Drafted in the second round of the 2014 draft, Honeywell didn’t come with the eye-catching fastball-curve or fastball-slider combo of other top pitching prospects. Instead, he comes with a well-rounded game; a four pitch mix, of which three project above average to plus, and quality command in an athletic delivery. And, of course, a screwball. Who doesn’t like screwballs?

Brent Honeywell Scouting Report

The official moment for the country to pinch itself came today, as the Chicago Cubs visited the White House.  The Cubs arrived at the personal request of President Obama, the Chicagoan at the end of his presidency. 

In fact, Obama today said to the team, “It took you long enough.  I mean, I only have four days left. You’re just making it under the wire.”

The Cubs may have waited 108 years to win the World Series, but it was a rush to visit the White House.  Major League Baseball champions typically wait until the subsequent regular season to go to the White House, but this time was unique. 

Unlike Game 7 of the World Series, there was no rain delay in today’s event, as it was held inside the historic East Room.  The chandelier-adorned room was originally designed by George Washington and James Hoban as a “public audience room” and it has been home to historic events such as the signing of the Civil Rights Act.  The tradition of baseball champions visiting the White House can be traced back as far as the 1860s. 

To continue reading about yesterday’s Cubs visit to the White House, please visit our mostly baseball blog at Offthebenchbaseball.com.

The Kansas City Royals announced a contract extension today with their young left-handed starting pitcher, Danny Duffy, that ensures Duffy will wear the Royal blue for another 5 years. Duffy is coming off of a fantastic campaign, in which he finally displayed the results that matched his talent. He was worth about 4 WAR and solidified his role as a starting pitcher. The Royals signed him for 5 years and $65Million in what should be a decidedly team-friendly deal.

He’s been something of a favorite of mine for the last 12 months. I did a deep dive on his success back in June, but the basic key to success for Duffy, as with most other pitchers, was his ability to locate his fastball and cut down on his walks. He also made an appearance in my Golden Age of the Lefty Fastball piece as guy who averages 95 on his fastball. That deep dive piece published just as I was moving and shaking in my fantasy league, with the goal to pick Duffy off of the waiver wire. A certain OTBB editor saw that piece and pounced on Duffy, leaving my squad a starting pitcher short and all I could do was follow his summertime dominance longingly. The Royals, having likely learned from my fantasy squad, will not be watching Duffy dominate for another squad. They know how good he is.

To continue reading about the Danny Duffy contract extension, please click on over to our mostly baseball blog.

This year’s class is notable for the dearth of college pitching, which serves as a direct contrast to the relative scarcity of college position players. As far as the high school talent goes, there seem to be more position players than there are pitchers. However, this particular class is notable for its dearth of two-way players.

The Minnesota Twins “earned” the first overall selection after a miserable 2016 season, one that saw their pitching staff and offense underperform under renewed expectations. Minnesota hadn’t occupied the top spot in the draft since 2001 when they took an in-state product and current first baseman Joe Mauer out of Cretin-Durham Hall High School. In a year that has no consensus top prospect, much like 2016, anything is possible. The Twins could go after a prep product, like San Diego prepster Hunter Greene or they could go for a major league ready collegian, like Jeren Kendall or Kyle Wright.

2017 MLB Mock Draft – January Edition

Baseball has an ability like no other to provide infinite anecdotes and recollections. Tim Kurkjian’s I’m Fascinated by Sacrifice Flies: Inside the Game We All Love (2016; St. Martin’s Press) captures that unique proclivity. The renowned ESPN personality/journalist has accumulated some of the best stories and oddities that he has collected during his decades of close involvement and observation of the game and turned them over to the fans for their own enjoyment.

READ FULL POST

The Blue Jays system is mostly made up of high upside hitters but, like always, the Jays have been stockpiling pitching in the draft to compensate. With these new draftees, the organization is trending up compared to how barren it was after the Jays first postseason run. There is tremendous upside in picks like T.J. Zeuch, J.B. Woodman, and Joshua Palacios just in the 2016 MLB Draft. Vlad Jr. and Bo Bichette are two young talents that look like they could shine in the spotlight as stars. They also have bloodlines of former greats, which has proven to be a characteristic the Jays tend to take a chance on. The pitching doesn’t have the same talent as it did when “The Lansing Three” were storming their way up the system, but pitchers like Justin Maese and Angel Perdomo could develop into a top of the rotation starters. Overall, the system has enough upside talent to use as trade bait and still have an upper half ranking system.

Toronto Blue Jays Top 25 Prospects 2017

It has been an incredible 6 years run for the MLB Reports but 2017 is going to redefine us as a major entity in the blogging landscape.  We are heading to a new platform pretty soon to better serve our readers, and to also enable us to expand to the content we need to post on a daily basis. 

Coming off the heels of our greatest ever season in 2016, we are ramping up production to new levels.

Our track record has been quite impressive since the inception, and we are hoping to keep up the momentum for our readers in the upcoming seasons.  We have no filters, extremely strong opinions, and if we aren’t pissing plenty of people off at any given time – then we are not doing our jobs correctly.

Our Motto ‘The Truth Stings Like A Cactus! Baseball Is Our Religion, Come for worship anytime.”

Brian Wilson Apologist, FanDuel Master, tattoo artist and Professional Gambling Handicapper – Hunter Stokes has been awesome in his best picks of the year from 2014 – 2016 and best value bets on the World Series. Can he do it again in 2017?

Hunter Stokes (our Chief Writer and Gambling Expert) has pledged to work for us full time.  He will be doing Daily Fantasy Rosters for FanDuel all year based on his successful indoctrination to the world last year.  In addition to that, he will continue his outstanding best value picks for Sports Handicapping.

This means Player Prop Bets, Odds to Win the World Series, MLB Divisions, Pennants and Home Run Derby posts. His track record has been elite to say the least, and we have all profited off his blogs.

Hunter will also be in charge of all the MLB Team Power Rankings and many more posts.

Chuck Booth with Larry Lucchino in the Fenway RF Nation area..

I, Chuck Booth. will also be able to write full time this next year – which means I am going to be in charge of updating all of our mainstay pages:  MLB Interleague, Tommy John Surgery, and I am coming back strong with a new emphasis on MLB Team Payrolls that is unique to the industry.  Before the year is over, no one will have finer coverage of MLB Team Salary Analysis than we will. 

Trey Rose with Justin Verlander

Our Lead Baseball Analyst (Trey Rose) is going to contribute daily (DFS) MLB Draft Kings rosters during the regular seasons. along with a ton of baseball rankings when it comes to fantasy baseball.  Trey is an uprising writing talent that will not be denied.

Sully Baseball has continued his streak of running a podcast every day since Oct. 24/2012 – and 2017 he will not be slowing down anytime soon.   We are pleased to have Sully back for another year of his 20 minute a day show!!

In March, we are coming back with our award winning (MLB Team Appreciation Days, where we preview your clubs, and also hammer out the payroll for each team).

The BBBA is a growing collection of baseball bloggers with the general purpose of collaborating on projects or being a reference for each other – and especially in terms of promoting in social media like Twitter, Facebook and Podcasting.

This is not all….We have several many other BBBA (Baseball Bloggers Alliance) contributors to the site that will be posting their great work with our site to show the public as well.

250 writers have posted at least one article with us.. We are in the Millions of views now in our 6000+ Blogs.  Many thanks to all of the people who have contributed to our little place on the web.  Here is to many more years of baseball coverage!

Chuck Booth (MLB Reports Owner)

Follow @chuckbooth3024 @mlbreports

*** The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of mlbreports.com and their partners***

I am happy to be back at the helm of the MLB Reports, after completing my record 224 Games in the MLB Trip in 2015.  It was the 4th time I have seen all 30 MLB Parks since 2008. During that time away I was fortunate to do 100 Media Interviews

To Subscribe and listen daily to  ‘Our Lead Personality’  Sully’s 20 Minutes Daily (every day since Oct.24, 2012) Podcast click here.  Guaranteed listening to the Sully Baseball Daily Podcast will be the best time you invest in online!

As usual with my mid-winter grades, I won’t offer any score for first time managers, but if a guy has managed elsewhere in the majors he’s fair game, even if this will be the first season with his current team.

Let’s get to it!

American League East

John Farrell, Boston Red Sox: First to worst and back again. And again. And again. Farrell’s Boston teams seem to be either really good or really bad, and that doesn’t reflect too well on the manger. Seems to me, a well run team filled with talented veterans should be able to do a better job of consistently competing. 2017 will be a big challenge for Farrell for many reasons. First, he’ll be trying to string together back to back good seasons, but beyond that, the Red Sox are now so loaded with talent that expectations are going to be sky high. As we’ve seen in baseball many times before (e.g. 2012 Miami Marlins) super teams on paper don’t always pan out. Let’s see if Farrell can get all the parts to mesh. Grade: B

To continue reading the definitive rankings of 2017 American League Managers, click on over to our mostly baseball blog at Off The Bench.

The system offers a handful of true prospects that could make a difference at the Major League level this season, but also hold higher potential down the road. The list is headed by Brent Honeywell who could find his way into the middle of the rotation in the next couple of years. The young bats that follow Honeywell all offer a strong foundation. Willy Adames, Jake Bauers, Garrett Whitley, and Joshua Lowe all have their flaws but have shown enough promise real improvement in the next couple of years.

TAMPA BAY RAYS TOP 25 PROSPECTS IN 2017

Now that we are in a new year, spring training is right around the corner. The Boston Red Sox made some big moves this offseason but like all teams can never count on what will happen with injuries, player production and other factors that will impact their success in 2017. Although their roster is packed with stars they invite a number of non-roster players to camp each spring. While most end up being warm bodies, they are all worth a look and sometimes end up getting big league time before the year is over. Here is a look at the non-roster invites the Red Sox have lined up so far for this year.

READ FULL POST