joelala

I can see that, actually. I only joked about Zunino because there actually are several parallels. Great defensive catcher, high draft pick, former top prospect, huge power, lots of swing and miss. Seems Zunino might be the floor.

Bomb. He has a supreme uppercut. Mike Zunino 2.0? Only 75% joking.

Agree, the decision not to trade them when we should have has set us back in a big way. And I don’t fault Dan for that decision.

I generally agree with your takes, but I don’t see how these deals haven’t set us back. There is a very very real chance we didn’t get a single MLB replacement level player out of the deals. Now if you’re arguing the issue is we that we are waited too long to sell, I agree. But the utterly lackluster return has set us back.

FWIW, Jonathan Mayo, whom was on Glen Clark radio this week, is extremely bullish on Henderson and seems to think he’ll stick at SS. Said he’s inside his top 50 prospects in baseball right now, and seemed to be tentatively even higher on him than that. Very exciting.

This wins

My happy place.

Yup.

There probably is something on his glove to be honest. But the league doesn’t seem to know what to do about it (look at the Trevor Bauer situation,) and/or is rightfully terrified of anymore bad press, so nothing will come of this.

Yikes that would be monumentally disappointing. Does his hit tool project to be that bad?

Barring health (and many other things surely) yea it’s starting to look like his ceiling is astronomical. But that’s obviously best case scenario. Very exciting to watch him develop. Wouldn’t shock me if he’s the number one “pitching prospect” in all of baseball by next spring Also looks like he’s cleaned up his arm action a bit and toned down the drastic Ubaldo-esque arm dip before getting his arm into throwing position. Hoping/guessing that’s helped his command?

Traded?

Same. Who’s your preference, assuming Lawler is out of the question?

Kiley McDaniel Mock out this morn has us taking Davis. Paywalled, but this is the write-up: ” Davis may be the best hit/power/performance combination in the draft, and he has a real shot, in baseball's automatic strike-calling future, to do it at the most valuable position on the field. He's not a very good receiver, but can catch the ball well enough to stay at the position. Offensively, Davis has plus-plus raw power, with an effective, strength-based swing that has crushed the ACC this year. GM Mike Elias has been in to see House a few times, and the O's are rumored to be high on Mayer as well, with almost no chance they take a pitcher at this pick. Seriously, look at their last two drafts. If you're wondering if Adley Rutschman means the O's won't take Davis, I don't think it does. Davis has played a little bit of third base in the past (and done so capably), and even rotating the two of them between DH, first base and maybe left field should work to get both bats in the lineup. In the batter's box alone, I think Davis is better than Heston Kjerstad -- who Baltimore took with the No. 2 overall pick last year as a right fielder.” Thoughts? My number one target is Meyer, and I would still rather take a guy who adds value in the field, but Davis can really hit.

Or maybe he could take a page out of Mullins book and ditch the switch.

Do we think it will yield better results in the future? I can’t remember, is he a high spin rate guy? That’s the only way I could ever see it working. I know he gets good extension with his delivery so apparently 90 looks faster than it is, but last night was not encouraging. But like I said, also faced one of the hottest lineups in baseball.

Good lineup tonight, but yea, if he keeps leaving his 90 mph fastball up in the zone he won’t get very many more starts. Imagine he’ll be optioned tomorrow.

Unfortunately I agree with this. I think the extremely lack luster return from our 2018 fire sale (it’s looking like there’s a very legitimate chance we didn’t get a single ML starting caliber player) as well as the significant level of uncertainty surrounding Kjerstad’s future, we are pretty behind schedule in our rebuild. Had things gone differently, maybe we wouldn’t be as likely to trade John, but sadly if the package is multiple high ceiling prospects, I think we have to take it.

Until we trade Means, Mancini, et al…

Not familiar with these two, will check them out. Cease appeals to me because even though he may end up being a reliever, he’s shown he can pitch in the Majors. If we can get a major league pitcher with a ceiling as high as his for Trey, I’d be pretty pumped. Actually upon reflection I kind of think the Sox wouldn’t send us a prospect with Cease. I think Reynaldo Lopez and a prospect may be more realistic. I’d dislike that though.

Agreed. Gonsolin should, and probably will, get the first shot at that rotation spot. I think we’ll end up trading Means, but not to LAD. In other news: White Sox just lost Luis Robert for the year in addition to already being without Eloy Jimenez. I think they’ll call about Mancini and to a lesser degree Santander. But Mancini seems like an extremely logical target for them. I don’t think their farm is that great right now. Would you trade Trey for Dylan Cease and a minor leaguer?

I don’t think Davis will be there for us. I would be happy with the pick but I still want a Middle infielder or 3B. Or Leiter if he somehow falls. I think I’m a hard pass on Rocker.

Behind a paywall, but has us potentially linked to prep SS Marcelo Mayer. the write up on Mayer: “3. Marcelo Mayer (18.6), SS, Eastlake HS (California), USC commit, 50 FV Mayer's spring season just began, and he's got a real shot to be at the top of this second tier on draft day because he has both the safety (elite hit tool by performance and to the eye, likely to stick at shortstop) and upside (stars in the draft are most often found among elite high school shortstops). He was at only a few events last summer, so his spring performance from here on out will carry some weight, but he has been seen a decent amount before that at Team USA events and because he played alongside 2019 first-rounder Keoni Cavaco at Eastlake. Chatter within the industry is that the slick-handed infielder likely goes either third (Detroit), fourth (Boston) or fifth (Baltimore)” This is the first I’m hearing about him, but I like the write-up.

I also came here to discuss last night’s broadcast, which for me, was among the worst I’ve ever heard. Ben is great, but Garceau simply cannot do the job. He has no chemistry with Ben, and the amount of long, seemingly awkward pauses is for me, unbearable. For years I’ve watched out of market games on MLB Tv of other orgs and been astonished by how bad and amateur much of the commentating was, and I would thank the baseball gods we had Thorne. Now we’ve clearly joined most of the rest of the league by realizing that not enough people watch the broadcast to justify paying for legitimate talent. Very unfortunate.