|
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.
|
|
|
Post by Chris Hatfield on Jun 30, 2020 16:55:55 GMT -5
James absolutely crushed this.
Very excited to read all of these (and to give our writers something to do finally!!!).
|
|
|
Post by jerryu on Jun 30, 2020 19:56:57 GMT -5
What a wonderful idea!
|
|
|
Post by bellhorndingers21 on Jun 30, 2020 21:28:26 GMT -5
For having basically only a 5 round draft to work with since March, the entire Sox prospects team has been putting out some top notch content. Thank you!
|
|
|
Post by chrisfromnc on Jul 1, 2020 6:37:51 GMT -5
This is perfect!
A couple of times a year I casually look over both the old draft lists and the archived rankings. It’s always interesting to look at these lists and recall who I was excited about at a given time. Lots of swing and misses, but that’s normal with baseball prospect watchers. I was pretty sure Drake Britton, Lars Anderson Casey Kelly, Anthony Ranaudo and Craig Hansen were all going to be impact players. I thought Hansen was going to close games for, like seven years.
Outstanding series that I’m really looking forward to reading.
|
|
|
Post by philsbosoxfan on Jul 1, 2020 7:08:52 GMT -5
Fantastic. Loved: He is probably better known among long-time SoxProspects readers for his trademark weird headshots on MiLB.com.
|
|
|
Post by James Dunne on Jul 1, 2020 7:38:13 GMT -5
This is perfect! A couple of times a year I casually look over both the old draft lists and the archived rankings. It’s always interesting to look at these lists and recall who I was excited about at a given time. Lots of swing and misses, but that’s normal with baseball prospect watchers. I was pretty sure Drake Britton, Lars Anderson Casey Kelly, Anthony Ranaudo and Craig Hansen were all going to be impact players. I thought Hansen was going to close games for, like seven years. Outstanding series that I’m really looking forward to reading. I still believe in Casey Kelly.
|
|
nomar
Veteran
Posts: 10,437
Member is Online
|
Post by nomar on Jul 1, 2020 9:59:39 GMT -5
“Drake Britton is a late innings reliever worst case scenario” - me, probably
|
|
|
Post by philsbosoxfan on Jul 1, 2020 10:21:31 GMT -5
“Drake Britton is a late innings reliever worst case scenario” - me, probably He once hit 105 MPH on a radar gun.
|
|
|
Post by Chris Hatfield on Jul 1, 2020 11:38:02 GMT -5
Fantastic. Loved: He is probably better known among long-time SoxProspects readers for his trademark weird headshots on MiLB.com.I will take credit for this one, in part because I don't feel bad for doing so because James gets credit for plenty of tremendous lines. I also threw another line I'm very proud of very late in the piece that I'm very proud of (sorry James, had to). Hopefully someone catches it. Also, 2003 part 2 just went up: news.soxprospects.com/2020/07/revisiting-2003-draft-epstein-era-dawns.html
|
|
|
Post by jerrygarciaparra on Jul 1, 2020 16:41:47 GMT -5
Looking forward to reading these. Thanks for the effort and content !!!
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
Post by Chris Hatfield on Jul 2, 2020 17:45:44 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by texs31 on Jul 2, 2020 23:26:23 GMT -5
If you had referred to Schartz time in the system as "the runs" he had over 2 years that would've landed with me (but I'm a 48 year old child).
|
|
|
Post by rminns10 on Jul 3, 2020 9:49:29 GMT -5
Is there more to the story on RJ Swindle? His numbers looked good and was released.
|
|
|
Post by James Dunne on Jul 3, 2020 10:06:15 GMT -5
Is there more to the story on RJ Swindle? His numbers looked good and was released. Not that I know of, other than the fact he threw like 84. They drafted a ton of college arms in 03-04 trying to build that organizational depth back up, and Swindle seemed to get caught up in the numbers crunch. Always possible there was something behind the scenes that influenced the decision, but nothing I've heard in this case.
|
|
|
Post by stevedillard on Jul 3, 2020 20:53:01 GMT -5
Wasting the highest bonus ever on Mike Rozier is where Theo lost me. Lets not even talk about Scott White or Mickey Hall.
|
|
|
Post by adiospaydro2005 on Jul 4, 2020 9:42:26 GMT -5
This is a great series, I appreciate the all of efforts pulling this together. Great trip down memory lane. Can’t wait for the “prospect who will not be named” and others.
|
|
|
Post by stevedillard on Jul 5, 2020 9:16:12 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. While Murphy is considered a successful draft, given the other outcomes, should that cause re-evaluating drafting philosophy? Framing the argument, as I understand it, as a safer bet vs. a HS lottery ticket, what does it tell us that a safe bet is safer? If the win in a safe bet is a fungible replacement player, should a team take much longer odds to attempt to get a difference maker (like perhaps Blaze?) I recognize that Murphy may be a bad poster boy for safer picks, because Pedroia and Papelbon showed that you can get home runs even without the toolsy flash. So perhaps there are no broader principles to draw. But after years of disparaging the wishcasting on HS tools for guys like Jason Place, Andy Yount (or basically any HS pitching prospect), maybe its worth it becaues you can get a differenc emaker like Lester, even if its once a decade.
|
|
|
Post by Chris Hatfield on Jul 5, 2020 10:49:31 GMT -5
I think maybe you're overthinking it. They drafted a 10 WAR player. That's a good outcome. That's really the extent of it to me.
|
|
|
Post by James Dunne on Jul 5, 2020 13:25:43 GMT -5
Yeah, it's not "Murphy was a good pick because he was the safe pick which is the right decision" it's "Murphy was a good pick because he turned out to be a good baseball player in very much the way they thought he would be." And you can't just take a hindsight approach to these. For example, even if Groome never pans out it would really, really hard for me to criticize that pick in that situation, especially since there really haven't been any off-field concerns that have held him back, he just got hurt. Whereas players like Place and Ball and a few others it is perfectly reasonable to be critical.
EDIT: It also shouldn't be lost that Murphy was pretty toolsy. He wasn't Ellsbury or anything speed-wise, but be was a put together athlete.
|
|
|
Post by chrisfromnc on Jul 7, 2020 18:25:32 GMT -5
The 2005 Draft Retrospective article posted earlier today is excellent. Lots of names that posters here will remember easily. I don’t just mean the big names like Ellsbury, Buchholz, and Craig Hansen. The Sox also drafted Bubba Bell and Pedro Alvarez in 2005. The comprehensive approach of the write up is part of what makes this series fun to read.
Bravo, James Dunne. Just part of why this site really kicks ass.
|
|
|
Post by Chris Hatfield on Jul 7, 2020 22:12:52 GMT -5
Thanks. James has been crushing these, setting a very high bar for when the rest of the writing staff jumps in next week!
I'm looking forward to talking over these on the podcast.
|
|
|
Post by rminns10 on Jul 8, 2020 6:40:36 GMT -5
These are awesome
|
|
|
Post by philsbosoxfan on Jul 8, 2020 7:00:09 GMT -5
Way back when, I think after the 2005 draft but that's questionable, there was a behind the scenes look at the Red Sox draft, it came in several installments and my thinking at the time was how superior it was to any similar series I had seen on the subject. The newspaper was the Hartford Courier and the author some guy named Alex Speier.
So far, this series is that good.
|
|