever college bat falls to #45

2 minutes ago, Y2Jimmy0 said:

I'm assuming that they are going to overslot whichever college bat falls to #45

Ha, yeahhhh, and the whole diamondbacks situation makes me imagine even if we target a prep they'll be gone.

Still so bummed we didn't draft jeremiah jackson last year.

1 minute ago, bmags said:

Ha, yeahhhh, and the whole diamondbacks situation makes me imagine even if we target a prep they'll be gone.

Still so bummed we didn't draft jeremiah jackson last year.

Jackson signed for 1.1 million, walker signed for 2...?

2 hours ago, Y2Jimmy0 said:

I'm assuming that they are going to overslot whichever college bat falls to #45

Logan Wyatt it is.

2 hours ago, Y2Jimmy0 said:

I'm assuming that they are going to overslot whichever college bat falls to #45

https://www.mlb.com/draft/tracker

Man I hadn't gone back and looked. Walker's bonus sticks out like a sore thumb. You have to go up to Jackson Kowar at 31 to find a college player that surpasses that. Their valuation of players is so weird. Could have definitely gone after more of the high school starting pitching last year (Torres, etc) from rounds 2-4 if they had spent only 1.3 on torres.

Oregon RHP Kenyon Yovan is coming back this weekend from a hand injury.  He'd be a nice 2nd round target.  Arkansas LHP Matt Cronin is a hard throwing closer,  He may be able to be stretched out as a starter.  If not he could be a nice multi-inning reliever.  

1 hour ago, bmags said:

https://www.mlb.com/draft/tracker

Man I hadn't gone back and looked. Walker's bonus sticks out like a sore thumb. You have to go up to Jackson Kowar at 31 to find a college player that surpasses that. Their valuation of players is so weird. Could have definitely gone after more of the high school starting pitching last year (Torres, etc) from rounds 2-4 if they had spent only 1.3 on torres.

It’s absolutely bizarre and a bit worrisome TBH.

16 hours ago, Chicago White Sox said:

It’s absolutely bizarre and a bit worrisome TBH.

Kind of plays into my thinking that this front office really doesn't know what they are doing as this type of stuff seems much more prevalent than them drafting or signing and developing guys. 

 

 

Edited March 29, 20197 yr by Harry Chappas

41 minutes ago, Harry Chappas said:

Kind of plays into my thinking that this front office really doesn't know what they are doing as this type of stuff seems much more prevalent than them drafting or signing and developing guys. 

 

 

I think that the Sox saw Steele Walker as a top 25-30 player on their board. They promised him $2 million to drop him down to their pick. That makes the most sense. 

Walker was getting mocked in the late 20s frequently IIRC. 

26 minutes ago, Jose Abreu said:

Walker was getting mocked in the late 20s frequently IIRC. 

Indeed. BA had him as a first rounder in it's last few mocks I believe.

Fangraphs recently wrote: "On my current trip, I saw Arizona State LF Hunter Bishop twice. He has been going insane at the plate. He’s now solidly in the first round, with a chance to move into the top half if he continues at this rate (.414/.534/.948, 8 HR in 15 games) because the tools are real (65 raw power, 60 speed)". 

I'm still leaning toward Bishop over Vaughn, so far. Still lots of games left, in the college season, but I like his tools, left handed bat and legitimate CF position, over Vaughn's RH bat and first baseman only. As I mentioned previously, he has only begun to concentrate on baseball, after always dreaming of playing Pro Football. He probably still has lots of room for growth, as a baseball player.

7 minutes ago, Lillian said:

Fangraphs recently wrote: "On my current trip, I saw Arizona State LF Hunter Bishop twice. He has been going insane at the plate. He’s now solidly in the first round, with a chance to move into the top half if he continues at this rate (.414/.534/.948, 8 HR in 15 games) because the tools are real (65 raw power, 60 speed)".

The speed thing confuses me. Didn't Law say he has below average speed? But FG says 60 grade. That is a big difference. As a pop up guy, the difference between center and left can be a huge difference in value and risk.