Absolutely not. Wouldn't even be a consideration.

He would have to agree to wait until July 2nd to sign. That's not legal, but then again, nothing that happens in the international free agent market seems to be legal any more. There are African dictatorships that laugh at how corrupt baseball's IFA system is.

Probably top 20. Very high floor, some All-Star potential, but not the super high ceiling of top 10 guys. I've always believed he'd hit and I think the limited pro sample we've seen so far supports that.

I have no objection to giving some weight to his performance in Japan. I also don't object to considering Ichiro's impact on the game, here and globally. He was very much a star in the subjective sense of the word - the Fame part of the Hall of Fame. I think he'll sail in on the first ballot because his support will be so broad, and if I have the vote I'll give one to him.

Freudian slip? Not quickly at all. Big arm, not advanced or polished.

Great arm, two above-average or better pitches, reliever's arm action and delivery, but a really uncomfortable at bat, especially for lefties. I don't know how any LHB ever sees the ball out of his hand.

Yeah, I'm not buying it. Actually would probably rate Marquez, who has two above-average pitches but some reliever risk, over Padlo, who doesn't have a great body and may not stick at 3b.

He'll spned the majority of his MLB career at 3b. Might be adequate for a year at SS, but even so I think the plays he can't get to will start to become a problem.

You'll get the answer to that next week when my top 100 comes out.

Kolek. Bundy might be through as a potential starter.

Milwaukee.

Yep. Their album and St. Lucia's were both huge disappointments. Megadeth's was too - it's like Mustaine is trying to recapture the Hangar 18 sound and just can't find it.

Above-average offense, more OBP and doubles than HR, and at least solid-average defense at 3b.

No clear position, and hasn't shown much power in games. He might go in the first round because of the paucity of college bats, but I know plenty of scouts who think he's a 2nd round talent or less.

I don't buy it, because there may not be a good enough college bat where they pick, and I don't think Reed can hit. It's a bad swing on both sides of the plate.

I only saw a workout - he really doesn't have a lot of game experience - but he has All-Star tools. South Bend is probably right, just let him move quickly if he turns out to be really advanced at the plate. We just don't know much yet.

I just want to see free agency disconnected from the draft. No system that MLB has tried has ever done anything but put an artificial drag on salaries - it's a tax, and rational actors respond to taxes by reducing their demand or the price they're willing to pay, Bernie - and the idea that you can use the draft to compensate low-revenue teams for lost free agencies has failed repeatedly in practice.

Gonzales. Other two are probably 6th starter/swingman types.

Zero. It's not killing the game because this isn't basketball, and it is absolutely the result of the incentives MLB and the union set up in the last CBA. I mean, would Phillies fans rather see a bad, expensive 72-win team, or a bad, young, cheap 65-win team? I'm betting the latter. Give the fans Nola and Thompson and Velazquez and Crawford and put the future on TV every night instead of signing a bunch of garbage veterans to one-year, $10 million deals just to pretend you're competing.

Indeed, as I have announced here on the dish several times already. The top 100 and the org rankings come out next Thursday and Wednesday, respectively. The team reports (top 10 + notes) will come out the following week, because I lost a week to a respiratory infection.

No, and none since Sano. Only three ever did and Sano is the only one to turn into anything.

Age (nearly 19) and the fact that he's a corner guy already so you're betting entirely on the bat and power.

Not a lack of ability, but a reluctance to do so, as he's spent two years in parks that discourage it. He has big pull power - he hit a homer at Salt River to right-center in October that might have landed on the 202 - but knowing that pulling balls in Savannah or St. Lucie would result in a lot of F9s, he chose to just go the other way all day. That's very sensible, but now that he's going to AA it's time to let 'er rip.

No and I have real doubts about his hit tool. Might be a 35 present grade.

Would love to but the timing isn't great for my day job. Maybe when someone hires me to be the omnibus music/books/boardgame critic I'll go.

Lev Grossman's Magicians series - I've read the first two, with number three on my shelf - and which is also now a Syfy series.

Way too high. The only college bat I might consider up there is Corey Ray, and even he has a big question mark in the 60 Ks last year. (Never when I'm in the park, though. I swear he's gone 12-for-10 over the games I've seen.)

That guy has gotten way more press than his workouts have merited. He may get his $20-30 million but I haven't found a scout that put in a report that would get him close to that money.

Well he also finally started to hit last year. Tools were always there but years of poor performance made them seem irrelevant - eventually, you have to hit.

I like this, as long as it's not tied to a QO, because you get low-payroll teams with a disincentive to even offer the QO (out of fear the player takes it) and thus will see fewer compensatory picks going to the teams that in theory need them most.

Not on it. He's not a $27 million player and he's not a centerfielder. By the way, that's "if he opts out AND the Mets offer AND he signs elsewhere."

I can make a case for dWAR being wrong, especially on first basemen, but Gold Gloves are evidence of nothing except how bad major-league coaches can be at evaluating defense.

Yes, and they cancelled the meetups, but only after getting a ridiculous amount of press attention that probably drove lots of traffic and men's rights idiots to their site. Their message is abhorrent, but not illegal here, and it's such a fringe group that giving them publicity probably did them more good than harm. That said, I wish they'd held the meetups so opponents could go and confront them.

It's a mix. I get a lot of books as gifts, or gift cards to bookstores; I go to used bookstores a lot; I buy some ebooks when I see something good is on sale; and I go to the library, which is right down the street, especially for something I know I'll never read again.

So far, very good. Should learn more over the next ten months as they make more changes to the front office and overall direction.

Problem is the deal is unenforceable. If he has something go wrong - an injury, an off-field incident - Atlanta can just walk away and he could be left with nothing, or just a lot less. That's my main issue with the current system, that neither side has any protection at all from the other party just walking away.

Not counting Matz? I have Gsellman next up, but he's 8th overall in the system. No other pitchers in their top 10.

Ballparks and altitude are the two main factors.

I think the number one reason is the lack of AB. RHB get way more reps vs RHP than LHB will ever get against LHP.

Hands and range are fine. Has a 6 arm, but had legit accuracy issues last year (out of the blue). I'd still bet on him staying there ... but hey, hanging out with the team shrink wouldn't be a bad idea either.

Yep. I really have no objection to it. There's no MLB team like the 76ers right now. The Astros did get there, briefly, but remember, when Luhnow took over, the top levels of the farm system were bleak - all the talent from those Bobby Heck drafts was still about two years away at the time.

Yeah, good idea on d'Arnaud given his problems staying healthy - I think he's had two concussions already, plus a host of other injuries. For his own health I'd like to see him somewhere else, but I don't see the spot for him with Conforto in LF and Duda at 1b.

I mean, that's not a simple matter.

How about star rather than superstar?

Plus-plus arm, good athlete, not at all sold on the receiving or on the body staying back there. Looks a lot like Wieters, and Wieters is an anomaly and a bad framer.

Yes, I'm surprised that got out but it is true and I love the idea. Could be a Russell Martin type back there.

Ask my bosses. I'm in. I want to go get drunk where Hemingway used to get drunk.

He could be a -5 runs guy if he puts some work into it. Great arm, actually a good athlete for someone his size. But I've never gotten the sense he wanted to work on defense. He just likes to hit.

He's never really pitched as aggressively as his stuff would indicate. He should be going after guys like "here it is, fuck you, try and hit it." He nibbles, he pitches away from contact, he gets tentative when there are men on. That's a perfectly fine approach for guys with lesser stuff. I want him to pitch like peak Verlander, who looked like he might tear your head off and was happy to just blow guys away with power, whether it was velocity or just some hellacious breaking ball.

It's a really dumb way to pick a candidate.