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Vaughn the platoon hitter?


kman
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AV is an absolute stud, but he obviously rakes against lefties vs righties.

What is the plan with AV, continue to platoon him? He's too good to limit him only to lefties. 

Do we think that the Sox will let him loose and allow him to learn as he goes? 

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1 hour ago, kman said:

AV is an absolute stud, but he obviously rakes against lefties vs righties.

What is the plan with AV, continue to platoon him? He's too good to limit him only to lefties. 

Do we think that the Sox will let him loose and allow him to learn as he goes? 

You like to watch the world burn  don't you ?

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Guys are going to be rested to proactively protect them from injuries, that's going to put Garcia out there a lot. Blame it on players needing rest not the guy whose on the roster because he can back up multiple positions.

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42 minutes ago, ShoeLessRob said:

Considering Vaughn a platoon player and Leury an every day player would be a fireable offense for anyone else.

I mean, if Abreu isn’t retiring, there’s no position for him other than DH. Platooning this poor guy around is just wrong. They should just trade the guy for a serious young position player of need, or pitcher.

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If Vaughn wants everyday ABs against right handers, he has to continue earning them by hitting them better than the alternatives, including Eloy and Abreu, Sheets, Moncada (if you play him at 3B on occasion) and Pollock  He's a DH, 1B, RF, LF most often, but can also play 3B in a pinch, and maybe even 2B for a game.  

Who is in those roles against right handers?  For DH, it could be Grandal, Sheets, Eloy, and Abreu.  For 1B, it could be Abreu, Grandal, and Sheets.  For LF, it could be Eloy, Sheets, Pollock, or Engel.  For RF, it could be Pollock, Engel, or Sheets.  For 3B, it's Moncada, Burger, Harrison, or Garcia.  

How many of those hitters did Vaughn hit better against right handers last season?   None of them.  And it wasn't close. 

i'm excited to see him have a new approach and hit them solidly over a few ABs so far this year.  But a few ABs don't make a season.  TLR knows he needs to work Vaughn in, and he will.  But the Sox need every one of the other guys to produce this year.  So it's no solution to just "bench" someone else for Vaughn.  

The good news for Vaughn is that he's capable enough to play a lot of positions.  This is going to get him more ABs than he would if he was just a DH/1B     

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This platoon business needs to end. Vaughn is absolutely crushing the ball. How will he improve against righties if he isn't playing against them? Hahn needs to take Sheets away from Tony. 

Edited by ron883
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7 hours ago, ShoeLessRob said:

Considering Vaughn a platoon player and Leury an every day player would be a fireable offense for anyone else.

Why work yourself up over it ? 1st of all it's not true and 2nd of all even if you think it's true it won't remain that way for long . The cream always rises to the top. Maybe TLR knows what he's doing.

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47 minutes ago, CaliSoxFanViaSWside said:

Why work yourself up over it ? 1st of all it's not true and 2nd of all even if you think it's true it won't remain that way for long . The cream always rises to the top. Maybe TLR knows what he's doing.

We’ll see! 

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6 hours ago, CaliSoxFanViaSWside said:

Why work yourself up over it ? 1st of all it's not true and 2nd of all even if you think it's true it won't remain that way for long . The cream always rises to the top. Maybe TLR knows what he's doing.

But we could be a better 4-1. 

Maybe Tony is proactively protecting Vaughn from injury while risking Garcia. 

Vaughn and Garcia, one my opportunity, one by necessity, are getting playing time by being versatile. Vaughn is in a tighter bottleneck right now than Garcia. This is basically spring training that counts in the standings. 

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6 minutes ago, Texsox said:

But we could be a better 4-1. 

Maybe Tony is proactively protecting Vaughn from injury while risking Garcia. 

Vaughn and Garcia, one my opportunity, one by necessity, are getting playing time by being versatile. Vaughn is in a tighter bottleneck right now than Garcia. This is basically spring training that counts in the standings. 

There are a lot of good players on this team and some are young. Other guys have to get AB's who have talent too. According to the Vaughn jockeys Vaughn was tired at the end of the year but now he's supposed to play every day ? I get it the guy is a superstar in training, he should be in the lineup every single inning of every single game forever, the next Cal Ripken , Jr. 

People acting like they don't know anything about how baseball and team play in order to win a championship works. He must become the stud he was meant to be and a few less AB's than 100 % of the time could ruin his development !! It's how panicky fan boys act because everyone hates TLR and he's doing all these things upper management doesn't approve of. Why hasn't he been fired yet ?? You must trade Sheets in order to prevent this madman from trying to find out if Sheets can actually contribute as much as he did last year !

It's all so petty. How did Sheets deserve that ? He only had a .900 OPS against RHP last year and all you hear about his stats are because they were cherry picked. UM OK wasn't he facing the same pitchers everyone else on the team was who didn't have a .900 OPS against them ? .

Ok What about the fact he was our best power hitter in the playoffs ? That's an even smaller sample size than his season stats !! OK but all playoff stats are small sample size and being hot in  the playoffs is what gets teams championships .

OK wait if you think all Sheets stats are the result of cherry picking and small sample sizes, Sheets had more plate appearances against RHP pitching than Vaughn did against LHP last year. Does that mean Vaughn's great stats against LHP are also cherry picked and SSS ??

OK WELL um Vaughn is the 3rd overall pick in the draft and  a generational hitter !!!  He isn't that guy from last year against RHP anymore because he's crushing them this year !! Ok isn't that a small sample size too ?

Play nice , play fair.  The Sox are not going to prevent Vaughn from being all that he can be. But I suppose the same panic and blame will ensue if Vaughn slows his new found glory against RHP . It will be all Tony's fault for ruining a budding superstar !!

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IMO, if there are six games a week on average and two are vs. LHP here’s how I’d address the issue if everyone is healthy.

Versus RHP:

  • 1B: Abreu (3/4) | Sheets (1/4)
  • LF: Jimenez (3/4) | Vaughn (1/4)
  • RF: Pollock (3/4) | Vaughn (1/4)
  • DH: Sheets (1/4) | Vaughn (1/4) | Grandal (1/4) | Jimenez (1/4)
  • CA: Grandal (2/4) | McGuire (2/4)

Versus LHP:

  • 1B: Abreu (2/2)
  • LF: Jimenez (1/2) | Pollock (1/2)
  • RF: Pollock (1/2) | Engel (1/2)
  • DH: Vaughn (2/2)
  • CA: Grandal (2/2)

This allows the core starters (including Vaughn) to play five out of every six games.  Sheets gets two starts a week against tough RHP, McGuire starts two games against RHP (where he is solid), and Engel gets a token start plus late game duties.  If someone goes down, then Sheets’ playing time increases substantially.  Until then he should be a role player whose playing time reflects that.

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Let's pause for a moment to recognize how Vaughn has worked hard to make himself even more versatile and valuable. That is the hallmark of a champion. Like a lot of guys on this team he has a great attitude and work ethic. 

Some of that credit goes to the front office and coaching staff. 

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8 hours ago, Dam8610 said:

Hasn't Vaughn played in all 5 games thus far? It's not like they're sitting him for Leury or even Sheets.

One of the games he subbed in for Pollock.  He hasn’t started against a RHP yet to this point, despite showing he’s capable of hitting righties.  While I do think it’s premature to state with certainty that TLR is platooning AV, the suspicions based on last year and the evidence so far this season are valid IMO.  Once Moncada and Pollock are back we should get a clearer picture of Vaughn’s usage, but I suspect TLR will still start Sheets over AV too much for people’s liking, and it won’t be based much at all on what the advanced stats tell us about either. 

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46 minutes ago, Tnetennba said:

One of the games he subbed in for Pollock.  He hasn’t started against a RHP yet to this point, despite showing he’s capable of hitting righties.  While I do think it’s premature to state with certainty that TLR is platooning AV, the suspicions based on last year and the evidence so far this season are valid IMO.  Once Moncada and Pollock are back we should get a clearer picture of Vaughn’s usage, but I suspect TLR will still start Sheets over AV too much for people’s liking, and it won’t be based much at all on what the advanced stats tell us about either. 

SO has Vaughn not started a game in the field since he hurt himself diving in RF ? I don't think he has . Is it so terrible that TLR is taking his time giving Vaughn extra time to return to the field. Perhaps we see him in LF today with Eloy out.

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