Tumult in the Sox Minor Leagues?

[SABRSox]

I don't know if any of you venture over to Soxtalk, but they've actually got one hell of a post going on right now. I have no idea if the guy is legit or not, but it's certainly a hell of a read.

http://www.soxtalk.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=61743

If any of this is true, the Sox farm system is more of a mess than we ever thought.

[Beer Can Chicken]

That guy sounds pretty legit to me; he knows what he's talking about.

What he says also proves a point I've been trying to make with my friends for awhile now, the GM DOES have control of the minors and who is drafted.

[maurice]

I haven't read the whole thing yet, but he gains credibility with me for pointing out that most of the guys in GF were too old for their league. Up until now, I was the only person on teh Internets who thought that was a serious issue.

[SABRSox]

His review on Poreda is devastating. Then again, a lot of us dumb fans said the same thing when they passed over Porcello, "he only has 1 pitch..."

[samram]

The only thing that seemed odd was that he basically gives away who he is (any Sox minor league employee would know the guy that just came from Baltimore to cover the lower leagues) and then says he can't reveal his name for job security. Doesn't mean what he's saying is wrong or inaccurate, just not sure if he's really a Sox employee.

[SABRSox]

Yeah, there's something a bit fishy, unless we hired a dozen people from the Baltimore organization.

[maurice]

Okay, I read the rest of it. The guy's legit. You can't fake that much familiarity with the players in the system. Lots of purported "MiLB experts" try to fake it (John Sickels, Phil Rogers, 90% of the folks at Soxtalk), but they expose themselves by making absurdly untrue statements.

Everything this guy says is realistic and makes perfect sense, including his specific player evaluations. Saying that Poreda dominated younger competition with his FB. Calling Getz a potential utility guy. Distinguishing good prospects like Chris Carter from the pretenders. Hyping Martinez (another thing that nobody other than me ever has done, as far as I know). Etc.

His general comments about player development also are spot on, IMO.

[SABRSox]

Well, if he's legit, our farm system is pretty much in shambles then. And it sounds like the problems start at the top with Kenny.

I like the bit about regretting the Cunningham trade as well.

[maurice]

Half of the guys running the farm system (including the top guy) were fired in the past 12 mos. and there probably are more firings to come.

I don't disagree with his evaluation of Cunningham, but I do disagree with his evaluation of Byrnes, who has been released about 27 times in the past 3 years. I don't think that KW would have moved Cunningham unless he was really high on Richar. The poster admits that he's never seen Richar, so he's in a worse position to evaluate him than most people here. OTOH, the Sox and the DBacks share the same ST facility, so KW had many chances to evaluate him before the trade.

While I'm not sold on Richar, time will tell how it all works out.

[samram]

Okay, I read the rest of it. The guy's legit. You can't fake that much familiarity with the players in the system. Lots of purported "MiLB experts" try to fake it (John Sickels, Phil Rogers, 90% of the folks at Soxtalk), but they expose themselves by making absurdly untrue statements.

Everything this guy says is realistic and makes perfect sense, including his specific player evaluations. Saying that Poreda dominated younger competition with his FB. Calling Getz a potential utility guy. Distinguishing good prospects like Chris Carter from the pretenders. Hyping Martinez (another thing that nobody other than me ever has done, as far as I know). Etc.

His general comments about player development also are spot on, IMO.

Yeah, but doesn't that mean you could have made that post (if you were so inclined) and been thought to work for the team?

In any case, the Sox do seem to have a major problem in the minors. I don't know if it's evaluation or development that's the bigger issue, but they really need to get better unless they're willing to bump their MLB payroll to $125M.

[SABRSox]

Well, at least the guy who pushed for Poreda allegedly got fired. What a shitty pick. (Shitty because Porcello was the wise choice).

[maurice]

Yeah, but doesn't that mean you could have made that post (if you were so inclined) and been thought to work for the team?

Sure, I could and Randar could and maybe 2 or 3 other guys who don't work for an MLB team, but there simply aren't too many people on the planet who spend their vacation days following Sox players in AA and below. Either they get paid to watch these guys play, or they don't watch them at all. It wasn't me, and I don't think that Randar or the others are so inclined.

I strongly suspect that some douche who is so inclined would sound exactly like Sickels and worse than Rogers (who at least has contacts within the Sox org). Also, a faker almost certainly would be much, MUCH less hostile to statistical analysis, and would sound more like the Soxtalkers who doubt his credibility.

:shrug:

[samram]

Fair enough.

[the fluffer]

Why would someone new to the Organization air the team's dirty laundry on a message board?

[itsnotrequired]

Why would someone new to the Organization air the team's dirty laundry on a message board?

Bingo. I read the first post which was yesterday and said he got back from the fall meetings "last week". The fall meetings ended on October 15, two weeks ago. Possible typo? Maybe...

[Unregistered]

To be fair, he IS talking about the 2 lowest levels of our minor league system.

He even says himself
To expect to have more than just a few REAL-future MLB prospects at the lowest two levels is somewhat unrealistic

and as someone who has followed the Brooklyn Cyclones (Mets Low A) on a regular basis for a few years, I can tell you that the level of play is pretty fucking low. They hope one of these kids can break out, but most of them just end up leaving baseball or toiling in the minors when they're that far down in the organization. I think the Cyclones produced maybe 2 or 3 total MLB players in the 7 years they've been in existence.

[maurice]

^
That's the thing. It's not a rip job to say that Gerst and Martinez project really well, that some other guys have talent but mechanical issues, and that the rest of the guys probably won't amount to much. He's just describing a typical group of players at that level.

Also, a guy who plays in a strong college conference and then goes to rookie ball actually is experiencing a dropoff in the level of competition. That's why it's pretty meaningless for a 22 or 23 YO guy to excel at that level. The vast majority of those guys are scrubs. It's usually a bad sign when they don't get promoted to A-ball during the season.

I've been saying this stuff for years, but nobody accused me of ripping on the organization. On the contrary, I've been accused of boosterism. To the extent that he's ripping on anybody, it's the guys who are gone or will be gone very soon. That's classic White Sox.