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Post by ramireja on Jul 22, 2020 23:41:35 GMT -5
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Post by ramireja on Jul 22, 2020 12:57:54 GMT -5
I don't know who Hazel Mae is (broadcaster for someone) but this makes sense. Hazel Mae @thehazelmae Can confirm the Blue Jays have been told they will be calling PNC Park “home” this season per MLB source. @longleysunsport was first to suggest Pittsburgh as option. You don't remember Hazel Mae? She worked for NESN doing the job that Austin Guerin is doing now. She was before Jenny Dell (Will Middelbrook's wife) and Tina Cervasio. I think she worked for the Sox for about 10 years - I'm pretty sure she was there working for NESN when the Sox won the Series in 04. Hazel Mae now does the same thing for Toronto. Don't forget Heidi Watney!
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Post by ramireja on Jul 21, 2020 13:28:06 GMT -5
Yeah, you better be careful mentioning the 2011 and 2012 drafts in the same sentence. Lol. Haha! I hesitated, trust me. Obviously, the two drafts aren't even in the same hemisphere if you compare say accumulated WAR. More than anything, I think its just kind of a fun fact (7 of the first 8 picks reached the majors) about a draft thats pretty universally hated on.
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Post by ramireja on Jul 21, 2020 11:43:02 GMT -5
So, the lesson is that anyone who can throw 95 -- even if they are not even pitchers -- has twice the chance of being in the bigs than soft tossing pitchers (Owens). Whats equally impressive to me is that they almost did this again the very next year in 2012 with 7 of their first 8 picks reaching (and all of their first 6). I realize not one of those 2012 players became a regular or impact player, so I'm not claiming it was an amazing draft, but still impressive considering the back-to-back stat there.
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Post by ramireja on Jul 21, 2020 11:18:58 GMT -5
Hey everybody! Remember when prospects used to play in games (either spring training or regular season), and we'd get excited when they would perform well? I'm going to do that now!
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Post by ramireja on Jul 17, 2020 12:17:34 GMT -5
After some waiting, it turns out the bonus info we had on Jordan's and Drohan's agreements was spot on.
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Post by ramireja on Jul 15, 2020 17:12:46 GMT -5
Here are the 2007 Draft picks and recap. Great job Will on the write-ups. I view this as another successful draft with Rizzo the obvious headliner. Much like 2006 and Reddick, most of the WAR accumulated by drafted/signed players was with other teams, but Rizzo did have significant trade value as a key piece for Adrian Gonzalez.
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Post by ramireja on Jul 14, 2020 19:54:12 GMT -5
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Post by ramireja on Jul 14, 2020 15:14:02 GMT -5
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Post by ramireja on Jul 13, 2020 23:45:37 GMT -5
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Post by ramireja on Jul 10, 2020 11:28:07 GMT -5
Isn't it strange that the Sox have one of the weakest farm systems in the league, the 17th pick in the draft, and still don't have a draft pick that cracks their top 10? I know the Sox are high on Yorke and it's been a strange year to say the least, but that's an unlikely outcome for a team in the Sox position. Will be interesting to see if this year's strategy pays off long term. Another thing to consider, and not one that contradicts your original statement, but their strategy resulted in two guys that land just outside of the Top 10 at #11 and #13. Had they selected say PCA in Round 1 and their top talent available at slot in Round 3....you're probably looking at PCA between #5-#8 in our system, and the 3rd rounder (say Xavier Warren drafted 3 picks after Jordan for close to slot) slotting in around #20-#25 range (the Cannon, Bello, Arauz range). So the rankings here kind of reflect the industry interpretation of our strategy to essentially trade the #17 overall and 3rd round pick for two second rounders. Now of course, the Red Sox probably think they drafted 1st and 2nd round talents in their draft, in which case, both Yorke and Jordan could eventually break the top 10. As Chris says though, who knows....we'll have to wait and see.
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Post by ramireja on Jul 9, 2020 15:12:40 GMT -5
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Post by ramireja on Jul 9, 2020 12:09:13 GMT -5
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Post by ramireja on Jul 9, 2020 11:51:50 GMT -5
Some 2005 and other general ramblings:
- What a great draft. I think there is a tendency for many to devalue or villify certain types of players after they leave Boston (e.g., J.D. Drew, Daisuke) despite solid contributions. It might be more likely for players whose demeanor comes off as apathetic or whose results were inconsistent. Buchholz certainly falls in that group. I appreciate this series for the chance to have a more well-rounded chance to reminisce about their playing careers. I won't forget Buchholz's dominant stretches when he would perform like an ace for 10-12 game stretch. That he ranks #11 on the Red Sox all-time K list surprised me a little. Who can forget the no-hitter in his second start.
- Craig Hansen and Cla Meredith in back-to-back drafts really opened up the floodgates for you to vent James. Nice analysis on both of those. To that end, I'm glad we didn't see Feltman in the majors last year (although who knows what his track would have looked like if he dominated AA).
- I started really following prospects right around the time when the studs from these 2004/2005 drafts (Pedey, Ellsbury, Buchholz) were making a name for themselves in the minors. That said, I wasn't super knowledgable on guys beyond the top 10 and I must have just missed Bubba Bell. I certainly recall the name given that he gets brought up here from time to time, but he wasn't a guy I was following. I was looking at his stats and they were pretty solid overall (nice approach numbers). He would have been a guy if he were around now I would have sworn would make the majors for at least a cup of coffee. I imagine quite a few people around here were let down by his trade and eventual outcome?
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Post by ramireja on Jul 7, 2020 23:27:59 GMT -5
I figure we might want a thread for following any sox prospect signings and follows in the indy/semi-pro leagues. We'll kick it off with the Brendan Cellucci signing:
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Post by ramireja on Jul 6, 2020 13:19:57 GMT -5
A pair of legit 2020 HS talents have recently announced new intentions to play JUCO/CC ball in 2021:
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Post by ramireja on Jul 2, 2020 15:38:21 GMT -5
James absolutely crushed this. Very excited to read all of these (and to give our writers something to do finally!!!). I mean, this is a seriously deep dive. I appreciate the info James and write-ups on literally every selected player. 2003 (and I'm now seeing in 2004) didn't produce a ton of depth in terms of major leaguers, but when you land 2 of the top 20 players in terms of WAR, I think thats a better outcome than say 9 fringe major leaguers lacking any regulars (see 2012). I also love the point about how David Murphy has to be considered a successful pick which I think is an important reality call to anyone expecting Role 60 players as a probable outcome for players drafted in the middle or back of the 1st round.
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Post by ramireja on Jul 1, 2020 23:45:19 GMT -5
I'm a little reluctant to post the tweet below as its from June 17th and there's still no official word on signing. That said, we may just be waiting for the Yorke signing to become official before we can make Jordan and Drohan official. All but three 1st rounders have officially signed, so fingers crossed we get news on Yorke (plus the rest) soon.
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Post by ramireja on Jun 30, 2020 15:40:45 GMT -5
I'm very excited about this SoxProspects draft retrospective series as detailed by James below: The series begins with the 2003 draft and the beginning of the SoxProspects.com era.
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Post by ramireja on Jun 29, 2020 21:51:50 GMT -5
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Post by ramireja on Jun 26, 2020 15:41:49 GMT -5
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Post by ramireja on Jun 26, 2020 11:44:27 GMT -5
For what it's worth, Blaze Jordan attended 44 Perfect Game events over the course of his career and hit 15 HR across those events. I can't tell you how many games or plate appearances are in 44 events, but I know the PG scouts talk about his 15 HR as a very impressive figure among the HS circuit against quality (and often older) competition.
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Post by ramireja on Jun 24, 2020 13:37:15 GMT -5
To celebrate Jordan's signing news, enjoy this video of him hitting bombs at Progressive Field to win the 2019 MLB High School Home Run Derby:
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Post by ramireja on Jun 24, 2020 13:26:47 GMT -5
This is excellent news, I had a slight concern that the Sox viewed Blaze as highly signable but wasn't a definite to sign. Anyways, that figure would leave $3,636,395 to sign the other 3 picks. I could see something like ~$3.0M to Yorke, ~$200K to Wu-Yelland, ~$400K to Drohan; but I'm sure the other three are locks to sign regardless of how the $ is distributed.
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Post by ramireja on Jun 22, 2020 14:05:13 GMT -5
Yup, the Phillies also cleaned up according to rankings. They signed 5 UDFAs from BA's Top 500 (4 in the top 400) in addition to two senior signs from their top 25 senior sign list. I will say though in comparing some of these guys to our draft haul, I don't perceive a huge difference between someone ranking between 300-500 and say Brian Van Belle, Cuba Bess, or Jake MacKenzie. Even guys like Jacinto Arredondo or Merfy Andrew seemingly have as much relief upside as others in the Top 500 but lack the track record or pedigree that comes from playing in a top D1 school.
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