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fathom already does

Good lord

You can make it the same and not hurt anyone’s feelings

I've spent a lot of time back home here in the Quad Cities listening to Cubs' games and the SCORE and I've noticed that Coomer and Hughes are using the nickname "Magic" for Javier Baez. But, after finally getting around to listening to this podcast (and the one right before the June draft with his OSU coach), Nick Madrigal is eventually going to be the one eventually "stealing" that nickname away. https://art19.com/shows/white-sox-podcast/episodes/e3557c6b-b05c-45b5-be8d-02c11deeb208 Listening to him, this was probably the first time I believed...just maybe...that the rebuild was going to work, that they could win another World Series in my lifetime. I don't particularly believe in Hahn, but I believe in players (typical Ozzie witticism, but he was right on this)...and this kid just has that something special that will rub off on his teammates and make the Sox a better team in the middle of 2020 (at the latest). He just plays the game the right way, and, while he's obviously not going to put up 1.000 OPS numbers like an Eloy Jimenez, I do think he'll end up having a tremendous impact on Tim Anderson and Moncada in particular...especially their lack of focus on what they're actually up at the plate to accomplish each time they go up there. (This has been one of the biggest pet peaves for White Sox fans who have grown up with "garbage" baseball the last 6 years...as opposed to "corpseball" the previous decade.) He will automatically improve the defense, and he'll be like the captain or player-manager out on the field. I'm pretty sure (the podcast was his last day at Kanny, last Thursday morning) that he was moved up to Winston-Salem largely to take advantage of the time to be around Omar Vizquel and soak up his wisdom/knowlege/insights forat least a month. It was also very clear that he was impressed by Justin Jirschele's desire and willingness to win, even though he was only there one week. So I'll make a prediction that Vizquel is at Birmingham next year and Jirschele moved up to Winston-Salem. One of those two guys will be the next White Sox manager, IMO. The thing that really stood out to me in that interview was talking about winning a World Series (from most other players' mouths, it seems like a cliche or just something they say because they're expected to say it), about always being the first one to the field and setting an example (he doesn't explicitly say it, but you can feel it...and the fact that he's never ever really thought much about being the youngest and shortest player in almost every competitive athletic situation because he feels his work ethic and practice/routine make him the biggest player on the field. That he's never thought about what kind of career he would have if he was 6'0". As I said, I don't know how great a hitter he can be...I expect he'll settle in around 750-775 unless he can really increase his walk numbers...but I do think he's the most important position player in this rebuild because of the positive influence he'll have on the rest of his teammates (especially about the strikeout issue and fouling off pitches). I know this all sounds like what we used to hear constantly about Tim Tebow, but listening to this guy and his college coach and Hostetler, it's hard not to be convinced to believe in this guy who has proven the doubters wrong his entire life (just like Altuve or Nellie Fox or whoever we want to compare him to...) Another thing that was pretty cool is the fact that his twin brother also made it as a Division 1 pitcher at that height. Beyond our middle infielders, I think he's going to get along really well with Collins, who will hopefully evolve into a leader at that position (Tyler Flowers never assumed that role, the constant turnover at catcher has been yet one more flaw in the last decade of Sox baseball) along with Nick. Finally, I think there's nothing to worry about with who's going to play exactly which infield/outfield position. Whether it's the Brewers, Cubs, Dodgers (http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/24267936/is-positionless-baseball-mlb-next-big-thing) the trend is now upon us, unless they add 1-2 more players to each roster in order to avoid so many position players pitching in blowout games. We already have (had) a lot of players that fit that bill in Saladino, Leury, Yolmer, Cordell...it's just that they're all essentially utility or role players instead of starters, but the running game and aggressiveness are already starting to come around this season, and it will only increase in the future with the additions of players like Madrigal, Robert and Basabe. While Madrigal is not "Baseball Jesus," I do think we're underestimating the difference that one player can make in turning around the attitude of an entire organization...everyone is merely looking at his stature and statistical projections (see allusions to Darwin Barney, who also played at OSU), but baseball is about so many more things that Madrigal does instinctively and we'll realize after watching him day after day, start to truly appreciate him, and wonder why all players don't have that "team first" mindset (obviously part of the answer is the fixation on launch angle and power numbers). Chicks dig winners/winning teams more than the longball. And Rudy wins the day!

This is a pretty difficult question and will ultimately be decided by the scouting expertise of our management because the performance of the players involved won't settle it. I will say that my feeling is you simply can't demote a guy in Palka who has hit so many homers, especially recently, and especially in such important situations. Davidson, in my view, is not going to be seriously considered largely because he can play an adequate 3B and isn't in competition for reps in the OF — even if his presence at DH indirectly competes with the outfielders who are rotating through there. Delmonico hasn't done anything to deserve a demotion, but if I just accept the premise of the post and say I have to pick one or the other, I have to pick Palka for the reasons stated. Part of this is based on my feeling that although Delmonico has surprised with his ability to play MLB-caliber defense (don't confuse this for a ringing endorsement), upon seeing him play in the majors for a while I'm not seeing the upside with his bat. Delmonico's 2017 in MLB was much better than his 2017 in AAA, which always merits suspicion. Sometimes you see that because he started off slow and was called up once he hit his stride, but this was not the case for him last year — if you split his AAA season into two two-month parts, the first two months he had a .850 OPS and the second two he had a .675 OPS. That's after a .700 OPS run over 70 games the previous year in AAA. If you look at Statcast data, you would get the impression his 2017 in MLB was tremendously lucky. He had an anemic 82.5 mph average exit velocity, a .232 expected batting average (actual batting average was .262) and a .390 expected slugging (actual was .482). Here's a chart of his homers last year: Everything to the dead pull side and a number of them not very deep. Same story this year. Nothing about his batted ball metrics stands out as impressive and they would suggest he just doesn't have anything better than an average power tool. He has some ability to get to that power tool, but wastes most of it on grounders and liners. Which brings me to the next thing that concerns me about Nicky... Last year, he was only shifted on 11% of the time. This year, 44%. His wOBA against the shift is .217 vs .387 w/o the shift. He's actually made better contact this season per Statcast, but his luc caught up with him and so did the scouting reports. To Nicky's credit, he makes contact, takes walks, and is disciplined. He just doesn't produce and I'm not optimistic he will even if his good approach does make him destined for some hot streaks.

Offensively or defensively?

I just want to go on record and say, tl;dr.

You can mail it to the prison. He could probably use a pen pal

Also has nothing to do with the post you are quoting.

Jack or Fathom. But Fathom complains about everything.

Covey is just going to destroy this lineup. Will be surprised if Yankees can get a hit imo

Bait might not be right word, but I do think some of these reporters that are clearly Cubs fans want the Sox to start their clocks now because it’s probably the wrong move right now.

Yeah, but it's a plus one, so your trolling is actually helping people. Good on the admins/mods

We'll see. If it doesn't work, I will turn it off.

After an internal mod/admin conversation and due to a few people posting literally hundreds of "confused" reactions and instead of using it to contribute to conversation using it as a passive aggressive means of detracting from conversation, the reaction has been disabled until further notice.

You just have to hope the investment in all of the reps at the Major League level, as ugly as they’ve been since he was called up last season, will have a huge payoff once it all “clicks” with him. It’s admittedly an “if” versus a “when” scenario at the moment, but hopefully that massive potential will, in fact, finally translate into all that we are hoping for.

You can't say any of them for sure. Rodon might be gone or traded, Moncada, Giolito and Lopez have been wildly inconsistent. Anderson is meh. Fry is a reliever, so you don't know about them from year to year. Not one player is a lock. I was hoping to find one player that would be a lock. It would have had to be one of Moncada, Anderson, Lopez and Giolito. All of them have more questions about their ability to stick in the majors than answers. All I was asking out of the 2018 season is to have one lock for the 2021 (or whenever) contending roster. That low bar wasn't even reached.

People also were chattering about how Abreu had a slow bat that might get exposed in MLB but instead he has been a consistently good hitter for 5+ years

Let’s face it, Moncada has been a huge disappointment thus far. He needs to be sent down to Charlotte to work on his game!

They are setting you up for not minding Zack Collins defense.

People gripe about Engel and his hitting but he just saved three runs with his glove

Jason just said said that Engel is in the top 3 in MLB for Outs Above Average.

Ok, that Wyatt Daniel Smith having webbed toes story is pretty nuts.

Yea that Laura Wolff is fantastic at her job, and easy on the eyes might I add.

Remember when everyone laughed at the notion Javier Baez was better than Moncada?

It looked like a post for his new GF, who is apparently even more IG famous then the one he just broke up with.

Maybe to blow up my points total...I can just start typing “too long/didn’t read” to every Balta post these days if that’s the feedback received from taking an hour or so to try to actually write something thoughtful.? One thing that’s kind of illogical is that just being snarky gets more instantaneous feedback than attempting to have a legitimate discussion about something. That’s all well and good, I guess...and I could care less about likes and dislikes in the Filibuster, where have spent proportionately more time since 2016) but I’m not sure what it’s actually adding (other than being slightly better than downvoting others intentionally when we had a 1-5 “community scale.”)

You're missing my point. I want, as I'm sure every Sox fan does, that our rebuild leads to sustainable winning. And I feel that if, at the end of 2024, we're sitting around going, "damn, I really wish we had waited to bring Eloy up so we could be good for one more year", then we're doing it wrong. 2025 and 2026 (for the 4/12 crowd) will depend on how we develop the younger guys, and draft new ones. And I don't see 2020 as out of the question. The Astros, Royals and Cubs all went from shit to great real quick (the Royals even went back to shit). We have a lot of young talent that is either here or knocking on the door. With proper development and a good FA signing or two, do you not think we can win 85+ in two years?

Tlongo or whatever the hell his name is these days. Not a doubt in my mind. Or Lillian will make another thread advocating him to move to 1B.

Remember earlier this season when Covey was a part of the next competitive core?

After 1000 MLB PAs, you know what you have with Davidson - a 30ish homer guy. You need to see if Palka actually could be a 40ish homer guy. I'd jettison Davidson and keep both Palka and Delmonico for now. Delmonico is just finding his 2018 groove IMO.

Thank's I've been saying and posting "Mad Regal" since shortly after he was drafted . Seemed logical if not very catchy .

Aoki and Beltran really weren't that important to the Astros world series run, Beltran was good for "leadership" but he didn't really produce at DH for them. Gregerson had an ERA of 4.57 last year on their way to the Series. The Free Agents who did make a difference for them were Reddick and Charlie Morton, and once again there's a lesson here. They signed several guys, and at least 1 of them simply wasn't worth his money - that was Beltran. The other guys contributed and helped them win that title, but...take those guys away and the Astros are still the best team in last year's AL West. They started with a strong team that they developed, and their signings filled in a few gaps around it. Frankly, they did better than most teams in free agency, they're not stuck with a Jayson Heyward or a Pablo Sandoval deal.

Unfortunately it's not the same. Now people will think I'm laughing with them instead of at them

I need a "Madrigal Elektromotoren" White Sox shirt made. ASAP.

I don't care if someone likes loves laughs or is confused by my posts. Is there someway to turn it off? I'm only interested in replies. It's annoying to get notifications and then see it's just somebody being "confused" by post. I looked in the notification settings for a way to turn it off but can't find it.

Boo!!!

I'm sure the "lol" one will be a nice sub for those confused emoji freaks.

This was just done. Agree that it got to be a distraction. All reactions are now positive.

It's all equally annoying. F likes I'd settle for my reputation to be 0 if I didn't have to deal with these stupid notifications.

So who is boarding that 10:55 flight to Chicago out of Charlotte so we can see who is on the plane? Make sure you walk up and down the entire length of the plane pretending to “look for your friend” who boarded earlier.

Moviepass blocking all afternoon showtimes now by me. Of everything. If this sticks, I’m definitely out when my annual runs out in November.

I just wanted all of you to know. That I really, REALLY like all of you guys and gals.

In the time it took you to post this you could have googled his name and found out for yourself. Google is your friend, do not fear the google!

I think you're in the wrong subforum.

33rd because he was not expected to sign. Got 6th round money.

Don't screw up this thread too.