Moncada

[greg775]

please calm down about Moncada. When it matters, he will hit. Until then I bet he's .230-.250 with some incredible games, some lousy. From what I've read he isn't the greatest competitor. When a team is this bad, yes he'll lose focus on occasion. He'll hit when we get good, folks. He'll hit some before then too.

[Jose Abreu]

12 hours ago, tlongo81@gmail.com said:

I do think Albies is the better player. He is also two years younger which doesn't seem to matter to you. 

Do you also think that Moncada is a better player than Torres from NY? 

 

It would normally matter but given how raw Moncada was when he came over, it doesn't matter to me as much.

 

And no, but what Torres is doing is also unsustainable 

[TheBlackSox8]

1 hour ago, Jose Abreu said:

It would normally matter but given how raw Moncada was when he came over, it doesn't matter to me as much.

 

And no, but what Torres is doing is also unsustainable 

Torres also hits in a crazy lineup though.  It's unsustainable, but he won't slump as bad as Moncada has.  I myself am not worried, just saying Torres and Moncada play for completely different team lineups.  I'm sure Moncada would be putting up similar numbers if he had that level of protection.

[Jack Parkman]

Think about the quality of pitchers the Sox have faced in the last week. They've drawn the top of every team's rotation, save for Cleveland where they got everyone but Kluber, and Cleveland probably has the best starting pitching in the AL. Plutko is the only one of their pitchers that isn't lights out this year. In the last two weeks the Sox have faced the following pitchers: Berrios, Sale, Price, Porcello, Carrasco, Bauer and Clevinger. Good luck to any rookies facing that group. No wonder Moncada is in a slump, because he's facing some of the best the AL has to offer every night. They faced the Indians right before the calendar turned to June, where they had Kluber and Clevinger in that series, and also when facing crappy pitchers, Moncada has been outright brutalized by umpires calling pitches strikes 6+ inches off the plate.He was doing just fine until having to face Kluber and Clevinger back to back, and he hasn't had much of a break from quality pitching either. 

Edited June 16, 2018 by Jack Parkman

[soxfan49]

16 hours ago, greg775 said:

please calm down about Moncada. When it matters, he will hit. Until then I bet he's .230-.250 with some incredible games, some lousy. From what I've read he isn't the greatest competitor. When a team is this bad, yes he'll lose focus on occasion. He'll hit when we get good, folks. He'll hit some before then too.

So, the guy who isn't the greatest competitor will hit when the pressure is on as opposed to off? Isn't it typically the opposite?

Also, please provide a link for the article where it talks about Moncada being uncompetitive.

[soxfan49]

8 hours ago, Jack Parkman said:

Think about the quality of pitchers the Sox have faced in the last week. They've drawn the top of every team's rotation, save for Cleveland where they got everyone but Kluber, and Cleveland probably has the best starting pitching in the AL. Plutko is the only one of their pitchers that isn't lights out this year. In the last two weeks the Sox have faced the following pitchers: Berrios, Sale, Price, Porcello, Carrasco, Bauer and Clevinger. Good luck to any rookies facing that group. No wonder Moncada is in a slump, because he's facing some of the best the AL has to offer every night. They faced the Indians right before the calendar turned to June, where they had Kluber and Clevinger in that series, and also when facing crappy pitchers, Moncada has been outright brutalized by umpires calling pitches strikes 6+ inches off the plate.He was doing just fine until having to face Kluber and Clevinger back to back, and he hasn't had much of a break from quality pitching either. 

And when they make the playoffs, the opposing pitchers will be bad, or what?

[Jack Parkman]

2 hours ago, soxfan49 said:

And when they make the playoffs, the opposing pitchers will be bad, or what?

Not to say that, you get a small reprieve in Games 3-4 but you don't usually stack up 7+ days of ace quality pitching during the regular season. 

[Chicago White Sox]

On 6/15/2018 at 9:46 AM, soxfan49 said:

To be fair, Kopech has a 5+ ERA in Triple A. The excuses for Moncada- raw, not much time against big league pitching, tons of pressure to be "the guy"- can't be said for Kopech. He's had plenty of time to develop in the US. That ERA is pretty discouraging, no matter if you're an optimist, pessimist or somewhere in between.

He also has a 3.98 FIP.  That ERA is very misleading and driven by a handle of ugly starts.  We also don’t know how much working on his changeup might be affecting his numbers.  Regardless, the K rate is still a nasty 11.84 per 9.  The stuff is clearly there to be an ace, he just needs a bit more time to learn how to control his emotions and not throw every pitch 1,000 MPH.

[Chicago White Sox]

On 6/15/2018 at 9:56 AM, tlongo81@gmail.com said:

Dude Moncada has a 556 OPS over the last month. Albies is also two years younger than Moncada and has already leapfrogged him. Albies only cost the Braves 350K too. 

 

 

 

WTF does a guy’s signing bonus have to do with anything??

[Jack Parkman]

7 hours ago, Chicago White Sox said:

He also has a 3.98 FIP.  That ERA is very misleading and driven by a handle of ugly starts.  We also don’t know how much working on his changeup might be affecting his numbers.  Regardless, the K rate is still a nasty 11.84 per 9.  The stuff is clearly there to be an ace, he just needs a bit more time to learn how to control his emotions and not throw every pitch 1,000 MPH.

His xFIP is 4.14, meaning that while he's expected to be better, an ERA over 4.00 isn't going to cut it at AAA. He needs to stay down all season. MAYBE the guy could get a cup of coffee in September, but I'd err on the side of caution. 

Edited June 17, 2018 by Jack Parkman

[Lillian]

Regarding Moncada, but not exclusively; What ever happened to the old rule that states; with 2 strikes, a hitter should swing at anything close to a strike? It is a shame to see him go down, with the bat on his shoulder. Why not shorten up his swing, try to make contact and maybe foul the pitch off? It also wouldn't hurt to choke up, on the bat, with 2 strikes. I understand the idea of being selective, early in the count and looking for your pitch, but not with 2 strikes.

Edited June 17, 2018 by Lillian

[Dick Allen]

5 minutes ago, Lillian said:

Regarding Moncada, but not exclusively; What ever happened to the old rule that states; with 2 strikes, a hitter should swing at anything close to a strike? It is a shame to see him go down, with the bat on his shoulder. Why not shorten up his swing, try to make contact and maybe foul the pitch off? It also wouldn't hurt to choke up, on the bat, with 2 strikes.

I agree, especially when he is trying to establish himself. I am seen him sat down by too many umpires on borderline strikes and non strikes to think what he is doing pays off. It worked for Frank Thomas, but he was established. Maybe after Moncada starts putting up some numbers he will get those calls, but right now I think he needs to try what you are suggesting.

[Butter Parque]

17 hours ago, Jack Parkman said:

His xFIP is 4.14, meaning that while he's expected to be better, an ERA over 4.00 isn't going to cut it at AAA. He needs to stay down all season. MAYBE the guy could get a cup of coffee in September, but I'd err on the side of caution. 

How do you know he should do that?

I'm not saying he's been great down there, but that doesn't mean that he couldn't gain from learning at the MLB level. 

Based upon that logic, because Covey struggled so much last year and had so little experience at AAA, he should have been obligated to stay there for all of 2018.

If he has 3 good starts in a row at AAA, does that mean he's still not allowed to be promoted because of the 2 bad starts he had before that?

 

[BlackSox13]

18 minutes ago, Lillian said:

Regarding Moncada, but not exclusively; What ever happened to the old rule that states; with 2 strikes, a hitter should swing at anything close to a strike? It is a shame to see him go down, with the bat on his shoulder. Why not shorten up his swing, try to make contact and maybe foul the pitch off? It also wouldn't hurt to choke up, on the bat, with 2 strikes. I understand the idea of being selective, early in the count and looking for your pitch, but not with 2 strikes.

Great points Lillian and I agree. Pitchers seem to like throwing first pitch fastballs to him to get ahead so I wouldn't mind seeing Moncada take more swings earlier in the count.

[Jose Abreu]

Interestingly, during his slump, Moncada has just an 11% soft contact rate and only a .256 BABIP to show for it. So while the strikeouts are piling up and his numbers should be down, he shouldn't be doing this poorly.

[Jack Parkman]

1 hour ago, Butter Parque said:

How do you know he should do that?

I'm not saying he's been great down there, but that doesn't mean that he couldn't gain from learning at the MLB level. 

Based upon that logic, because Covey struggled so much last year and had so little experience at AAA, he should have been obligated to stay there for all of 2018.

If he has 3 good starts in a row at AAA, does that mean he's still not allowed to be promoted because of the 2 bad starts he had before that?

 

If he has 3 good starts, I still want to see more before I'm sure. Go look at his line from earlier in the week. 3 IP 5 ER 2H 8 BB 2 K. Does that scream ready to you? Furthermore, I have heard that Kopech is losing velocity and is sitting in the 94-96 range instead of 97-100 and that affects things too. I don't know what the Sox are doing but it is concerning that their two fireballing SP prospects come here and lose their velocity. 

[footlongcomiskeydog]

Moncada and Kopech for Gleyber Torres. Who says no?

[flavum]

3 minutes ago, tlongo81@gmail.com said:

Moncada and Kopech for Gleyber Torres. Who says no?

 

[soxfan49]

6 hours ago, tlongo81@gmail.com said:

Moncada and Kopech for Gleyber Torres. Who says no?

The White Sox, I hope

[WBWSF]

How about Moncada and Kopech to the Red sox for Chris Sale?

[Sarava]

20 hours ago, tlongo81@gmail.com said:

Moncada and Kopech for Gleyber Torres. Who says no?

Not sure what the Sox would do, but the Yankees say no for sure.

[footlongcomiskeydog]

11 minutes ago, Sarava said:

Not sure what the Sox would do, but the Yankees say no for sure.

I think the Sox would make this trade in a hearbeat if Cashman would agree to it. You wouldn't know it by following the Sox, but sometimes highly ranked prospects actually come up to the Show and produce right away. Crazy to think that Moncada was pretty much ranked higher than this kid by everyone a year ago. My how the tables have turned.. 

 

 

[caulfield12]

3 minutes ago, tlongo81@gmail.com said:

I think the Sox would make this trade in a hearbeat if Cashman would agree to it. You wouldn't know it by following the Sox, but sometimes highly ranked prospects actually come up to the Show and produce right away. Crazy to think that Moncada was pretty much ranked higher than this kid by everyone a year ago. My how the tables have turned.. 

 

 

You mean April 23rd, not even two months ago....

[ptatc]

23 hours ago, Lillian said:

Regarding Moncada, but not exclusively; What ever happened to the old rule that states; with 2 strikes, a hitter should swing at anything close to a strike? It is a shame to see him go down, with the bat on his shoulder. Why not shorten up his swing, try to make contact and maybe foul the pitch off? It also wouldn't hurt to choke up, on the bat, with 2 strikes. I understand the idea of being selective, early in the count and looking for your pitch, but not with 2 strikes.

Unfortunateky, few hitters do this anymore. Judge had a 3-2  count bases loaded with 2 outs and took such a hard long swing he almost fell down. 

[footlongcomiskeydog]

1 hour ago, WBWSF said:

How about Moncada and Kopech to the Red sox for Chris Sale?

Way too late for that my friend. 

Moncada's hit tool is being exposed big time by major league pitching. He has an OPS under 700 and and an OBP under 300. We all know about the horrendous K rate. How does this all magically turn around for him? 

The Sox billed this kid as a Porsche in all the press that came out during and after the Sale trade. After 500 major league plate appearances, it looks like the Sox got a Kia instead.