Hugh2

I would too.

Brooks Brannon could be insurance incase they can't sign one of the top 3 picks, so if 10 of their top 11 picks sign and Brannon does not it's still a good draft. If all 11 sign it's a really good draft. I don't expect much today, but gems are found in the these later rounds.

Yes but I was talking about position players. But if we want to broadly say best player in general on any HIGHSCHOOL team it’s up the middle and pitchers. Often both.

There’s probably more high school CFers than I’m alluding too, with those guys moving to LF/RF in the majors. Nothing wrong drafting up the middle, it’s what the Sox have done best over the years. Who cares if they play the same position as other top prospects. A LOT can happen between now and when they reach the majors. Top prospects get traded creating space for them, or they can be traded, or moved to another position. They can bust like Tray Ball, get hurt, and if you end up with two studs at the same position you can just trade for the one thing you can’t seem to draft (pitching). If you’re drafting BPA up the middle, you never blink if you have other elite talent in front of them. You just draft. The aggregate of Sox drafting strategy over the years is on point.

I’d be willing to bet that aside from a few CFers, and Catchers that the majority of MLB position players played SS in HIGHSCHOOL. You might have a few big boy 3b in there playing 1B.

These are high schoolers, or course they’re short stops. Bloom has done amazing drafting these types.

LSU is also loaded with top national SS talent. He might not get a lot of playing time there, maybe or maybe not that influences his decision to sign. He already has himself being part of the Red Sox organization according to his Twitter for what's worth.

Mookie Betts was unranked, got a $750K signing bonus where his slot commanded a $139K bonus. Again, I think after the first 15-25 picks, you can just throw those national rankings out the window.

I'm not worried about Yorke, he's going to be a stud (or not, that's prospects for you). As a 19 year old in high A battling injuries, I'm unfazed by mediocre stats in under 200 at-bats.

Those national rankings vary wildly from teams boards, and teams boards vary wildly from one another, especially when you get out of the top of the draft. The Sox could very well make their board public and we would be using those rankings instead of BA or PG and Romero might have been ranked 19th by them for all we know. It was also tweeted out that the Sox reportedly believed that other teams in the league also had Romero much higher on their boards than the "national rankings" and didn't think he was going to last until their next pick.

Wonder what Fabian gets, drafted much lower, but the O's have a boatload of pool money to throw at him. His gamble might pay off.

Can't trust these industry boards, after the 10-15th pick they start to diverge wildly from and with every other team's boards out there. Nick Yorke was ranked 139/96/236 by MLB BA PG, and I think after that pick I have to cede any right to play armchair gm to Bloom's picks. FWIW Romero was ranked 65/54/48 by those same outlets. They might get him a little under slot too here and give that money to their next two picks. This draft screams 2020....except with more than 5 rounds. Here are some other thoughts, some scouts are have said they've never seen a better hit tool on a prospect, his biggest hit is lack of power, can field his position well at SS, and is reportedly VERY good friends with Sox top prospect Marcelo Mayer.

I believe still has something like only 5 at bats vs pitchers younger than him and now he’s starting to show good progression at the level. On a smaller scale, this is a perfect example of why you do not rush guys to the majors. You bring a guy up too soon, he can have all the talent in the world and struggle a lot. You bring a guy up when he’s ready, not when the player at his position at the MLB level is struggling. In a perfect world those things align, but they often do not.

Personally I don’t understand why we didn’t sign D.J. LeMahieu to a 10 year 50 million dollar contract, at 5 million a year that would have been a good deal. Why didn’t we sign Ohtani at 2 million per year? Sox need to extend Devers at 4 million per year for 6 years. That would be a good deal. Good deals are there for the Sox when NO OTHER team is willing to step in and out if and yet we NEVER make good deals, just bad deals. Smh

Story has the same AWAY career OPS as Bogaerts.

I think it's a really good bet by the time game #162 is played that Casas has taken a major league at bat.

Never said I was worried, I think he's going to be a middle-of-the-order bat. Those are my expectations or dreams at least...I just don't think he's ready right now and needs more time in AAA. Especially if he's struggling a little bit, let him do it against AAA pitching and get a little bit more experience under his belt first.

Maybe in 2024/2025

Casas is struggling. I still suspect he's going to be making it REAL hard to keep him down by years end, but it's looking like he needs a little bit more time.

I don't know much about WHERE the strength is for the Marlins affiliate, but I would imagine a low ranked system can be stacked at one level, and vice versa. Still, your point remains, that success is good for development.

Not trying to bring anyone down here but remember MiLB are playing 6 game series now. Most of these guys have only pitched against one team, so if that one team has s***** pitching it makes for a great week for our prospects. Still, it's very encouraging to see such a great start seemingly all around our system.

Ask and thou shall receive. Miguel Bleis is all the rave in minor league camp. He might be my next IFA prospect binky

How nice would it be if Bleis emerged as a top 100 prospect by the end of this year.

Also to refute an earlier point. If you want to fault the Sox for not having top IFA talent close to MLB ready now on their actions that led to them being disqualified from signing guys that's fine. Actually, if anything you have persuaded me a little bit with your argument there. However I still consider this. 1.) The Sox got in trouble for what other teams were supposedly all doing, the league made an example out of them. Lame excuse, but still makes one a little upset when they're the ones getting the short end of the stick. 2.) Even if we can assign blame to the Sox, which is fair I admit, we also have to admit that because of those circumstances it's NOT because of their ability to scout and develop IFA talent. They literally had no guys for two years. If you believe in #2 you can both fault them and be optimistic in their future given the overall track record over the past decade. #2 resonates strong with me, and it's why I'm not ready to to say to criticize their ability to develop IFA talent just yet.