Danchat

And Sanders goes to the Browns... great value, but why did they waste a 3rd on Dillon Gabriel who is considerably inferior to him? Odd situation.

Fair enough, the draftniks I like think he was bad. I didn't realize he was barely 5' 11". Shough was a questionable one but I know some people who loved his tape. The only issue was he would go "blue screen of death" 1-2 times a game. Kinda reminds me of Darnold. Shough is also likely to be the last player ever to be born in the 1990s.

Yup, they chose to go with the likes of Armando Alvarez and Ryan Fitzgerald as their AAA infielders and don't have any low-end prospects to play there. Is Will Holland also hurt?

Felton was a bit of a reach on my board, but the production and measurables were very strong so I'll ignore the low grades from the draftniks and say that I like this pick. Maybe he can push Nailor for WR3 and add some depth, as I don't trust Rondale Moore and there's nothing behind Nailor/Moore. Even without the Sanders name, he's head and shoulders better than Dillon Gabriel, who is a borderline-draftable QB who is way worse in every respect that the Browns blew a 3rd on. He was at the very least worth a 3rd round pick, similar to how Malik Willis and Desmond Ridder wound up in 2022. If I had a 4th round pick, I'd bet on him, the kid will be motivated and have a massive chip on his shoulder. That's if they can keep the Deion circus away, of course, which is why he's still sitting out there.

Absolutely they have a ceiling, for pass blocking you can look at win rate / sack rate allowed and to get in the nitty gritty you could analyze how long they can last in pass pro. In run blocking, alongside of winning against the DL in front of him, you can examine how effectively he gets to the second level and can block guys in open space. My draft board is an aggregation of several sources - all my favorite draftniks had a 2nd round grade on him and his PFF scores in college are at a concerning level. There are some things to pick apart there, with his ratings understandably dropping when he played LT. At LG, he was a very good pass protector but his run blocking grades are at a level that could be a problem. That's why I don't see Jackson becoming more than a slightly above average starting guard but it's not impossible for a player to be a better pro than college player. He does have a 9.0 RAS on a limited scouting report which boosted him up, some noted that he is limited athletically but he should be good enough there. As for the other guards, Zabel had dominant grades (notably against poor competition) and has top tier athleticism. But his grades are way higher than Jackson/Booker. I actually have Booker at #60 as his PFF grades were worse than Jackson's and his RAS was very bad. He reminds me of Chance Warmack, who was a top 10 drafted guard about a decade back who was supposed to be a stud and completely busted. OL can overcome low RAS (see Orlando Brown Jr) but they are the exception. If the Vikings took him, I would probably get a lot of heat for hating that pick. Not to mention he's not a fit for their blocking scheme barring major changes.

Players I'd like to see the Vikings land in Round 3: RB RJ Harvey RB Damien Martinez RB DJ Giddens WR Savion Williams DT Omar Norman-Lott DT Joshua Farmer DT Vernon Broughton S Kevin Winston Jr CB Jacob Parrish CB Nohl Williams

I figured he'd continue to improve if they kept giving him chances. There may still be some more bumps in the road for him, but I think Varland will be a quality reliever for the next couple seasons. So far, another successful transition from starter to reliever.

His ceiling isn't as high as several other prospects out there. I think LB Jihaad Campbell can easily become a top 10 LB in the league and the Eagles were able to nab him at #31 (apparently they called the Packers and Vikings to jump up and land him in that range). And I think there are players at edge/WR/CB who will outperform Jackson who were on the board. I saw similar rationalizations to when they took Ed Ingram in the 2nd round in 2022 - they needed a guard and he was the last "startable" guy left in his group but he was a consensus 4th rounder, so they reached on him and big surprise, he's a bust. Jackson is a far better player and doesn't have the incredibly questionable off-the-field history Ingram did, but in my opinion they're settling for a guy with a lower ceiling in exchange for being able to plug him in at LG right away and be an every-down player. He was a 7th rounder. It would be nice if the Vikings could develop Day 3 players into starters, at least every once in a while. Or if Ingram could be an average starter, we wouldn't have needed to pick Jackson.

That was the same logic to why they took Ed Ingram in 2022, despite him being a consensus 4th rounder. Jackson's prospect profile is way better than him but this process is what leads to future regrets. I saw a medical report on Twitter (hard to trust, of course) that said his knees were in bad shape, seems like NFL teams concurred. If healthy he'd be a great pick but if other NFL doctors are giving him a red flag I'd listen to them.

I don't like reaching for Jackson, who is a clear 2nd round talent and another example of this regime drafting for need over BPA, but it's not a terrible move. He is a natural LG who can play LT in a pinch but is much better at guard. It was disappointing to see the two teams who traded after us were both able to move down, which is what I would have preferred. The Rams moved down to the 2nd round and picked up a 2026 1st, which is gnarly. I am a bit disappointed but I think they at least have an average starter at LG instead of going with Brandel and hoping Rouse/Jurgens could push him.

For those interested, I'm predicting picks live here on my draft board: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1v1cx09ZI-Qj5Im4EDU8uYfgw3vXo46snzTWFHgYAaxE/edit?gid=2122586536#gid=2122586536

Not often do you have 10 outs in RISP situations in a span of 5 innings...

I don't think either Cartaya or Camargo are going to be major league contributors, but it's not as if they have any catchers in the system that is going to push them out of their spots any time soon. I expect both will be DFA'd after the season is over unless they get an early axing.

It's already been pointed out, but Rocco leaves in his starters longer than the average manager does and unfortunately this is a modern baseball thing. The next manager isn't going to keep our starters out there for another inning on average. Sure, he could leave his starters in a bit longer but I have that same critique for most of our opponents we face. Methinks bullpen burnout has more to do with bad starters having short starts, not because of the manager. And with the improved rotation we've had the past few years, our pen hasn't been as taxed. Their usage this season is in line with other MLB teams.

While I agree with the article's main points about the organization itself being the root of the failure and not the manager, we could learn a lot after Rocco gets canned. Does his replacement A) provide no improvement whatsoever, B) improves but plays at a .500 level which doesn't get us anywhere, or C) massively increase and put this team back in contention. I think C is incredibly unlikely given the talent of this roster and B would be the worst outcome because it would allow the front office to continue treading water. A is more of what I'd expect as the new manager would likely continue to do a lot of the things that people hate about Rocco's management like with starters leaving early / bullpen management / lineups being different. And I agree with the "he's responsible for when they are underachieving but gets zero credit for when they overachieve" point, however, we're on track for 4 of the previous 5 seasons being incredibly disappointing as 2019-20 begin to disappear behind the horizon. It's a "what have you done for me lately" league and right now 2023 looks like the outlier. I do wonder how responsible Levine was for some of the FA and trade errors made in recent years and that's why he's gone. I appreciate the analysis, though I'd like to see more of a deeper dig into the farm system's issue with developing hitters / fielders and also having zero international successes in a long span of time.

I understand Jax is the main focus here, but are we going to talk about how Sands allowed the Braves to make the death blow by allowing two hits right after he came in? The game was salvageable if he could have held there. I agree, though it might be time to bump him back to the 7th inning or lower leverage situations. I don't think it's time to treat him like Colome or Pagan yet but we could be getting there.

Gotcha, didn't hear about that until now. We're definitely going to need him.

Sands is not the guy you want in the 8th inning, and Brock Stewart isn't pitching in rehab games yet... the bullpen is shallower than we thought. At least Varland has looked serviceable lately, but Alcala (who was the 7th inning guy last year) isn't going to help anytime soon.

Hard to be the "best bullpen in the league" when two of your top three relievers give up a combined 6 baserunners in one inning. Yikes.

I believe I made that argument in the game this year where Jax blew a save in the 9th and everyone said that Rocco should have used him in the 8th when the bottom of the lineup was due. I could be remembering wrong.

Y'know, Rocco might have been right to go Duran in the 8th and Jax in the 9th when the opponent's best hitters were up in the 8th. I think that is more important than what inning the reliever is used to pitching in.

Gasper is also a AAA player, but his ability to play multiple positions is a factor over Severino. Not that he's good at any of those positions, mind you.

I've been crunching some draft betting odds, here is a response to some of the points you guys have brought up: 3 RBs going in the 1st round: 40% chance (Jeanty 99%, Hampton 94%, Henderson 43%, Judkins 3%) Jaxson Dart going in the 1st round: 85% - I was initially believing that this was smoke but even the sources I trust are reporting that he's going in the 1st. I wouldn't even touch him in the 2nd round but teams be dumb! Tyler Shough going in 1st round: 10% The Shedeur Sanders numbers are conflicting. He's currently the favorite to go #9 but there is a lot of steam on him falling. If the Steelers don't take him at #21 I think he makes it to the 30s. For me, the difference is that Willis was being mocked that whole offseason in the 1st round and it was a major shock that he fell to Round 3 as I had seen very few suggest that teams didn't like him. Dart and Shough going Round 1 is more reminiscent of the annual mid-round QBs getting hyped out of nowhere. Hendon Hooker, Desmond Ridder, Drew Lock are recent examples. A Day 3 TE makes more sense, I think it is more likely than not they extend Josh Oliver and it's going to be >= $9M per year.

This seems like a no-brainer move, Bride hit .818 OPS last year but has been off to a horrid start to begin 2025. Of course, he can't be that good if the Marlins are DFA'ing him but I will take him over our mediocre vets in AAA.

They better not send him back down once Lopez is ready. Paddack has to be the odd one out.