mvp 78

@karlravechespn Sources tell me MLB counter proposal today will move towards a season of roughly 70 plus games with a salary percentage on the 80-85 percent of pro rata. Playoff pool bonus. My concern are the recent spikes in COVID -19. Worst case would be to start and stop. Will players move? IMO, players shouldn't budget at all on the pro rata. The pro rata should be 100%.

Per Yorke's hitting coach (four-time All-American in softball at Fresno State from 1993-97, aka his mom): His shoulder injury was a torn labrum in sophmore year. After surgery and rehab, he wasn't 100% his junior year. Now he's back to 100% https://twitter.com/redsoxstats/status/1271446846280536064

I think that stuff is overstated.

If it wasn't for his support of Robot Umps, I'd probably say he was worse than Selig. I'm hoping he doesn't stick around as long as Selig did.

I was wondering about how much of a say he had in Tampa. Bloom began working for the Tampa Bay Rays in February 2005 as an intern, was hired by the Rays full-time to work in Minor League Operations in October 2005.[2] He was promoted to Assistant Director of Minor League Operations in 2008, with responsibility for all aspects of the team's minor league system, including player evaluation and assignments, expansion of video, strength and conditioning, and mental skills initiatives, creating of the "Rays Way" player development manual, and executing individual development plans for organization's prospects.[13][2][14] He was named Director of Baseball Operations in 2011, expanding his job to include contract negotiations, salary arbitration, budgeting, and overseeing major league support staff and international scouting.[2][13] In 2014, when General Manager Andrew Friedman left the Rays organization, the Rays promoted Bloom to Vice President of Baseball Operations.[15][16] His responsibilities expanded to include his overseeing domestic and international player development, a newly created baseball performance science department, trade negotiations, pro, amateur, and international scouting philosophy, personnel additions and changes throughout baseball operations, and short- and long-term strategic planning.[13] He was named Senior Vice President of Baseball Operations in 2016, second in command behind President of Baseball Operations Matthew Silverman.[2][17]

IMO, the owners would rather not even have a season.

Yeah, if they want to sign for this year's max of $20k. Not sure how many undrafted HSers would just go to college or JuCo. Maybe they can get some cheap senior signs?

https://twitter.com/OverTheMonster/status/1271427301255917569 The infielder was ranked well below this slot by every major publication and no one saw this coming from anywhere. Of course, the MLB Draft is as much a money game as it is simply picking the best player available at your slot, and that goes doubly when you’re missing a pick like the Red Sox were. They, of course, had their second rounder stripped as part of their punishment for the 2018 sign-stealing scheme. And so, it became pretty clear that while they like Yorke a lot as a player, a lot of this had to do with signing him to a below slot deal in order to save money to spend later. If they hadn’t done this, they would have had among the lowest sums of cash remaining for their Day Two picks and would’ve been hamstrung on what they could’ve done in the final three rounds of this shortened draft. I think it’s possible to recognize that said scouting department knows a lot more about these kids and just scouting in general than I do while also acknowledging that they are fallible. And I think after seeing how Day Two played out I still would have preferred they go for upside with that first selection and maybe sacrificed a little bit of that depth later. As I’ve talked about before, I think the Red Sox have a lot of that depth in the middle of their system and what they are really missing is that impact talent at the top of the system. Guys like Garrett Mitchell and Nick Bitsko were available at 17, and I think I would rather see that kind of upside personally. Of course, the Red Sox would argue that they did get upside with all three of Yorke, Jordan and Drohan, and even to a lesser extent with Wu-Yelland. My counterargument would be that there is just a harder road to upside with those types of players. They can all certainly get there, but we’re talking about a second baseman with good not great power and good not great defense, a likely first base-only righty, and a left-handed pitcher with good not great stuff.

Sox had him graded as a first rounder. Evaluations this year are screwy since there wasn't much to go on. They really wanted him and didn't think he'd fall until the third round. The plan was to grab Yorke with an underslot sign and use the additional money to sign whatever guy fell into their lap in the third. Seemed like it worked out.

Perfect Game Scouting Coordinator: Wu-Yelland has good stuff from the left side. Likely a reliever but has a plus slider and ya know, lefties who can spin.

4 (118): @RedSox select Hawaii (HI) P Jeremy Wu-Yelland.

Light tower power for Blaze.

With their 3rd-round pick (No. 89 overall) of the 2020 #MLBDraft, the #RedSox select @dc_jaguar 3B Blaze Jordan, No. 42 on the Top 200 Draft Prospects list: atmlb.com/3hmAxhg

@DPLennon MLB and Players Association have been negotiating for a month and the union has not moved a single percentage point on salaries. For Manfred to say he hopes the players come off 100 percent now was basically just for the TV audience. He must realize that’s not going to happen. @EugeneFreedman You are right. He knows there is no duty to bargain over that proposal and that the Union will not agree to a further reduction of salaries. The reason they have not moved is because the parties reached an agreement on salaries in the March Agreement. The sad fact is: MLB & its media arm, MLB Network (including many but not all of the "journalists" who work on the network) are engaged in a propaganda campaign, instead of engaging in bargaining. MLB and the PA need a no publicity agreement as part of the ground rules for the next term CBA. @craigcalcaterra There will always be leaks, but the percentage of major baseball media figures who are paid directly by MLB/MLB Network or RSNs, most of whom are reporting on these negotiations without mention of that fact, is fairly appalling.

When the NBA resumes its 2019-20 season this summer, it won’t just be the players, team employees, and league officials who’ll be sequestered at Walt Disney World for several months. According to a Professional Basketball Writers Association memo, a select group of reporters could be locked inside the Disney bubble for at least three-and-a-half months—with no option to re-enter if they exit quarantine. On June 4, the NBA Board of Governors approved a plan to restart the season, which came to a screeching halt after Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19 on March 12. There are still more than a few details to be worked out with the union, and some players are concerned about being kept in relative isolation through autumn, but as things currently stand, 22 teams would relocate to Disney’s 220-acre ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex. There, a handful of games would be played to determine seeding for the playoffs, with the NBA Finals concluding in mid-October.

If Downs and Yorke both become impact MLBers, it seems that's a great problem to have. I can think of a few 2B's that have successfully transitioned elsewhere (Soriano, Biggio).

I think fans will be understandable if a player like Blake Snell sits out. It's not like he'll be getting paid to stay home.

At least it shows that what the Sox projected him to be. If they really thought he was the guy, then they needed to grab him. I remember the fallout from the 2017 NBA draft when the C's had the first pick. They traded down two spots to get an additional 1st round pick and ended up getting the best guy in the draft at #3. Fans were upset because they wanted Fultz and Tatum was just a "safe" pick. Well, let's just say it worked out in the C's favor. The Pats have also made a few curious draft selections that caused fans to scratch their heads. Sometimes they work. Sometimes they don't. It's hard for me to get too worked up over it.

I'd say it's at least better than going with a Deven Marrero type who was glove first, bat later.

If it's truly a crapshoot, go with the guy that just fits your org philosophy.

I think they liked him, had him graded in the 1-2nd round and had already agreed to a below slot deal for him.

Per Pete Abraham, he expects that the Sox went this way so they could go over slot later in the draft. Harder to go over if you sign at full 1st round value and don't have a 2nd round pick you can save on. @PeteAbe Wholeheartedly agree with that assessment. Suspect they'll go with HS kids with big upside/major college commitments with at least two of their remaining picks.

@SPChrisHatfield : From the call with Chaim Bloom and Paul Toboni, they did earnestly think that if the spring had played out, Yorke would've worked his way up to about this point on industry draft boards. They love Yorke's makeup and bat. Clear they have a lot of familiarity with him and a strong relationship with the family. They think he is going to move off short to second base, but love his hit tool and think he's growing into some power. Of the 7 games he played this spring, Toboni said Sox scouts were at 4 or 5 of them. Toboni also mentioned working him out in December. Toboni speculated that with the shortened spring, there may be greater variance between teams' draft boards given less objective data (Trackman, etc.), small Spring sample sizes. Teams will take those data points into account differently.

@alexspeier An industry source confirms what Nick Yorke alluded to in his conference call: He is expected to sign with the Sox for less than the recommended No 17 slot of $3.61M.

"Nick is an elite player — in my opinion one of the best in the country. He has a complete skill set that includes hitting ability (both for average and power), plus defense, a tenacious attitude, and a will to win." -@UACoachJ