I heard another Score show last night that was talking about prospect rankings. Someone, I believe it was Law, put Bryant in the top 20 in all of baseball. That seems ridiculous and really identifies the heavy level of bs in MLB minor league analysis.

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

I don't know about that. I'm sure we can find some. He could be a guy like Pete Ward, whose first two seasons were his best.

I'm not saying you're doing this. But most Cub fans I know, when projecting their future teams, grab a guy's best season. "Castro is a .300 hitter." Maybe never again.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Matthew, Tulsi, and Don

A lot of Dunstan's defense consisted of Mark Grace digging out his balls from the dirt...... and also playing an excellent 1st base.

_________________
favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

But take Cub fans out of it. Isnt it reasonable to be excited about a player on your team doing what Castro did so young?

I dont think its crazy to raise your expectations a bit when you have two full seasons of success

I think highly of Castro as a hitter. As a player, I think he is a selfish guy focused on offensive stats. I do think he is a .300 hitter.

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Jeff Francouer was a .300 hitter


He's going to be selling insurance pretty soon

Come on, jimmy. Every first baseman digs balls out of the dirt. That's part of his job.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Matthew, Tulsi, and Don

Again, Castro is not a Theo guy and I get a feeling he is REALLLY not a Theo guy behind the scenes.

Let's focus on Rizzo, a 1B who is going to get you low 20 HRs, a .250 average and below average OBP before he is not offered a contract after his arbitration years are up. That is 0-1.

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Well, the Cubs have a better team than the Sox right now AND they have a shit-ton of supposed prospects. I'd rather be in their shoes without question.

_________________
Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

How long did it take Sox fans to get a reality check from Beckham's half season of success? 3 seasons? Still optmistic? On World Series team in 2020?

I guess, but I think if you really follow the game, you should probably be a little more conservative in your projections. This is one reason that I believe bernstein is really a Cubs fan. He expects the Cub guy to keep improving, but assumes the Sox equivalent will always get worse. Conor Gillaspie is Anthony Rizzo. A highly regarded prospect who busted out somewhere else. In fact, Gillaspie was a first rounder. But bernstein just dismisses him. No chance to be anything. He's "old". A WHOLE year older than Rizzo! Now, if I had to bet, I'm going with Rizzo to have a better career than Gillaspie, but who really knows? I'm not going to get all authoritative about it.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Matthew, Tulsi, and Don

I don't think they have a better team right now. They're probably pretty equal. And they both have the same amount of guys in their minor league system, give or take a few.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Matthew, Tulsi, and Don

JORR, That pesky .264 average and pesky .286 OBP didn't keep Ozzie in the league, his glove did.
And, no, numbers scouting really isn't very good, nor is looking at a guy's highlights on YouTube.
How can you compare Bryant with no numbers to Gruber, anyway.
That's why I was at Kane County last night. I like to watch these guys actually play.
I have read that Candelerio has a weak throwing arm from 3rd base but I have not seen any sign of that.
Most of the people saying his arm is weak have never seen him play.

_________________
Host of the weekly "We Fish ASA" podcast
Weekly columnist for the Northwest Herald
Bi-monthly columnist for Illinois Outdoor News magazine
Former host of The Outdoors Experience on WIND and The Great Outdoors on CLTV
http://www.wefishasa.com

Your issues are with Bernstein, but you're arguing with everyone else... people who aren't making the same comparisons as Bernstein.

I'm not arguing with anyone. Bryan and I are talking about baseball. Do you want to argue?

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Matthew, Tulsi, and Don

Give or take a few top 30 guys, yea.

I know RPB debates me on this but the Sox have 4 starters and a closer under the age of 30 all performing well AT THE MLB level and all under team control for several years. You are going to have to use those prospects to get pitching. Conversely, there are always adequate fielders on the market that you can cobble together into a decent team if you have a good pitching staff.

Also, the Sox lose all of their dead weight contracts at the end of 2014, if not sooner. The doom and gloomers on the Sox just aren't thinking correctly

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Ok.

_________________
You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Usually, but not on this one.

This year's free agent class is the worst in history.

_________________
Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Your bat always keeps you in the league. There are plenty of fielders that never sniff the big leagues who are better with the glove than Ozzie Guillen and there are probably a few better than Ozzie Smith and Dal Maxvill.

Just sheer numbers tell me it's unlikely Bryant will ever be as good as Kelly Gruber. Just Like I'd bet right now that Matt Harvey will never be as good as Johan Santana.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Matthew, Tulsi, and Don

The Sox would be extremely fortunate to pencil in Addison Reed as their closer in 2-3 years.

I'd move him as quickly as possible. You can always find a guy to get three outs.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Matthew, Tulsi, and Don

The Sox won't be a player in this year's class. They can win with what they have coming back offensively, as evidenced last year.

This thread is going poorly. Thanks assholes.

I think I'll just go back to logging in with my Elmhurst Steve mult.

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Especially the Sox/Cooper who are very good at developing relief scrap into gold.

_________________

_________________
That's my purse! I don't know you!

I would make Reed a starter, but I'm crazy like that. If he blows out his arm, who cares, he's just a reliever right now anyway.

_________________
Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

He barely has enough pitches to get three outs and you want to ask him to get 18?

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Matthew, Tulsi, and Don

Cashner is a walking arm injury. I'm happy with where Rizzo is right now. At the least it is still a toss-up if not 1 for 1.

Watching Dunston play defense was like riding a roller coaster, some incredible throws, Grace picking stuff out of the dirt, a couple launched into the third row from time to time. Dunston was ahead of his time back when strikeouts were considered a bad thing.

_________________
You know me like that.