moonslav59

There was a shake-up in the top 10 rankings, this week as Oregon got throttled by Utah (I've long felt the Pac-10 was over-rated) and Michigan St, was pounded by Ohio St. Of course, my team is Notre Dame. I was there, my Freshman year, when our 3rd string QB, Joe Montana led us to a big Cotton Bowl victory over the Earl Campbell led Longhorns for the 1977 NCAA Championship. One ranking has ND number 5, but my guess is the "committee" will come out with these rankings, tomorrow night- with one week to go... 1. Georga 11-0 2. Ohio St 10-1 3. Alabama 10-1 4. Cincinatti 11-0 5. Michigan 10-1 6. Notre Dame 10-1 7. OK St 10-1 8. Ole Miss 9-2 9. Oklahoma 10-1 10. Baylor 9-2/Oregon 9-2 Here is how I see it shaking out: 1. Georgia beats GA Tech and ends up #1 seeded at 12-0. 2. Ohio St beats Michigan to end up #2 at 11-1. 3. Alabama almost lost to Arkansas and has a tough game at Auburn. I put this as a toss-up. 4. Cincy should win at E Carolina on Friday. 5. Michigan loses to OSU. 6. Notre Dame wins at Stanford and passes the Michigan-OSU loser who will have 2 loses. 7. OK St hosts Oklahoma, and the winner might have an outside chance at squeaking in. Let's say all this comes true, the rankings before conference championship games might look like this: 1. Georgia 2. Ohio St 3. Alabama 4. Cincinatti 5. Notra Dame 6. OK St. 7. Ole Miss/Baylor/Oregon/ Mich St. The Conference Championship games are not set, but this could be the most likely match-ups: SEC Georgia v Alabama -If AL loses, they have 2 losses and should be out. -If Georgia loses, maybe bot team are in the top 4. Big Ten The winner of OSU & Mich will play Iowa or Wisconsin -I'm assuming OSU or Mich wins and is top 4. AAC Cincy should play #19 Houston. -If Cincy wins, they will be in. -If Cincy loses, ND should be in. Pac 10 Oregon will likely get a rematch with Utah -If Utah wins, they may sneak in, if there are some upsets. -If Oregon wins, no Pac-10 team has a chance. Big 12 OK & OK St are 7-1 in the conference but one will lose, next week. Baylor is 6-2. -I'm not sure any Big 12 team makes the top 4, unless some upsets happen. I'm hopeful ND makes it. Take care of business at Stanford, and not having a conference championship game should help, as others knock each other off.

Good post. Maybe the first question is whether Bloom will pounce before the lock-out date (Dec 1st). It seems some players want to sign before that date, especially the recently posted OF'er S Suzuki. There may be some bargain signings in the next few days, but who knows? Maybe if the owners win bigly, the post lock-out contracts will be bargains- assuming there is a lock-out.

1. Mayer 2. Casas 3. Yorke 4. Bello 5. Duran 6. Jordon 7. Downs 8. Groome 9. Seabold 10. Gonzalez 11. Mata 12. Winckowski 13. Jimenez 14. Blies 15. Song 16. Murphy 17. Wong 18. McDonough 19. R Hernandez 20. Ward 21. Walter 22. Hickey 23. Rafaela 24. Crawford 25. Santos 26. Bazardo 27. Feltman 28. Lugo 29. Gambrell 30. Howlett/Cottam/FValdez/German

soxprospects.com finally came out with their end of season rankings. https://soxprospects.com/history.htm They used to post them in October, but the last 2 years have been late November. Here are the Rankings (Rise or Fall from Aug 8 rankings). Houck was ranked 5th and is no longer a prospect, so everyone after #5 moved up 1 by attrition, so I did not count that in my +/- numbers. 1. Casas 2. Mayer 3. Yorke (+4) 4. Duran (-1) 5. Downs (-1) 6. Bello (+0) 7. Jordan (+5) 8. Groome (+1) 9. Jimenez (-2) 10. Mata (+0) 11. Seabold (-1) 12. Gonzalez (+7) 13. Winckowski (+0) 14. Murphy (+1) 15. Blies (not in top 20 in Aug) 16. Wong (+2) 17. Walter (n/a) 18. Song (-5) 19. Ward (-1) 20. McDonough (n/a) 21. Bonaci (-6) 22. R Hernandez (was 14th in April) 23. Rafaela 24. Paulino 25. Crawford 26. Lugo (-7) 27. Hickey 28. Decker 29. Bazardo (was 19th in April) 30. Lira 31. Santos Notables: 34. Feltman 37. Fitzgerald 45. Rosario (was 20th in April) 46. Howlett 48. German 49. Potts 50. Gambrell 52. Cottam 53. Castellanos 60. Granberg

I think Feltman will be taken. Jimenez & Santos are under 50-50 being taken- maybe even under a 10 to 20% chance.

Even if you swoop in on the 4th or 5th best SS on the market, it will be a very good one. Don't believe every report. there are enough conflicting ones to know they can't all be right.

The Yanks scavenged the Ranger's garbage for Odor.

They've updated BTV values over the last few weeks. Here are a few changes I've noticed: Sale went from a negative to positive value (+12) Bello rose to 10 Pivetta up to 9 Jimenez went from over 10 to 2.3 Notables: Renfroe & Vaz remain at 1.6 each Sawamura -1.8 Barnes -4.9 JD -9.6

There is reason for concern, and having him as the utility infielder rather than the FT 3Bman is nice, but is 3B really one of your biggest weak areas? How many slots are you going to fill, this winter? Seager is going to cost. Adding a top pitcher will cost. Adding another pitcher will cost. Findings a CF'er will cost.

MLBTR... Mike Groopman is joining the Red Sox organization as an assistant general manager, per Chad Jennings and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Groopman was previously with the Brewers as VP of International Scouting and Player Personnel. After short stints with the Reds and Mets, Groopman was hired by the Royals in 2008 and ended up staying for a decade, before moving to Milwaukee in 2017. When he joined Kansas City, the club was in the middle of a years-long tank job that ultimately proved fruitful, as they had four consecutive seasons of .500 or above from 2013 to 2016, which included back-to-back trips to the World Series, losing to the Giants in 2014 but then defeating the Mets in 2015. Since Groopman came to the Brewers, they have also had a nice run of success, having just made the postseason for a fourth straight year. Of course, front offices are comprised of dozens of employees and no individual can take full responsibility for a club’s successes or failures. Still, the fact that Groopman has been given this new job and new title shows that his work is well regarded in the industry.

Yes, as far as I know a singular example, but Baddoo was taken 3rd and was the Twins 13th ranked prospect. Also, since the 26th man was added, a single A player has been drafted every year... LOL! 1 out of 18 players taken was a single A player. I'm still waiting for you to answer my question. I have responded to yours. Bell is right, What else is there to talk about?

I agree it's not likely, and there is probably a better single A player left unprotected from another team, but I'm just saying conditions are ripe for a few teams to do things we don't normally see done.

I think leaving 3 slots open is pretty telling. I don't think it means we will be keeping many from this list on the 40 man: Potts Rosario Plawecki Aruaz Valdez Davis I think it means we might add a player or two off waivers or the Rule 5 draft plus sign or trade for 3-4 players.

I have yet to see a list of who are the most likeliest Rule 5 draftees. Maybe Feltman has the best chance of making someone's first round list. I doubt anyone else gets picked, but several baseball people projected us protecting Santos, Cottam and Jimenez. Outside shots might be ML ready Ort, Fitzgerald or German. Ward might be picked as a wait a year player, as he recovers from TJS. soxprospects,com wrote this before the protection announcement: Certain to be protected, certain to be selected if unprotected: RHP Brayan Bello, SS/2B Jeter Downs, RHP Josh Winckowski Near-certain to be protected, certain to be selected if unprotected: RHP Kutter Crawford Likely to be protected, may be selected if unprotected: RHP Thaddeus Ward May be protected, may be selected: RHP Durbin Feltman, RHP Frank German, IF/OF Ryan Fitzgerald, RHP Victor Santos Unlikely to be protected, small chance to be selected, unlikely to stick category: OF Gilberto Jimenez, IF/OF Ceddanne Rafaela, RHP Chase Shugart Unlikely to be protected, small chance to be selected, depth arms category: RHP Zack Kelly, RHP Kaleb Ort, RHP AJ Politi Unlikely to be protected or selected, but of note: 1B/OF Pedro Castellanos, 1B/OF Franchy Cordero, C Kole Cottam, LHP Rio Gomez, 1B/OF Devlin Granberg, RHP Joan Martinez

Yes, for 2022 only. It would be adding $11M for 2023 minus what Renfroe might get in his last arb, then $11M a year the next 3 years. It might be a way to improve our defense, maybe stay even on offense and improve our longer term outlook by adding just $2M to a tight 2022 budget.

I'm not saying it's even likely to happen, but things have changed a lot in 2 years. I just said don't be surprised- not "I think he will get picked." You still don't answer my question. Here's another one... What was Baddoo's profile?

Selecting him costs nothing, and their 24th to 26th men suck anyway. It's just about the lost year of development that works against selecting him. That may be harsh enough to scare every GM off, but only one is needed to surprise you.

You might not like my answer, but I explained why I think they might. I don't think sitting him "ruins his future." He will be playing in ST'ing, as a defensive replacement, getting a few ABs, and practicing with the big team. It's not like he's sitting on a couch all year. Again, I just said don't be surprised if he gets picked. Why not answer some of my questions? Why did many experts say he might be protected, if they felt there was zero chance he'd get selected? BTW, just this past year, Akil Baddoo, who hit .683 in A ball in his last season, was selected and even played a lot. It does happen. It might happen again. MIGHT!

I think it has happened. Again, I'm not saying someone will select Jimenez. For one thing, there are probably more promising single A players available than him. I'm just saying, things have changed from the "normal" way people look at their rosters, and some teams are totally tanking for 2022. Hell, a couple teams actually have no guaranteed contracts on the books, right now and just a few arb players. Teams are looking 2-5 years down the road and that extra roster slot is enticing.

He can before, though, and the Sox have been linked to his name. (Maybe they'd trade Renfroe?) If he gets $55M/5 as projected, and we trade Renfroe and DFA Plawekci, we'd be adding about $2M to the 2022 budget.

I admitted it is not ideal for developing a player, but the whole "wasting a roster spot" has new meaning now. 1. There is a 26th slot that was never there for over 100 years until 2020. 2. Several teams are in obvious tank mode and are looking for prized young players who might help 2-4 years from now. I'm not sure any GM will see Jimenez in that light and value him enough to let him hardly develop at all for one year, just on the hopes he can improve greatly afterwards, but it's not out of the realm of possibility. Many "experts" had us projected to protect him. Why? I agree on stunted growth but the wasted roster spot on a team like the O's and Pirates is mute. Hell, he might already be close to as good as their 26th man.

I just don't get why you are giving up so easily on a player in the meat of his prime coming off two seasons with an OPS over .858 before having a .720 season in 2021. 3 year numbers: .292/.335/.480/ .815 Sure, he's missed some time, but so have most Yankee players. PA ranking on Yanks: 2021: 6th with 442 (20 from being 5th) 2020: 5th with 174 (5 from being 4th) 2019: 5th with 476 (35 from being 4th) He ranks middle of the pack in fWAR for 3Bmen from 2019-2021 (5.5) Middle of the pack in OPS. Better than average defense (+2.2 UZR/150)

Seiya Suzuki to be posted Monday morning.

Maybe he was joking here, too. With almost everything posted being Comic or absurd, it's hard to tell.

1. Many teams are in tank mode. 2. The 26th slot is a luxury that was not there before. 3. Jimenez can play as a defensive replacement and could even get some ABs, although I agree, this isn't the ideal way to develop a player in great need of a full development year. I'm not saying it will happen, but circumstances have changed in the last two years. I do think Feltman will be selected, because he can pitch in the bigs, next season. Santos is kind of like Jimenez. Cottam may be picked just because good catchers are scarce, but some GM will have to really like him.