I think other teams started pitching him differently and he hasn't made the adjustment. Not sure he's even a first-round consideration any more.

Health is the biggest thing. If you're talking about watching performances, really you just want your pitchers throwing strikes and showing their usual velocity by their third or at worst fourth times out. But don't get hung up on any spring stats.

On video, and talked to scouts who've seen it, and basically there's nothing positive to say right now.

I answered this on Twitter by linking to my Mariners report. Zabala is the only real prospect in the deal: http://klaw.me/2lY5LyT

He's already getting hyped well beyond his abilities. Who can sign him depends on whether he becomes eligible before or after the signing period ends.

Utterly ridiculous - I wouldn't trade either guy straight up for Hamilton - but not even the dumbest one in the article. That would be Quintana for just Kyle Tucker and David Paulino, the latter of whom isn't even top ten in the Astros' system. That's probably less than half the return the White Sox should expect for Quintana. There's a real disconnect from real-world values here.

Mangum is a freshman. He's not eligible. Deichmann is just a corner guy who's not a day-one prospect - and he isn't hitting well "in the SEC," because LSU hasn't played any SEC opponents yet. Their schedule to date includes Maryland, Hofstra, Nicholls State, New Orleans, Army, Air Force, Pencil State, Backwater U, and Little Sisters of the Poor.

Age is more important for position players than pitchers. For arms, the disadvantage of age - reduced physical projection - may be mitigated by reduced risk of injury.

Craig's not major-league ready, and Bell has to play left, not right.

Just another guy.

I have no idea, and I mean that quite literally - the range of possible outcomes there is enormous. If he comes out and walks 60 guys in 80 innings, I won't be surprised. If he comes out and dominates two levels of A-ball, I won't be surprised. He's shown so many different looks the last two years that I feel very little confidence in any forecast I could make.

I was 12 when that song came out.

Probably not, but the change of scenery was probably the best thing that could have happened to Wilson, and I'd say he has the better shot of the two to restore some value.

Yes. In other words, if he's healthy all year, I believe he can repeat 2015.

I think it's more defense and positioning than it is just pitching, but we'd expect it to regress because defense and positioning include some randomness too. You can position 'perfectly' and still not get to all of the balls in play you expect to get to. I think last year the Cubs got to more of those balls than we would have anticipated.

There's nothing similar about those guys at all. He has virtually no power.

I would agree. Bet the under on that.

Nobody has thrown this hard except Pint, and Greene does it much easier. Giolito and Bundy had better secondary stuff at this age. Greene is probably the best athlete of this whole group. And he can play plus defense at short.

His season starts on Monday.

I get more miffed when I see idiots, often idiots in government, 'gloating' on cold days that climate change must be wrong, because we seem to have no problem electing people who are so stupid they don't know the differences between climate and weather or between income and wealth.

No, because of the language, but we did watch the last two episodes of Project Runway with her this year because she really wanted to see the dresses (and she was super annoyed at who won), which meant a little chat about what language she might hear that would be inappropriate to repeat.

Corner guy.

Drove across it in 1998. Didn't eat anywhere special - it wasn't quite so easy to find good spots back then - but we loved Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

I might, although there won't be many changes. I'd add Tacos Chiwas and Tratto, and I think one or two places closed. The core recommendations wouldn't change, though.

Very good chance Fernandez can stay a starter, although Alcantara has a better chance to stay a starter and a little more ceiling. I'm going to spend at least two days on the Cards' back fields later this month, and that group of Latin American arms is the main reason.

Still copyright infringement, even if you delete them. You can just listen to almost any of them on Spotify for free anyway, so why do it?

I don't like the idea of just evaluating long-term outcomes, because we know how many outside variables can screw that up. (Ryan Westmoreland comes to mind as the most extreme example.) But I would try to match up short-term grades and projections - the scout said this guy had a 60 curveball, he's in pro ball now, other scouts say it's a 50, he's not getting many swings and misses on it, so that's a mistake in the grades. A team could execute on that plan of accountability, and scouts would understand how they're being evaluated too.

Yes. Can't hit.

He's a top 10 pitcher in the AL, maybe in all of baseball, on a wildly team-friendly contract. I don't know if you can overstate his value.

I agreed with the impeachment of Bill Clinton when he committed perjury (later acquitted) over a trivial matter. I certainly agree that Sessions should be removed form his post for committing perjury over a more serious matter.

Yes, it at least indicates he's swinging without pain or restriction.

I disagree. As evidence, I submit his performance in Drive.

He was #13 on my Rays list this winter: http://www.espn.com/blog/keith-law/insider/post?... Second Coming is a bit much, probably from scouting the stat line.

Fried for Upton has the potential to look historically bad for them.

I do not believe Nimmo can play CF that well, even if his knee is 100%.

Jiko, Via Napoli, Raglan Road (not as good as it once was, but still a good place for a pint of Guinness and some bangers and mash). But Disney Springs has some new places I haven't tried, like Rick Bayless' Frontera Cocina, and a sushi place from Morimoto.

If that. He has never hit anywhere he's played and he's 23.

Gsellman.

People who try to write about prospects but don't see them, or see them but can't evaluate what they're seeing, or don't have good sources to discuss players with are not going to produce good content. Better at that point to simply report what happened and link to folks like BA or MLB or Fangraphs or me.

Paul Wylie was there while I was and I met him twice. Couldn't have been nicer. I know some entrepreneurs were in my class, like the guys who founded LinkExchange and sold it for a few hundred million. I met them once or twice. The daughter of the Aga Khan was in my class but I'm not sure if I ever saw her. I believe Karenna Gore was a year behind me. I also remember a classmate from the Houghton family, whose name adorns one of the buildings on the Yard; I had one class with him, but didn't know him well, and I remember him largely because he took his own life during our sophomore year.

He's still the head coach at UNC. And people praise him.

Sorry, his bio page at MSU still says "freshman," but I can see now they haven't updated that. Looks like he's age-eligible this year.

I saw this news item and didn't give it a second thought. A character's sexual orientation shouldn't be news unless (as you imply) it's changed from established canon.

I'd say it was growing, but in a way that isn't addressing inequality and may be exacerbating it. The Republicans are lying, while the Democrats are exaggerating (a lot).

I think I could not possibly care less what you think. Is that arrogant too? My bad.

I think Lange is a reliever or low-end starter, tops. Not a first rounder. Deichmann is a draft guy but not a major prospect IMO.

Not many graphics in the book. A few tables that should display just fine, one or two graphs. I tried to stick to words over numbers wherever I could, and we moved most formulas (like explaining OBP or linear weights) to the footnotes so the book would be a more fluid read.

Might be a million dollar question. Guys who can't spin anything scare me, because I wonder if they'll ever have anything more than a 45 breaking ball. Now I wonder if that will even translate to lower spin rates on fastballs too. Eovaldi, the paragon of fastballs that didn't spin enough, never had a good breaking ball either.

I think he does. There's a lot of untapped offensive potential in Russell. Had he spent another 18 months in the minors and destroyed AA and AAA, maybe we'd look at him differently?

No preference. Both work, although I might argue that pitching up requires more skill (command and/or spin) than pitching down.