11 minutes ago, chitownsportsfan said:

Lackey

The ONLY thing that sours me on Lackey are the reports of him not wanting to move off catcher with him being quoted as saying he “likes to have the ball in hand on every pitch” or whatever.

54 minutes ago, hi8is said:

The ONLY thing that sours me on Lackey are the reports of him not wanting to move off catcher with him being quoted as saying he “likes to have the ball in hand on every pitch” or whatever.

Why is that a bad thing? Having a stud catcher could be like a cheat code, similar to drafting Kelce in the first round of a fantasy football draft a few years ago.

4 hours ago, caulfield12 said:

SI

Striker Pence, Hunter's Nephew, Could Be America's Answer...

He’s a 17-year-old Minecraft-loving Knucklehead (his term), but Striker Pence can effortlessly throws 100 mph and dreams more of hitting walk-off bombs.

If I was a GM, I would never draft a high school pitcher who is throwing 100 mph.

Guys who grow into velo are so much more stable and reliable.

1 hour ago, chitownsportsfan said:

I'm fine with Lackey or Roch at this point. Both seem likely to be 4-5 WAR players up the middle and that's all you can ask.

Welcome to the team.

17 hours ago, Lukakke Appling said:

Lackey isn’t expected to make the draft combine, whereas the other top options will be there.

Take that however you want haha.

Normally taken as a confident approach by a player agent

1 hour ago, SoxBlanco said:

Why is that a bad thing? Having a stud catcher could be like a cheat code, similar to drafting Kelce in the first round of a fantasy football draft a few years ago.

Say in two years Lackey is ready Beni is gone and then you rotate DH between Colson, Teel, Mune to keep them fresh and then hopefully Lackey can play some corner OF or even CF to get his bat in the lineup, with Teel catching 90 or so and Lackey 70. There are worse ideas.

1 hour ago, SoxBlanco said:

Why is that a bad thing? Having a stud catcher could be like a cheat code, similar to drafting Kelce in the first round of a fantasy football draft a few years ago.

I have faith that Teel will be a fixture at catcher for the next 5 years and would hope to be able to use the athleticism of Lackey where we need him otherwise. He is a legit option in any position IMO.

1 minute ago, chitownsportsfan said:

Say in two years Lackey is ready Beni is gone and then you rotate DH between Colson, Teel, Mune to keep them fresh and then hopefully Lackey can play some corner OF or even CF to get his bat in the lineup, with Teel catching 90 or so and Lackey 70. There are worse ideas.

Yes - that is ideal IMO. Having the ability to take advantage of his positional versatility is a huge plus to me and if he ONLY wants to catch exclusively, that would bring his value down slightly for our team specifically.

Jim Callis says our scouting department prefers Emerson over Cholowksy, but that the front office may prefer going the college player route. His odds right now are 45% Roch, 40% Emerson, & 15% Lackey.

Roch joins the Baseball is Dead Prospect yesterday to talk baseball and the draft…

5 minutes ago, Chicago White Sox said:

Jim Callis says our scouting department prefers Emerson over Cholowksy, but that the front office may prefer going the college player route. His odds right now are 45% Roch, 40% Emerson, & 15% Lackey.

Getz bout to make the same mistake he did like picking Smith over Griffin eh?

1 minute ago, SoxAce said:

Getz bout to make the same mistake he did like picking Smith over Griffin eh?

I'm hoping the Hagen selection has humbled him. Trust your scouts.

33 minutes ago, hi8is said:

I have faith that Teel will be a fixture at catcher for the next 5 years and would hope to be able to use the athleticism of Lackey where we need him otherwise. He is a legit option in any position IMO.

I just don’t think you even consider drafting Lackey unless you are playing him at catcher for the majority of games. Sure, his positional flexibility is great, and he can play 30 games at DH or elsewhere, but he shouldn’t be moved to another position primarily.

And there’s no way he will actually refuse to play somewhere else. I think he just loves catching but would happily play somewhere else on occasion if it helps the team.

1 minute ago, SoxAce said:

Getz bout to make the same mistake he did like picking Smith over Griffin eh?

I think he was speculating on what the front office might think given floor and proximity to the majors. The big takeaway is Shirley and his crew like Emerson the most. Callis also said he personally would take Emerson over Roch. Sounds like Lackey is a clear third for him, although he acknowledged Vahn forced himself into the discussion with his play this year.

3 minutes ago, DirtySox said:

I'm hoping the Hagen selection has humbled him. Trust your scouts.

Shirley has proven himself to have a keen eye for talent and I have as much confidence in him as I do anyone in the organization. However, regarding the Smith selection, I think part of the overrule came down to infrastructure and Chris being worried about our ability to develop hitters at the time. I badly wanted a positional prospect during that draft, but I can kind of get why Getz would have gone with the LH pitcher given our success there. Unfortunately, it appears Getz was off on how fast he could improve our hitting infrastructure and we have likely lost out to some extent on that pick.

1 hour ago, chitownsportsfan said:

Say in two years Lackey is ready Beni is gone and then you rotate DH between Colson, Teel, Mune to keep them fresh and then hopefully Lackey can play some corner OF or even CF to get his bat in the lineup, with Teel catching 90 or so and Lackey 70. There are worse ideas.

I've been at the point where Emerson Lackey or Roch would all make me happy, there isn't a huge gap between them, they all have their pros and cons. I think Lackey might have the upside of Emerson and the big league readiness of Roch, so if it were my choice I would go with Lackey

Like all drafts, it’s going to be interesting to see where the chips land in the next couple of years after this July.

1 hour ago, Chicago White Sox said:

Shirley has proven himself to have a keen eye for talent and I have as much confidence in him as I do anyone in the organization. However, regarding the Smith selection, I think part of the overrule came down to infrastructure and Chris being worried about our ability to develop hitters at the time. I badly wanted a positional prospect during that draft, but I can kind of get why Getz would have gone with the LH pitcher given our success there. Unfortunately, it appears Getz was off on how fast he could improve our hitting infrastructure and we have likely lost out to some extent on that pick.

They chose Zack Collins, swing hitch, and all, and they were never able to work with him to correct his mechanics. Getz was probably looking at Jacob Gonzalez not upgrading his own mechanics and decided the infrastructure in place wasn't equipped to do the same work with Konnor Griffin.

2 hours ago, SoxAce said:

Getz bout to make the same mistake he did like picking Smith over Griffin eh?

Edit: NM, I took that the wrong way.

Anyways I don’t think you can go into it as a critic with that mindset. I don’t think the Sox can go wrong with the rationale behind any of 4 guys really. Unless, they go against their scouts and let in a bunch of FO noise into the choice.

Edited yesterday at 02:13 AM1 day by Chick Mercedes

1 hour ago, WestEddy said:

They chose Zack Collins, swing hitch, and all, and they were never able to work with him to correct his mechanics. Getz was probably looking at Jacob Gonzalez not upgrading his own mechanics and decided the infrastructure in place wasn't equipped to do the same work with Konnor Griffin.

The family successfully convinced at least two teams he wasn't going to sign and would go to college...they were only really comfortable with Pirates' scout Mazeroski from the very beginning.

6 minutes ago, caulfield12 said:

The family successfully convinced at least two teams he wasn't going to sign and would go to college...they were only really comfortable with Pirates' scout Mazeroski from the very beginning.

I don’t buy that story at all

50 minutes ago, fathom said:

I don’t buy that story at all

SI wrote a full feature article.

It's in the Griffin thread.

Two un-named teams before pick 9 were strongly discouraged from taking him.

One likely was the Angels, who selected Christian Moore instead.

Edited yesterday at 01:12 AM1 day by caulfield12

2 minutes ago, caulfield12 said:

SI wrote a full feature article.

It's in the Griffin thread.

Two un-named teams before pick 9 were strongly discouraged from taking him.

One likely was the Angels, who selected Christian Moore instead.

Cause the Angels would never pick the close to the majors NCAA guy too high? :)

6 hours ago, Chicago White Sox said:

Jim Callis says our scouting department prefers Emerson over Cholowksy, but that the front office may prefer going the college player route. His odds right now are 45% Roch, 40% Emerson, & 15% Lackey.

This seems about right. I would prefer Emerson if there's a discount but I don't think there will be. I don't think either guy gets $10 million but they both break the record of $9.3 million at 1.

Just thinking through this, but if the 1.01 gets $9.5M we’d save $1.8M. The 5% overage would add another $900k. Right there, you are looking at an extra $2.7M to play with before punting a single top 10 pick. By punting two late top 10 picks, you should be able to pick up another $500k. That’s $3.2M total.

Our 2nd through 4th round picks are worth a combined $4.2M. With the savings mentioned above, you are looking at ~$7.5M for those three picks. In simple terms, you could offer someone $3.5M (27th slot value), $2.5M (41st slot value), & $1.5M (62nd slot value). If it’s Thome in the 2nd, I’m not sure he would even require that much, allowing dollars to be repurposed to other picks.

Point is, it feels like we should be able to take BPA at 1.01 and still grab three high ceiling prep players in rounds 2 through 4. To me, that should 100% be the playbook for this draft.