The majority of this post is going to be focused around the MLB Draft, which comes tomorrow. Since the Cubs and White Sox are picking back to back, with the White Sox picking at #3 and the Cubs picking at #4, this should make things easy since I won't have to look into possible draft picks for each team. I'm not going to bother much past the first round since there's 40 rounds in the MLB Draft, but I'll go over possible scenarios if they do come up. Beyond that, some thoughts on the OTA's for the Bears, and I'll give my thoughts on what Horace Grant said this week.
So, the White Sox will pick first at #3, then the Cubs will have the #4 pick as far as the Chicago teams go. There really is nothing close to any sort of set order anywhere near the top, so there will be several players that both of these teams will have looked at over the past season, and probably even before that.
The first player is Carlos Rodon. Rodon was the consensus #1 pick at the start of the season, but he had a few rough outings this past season that has caused his stock to fall off considerably. The skill set still seems to be there. Rodon's strengths seem to be his fastball and his slider. He also has a change-up that isn't as good, but still probably better than average. He doesn't have great control, but it's still decent, and lots of scouts seem to think that can improve.
Brady Aiken, if anyone is, seems to be the player who has the highest chance of being the #1 overall pick. Aiken is a high school pitcher that seems to know how to pitch more than throw. His fastball isn't amazing, but it's still fast enough in the low 90's. He features a good curve and a good change as well. While he may be a few years away from playing in the bigs, he may have the makeup of a pitcher who should be able to last a long time.
Tyler Kolek is probably the hardest throwing pitcher in the draft, maybe the hardest thrower in the draft for a long time. Its average is in the upper 90's and has been known to get up to 102 or 103. He also has a change that is okay, but kind of dull. His control is an issue right now as well. Also, scouts are worried that he may throw too hard and are worried about his 6'5", 250 lb frame being a bit big for a long career.
The best bat in this year's draft is probably Alex Jackson. The big question on Jackson is his position. He's currently a catcher, but there are questions as to if he can stick there. There are also questions as to if you might want to move him elsewhere due to how good his bat is, to increase his longevity. Either way, even as an outfielder he's going to very likely be a quality bat in any lineup.
Nick Gordon is probably one of the better all-around type of guys in the draft. He's a high school shortstop with great defense. His bat looks like he can be a 15-20 home run guy with solid average and good patience at the plate. His speed is another strength, as he can make things happen both on the field and on the basepaths with it.
I don't see the Cubs going after him, but Michael Conforto may be a solid option for the White Sox. He's got a good bat with good power and good patience, and to add to that, he's a lefty. His speed is not good at all, which is really his only offensive knock. On defense it's a totally different story. He's just not a good fielder and will likely be a guy who is looked at to be a DH/1B type of guy, and being a college guy, should only take a couple of years to come up. Since Konerko and probably Dunn are gone after this season for the White Sox, he might be the perfect second guy for that DH/1B platoon with Abreu.
Going back to pitching, Aaron Nola is another possibility. Nola is another pitcher instead of a thrower like Kolek. Nola's got a solid fastball that gets up to the mid 90's to go along with a very good curve and an above average change. He has very good control as well. Also, his fastball has very good sinking action to it. Many scouts seem to think that he's a low risk, solid reward type of guy who can be a good pitcher, but not a #1 type of guy.
Kyle Freeland is a bit of a mystery, probably even to scouts who have seen him. At times he's throwing as hard as 94 with a hard slider, and at other times his fastball doesn't get above 90 and his slider is slow and ineffective. Sometimes his command looks great, and sometimes it looks bad. When he's on he's great, when he's not, well, he's just not good at all.
Max Pentecost is a late riser that has been connected to the Cubs. He's a catcher with a beautiful swing, good contact ability, and good patience. He doesn't have a ton of power, but 15-20 home runs isn't out of the question. He's athletic for a catcher and brings a good glove as well.
The last guy I'll go over is Sean Newcomb, I'll mention some other guys later, but I don't see those guys as guys who either team will even consider, although I could be wrong. Newcomb is a LHP with a very good fastball, a tough slider, and a slightly above average change. He does have a big problem with his control and would be a bit of a risk if he were picked as high as #3 or #4, a higher risk than most pitchers bring.
Other guys include Trea Turner SS, Jeff Hoffman RHP (would surely be an option if he didn't just have to get Tommy John), Touki Toussaint RHP, Tyler Beede RHP, and Bradley Zimmer OF.
So who do I think each team goes with? First for the White Sox. I have a feeling that the #1 will be Aiken and #2 will be Rodon. As for #3, I'm leaning toward Kolek. The White Sox have had a lot of luck with Chris Sale and his velocity, but Sale brings more to the table than a fastball and change. The White Sox may want to go with someone like Jackson. He's got a good bat and will wind up in either the outfield or at catcher most likely. While teams generally don't draft for need in the MLB draft, I'm sure they do pay attention to system depth, and I don't think the White Sox have a particular strength either in the outfield or at catcher there. In the end I'm going to say the White Sox go with Kolek.
For the Cubs, while everyone wants the Cubs to go with a pitcher, which at this point would be most likely Aaron Nola, the Cubs pitching depth in their organization has gotten much stronger, and their bullpen is looking like it may be very strong for a while with all the great young arms they have there. Outside of that, there are a lot of good free agent starters that will be available this winter, and the Cubs have a great knack for getting good production out of value signings at pitcher. In fact, the only bad pitching free agent signings I've seen them make have been the guys they've paid, Jackson and Veras. On top of that, the Cubs front office goes under the general philosophy that pitchers are a much higher risk than position players. Sure, every player you draft is going to be a risk, but the statistics do show that pitchers do tend to be higher risks, and they stick with those numbers, going position player in the first and then going with mostly pitching after that. I think the Cubs go with Alex Jackson here, bringing another strong bat through their system, and then go nuts on the pitching in the next several rounds. There's even some whispers that Jeff Hoffman may fall to the second round, and if he does the Cubs will be sure to gobble him up.
Moving on from the draft, the Bears had an interesting day yesterday at OTAs when a scuffle broke out between Martellus Bennett, Jordan Mills, Lamarr Houston, and Jared Allen. Supposedly things did carry on for quite a while, but things are fine. I actually like seeing things like this happen, as it shows good life for the team, but then again, we really were not worried about that with this team. In the end, I don't think it's much of anything. The media reported heavily on it while at the same time saying that it was nothing (a little bit of hypocrisy there), but they were right that it was something that we shouldn't even care about. Outside of that, reports have been generally good, and outside of the Hixon injury, the injuries have been minor.
Now, Horace Grant stirred the pot a bit by saying that today's Heat are nowhere close to the Bulls of the 90's. I can understand how this would ruffle the feathers of a lot of Heat fans out there. However, while he may have exaggerated a bit, he was right. You look at the strength of those Bulls teams and the strengths of those Heat teams. The Bulls teams have something to counter every strength of those Heat teams, but the Heat do not have those things to counter all of the Bulls strengths. First off, just look at who LeBron would be going up against, one of the best defenders ever in Scottie Pippen. LeBron's defensive strengths are using his size to stop guys from driving. Pippen, on the other hand, excelled at keeping the ball moving. While he could drive to the hoop, he had plenty of other ways to hurt an opponent. Jordan is much better than Wade has ever been, so that much is obvious, and even Ron Harper would have provided great defense to help with LeBron and Wade without the team having to free up a three point shooter on the outside. Rather you go with Rodman or Grant, as far as the 4 is concerned, you have a great defender to give Bosh fits. On top of that, they always had a big man with great presence by the hoop to be an anchor down low with either Longley or Cartwright. As far as the benches go, the Bulls always had guys who could hit the 3 and other guys who could provide their roles well. The Heat have always had a couple of those guys, but not at the level of the Bulls, this should be no question. The one advantage I would give the Heat is LeBron over Pippen, but Pippen would still create some major matchup problems for LeBron on both ends of the floor.
So yes, Grant was right, but I'll say that in a 7 game series, the Heat might still be able to steal a game or two. Of course, this is all just speculation.
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