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Not being a meatball. He has made Good contact 2 times in 2 weeks. I really hope its boredom and wanting to work through things. I am one of his biggest fans, but he still is chasing too often and is in 0-2 counts nearly half his at bats. I know spring training means nothing, but the tendencies remain to start the season quite often. He will still be elite when he makes contact, but 47% swing rate is 3rd worst in baseball and worth watching in April. I still think he is a peak 7-8 WAR guy if everything clicks, but that is several seasons away until discipline improves. His minors numbers show adversity and then explosion though, so I would rather the struggles be now then when it matters. With Eloy out he is probably the most important bat in the lineup.

Don’t worry, Vaughn can play CF I’m sure

No it’s not. Don’t be a meatball

god damn Hawk Harrelson was an idiot

La Russa has said in multiple occasions he has the most talent on the entire team. He’s literally just young and spring training numbers don’t matter at all. Like at all to people who watch baseball. We don’t know what he’s working on was told to do. Spring training matters 0 percent.

Its officially worry about Robert time. He has looked awful for 2 weeks

I’ll give La Russa some credit, he makes all his responses about the players and not himself. And he clearly realizes how lucky he is to come into a group like this. I obviously won’t endorse his off-field issues, but I’m really hoping he can be everything Ricky wasn’t when it comes to the in-game stuff.

Woof that’s a horrendous at bat for Robert

Yup, that’s him with my younger son a couple years back at SoxFest. Dude was super nice and I’ve been a huge fan of his despite his known flaws. I really hope he gets a shot and cements himself as some sort of long-term piece, whether as our backup catcher or regular DH.

Yes, they absolutely would have. They were dominate by 18-19 in MLB. It was their talent that made them great not 6 months of organization development.

And it's a very good one. Perhaps. The bigger question is would they have stayed here long term? Sadly, I think the answer to that one is likely very easy.

Had they signed/remained with the Sox, do you actually think that Tatis Jr and Soto would have developed into the players they are today? Serious question.

Wouldn’t surprise me if that was the case. Reinsdorf has found his sweet spot in signing these Cubans for cheap ( except for Robert) rather than spent 100m + on an established player. ive never concurred with the reinsdorf is cheap stuff but am starting to lean that way. I don’t understand, especially at his age where is the let’s really load up and go for it mindset is. It seems like it’s always let’s do something pretty good every ten years and hope luck is on our side. his legacy is going to be terrible when he passes. Michael Jordan and his greatness will be the only thing that saves him from being a buffoon and even that may not do it.

So a couple of things: It’s not like eloys replacement is going to hit .00000. vaughn couldn’t not provide better Defence than Eloy so that’s a plus. Vaughn might hit almost as well as Eloy but I would take eloys first year of production from Vaughn . So overall a plus. this gets Collins in the mix as DH a lot. It’s time to give him a shot . Even if he’s mediocre that’s still better than EE and Larouche and Dunn and the other disasters that Hahn has brought in. Hahn will finally have a DH by default and that guy can also be the back up catcher . Plus there candidly I like Eloy but him running into nets and walls is stupid. If I remember he also got injured in a team celebration and missed part of last years playoffs. These things might have been a little humorous early on but now it could possibly cost the Sox.

??

Be careful before Puig turns this into a suggestion.

I don’t think you can ever dismiss the possibility of the Sox adding a shitty, aging slugger

Eloy couldn't even make every play a normal left fielder could.. Chill.

Just read a Yankees fan site that suggested we acquire Tauchman from them — for Codi Heuer and Benyamin Bailey. Vaughn is looking pretty good out there by comparison.

"Find out what he can't do, and then don't ask him to do it."

I wonder if the Cardinals board pisses, moans and complains that the cheap ass White Sox outbid them for Robert and Abreu.

You sound like the kind of guy who didn’t watch Robert chase six or more sliders out of the zone every game last year.

Let's just hope if we keep repeating that fear that the so-called brain trust of the organization comes to the same conclusion and doesn't force Vaughn to fit and compound the problem with another key injury. Then you're really behind the 8 ball having to make a desperation trade, or, gasp, add on salary.

I think he is making up his mind before the pitch is released. Imo that is an issue. He is aware he needs to be more patient and he tries to anticipate ball or strike. This causes him to take meatballs and take late swings on fastballs down the pipe. My take is for now he should be MORE agressive even though it sounds counter intuitive because a guy with his batspeed shouldn't take late and tardy swings on fastballs. Don't mess with his mind by trying to make him "patient", he needs to be aggressive and all over the fastball. The cubs failed with the same with baez and almost ruined him by teaching patience. He then was much better when he was let loose and stopped worrying about chasing and pitch counts. You still need to work on pitch recognition with free swingers bug not artificial patience, you always want to be in swing mode and stop when it is not a strike. For example there is a tool where you throw through a rim and the player learns to project the ball out of the hand better.

Leury Garcia is (or should be) your LF. The ONLY place this organization has any semblance of depth is in utility infielders. It makes the most sense to just hand Mendick the IF innings Leury would have gotten, and Remillard or Sanchez is the the next man up. Vaughn is penciled in for regular ABs as DH already; you aren't adding his bat to the lineup by sticking him in LF. Putting Vaughn in LF just gives Collins more ABs as DH, and while Collins is surely a better hitter than Leury, Vaughn is just as surely a way worse defender in the OF simply by virtue of his terrible footspeed. When you factor the increased chance of injury to Vaughn and the potential negative effect on his bat from the of stress/distraction of learning a position he isn't physically suited to play, I think Leury as a starter is the clearly correct choice. Don't worry, I'm not happy about it either.

Greg - a few hours later still ticking from my moderna. Such an awesome feeling getting that shot. Don’t think I’ve ever had such a big smile for getting a need injected in me.

There’s reason to wonder. He has never done it for a full season. But he had one big slump last year and was coming out of it. He hasn’t looked good yet this spring, but maybe he is getting his slump out of the way while it doesn’t count. A guy that swings at as much as he does, is going to have some slumps. But I’m glad the Sox have him.

Be careful out there Luis

It helps that Robert's floor starts with him being perhaps the best defensive outfielder in baseball with elite raw power/exit velocity. Those skills never leave him. Even when his approach is completely out of whack he's going to be a very valuable player. The hitting will come around.

One thing it shows is Paddy is on the guys who are mid level signers. Too bad they don't give him a full pool every year.

Yep or when whoever DH's (Collins) is terrible with the bat after a while.

He will be fine.

Vaughn caught a routine flyball in left. Looked fine. Play him there in opening day.

great play by Madrigal

He's been stealing strikes consistently all spring. His growth has been so impressive.

Another good frame job by Collins.

Man, I really hope Collins makes the team as the backup C/DH. He's looked so good offensively this spring. Thats a picture of him with your kid I take it?

Now this is a lineup worthy of multi championship discussion. Anderson SS Soto LF Abreu 1B Moncada 3B Jimenez DH Kelenic RF Robert CF Grandal (Or McCann) C Wong 2B

Isn’t MLB moving to an international draft at some point? That’s basically what we need to be on an even playing field and hopefully allows Paddy to his thing without Jerry interfering.

I remember Flukey Stokes being buried in a Cadillac Coffin.

Jerry was mostly cheap beyond the Fisk signing, just as he is now. They were never a consistently top half payroll team as they would have been under Debartolo. A few brief sports after the WS and when the new park opened. Even now, “all in” they are cheap beyond paying two managers to fulfill Jerry’s asinine fantasies. The only Top MLB Contract they pursued was Belle, solely because Jerry wanted to spite his fellow owners. He ended up dumping him after the second year, a year after the white flag trade , once spite ran its course and cheap and stupid returned in vogue. Hemond was replaced because Jerry wanted his guy, not Allyn/Veeck’s guy. So he and Dombrowski were purged, and Dombrowski travelled across America building multiple great clubs including the White Sox’ other nemesis (Detroit). Himes did great in the draft but was purged as well. Now stuck with White Sox Gar Pax entering year nine with now end beyond Jerry’s departure in sight. Same with the Bulls until a few years after Michael Reinsdorf took over and they could finally purge Gar Pax with Jerry gone. This. The dysfunctional organization starts at the top. Hang on to unqualified cheap cronies to run the show, don’t know how to or bother need to compete on the field to make money. It’s why the Sox and Bears have floundered for decades, and the Bulls for two decades once the gift of Portland’s blunder (Sam Bowie), Pippen and Jackson were gleefully purged by JR/Krause, followed by two decades of Paxton, a lottery pick (Rose) away from complete and abysmal failure. Same with the Blackhawks until Dollar Bill died, and the Cubs until the Tribune sold, competent baseball people were hired and the money spent. Once Jerry is gone, hopefully things will change for the better as they have for the Bulls, whether the Reinsdorf’s keep the team or not.

I was thinking the same thing. Years of cheaping out should lead to flexibility to add premium talent when it comes available and add to salary to cover for injuries. With the Sox it leads to neither.

If Vaughn hit's like Ramirez then I see your point. If not, we're comparing apples to oranges. But I'll at least agree that I'm more intrigued by the VaughnLF/Collins DH than LeuryLF/Vaughn DH.

Leury & Engel both hit LHP well, so you probably rock both of them (when healthy) in the corners against LHP and go with Vaughn in LF and Collins at DH against RHP. Lucroy should never be part of the DH plans IMO.

I think the platoon at DH should be Vaughn and collins. Against RHP: Collins DH and Vaughn LF Against LHP: Vaughn DH and whoever RHB/switch batter in LF (maybe leury and later Engel) Collins has improved but is still better used against RHP and thus against LHP you get Vaughns glove out of the Of.

So Vaughn in LF means a Collins/Lucroy or Collins Mercedes platoon at DH. The question then becomes, does that DH platoon give you more offensive added value over Engel/Garcia than Engel/Garcia give you in added defensive value over Vaughn in LF. When you add in Robert's ability to cover a bit for a sub-par LF, I think it does. There is also the option of splitting the difference, having Collins DH and Vaughn in LF vs RHP, but Garcia in LF and Vaughn DH vs RHP.

You are tying up my argument in semantics. No one knows precisely how much he played LF in Schaumburg but we know with certainty that they were trying to get him into the lineup and were trying him at LF and as he was there all day in Schaumburg for months I suspect every day for months they had him do some LF work. The real point is LF is one of the least valuable defensive positions in baseball and the one in the outfield where you can hide a bad arm. The Red Sox managed two World Series with a terrible fielding LF. I suspect Vaughn will be a bad LF but so was Eloy. It seems the real choice you make is Collins bat verses Leury's glove...which will add more value. Nothing is certain but I'd bet on Collins bat.

It is asking a lot for a guy who hasn't played above A ball to debut in the major leagues at a new position. Hopefully they can somehow acquire a legit OF quickly, and move Vaughn back to DH/1B.