I am irrationally high on Johnfrank, but yes, I would much rather lose any non-bolded player than Johnfrank. & Railin Perez. & Alexis Hernandez. Mixed feelings on Ramirez & Bell, & don't care about losing the Ryans.So would you have rather have lost one of them than Johnfrank?
With the addition of Dylan White to the team at Baseball America, one of the many benefits is access to the RoboScout tool and Stuff+ scores for minor league prospects. RoboScout does an excellent job of objectively identifying high-performance prospects while balancing age to level performance among each player and their peers.
When researching Rule 5 picks, models like RoboScout or Stuff+ allow us to cut through the noise and look at players on a somewhat even footing. We used RoboScout and Stuff+ to create charts of the top available players and listed each below. We have included the Top 20 players with the highest Roboscores among position players, the Top 20 players among available pitchers and the Top 20 Stuff+ scores among available pitchers.
In a moment of unity between the Roboscout and the industry, the robot identified Justin Slaten as the top available player in the Rule 5 draft. He has the second-highest Roboscore, the highest among players who reached the high minors and the third highest Stuff+ score. Over the last week, Slaten’s name has been the buzziest of potential picks. Slaten was also one of five pitchers with intriguing stuff from the Arizona Fall League we identified last month.
I get it, especially since you spend so much time covering the minor leagues (and doing a really exceptional job) for us here, but I think it's kind of a product of the kind of bad MLB roster and the depth of the system at this point. Any of the guys taken could have been protected, but I count them at 39 on the 40 man right now (still dealing with COVID brain a bit, so I may be off), and they essentially need to add two SP's, a RHB outfielder and (in my opinion) a second baseman. And they need to do this with very few players on the 40 man who are likely to bring back any impact players in return, so chance are that a lot of the 40 man rosters is going to start being waived when they make these moves anyway, and the best candidates would have been the players just selected in the R5.I am irrationally high on Johnfrank, but yes, I would much rather lose any non-bolded player than Johnfrank. & Railin Perez. & Alexis Hernandez. Mixed feelings on Ramirez & Bell, & don't care about losing the Ryans.
Frustrating, since we still have middle relief nobodys on the 40-man like Weiss, Jacques and Llovera.Drohan and Fernandez gone...
Pretty positive their 40-man is at 38 (was 37 after Mills, Verdugo out, Weissert & Slaten in). But I'm more frustrated about the MiLB portion than the MLB portion because that seems like unforced errors to me & they can protect an additional 38 players outside of the 40-man on that.I get it, especially since you spend so much time covering the minor leagues (and doing a really exceptional job) for us here, but I think it's kind of a product of the kind of bad MLB roster and the depth of the system at this point. Any of the guys taken could have been protected, but I count them at 39 on the 40 man right now (still dealing with COVID brain a bit, so I may be off), and they essentially need to add two SP's, a RHB outfielder and (in my opinion) a second baseman. And they need to do this with very few players on the 40 man who are likely to bring back any impact players in return, so chance are that a lot of the 40 man rosters is going to start being waived when they make these moves anyway, and the best candidates would have been the players just selected in the R5.
I am, admittedly, not as high on Drohan as you, so take that for what it's worth.
I do agree that losing a solidly prospectable catcher sucks.
Summery of this week:View: https://twitter.com/IanCundall/status/1732481817578512890
On to the 3rd round.
Cards take Ryan Fitzgerald (#135).
Ryans out, Dick's inSummery of this week:
Fitzy out, Fittsy in.
This is what I came here to post. Something doesn't add up. Either our pitching development is terrible or our evaluation on what makes a pitcher successful at the MLB level.It's amazing that we can both be so bad at pitching & have so many pitchers taken away from us because we don't protect them.
Any Fitzy I know is more aptly tied to a rummery.Summery of this week:
Fitzy out, Fittsy in.
Isn't it more an indication that Bloom's development machine is starting to function well but the results just haven't graduated to the high minors/MLB yet?It's amazing that we can both be so bad at pitching & have so many pitchers taken away from us because we don't protect them.
Seems like a generous take. Could be that organizations don’t think the Sox org properly evaluates their players, or are unable to maximize their potential as well. Who knows really, probably a combination of factors.Isn't it more an indication that Bloom's development machine is starting to function well but the results just haven't graduated to the high minors/MLB yet?
Is his framing elite, perhaps?Turns out with our new old guy isn't even a good catcher...
Mickey Gasper (AA, AAA) 147.1 innings, 30 steals, 3 cs (9.1%), 25 IPEP.
If he was elite at anything I'm pretty sure he would have caught more innings. But who knows? The Yankees have a ton of catchers. Maybe they just keep bringing in Yankees on each R5 to figure out how they get their pitchers to look so worthy of trading for.Is his framing elite, perhaps?
I'm with you on this. The coming 40-man crunch was visible all season, I get that they were probably hoping Drohan would do better at AAA but he must have had some value at the trade deadline.It’s especially frustrating that the prior regime was unable to convert any of these players into help for the major league team- lord knows there were enough holes.
Yeah.... this makes zero sense.So it turns out the Red Sox didn't bother to use all their 38 protection slots, allowing several players to be taken for no reason. Seems weird.
SP pod dropping later today.
Yeah, listened to the SP pod today. Still confused about why they left so many openings on their AAA reserve list & Ian/Chris didn't seem to understand either.Yeah.... this makes zero sense.
Expected to throw by the end of spring training or spring the season (i.e., late June)?
...underwent a nerve decompression procedure in his left shoulder this morning, manager Pedro Grifol announced.
The current hope is that Drohan will be able to begin a throwing progression by the end of camp, though that will obviously depend on how his shoulder responds in the early stages of his recovery.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/02/white-sox-rule-5-pick-shane-drohan-undergoes-shoulder-surgery.html?utm_source=twitterThe Sox haven’t provided a timeline for Drohan’s recovery, though he’ll certainly open the season on the injured list. He’ll accrue big league service time and pay during that time. His status as a Rule 5 pick prevents him from being optioned to the minors. Drohan will need to spend the entire season on the White Sox’ big league roster and/or injured list — with 90 days on the active roster — in order to shed his Rule 5 status for the 2025 season. If the White Sox want to drop him from the roster at any point, he’d need to be placed on waivers and, if he clears, offered back to the Red Sox for a nominal sum of $50K.
Seems like a good day to take an early look at the fallout from R5 day:Most of these guys headed out today were Dombrowski acquisitions.
#21 Drohan (could return) - Bloom
#39 Fernandez (could return) - Dombrowksi
#50 Johnfrank - Dombrowski
#88 Hernandez - Dombrowski
#89 Bell - Dombrowski
#97 Ramirez - Dombrowski
#113 Perez - Dombrowski
#135 Fitzgerald - Dombrowski
#167 Ammons - Bloom
#217 Miller - Bloom
Speier had been advised that the Red Sox were getting pillaged:
View: https://twitter.com/alexspeier/status/1732479604428833007