20 minutes ago, GenericUserName said:

This video along with the baseball rebellion swing analysis gives me hope for him. It seems like he naturally has a swing to drive the ball in the air, but trying to take everything the opposite way has him waiting on pitches which results in him being on top of them and putting them on the ground. At the HS level that works because of the bad defense and his speed, but I feel like if he simply gets rid of that approach and tries pulling more balls you are going to see a lot more liners and fly balls.

Maybe in athletic profile, but not really as a hitter. While Timmy has too much swing and miss, Abrams apparently rarely swings and misses, which is actually to his detriment a bit because he puts everything in play instead of waiting for something to drive.

Never thought  a high contact rate would be a negative. I always though it was better to hit the ball.

Edited May 20, 20196 yr by ptatc

Who was the rumored prep player the White Sox were trying to push down the board in 2018? It was Nick Schnell right? It was someone from Indiana.

4 minutes ago, DirtySox said:

Who was the rumored prep player the White Sox were trying to push down the board in 2018? It was Nick Schnell right? It was someone from Indiana.

Correct

1 hour ago, DirtySox said:

So you too are anticipating some sort of savings if Abrams is the pick?

I think it's reasonable to expect around 7 digits. Still weeks to go but as of now the sentiment is Abrams goes 3 or 6

 

8 minutes ago, ptatc said:

Never thought  a high contact rate would be a negative. I always though it was better to hit the ball.

lol

51 minutes ago, ptatc said:

Never thought  a high contact rate would be a negative. I always though it was better to hit the ball.

It's the Nick Madrigal conundrum. Sure it's good to put the bat on the ball but if it's a pitchers pitch and all you can do is generate a weak groundball or a lazy flyball it really isn't that much better than striking out. I don't think this will be the case with Abrams because he'll be much bigger and stronger and will be able to drive the ball with authority unlike Lil Nicky.

1 hour ago, Harold's Leg Lift said:

Abrams has an advanced understanding of his swing and what he wants to do at the plate.  You don't see that very often with High School hitters. It's a seperator because it will help him work thru slumps faster.  Jarred Kelenic was like that.  Abrams has a real chance to be a special player.

Short to it and long thru it.  Love it.

 

It's a shame that the Sox weren't all over Kelenic last year. 

Tim Anderson has a 19% k-rate this year - that's under league average. 

Hard to tell what a kids contact skills are in high school. 

4 hours ago, Harold's Leg Lift said:

It's the Nick Madrigal conundrum. Sure it's good to put the bat on the ball but if it's a pitchers pitch and all you can do is generate a weak groundball or a lazy flyball it really isn't that much better than striking out. I don't think this will be the case with Abrams because he'll be much bigger and stronger and will be able to drive the ball with authority unlike Lil Nicky.

If it's a pitcher's pitch don't swing at it. This is the learning and development part. It's always good to have a high contact rate. Just need to learn to swing at the right pitches. This is what Madrigal is learning now.

18 minutes ago, ptatc said:

If it's a pitcher's pitch don't swing at it. This is the learning and development part. It's always good to have a high contact rate. Just need to learn to swing at the right pitches. This is what Madrigal is learning now.

It might be a matter of semantics, but I disagree that its always good to have a high contact rate. Like its been said, it could lead to low percentage contact.

Its good to have great barrel control and a low swing and miss rate, but to me that is different than just a high contact rate.

RHP Carter Stewart has reached an agreement on a contract with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of the Japanese Pacific League.

Weird development here. I wonder if his wrist is worse than many thought so he's grabbing some money while he can.  

 

I wonder how much he got.

7 minutes ago, bmags said:

I wonder how much he got.

 

37 minutes ago, Sox Fan In Husker Land said:

 

Much more than what he would have received in the draft.

Edited May 21, 20196 yr by DirtySox

1 hour ago, Sox Fan In Husker Land said:

 

This is so interesting to me. It seems like this might be the international path that so many want to see happen in basketball. If MLB players are getting paid very little for their best years, maybe some of the HS guys decide to forgo college and just go straight to Japan, make real money for 5 or 6 years, and then come over to MLB when they reach international free agency at 25. Or maybe they have an agreement to post him in a few years when he is still under the bonus pool rules but is closer to the majors so he doesn't have to spend as much time in the shitty living conditions of the minors while still getting the same amount of money he wanted from the draft.

20 hours ago, Blackout Friday said:

I like Abrams third best of the players in this year’s draft as it is, so if he’s third off the board and we get some saving to boot, I think that’s a good start. 

I also convinced myself that Abrams is a rock solid choice after seeing it's apparent he is going to the Sox

14 minutes ago, GenericUserName said:

This is so interesting to me. It seems like this might be the international path that so many want to see happen in basketball. If MLB players are getting paid very little for their best years, maybe some of the HS guys decide to forgo college and just go straight to Japan, make real money for 5 or 6 years, and then come over to MLB when they reach international free agency at 25. Or maybe they have an agreement to post him in a few years when he is still under the bonus pool rules but is closer to the majors so he doesn't have to spend as much time in the shitty living conditions of the minors while still getting the same amount of money he wanted from the draft.

Yes, that's like...2x what he was likely to make. He's about 19 now, so he gets to 25 with good money in the bank and either he's flamed out and made the right choice, is good but not great for mlb and gets second contract in Japan, or he gets a legit though probably slightly deflated deal coming from Japan.

Boras has been wanting to do this for years and he finally found his man.  He's going to use this as leverage for years.  

2 hours ago, mqr said:

I also convinced myself that Abrams is a rock solid choice after seeing it's apparent he is going to the Sox

What happens if Adley goes 1 and Vaughn goes second? 

3 minutes ago, OneDog847 said:

What happens if Adley goes 1 and Vaughn goes second? 

I will simply convince myself Witt is the better player

58 minutes ago, Harold's Leg Lift said:

Boras has been wanting to do this for years and he finally found his man.  He's going to use this as leverage for years.  

The easy counter to this is sign all non boras picks and go to him and his client with your remaining bonus pool that is near slot.

1 hour ago, Harold's Leg Lift said:

Boras has been wanting to do this for years and he finally found his man.  He's going to use this as leverage for years.  

Still not sure how effective it will be. The 25 year old international restriction really got around that, and the teams do get fairly adequate compensation in the "re-do" the next year.

It is a nice option though for the kids that have been found injured and didn't recover well enough for next draft to try and get some better money abroad.

42 minutes ago, beautox said:

The easy counter to this is sign all non boras picks and go to him and his client with your remaining bonus pool that is near slot.

Ok then you don't sign the best player you drafted.

14 minutes ago, Harold's Leg Lift said:

Ok then you don't sign the best player you drafted.

If I was the team, I'd feel pretty confident I would win that game of chicken. Takes a pretty committed young kid to go to bat for a few extra hundred thousand so much so that they'll uproot themselves and go play in japan, and likely not be able to come back until age 25.

3 minutes ago, bmags said:

If I was the team, I'd feel pretty confident I would win that game of chicken. Takes a pretty committed young kid to go to bat for a few extra hundred thousand so much so that they'll uproot themselves and go play in japan, and likely not be able to come back until age 25.

That's not the scenario he described.  He's talking about a player that was already selected in the draft and just offer him slot.  That player still has the option to go back to school.