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biggentleben

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Everything posted by biggentleben

  1. biggentleben
    I think Schmidt will be an interesting target once you get past 15. I mentioned in the piece, but I have heard that the Nationals made a call or two to see about CBA picks, something new for them, but I could absolutely see them going after both South Carolina starters if they had their pick and a CBA pick, as that's a profile they target fairly early every year (not going to be surprised if they take Hunter Ruth 2nd round if they don't get a CBA as well). At 37, I could see a number of routes, similar to how I looked at the pick for the Braves at 41. There is a group of high-ceiling high school hitters this year that would make perfect targets for teams willing to let them develop in the back of the first through the early 2nd round. Obviously there will be differing opinions with each org on each guy, but guys I'm intrigued by that could go in that range would include: Catchers Hagen Danner (also throwing very well off the mound) Luis Campusano MJ Melendez Infielders Mark Vientos Brady McConnell Ryan Vilade Jeter Downs Adam Hall Outfielders Bubba Thompson Heliot Ramos Quintin Holmes Garrett Mitchell Cole Brannen Tristen Lutz Jacob Pearson Daniel Cabrera Calvin Mitchell Conner Uselton I think with the Twins' dearth of middle infield guys, if they liked someone like McConnell, Downs, or Hall, they'd be excellent choices, but I think the higher ceilings are found in the outfielder group, where I could see a number of good fits with the Twins, especially if Kiriloff's elbow surgery will require him to move to 1B going forward.
  2. biggentleben
    He's a guy I loved at 5 early in the process but fell off due to some swing and miss concerns, but he's really pushed his way back up the consideration. Not sure where he's going after top 5, if he doesn't go top 5, though.
  3. biggentleben
    Romero and the Marlins are getting tied together a lot, but he's still getting a lot of attention in the 10-20 range of the draft. Yeah, it's not something I think the Twins would do, but with the way the draft fell in this scenario, that was a really good fit for the Twins, though with 37 around the corner, they could secure a pretty solid upside bat with those two big arms, especially the way the college bats fell in this scenario (and they could use the savings on a college bat with 37 on securing Greene/Crouse financially).
  4. biggentleben
    First off, great interview. I spent 45 minutes on the phone with Bill, and only 20-25 minutes of that was actually the interview. Here's the article from the interview: https://calltothepen.com/2017/05/04/interview-former-minnesota-twins-gm-bill-smith/
  5. biggentleben
    So, I decided to do a mock through the CBA picks... https://calltothepen.com/2017/05/03/2017-mlb-mock-draft-version-1-1/
  6. biggentleben
    I do intend to talk with him about international players, though.
  7. biggentleben
    This would just be rich if one or two of Stark, Stein, Werner, etc. end up as part of HBO Real Sports, one of the organizations that's truly done well with the streaming end of things.
  8. biggentleben
    I'll be doing an interview with Smith on Wednesday about his new position, so I'm looking forward to discussing his views on the future of the minor league game. I do plan on avoiding asking about his Twins GM moves...
  9. biggentleben
    I don't know if I'd go quite that far, but I was given a handful of names as far as pairings for the first two picks that would be ideal for the Braves from a couple of guys within their org in preparation of my first mocks of the year. The pairing that the team is really liking right now is a combo of Gore or Carlson at 5 with Heliot Ramos in the 2nd if they can make that pairing work financially (the way they planned out Anderson/Wentz and had an idea of where a number of other guys would be, so they knew Muller would work into their plan in last year's grouping).
  10. biggentleben
    I see a lot of similarities with Hiura and Ian Happ....
  11. biggentleben
    I have done some initial talking with a few teams' scouts and non-associated scouts and put out a fairly deep primer on the high school and college classes the last two weeks: College: https://calltothepen.com/2017/04/22/look-college-prospects-2017-mlb-draft/ High School: https://calltothepen.com/2017/04/26/look-high-school-class-2017-mlb-draft/
  12. biggentleben
    Yes, though in fairness, the post 10th round stuff could be interesting when we get in June and official papers hit the league office on which high school players opt out of the draft. Hard to convince that long shot HS guy to leave his commitment with a $700K bonus in the 12th round if he's not allowed to be picked at all. That could determine better where the money is spent and allow for more of an intentional plan on the first few rounds, whereas the Braves even admitted that they didn't expect as many of their 11th-40th round guys to come to the table willing to deal as did, and it left them scrambling. Having better ideas there will help budgeting for a team looking to manipulate - or at least it should, in theory.
  13. biggentleben
    Beck has been 100% this year, though, and he gave his knee plenty of time to heal, which has helped. John Manuel said this week that the Nola/Leake comment was in speed to the majors, but he compares his pitches and command/control of them more to Cliff Lee.
  14. biggentleben
    On the first, it's a tough question to answer. It depends on the year. College talent in a draft can be low due to a number of the best high schoolers signing in a few drafts in a row or it can be very high due to the opposite reason. There are always some guys who develop in college, but there is also value in getting a guy out of high school and not having a college mess up his arm or swing as colleges are there to win while the minors don't really care if they lose a game 20-0 if there's something positive developmentally that can come out of it for the players involved. On your second question, that's huge. Especially with the flattening of the draft pools, the Twins have about as much ability to manipulate their draft as anyone could this season. The Braves used 3/40/44 last year to really use their large bonus pool to their advantage. Three top 50 picks is a huge advantage for sure.
  15. biggentleben
    He's bold as heck on Carlson, and I love it. I'm a big fan, but I was surprised on that.
  16. biggentleben
    But the industry had also zeroed in on Anthony Molina in last season's draft class early and Riley Pint and Jason Groome as freshmen/sophomores and those guys didn't go 1-1. In fact, I have a Braves Twitter follower who is a big draftnik, and he tracks the different mock drafts each major place puts out. The one out at each major place on the 25th of April had either Jason Groome or Kyle Lewis as 1-1 last year. Neither went top 10.
  17. biggentleben
    Not Jeremy, but did have a chat with a couple scouts with NL teams this last week (not the Braves ones on this topic, interestingly), and they all pretty much assume he'll be a back-end first round guy. Pretty much late-teens on through CBA picks is expected range. Coming into the year, he was a guy most saw as a 3rd-5th round type of hitter.
  18. biggentleben
    This requires more than a "like".
  19. biggentleben
    Yep, I describe what the substance is as well in my article. Also something that could end up in a supplement in the mixing process quite easily. The PBS investigation (and their documentation) were very compelling on how easily banned elements could get into supplements.
  20. biggentleben
    In all seriousness, is this any different than a guy like Christian McCaffrey (sp?) not doing any individual workouts for NFL teams leading up to the draft or skipping his bowl game?
  21. biggentleben
    The draft flattened out a ton in the middle of the first round as well, with nowhere near the drop after the first 10 picks that there used to be either. There are likely to be less deals. Another thing to consider is that a player can completely opt-out of the draft process now - meaning no team is allowed to select him. That was a little one-line thing in the new CBA and likely won't affect a first round pick, but it could make a difference in saving money for 11th round and beyond. As I'm digging deeper into draft stuff for both sites, I'm finding a lot of interesting scouting differences on players. One guy I'm hearing a ton of helium in talking to guys in the game versus BA/Scout/MLB Pipeline/etc is outfielder Heliot Ramos. I've talked with two scouts in the top 5 that say he's in serious consideration for their team.
  22. biggentleben
    Leaving this here: https://calltothepen.com/2017/04/25/cleveland-indians-steve-delabar-suspended-80-games/
  23. biggentleben
    You should check that. Like I said, the inflation you saw in size had a ton to do with the training changes across the league. The first full time strength and conditioning coach wasn't hired in the league until nearly 1990 (1989), and the teams in the league before 1993's first expansion (and the subsequent 1998 one that really sent offense into the stratosphere) didn't make the position universal until the mid-90s. Getting lifting on top of those steroids does a ton. Steroids were rampant, though they were known under different names at that time, in the 1960s and 1970s.
  24. biggentleben
    Walker sent down to AA to make room on the Gwinnett roster for Ryan Howard.
  25. biggentleben
    What do you think most guys take HGH for...the primary benefit of HGH is recovery.
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