Arizona Fall League recap: Nov. 12, 2018

Did you miss me?

I’m getting back in the saddle after a long weekend in Paris. I’m back, possibly weighing less after offsetting all the bread expenditures while walking nine to 15 miles a day.

Thanks to Ted, Josh and Greg for helping fill in while I was away, and thanks to ParisSox and his wife for taking us to the best restaurant of the trip. They’re good people.

Glendale 4, Mesa 2

  • Luis Robert went 0-for-4.
  • Zach Thompson, 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K
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As Cirensica

Miss you? Who are you and what did you do with Gnix and Ted?

WB

lil jimmy

HMMM…. Trump and Jim in Paris at the same time. Has anyone seen them at the same time? Is it possible Jim is Trump? Or visa-versa?

As Cirensica

Jim is a journalist, Trump hates journalism…yes, let’s keep digging!We are onto something here. :p

karkovice squad

Someone asked about the Sox philosophy aboout pitch framing as a teachable skill. Fegan delivers the answer.

https://theathletic.com/648427/2018/11/12/how-the-white-sox-view-their-pitch-framing-struggles/

“In my opinion it’s harder to find a good hitting catcher than it is to teach a guy to be a better framer,” Rick Hahn said at the GM meetings last week. “Some of these guys, especially the older ones, they sort of are what they are. Even Smitty (Smith) as you referenced, he improved over his time with us. Tyler Flowers who is obviously toward the top of these public metrics in terms of his framing, was a guy who struggled with it when we first had him in the minors. He was a bat-first catcher when we acquired him from Atlanta and with the work from our coaches and the diligence that Tyler put in, he worked himself into what’s viewed as one of the finer framers in the game. That’s an easier skill to teach. You can’t teach it across the board but it’s probably easier to teach a guy how to do that than to teach a guy how to hit.”

Fegan also points out that a side effect of Sox personnel loyalty is that the staff that coached up Flowers are still in place. But there doesn’t seem to be much reason to be optimistic about Narvaez following that path. His receiving skills seem to have degraded rather than improved.

As Cirensica

Being easier to learn than hitting does not really tell us much. Hitting is incredibly hard.

karkovice squad

Kind of. I think if we parse his words carefully, he’s saying that hitting is more dependent on tools and talent. Receiving is more of a pure skill.

But the Sox seem to believe that’s true to a degree that’s not reflected in practice. Or they’re not able to identify coachable receivers and it’s a scouting problem. Or they need to adjust their training program.

Greg Nix

Yeah, that’s fine as a philosophy but at some point they have to recognize it’s not at all translating to the major league level. 

35Shields

If ever there were an organization capable of resisting that recognition…

Eagle Bones

Completely speculation on my part, but this would seem like a better reasoning for acquiring minor leaguers who are seen as weak receivers and trying to coach them up. I don’t doubt that it can be taught to some degree, but to expect to pull in vets who have struggled with this their entire career and expect to fix them quickly seems a little ambitious.

karkovice squad

Collins is the canary in the coal mine.

35Shields

This seems a really bizarre attitude given that Narvaez has improved his hitting every year, to the point where he was our best hitter last year, while his receiving has remained just as awful/ gotten worse.

If receiving is easier to teach, then why is Zack Collins still a horseshit receiver after 2.5 years in the Sox system?

lil jimmy

“The Prospect Development Pipeline League, which is expected to be announced by MLB on Tuesday, would start in June 2019 and stretch until early July. The league is expected to invite 80 of the best rising seniors – most of whom will be drafted in 2020 – and offer the best of the group a chance to play at a high school game during All-Star week in addition to a high school home run derby.”

This is interesting.

karkovice squad

Interesting as a counterweight to Perfect Game and the other 3rd-party blue chip programs. When The Arm was published there was talk about something like that being in the works to steer kids away from being overworked.

But it only works if it replaces those 3rd party programs rather than adding another thing for aspiring professionals to do ahead of the draft.

ParisSox

It was good to meet you sir. We enjoyed it as much as you.

If anyone else happens to straddle by Paris, don’t hesitate to give me a shout.

Yolmer

Cool, Paris is great. I walked everywhere when I was there too.