A Star is Born

[Steve9347]

Welcome to the most bipolar thread in Soxtalk history.

[BaconOnAStick]

Not getting Boston's best prospect for Sale is going to sting for a while.

[Quin]

Welcome to the most bipolar thread in Soxtalk history.

 

No prospects ever struggle.

[GGajewski18]

Not getting Boston's best prospect for Sale is going to sting for a while.

 

Did you say that when we first traded for Moncada? It's 20 games, what if Devers pulls a Schwarber next year?

 

Not surprised by an overreaction from you.

[southsider2k5]

Yea I'm worried. He looks dreadful.

 

And now you know why this is isn't going to be a .500 team next year. Expecting day one success from all of these guys is lunacy.

[Dick Allen]

I don't know how many times I read how "dreadful" Melky was as a right handed hitter, yet you look at his splits, pretty similar production. The overreaction to young players just starting out is funny.

 

It's amazing how many people aren't built for a rebuild.

Edited August 16, 2017 by Dick Allen

[Steve9347]

Not getting Boston's best prospect for Sale is going to sting for a while.

Oh, so Devers is definitively a better long-term player than Moncada and Kopech? Thank you for the message from the future.

[TaylorStSox]

It's an instant gratification culture. Look at the minor league board. Literally every game thread has a post about promoting/demoting a player. Literally every single one. It's pretty hilarious if you just read them for updates.

[FT35]

Great article below gives us a little reminder. If you don't have a rookie year like Bellinger and Judge--you're most likely going to be a complete failure...but there still might be some faint hope!

 

https://www.azsnakepit.com/2012/4/11/293884...ers-cooperstown

[FT35]

It's an instant gratification culture. Look at the minor league board. Literally every game thread has a post about promoting/demoting a player. Literally every single one. It's pretty hilarious if you just read them for updates.

 

Totally true and sad. Moncada goes 2-4 with a home run, he's the next Robinson Cano. Next night he goes 0-4 with a couple of k's and he's a complete waste and not able to hit MLB pitching. Next night he's 1-3 with a double and a walk and he's the next Robinson Cano--love that swing--so much promise.

Edited August 16, 2017 by FT35

[witesoxfan]

Not getting Boston's best prospect for Sale is going to sting for a while.

 

uh what

 

http://m.mlb.com/prospects/2016?list=prospects - Moncada #1 in game

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/2017-top-100-prospects/ - Moncada #1 in game

http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/2017...gcjIctHPOf3d.97 - Moncada #2 in game, beyond Benintendi, who the Red Sox were never giving up

 

trolls gonna troll

[SCCWS]

uh what

 

http://m.mlb.com/prospects/2016?list=prospects - Moncada #1 in game

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/2017-top-100-prospects/ - Moncada #1 in game

http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/2017...gcjIctHPOf3d.97 - Moncada #2 in game, beyond Benintendi, who the Red Sox were never giving up

 

trolls gonna troll

 

It reminds me of how skewed NCAA BB recruiting gets. A kid is ranked 50 and he signs w Kentucky and next ranking he drops to 20. Moncada was clearly ranked higher 3rd than Benintendi 15th going into 2016 season. By the end of 2016, after each got called up that changed. Rankings are very subjective. Some are very accurate and some are not.

 

[Jose Abreu]

It reminds me of how skewed NCAA BB recruiting gets. A kid is ranked 50 and he signs w Kentucky and next ranking he drops to 20. Moncada was clearly ranked higher 3rd than Benintendi 15th going into 2016 season. By the end of 2016, after each got called up that changed. Rankings are very subjective. Some are very accurate and some are not.

Well there's why. Benintendi had a better 2016 than Moncada so the rankings changed.

[Panerista]

Not getting Boston's best prospect for Sale is going to sting for a while.

AlexeihNOOOOO

[Señor Ding-Dong]

My friend from Boston has been hyping up Devers as being better than Moncada...I tried telling him the first ~25 games of their ML careers mean very little in the long run and that they're both probably going to be franchise players, but he's been incredibly annoying since Devers started mashing. He's definitely been impressive though, no doubting that. Boston has a lot of good 3B prospects: Devers, Michael Chavis, Bobby Dalbec, etc.

 

Anytime I would hype up Sale he would say he's at best a borderline top 10 pitcher and nowhere close to a Cy Young candidate. All of a sudden he's hyping Sale for Cy Young AND MVP...heh...

[Jose Abreu]

I was surprised to learn that, while his 2016 and 2017 splits show that he's a much better hitter from the left side, Moncada's 2015 splits were the opposite. At least it gives me hope that he'll become adequate from the right side.

 

His 2015 splits were:

As a lefty: .262/.379/.374 for a .753 OPS

As a righty: .310/.381/.570 for a .951 OPS

[greg775]

This sub .200 s*** probably is good for Moncada. It's obvious he is a physical specimen and you'd think his early struggles should help his mental frame of mind. If he's a competitor maybe it'll humble him up if he needs that and he'll be better for it. You probably need to trust your coaches in this game. Don't know anything about him personally but struggling early during a meaningless season could wind up helping him.

[SCCWS]

This sub .200 s*** probably is good for Moncada. It's obvious he is a physical specimen and you'd think his early struggles should help his mental frame of mind. If he's a competitor maybe it'll humble him up if he needs that and he'll be better for it. You probably need to trust your coaches in this game. Don't know anything about him personally but struggling early during a meaningless season could wind up helping him.

 

Maybe, but he also struggled in Boston last season during a pennant race. Maybe staring from ST and going into the ML next year may help.

 

[chitownsportsfan]

He's in his own head right now, but at least he didn't take it out to the field last night. I think it's going to take at least 500 PA before Moncada finds his groove as an 800 OPS or higher hitter. He's got plenty of time to figure it out patience will be key. Remember in two years from now he'll still only be about as old as TA is now. He's young and raw.

[southsider2k5]

Maybe, but he also struggled in Boston last season during a pennant race. Maybe staring from ST and going into the ML next year may help.

 

Some guys just take a while to get it. Look no further than RF.

[Chisoxfn]

Love your posts and certainly don't mean any offense by my thought and don't really aim this to entirely to you, but I always thought it was interesting how people could take such a small sample size out of such a long season on a player so young and let themselves make general assumptions about that player's success. During his development years, there were COUNTLESS 10 game periods (roughly 30 ab's) when Paulie couldn't hit the broad side of a barn if you held it still for him and he turned out to be a pretty decent fastball hitter. It's the story of slumps...some all-star caliber players stay in them for weeks. Some start their career with a long one. Maybe it's just because there have been so many "top prospects" to bust--people already sit high on the skepticism meter on new players. To me it takes 3-4 abysmal YEARS of being in and out of the lineup, up and down between MLB and MiLB for me to start wondering if someone just can't adjust to MLB pitching. In other words, the Gordon Beckham story! Even then, there's been too many cases where a player figures it out later to end up being able to contribute on an MLB team. 30 at bats though...10 games...whatever--that's tough! Mike Trout was 4 for his first 30 (.133) with 8k's. With us--Moncada was 4 for his first 30 (.133) with 11k's. Someone with Moncada's hype got hyped because he CAN turn gear up for MLB caliber pitching. Just because he hasn't done it in the MLB games doesn't mean he hasn't hit his fair shares of 99mph fastballs between pitching machines and facing some of the top talent in the game at the minor/international level. I'd be more concerned if he couldn't hit a change-up--but even then, I'd give him a few years before I assume he would perpetually struggle with them.

This exact post is why I would like the White Sox to find a way to target guys like Joc Pederson. Dodgers have a glut in the outfield...will probably consider moving Joc and while the Sox don't have anything to offer, I would be all for being a 3rd team and potentially leveraging prospects to facilitate a transaction that worked for all sides.

 

If people want to think patience, think Joey Gallo, ultimate top prospect, very early call up, saw his stock slip a bit and then re-emerged this year as a great player. He was always really young though and it wasn't that long until he re-emerged, but I'm sure if it were a Sox prospect, we would have went that entire next season talking about how Gallo was a bust.

[caulfield12]

Or then there's Byron Buxton...in all seriousness, I believe he will come out of this in September, simply due to facing so much inferior pitching.

 

Otoh, the Indians, Royals and Twins are all likely to be in the pennant and wild card chases for the majority of that time.

[BaconOnAStick]

Even the walks have stopped. He's one for his last twenty with 10 strike outs and no walks. He's not struggling, he's drowning. Anyone still convinced he'll climb out of this is deluded. You don't have to take the exact opposite point either, but now it's time to seriously consider that Moncada is a complete and total bust. It has gotten so bad that the Buxton comparisons are starting to look generous.

 

I hope he turns it around, but watching him play leaves almost zero room for encouragement.

[southsider2k5]

Even the walks have stopped. He's one for his last twenty with 10 strike outs and no walks. He's not struggling, he's drowning. Anyone still convinced he'll climb out of this is deluded. You don't have to take the exact opposite point either, but now it's time to seriously consider that Moncada is a complete and total bust. It has gotten so bad that the Buxton comparisons are starting to look generous.

 

I hope he turns it around, but watching him play leaves almost zero room for encouragement.

 

Counterpoint:

 

Robin Ventura.

[TaylorStSox]

Even the walks have stopped. He's one for his last twenty with 10 strike outs and no walks. He's not struggling, he's drowning. Anyone still convinced he'll climb out of this is deluded. You don't have to take the exact opposite point either, but now it's time to seriously consider that Moncada is a complete and total bust. It has gotten so bad that the Buxton comparisons are starting to look generous.

 

I hope he turns it around, but watching him play leaves almost zero room for encouragement.

This post is sig-worthy. I'm keeping it. You better hope Moncada never becomes a stud. You won't forget it.