really old scouting report on Nieito but he was highly thought of High School.

 

http://nationals.scout.com/2/828174.html

 

 

Well if he sticks they sure got the bold part right.

 

Hopefully the Sox saw something from him the AFL against older competition that they liked. I skimmed scouting reports from Nat's blogs when it was rumored we were in on him and they seemed to think he was primed for a big jump forward due to his strong 2013 and AFL performance.

Also once of the Will Arrive in 2013 class: Trayce Thompson. Argh that one still stings (though i understand they purposely wanted to take him away from just his strengths this year)

 

Still not done with Thompson. He's inconsistent, but can't give up on a guy who could easily put be a 20/20 player with plus defense in CF.

FutureSox write-up of the Rule V draft selections (and one player lost).

 

Still not done with Thompson. He's inconsistent, but can't give up on a guy who could easily put be a 20/20 player with plus defense in CF.

Can't give up on him only because he doesn't get you anything. If another team wants to give me a much lower ceiling but higher floor usable MLB-ready position player for any of our K machine OFers apart from Hawkins, I make that deal yesterday.

FutureSox write-up of the Rule V draft selections (and one player lost).

 

Small correction, they have to offer him back to the Nationals, not Astros.

 

To clarify the rules: this selection costs the White Sox $50,000, which is peanuts. Being selected in the Major League phase of the draft, the Sox must now either keep Nieto on the 25-man active roster for the entire 2014 regular season, or offer him back to the Astros for $25,000. In essence, this is a $25,000 roll of the dice, since it is likely the Astros would happily take him back. So there wasn’t much to lose.

Just let him start, who cares? He could end up being decent.

I disagree that Flowers is the starting catcher, I'm fairly sure they are more confident in Phegley.

I disagree that Flowers is the starting catcher, I'm fairly sure they are more confident in Phegley.

 

I think that as well, but the fact that Flowers is in the mix is proof enough that we shouldn't be above dumpster diving other team's catching prospects.

I disagree that Flowers is the starting catcher, I'm fairly sure they are more confident in Phegley.

I would think of the 2, they should be more confident in Flowers as a back up. They know he can be somewhat effective if playing infrequently. I don't know how they can have any feel for Phegley until he actually shows he can hit. He can throw, but the guy is a catcher and one of his problems is actually catching the ball.

The way catcher is, you could play Flowers, hope for an early season hot streak(Oliver '14 projections are kind)...and actually get something for him. A little something at least. The minor league numbers being what they are, you can surely sell someone on a potential light switch flip having happened.

 

That is, if you are fine with 2014 being experimental jazz

Edited December 12, 201312 yr by Jose Paniagua

The way catcher is, you could play Flowers, hope for an early season hot streak...and actually get something for him. A little something at least. The minor league numbers being what they are, you can surely sell someone on a potential light switch flip having happened.

 

That is, if you are fine with 2014 being experimental jazz

 

He's making $950K this year. You could trade him now for a journeyman AAA guy (or whatever).

The Sox would have to give up Quintana to get Castro. That's not going to happen.

 

I think they are going to try and find cheap, long term options at catcher this year. If they appear close to competing next year, I think they'll try and find a big upgrade at that point.

I've been one of Q's biggest supporters here. I argued on his behalf over Santiago when it seemed like most of the board liked Santiago better. Q's success isn't surprising at all to me.

 

However, while I'd hate to trade him, Castro.... man, that's tough. If we couldn't put together 4-5 specs for Houston and there's no way they would do any Castro deal with us without getting Q, then I might just have to do it. Castro is someone Hahn could possibly extend & secure the catching spot for the next 6 years or so. That's just way too much value especially with the scarcity of catchers combined with our total inability to develop position players into anything but pitchers. I'd probably have to make that deal and just hope we could find a replacement somewhere else.

 

Just remembering back to when Castro was drafted, we supposedly were interested too, we took Beckham that draft, and some posters here & fans elsewhere crapped on Castro's ceiling and called him a stretch for where he was drafted, not respecting his game. Of course he was frequently compared to AJ Pierzynski back then, and why would anyone give up that kind of pick just to take an AJ? Ha, they really look dumb now don't they? Let's get that guy, it's destiny. Hopefully without Q but if it has to happen........ I'm probably for it.

I think you are buying incredibly high on Castro right now. His K% increased like crazy, yet somehow he hit 20 points better. I think he's more of a .250/.325/.425 kind of guy, which is still very valuable out of the catcher's position, but I'd rather not giving up Quintana for that.

 

I've just soured on the idea of acquiring a catcher all. If you can get one cheap, then sure, go for it. Otherwise, I think you just stick with what you have, bring in a couple other smaller pieces for competition purposes.

Lobaton would be a safe pickup. Hopefully that's still in play.

Lobaton would be a safe pickup. Hopefully that's still in play.

 

I still think the Sox picking up about $6 mill of Keppinger's salary and sendnig him to Tampa for Lobaton makes a ton of sense.

I think you are buying incredibly high on Castro right now. His K% increased like crazy, yet somehow he hit 20 points better. I think he's more of a .250/.325/.425 kind of guy, which is still very valuable out of the catcher's position, but I'd rather not giving up Quintana for that.

 

I've just soured on the idea of acquiring a catcher all. If you can get one cheap, then sure, go for it. Otherwise, I think you just stick with what you have, bring in a couple other smaller pieces for competition purposes.

He also raised his SLG% from .287 to .401 to .485 in his 3 seasons in the bigs, with last year being his first full season. The K's going up along with it IMO is probably just normal development, him becoming more aggressive in the right counts/situations. I'd say that if the power stays pretty close then the Ks probably go down a bit if that's the case & he's just learning how & when to hit.

 

His splits are quality too, last year .286/.358/.506 vs. RHP & .242/.324/.414 vs. LHP. How wonderful it would be to have a starting catcher that you don't have to automatically sit against same-handed pitching, because your backup probably sucks balls anyway if you're most teams in most seasons.

 

Yeah, I actually would deal Q for him if I absolutely had to. I'd prefer to build around Johnson or Beck but if it can't be done then I go Q.

Edited December 12, 201312 yr by The Ultimate Champion

Small correction, they have to offer him back to the Nationals, not Astros.

Fixed, along with incorrectly putting Shoemaker with ARZ instead of FLA.

 

Sorry, tough to get all that down in a hurry while working on other things.

 

He also raised his SLG% from .287 to .401 to .485 in his 3 seasons in the bigs, with last year being his first full season. The K's going up along with it IMO is probably just normal development, him becoming more aggressive in the right counts/situations. I'd say that if the power stays pretty close then the Ks probably go down a bit if that's the case & he's just learning how & when to hit.

 

His splits are quality too, last year .286/.358/.506 vs. RHP & .242/.324/.414 vs. LHP. How wonderful it would be to have a starting catcher that you don't have to automatically sit against same-handed pitching, because your backup probably sucks balls anyway if you're most teams in most seasons.

 

Yeah, I actually would deal Q for him if I absolutely had to. I'd prefer to build around Johnson or Beck but if it can't be done then I go Q.

 

First taste of big league action

 

Castro - .205/.286/.287

Phegley - .206/.223/.299

 

Why should we not assume that we already have Jason Castro on the roster, except that his name is Josh Phegley?

 

There is no need to spend that much on a catcher at this point. I think you are very, very wrong on this one.

Well Castro's MiLB line: .293/.382/.422

Phegley's MiLB line: .263/.313/.417

Castro was 23 when he debuted, Phegley 25

Debuts: Castro 41 K to 22 BB, Phegley 41 K to 5 BB in almost the same # of PA

I'm sure there are plenty of other reasons, namely that Castro was a top prospect & Phegley is Phugly

 

If you mean that Phugly isn't a finished product then I can see that being the case, I just see no reason to suspect he's anything worth building around, and I think if there's any position we should try to get a player to build around it's catcher.

I'm completely ok with that.

 

 

Competition is good for certain. Esp at the catcher spot

First taste of big league action

 

Castro - .205/.286/.287

Phegley - .206/.223/.299

 

Why should we not assume that we already have Jason Castro on the roster, except that his name is Josh Phegley?

 

There is no need to spend that much on a catcher at this point. I think you are very, very wrong on this one.

You really can't be serious can you? Now you can blow off minor league track records, age, and anything else and call players similar by how they start out the first couple hundred major league ABs? Besides, the OBP is nowhere near similar.

So Phengley made his debut in 13 @ 25 yo in 204 AB's and is never going to amount to anything? Wasn't aware we had scouts posting on this board. I'm not saying he'll will be the next big thing at catcher, but I'm not going to write him off @25 yo after such a small sampling, that's just stupid. You just can't please some fans, I mean scouts.

 

ST should be interesting with the competition at catcher. Could light some fires under a few asses for sure.

So Phengley made his debut in 13 @ 25 yo in 204 AB's and is never going to amount to anything? Wasn't aware we had scouts posting on this board. I'm not saying he'll will be the next big thing at catcher, but I'm not going to write him off @25 yo after such a small sampling, that's just stupid. You just can't please some fans, I mean scouts.

 

ST should be interesting with the competition at catcher. Could light some fires under a few asses for sure.

 

Agreed, if they can't find a proven catcher in think Phegley needs to start, if he sucks through June then make a move

You really can't be serious can you? Now you can blow off minor league track records, age, and anything else and call players similar by how they start out the first couple hundred major league ABs? Besides, the OBP is nowhere near similar.

 

No, I'm really not serious, though Phegley was having a phenomenal year at AAA before being recalled. The question being posed was "would you trade Quintana for Castro?" I'm saying that it wasn't long ago that Castro looked like a similar player to Phegley. I have no idea what the future holds for Phegley at all, but trading the second best starting pitcher on the roster for Jason Castro does not make a lot of sense.

 

Given the current state of the team and what they have at catcher compared to what's available, I have no problem with them going into the year as is, unless something becomes available for a fair price.

I've said before, though it sounds odd, I think Phegley has better potential as a hitter than Flowers does.

 

Keep in mind that you can't look at Phegley's numbers in the minors at face value. Look at his jumps, how little development time he actually had at any given level. He didn't have a full, healthy season until 2012, at which point he was in AAA with very little development time at other levels in terms of games played. Then in 2013 (and even late 2012 really), once he had a year to adjust to level, he exploded.