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I decided to take a look at our batted ball profiles compared to the ML average and if our middle-opposite field hitting approach is actually causing some of the power decline we've seen with the team in 2022. Here's what I found. Name Pull Pull wOBA Pull GB% Pull GB wOBA Pull FB% Pull FB wOBA Pull LA Pull EV Pull Pitch Center Center wOBA Center GB% Center GB wOBA Center FB% Center FB wOBA Center LA Center EV Center Pitch Oppo Oppo wOBA Oppo GB% Oppo GB wOBA Oppo FB% Oppo FB wOBA Oppo LA Oppo EV Oppo Pitch League Average 37.80% 0.426 54.80% 0.177 18.10% 0.876 6.1 89.9 87.9 37% 0.317 46.50% 0.214 25.45% 0.311 9.5 88.9 89 25.10% 0.324 22% 0.401 37.90% 0.226 26 84.7 90 White Sox 35.30% 0.382 59.60% 0.172 13.68% 0.781 2.4 89.8 87.2 37.25% 0.325 48.10% 0.221 24.40% 0.348 8.5 89.7 88.6 27.43% 0.352 25.30% 0.464 36.50% 0.198 23.2 85.7 89.4 Andrew Vaughn 29.79% 0.491 54.80% 0.231 13.70% 1.158 3.1 91.1 86.6 38.36% 0.363 56.38% 0.257 19.15% 0.672 4.4 93.9 87.9 31.83% 0.329 30.77% 0.332 32.05% 0.187 17.4 89.3 89 Luis Robert 35.50% 0.531 63.22% 0.269 10.35% 1.287 -1.5 90.9 88 36.33% 0.372 50.56% 0.315 20.22% 0.344 6.4 89.6 88.5 28.16% 0.306 20.29% 0.406 37.68% 0.306 28.6 86.1 88.8 Eloy Jimenez 34.62% 0.541 50% 0.197 27.78% 1.239 8.8 97.2 88.7 48.10% 0.298 64% 0.276 16% 0.221 -1.4 91.4 88.2 17.31% 0.098 44.44% 0 44.44% 0 13.3 89.8 92.1 Tim Anderson 30.13% 0.251 77.78% 0.158 4.17% 0 -7.3 86.3 87.2 38.91% 0.355 60.22% 0.205 16.13% 0.359 -0.1 89.5 88.3 30.96% 0.501 27.03% 0.587 32.43% 0.381 17.6 88.7 88.6 A.J. Pollock 44.40% 0.342 56.04% 0.069 10.99% 0.708 1.9 89.4 87.2 32.68% 0.283 44.78% 0.295 26.86% 0.049 13.4 89 88.4 22.93% 0.302 10.64% 0.354 38.30% 0.304 36.6 85.2 89.6 I'm sure if you've read this forum a lot, you've seen a handful of posters constantly complaining that the White Sox don't pull the ball in the air enough. The reason for that is because on average, pulled fly balls get you a .876 wOBA. That's pretty much as good as hitting a line drive. Hitting the ball up the middle and to the opposite field give you far worse results than pulling the ball, as seen by the .317 and .324 wOBA when hitting the ball to center and the opposite field. There is one caveat to pulling the ball though: you'll hit a lot of grounders since you'll probably roll over on pitches more often with that approach, as seen by the near 55% ground ball percentage when pulling the ball. This is far higher than a batted ball in any other direction. Pull-heavy teams might tend to be less consistent offensively, but when they do hit their share of fly balls in the air, they're heavily rewarded. The teams that tend to pull the ball more tend to hit more home runs. The White Sox, in all their infinite wisdom, have gone away from the league trend and are 24th in the league in home runs and 27th in ISO despite having multiple guys in the lineup with massive raw power. They do however, lead the league in singles. When you look at the way the Sox hit, a couple of things really stand out. They don't pull the ball as much and when they do, the results kind of aren't there with the team as a whole. They pull the ball on the ground more than the league and hit way less fly balls than the league. so even though the league is having success pulling the ball, the Sox are not. They are better than league average when hitting to the opposite field and to center. So you might be able to say that the middle-out approach the organization teaches is working. Especially when the Sox get a gaudy .464 wOBA on ground balls to the opposite field. The only problem with it is that ground balls to the opposite field usually only get you singles. And the Sox as a whole don't have enough consistent hitters to link singles together to score runs. Which is why you often see the team have 6-8 hits and have like 1 or 2 runs. It sure seems like the Sox and Menechino thought they had found some kind of market inefficiency by hitting the ball to the opposite field, but in reality, they've just managed to get a bunch of hits while not scoring enough runs. You'd also think this middle-out approach would help in situations where the bases are loaded, but that obviously hasn't been the case this year. In general, the team is doing what the Sox and Menechino are preaching in terms of hitting philosophy, but the results simply are not there because the approach only works if you have a lineup full of consistent hitters. That's something that the Sox simply do not have at this point. That being said, it doesn't have to be that way. The Sox don't have the same type of hitter all across the lineup. This middle-out hitting approach benefits some guys while it's seriously hurting others who could be helping this team score a lot more runs. One guy who benefits from the middle-out approach is Tim Anderson. As you might have guessed, he is a monster when he hits the ball the other way. And he hits the ball the other way a lot more than just about everyone on the team. However, his hitting approach basically makes him useless when he pulls the ball. He puts it on the ground a staggering 78% of the time when he pulls and he doesn't have a hit yet on a pulled fly ball this year because he's only pulled the ball in the air 4 times all year. You read that right, 4 times. Sometimes you have to wonder why teams even bother playing a LFer when he's up. The funniest part is that a decent amount of those pulled grounders are probably when the Sox had the bases loaded. TA's numbers this year aren't bad, but something still makes me think that his swing/approach are kind of broken at the moment. On the opposite end, we have AJ Pollock, who pulls the ball a lot. But his timing is so bad that he just ends up rolling over quite a bit. That's why he has a .069 wOBA on pulled grounders. Nobody really hits well on them, but .069 is something else. Then we get to the 3 guys who I think this middle-out approach is really hurting. When Luis Robert, Andrew Vaughn, and Eloy Jimenez pull the ball, they get results. When your wOBA is over 1.000 when you pull the ball in the air, you should really think about doing it more. What's worse is that for guys like Vaughn, hitting to the opposite field isn't really working. He hits opposite field more than Tim Anderson, but only has a .332 wOBA to show for it. Luis Robert's numbers look ok when he does go opposite field, but he's also popped the ball up a ton when going that way (14 times) and it looks like he's making contact for the sake of making contact. Even in advantaged counts. So he ends up looking like a slap hitter when he looks like Mike Trout when he pulls the ball. Eloy has always had good opposite field power, but that was before MLB decided to deaden the balls even more. In a small sample this year, he has yet to get a hit on an opposite field fly ball. The majority of his power has come when he has pulled the ball. One thing to look at is the pitch velocity that these opposite field hits occur on. Outside of Eloy (small sample), all these guys are hitting pitches slower than the ML average to the opposite field. That tells me that this isn't a timing issue or that they can't pull high velocity. It just tells me that they're doing this on purpose. And if you really think about it, it doesn't make a ton of sense. Why would you sell out the power on the team for some extra singles when the league is doing the opposite and having success? It almost feels like the Sox want to be different for the sake of being different. The problem is that the approach is clearly not working. They're getting out-homered at home and even when they had a mostly healthy team in the playoffs last year, they ended up putting weak balls in play just to make contact. They probably aren't going to make a change at hitting coach this year, but I hope they do something about this in the off-season. As is, they're probably ruining some of these young hitters' careers by having them do something that isn't actually productive. TLDR: Fire Menechino

that actually sounds harder

Looking at Legend stats gets me all fired up. Leury Garcia has started 8 games at shortstop this season, lets analyze them! (summary below) Here are a couple of fun stats I have been looking at: Basically RE24 tells you how much a player costs during the game, and aLI determines high leverage spots. Is it accurate? No idea, but it seems to check out when you analyze the games separately. We start our Leury journey on April 8th, a game where we lost to the Tigers 5-4. Leury Legend, hitting 6th and protecting Eloy Jimenez (sidenote, Vaughn was hitting 8th this game), went 0-4 with a strikeout. His RE24 was -0.9, which means his performance practically cost us a run. His aLI was 0.63, medium pressure. In his 4 atbats he saw 13 pitches. Not a good performance by Legend here, but its easy to forget with the bullpen implosion. On April 9th, the Sox came back and won. Leury put up another 0-4 with a strikeout. In his 4 atbats he saw 10 pitches (only 6 for strikes). His RE24 was -0.5, while his aLI was 0.31. Not the highest of leverage for him, which is exactly where we all want him. On the defensive side Leury committed an error that ended up costing us 2 runs. Not a good day for Leury. On May 17th, we fell to the Royals 1-2. This is a game where you can look right at Leury and say that he cost us pretty big. His RE24 was -0.8 and his aLI was 1.41. Very high leverage here, and with him costing us .8 runs it hurts knowing his role in this game likely cost us a W. He went 0-3 with a strikeout, and only saw 7 pitches this game. Yes, 7 pitches. Why was this a high leverage game for him? In the top of the 5th he had Vaughn on first with no outs, and did his typical Leury grounder. He also led off a big offensive top of the 8th inning for the Sox with a quick out. We had plenty of baserunners after his 1 out, and couldnt score. On May 22nd, we beat the Yankees 3-1. This was one of the lineups that broke Soxtalk as Leury was slotted in the 2 spot. He went 0-4 with a strikeout on 21 pitches. His RE24 was -1.1 while his aLI was 1.00, pretty costly even in the win. He left men on 2nd and 3rd in the third inning, On June 2nd, we lost to the Blue Jays 8-3. The score was not indicative to how close of a game this was, as poor bullpen management cost 4 runs in the 8th. Leury was our leadoff hitter on this night, and he went 2-4 with a couple of singles on 13 pitches! Go Leury! His RE24 was a positive net of 0.1 and his aLI was 0.85. He did ok here. On June 25th, we again lost due typical TLR bullpen management to the Orioles. Leury had a decent day at the plate again, he went 1-3 with a WALK and saw 10 pitches. His RE24 was 0 and his aLI was 0.67. He did commit a costly error that allowed the Orioles to score. Not good! On July 10th, we beat the Tigers 4-2. Leury once again had a couple of hits! He went 2-4, however his RE24 was -0.2 and his aLI was 1.04. This was a high leverage game for Leury. With 2 men on in the bottom of the 8th, and the score being 4-2, Leury hit a groundout to end the inning. On July 23rd, with TA being too exhausted from the Allstar weekend, Leury had to sub in and had his costliest game against the Guardians. It was a losing effort. His RE24 was -1.0 and his aLI was a 1.60. Very high leverage spots for the Legend. He went 0-3 with a sac bunt. He had 2 opportunities with men on base and delivered 2 outs instead. Bonus game on June 22nd, Adam Hasley ends Mendick's season by not knowing how to call for a baseball. In comes Leury Garcia to save the day, except he didnt. 0-4 on 14 pitches. His RE24 was a -1.9, and his aLI was -0.79. 2 full runs! Leury came up in big spots during this losing effort and likely cost the game. 6 LOB, which includes leaving the bases loaded in the bottom of the 8th. ---------- Summary: To sum up this experiment, Leury should never play shortstop (or any position). 5 singles in 8 games, 2 costly errors, 34 atbats (while starting) of pure misery at shortstop. This is why it is so important to have Tim Anderson in the lineup, even if hes "tired" or "sore". Leury Garcia's total RE24 was -6.3. That doesn't even account for the runs that scored from his miscues. In just the 9 games above, Leury Garcia possibly cost this team 6-8 runs. Tim Anderson needs to play whether his tummy hurts, his legs are sore, or hes just tired. Not doing so is costing this team big as there are no replacements that can even come close to a 70% TA. Leury playing at all is like playing at a 1 run handicap. Abreu plays every single game. He refuses to sit. Anderson needs to do the same for this club to claw its way back in the division. Leury Garcia is killing this ballclub. You could argue his -0.8 WAR doesn't even paint how bad of a baseball player he has been. I am looking at his 2B games as well and they are littered with -1 RE24 games. A real shitstain on this team, and I can't believe he was Hahn's answer. Mendick played so well in TA's absence, I will never forgive Hasely for that as Mendick would have been a real solution at 2B, and we could be 2 or 3 games better for it.

These are very good posts, shouldn't be available on a free site lol

I'd rather have Yolmer than Garcia on this team. That's the level Garcia has driven me towards.

C'mon Rick. Do something cool for once.

I don't know what their record will be, but it better be well above .500. In fact, we will probably know in the next 14 games if the Sox are truly legitimate contenders. Next 14 games for Twins, Guardians and White Sox. For Twins W-L @ Milwaukee (2) 53-43 @ San Diego (3) 54-43 vs. Detroit (3) 38-58 vs. Toronto (4) 53-43 @. LA Dodgers (2) 64-30 262-217 .546 For Guardians: @ Boston (4) 48-48 @ Rays (3) 52-43 vs. Dbacks (3) 42-53 vs. Astros (4) 64-32 206-176 .539 For White Sox @ Colorado (2) 43-53 Oakland (3) 35-63 Kansas City (3) 38-57 @ Texas (4) 43-51 @ Kansas City (first 2 of 4) 38-57 197-281 .412 If they don't take advantage of this part of the schedule and make up those four games, then you can pretty much assume this team is not mentally and physically tough enough to win arguably the weakest division in baseball.

20-0

14-5. Don't stop get it get it

I will be in Denver @coors field with my kids tomorrow and Wednesday. Lets see if we can get on a roll

So Tim needs rest from All-Star week, but Eloy, a.k.a. Mr. Glass, can play hurt? Can we IL Tony?

No I'm going to drink heavily and hold onto the hope that Montgomery, Colas and Vera represent the next wave of Braves-like dominance for the Sox.

If you're trying to smoke cool-aid, you've probably already smoked some other stuff.

Great post, great analysis, its a great successor to the "fire menechino" threads. To add, they are swinging at pitches more out of the zone and making contact more than last season. This is deliberate. They are going up there looking to drive the ball the other way and are just looking to make contact. How the FO is ok with this approach is beyond me, i tell myself that they are just not aware of it because well we don't have an analytics department.

BA org rankings of the teams in the running: Which three teams do you view as the favorites to trade for Soto? Padres 8 (21st in BA) Dodgers 7 (7th) Cardinals 3 (18th) Mariners 3 (1st) Mets 3 (16th) Rays 3 (2nd) Yankees 3 (11th) Giants 2 (17th) Blue Jays (19th) Brewers (25th) Cubs (15th) Rangers (9th) Red Sox (11th) Has nothing to do with farm rankings and everything to do with which orgs aren't run by cowards.

The first and only target really needs to be Bryan Reynolds. He by far has a higher wRC+ from the left side compared to any other potentially available outfielder, and by outfielder I mean actual outfielder and not DH playing outfield. If the Sox have to overpay to get him, so be it. Nobody in the minors should be untouchable for Reynolds.

I think people have been way light on what a return for Reynolds would look like. He was a 6 win player last year and his bat has been excellent again this year. I don't see how the Sox could land him without including Montgomery (and more) which is something people would lose their minds over.

Fire TLR

There are so many parties to blame for this disaster of a a season, but Hahn is chief amongst them with one of the worst off-seasons in recent memory for what should have been a legit championship contending team. A big part of that is his failure to build quality scouting and player development functions, which has stalled our pipeline of talent and has lead to poor acquisitions at the major league level. There have been some improvements recently (I like what Shirley is doing in the draft), but it’s too little too late IMO. It’s time to hold the top decision maker accountable and that means Rick Hahn has to go.

I kept thinking about this article I read back during the time when we were all talking about how Tatis would bust because he had a high K rate as a 19 year old in AA, and how Shields may have panned out only because he helped fix giolito or something I can't remember anymore But boy, boy do I wish someone would say this to our trainers and some of our position players: https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/wil-myers-credits-turnaround-to-james-shields-telling-him-to-quit-being-a-baby/ Again, the full story has many more details and it’s worth a read. Myers later said it was the best advice anyone had ever given him. What followed was Myers blossoming into a star. And as we all know, now Myers is one of the games biggest stars. I think Cueto could also play this role. Guy is 300 years old, had no spring training, came back and shows up every 5 days and slings it, with a bunch of 23-25 year olds that need to be rested every 3rd day and don't have to run to first. (I definitely 100% think this is our overzealous new training staff, but we need a player to push back meow.)

10-9 The 2022 White Sox have lowered my expectations drastically.

I’m wondering if Sox gave him some time off as he got married 5 days ago

We will see more of Leury.

It’s crazy how many ABs Sheets has gotten simply because he is LH and strong. And in the fat of the order.

No way Dodgers trade Lux or Bellinger this season. Reynolds would cost the Sox way more in terms of prospects than anyone here would be ok with. I think Joc or LaStella are more realistic, and I will throw out Blake Snell as a possibility (just a guess)

It's just 24 AB's but he is 11 for 24 (.458 ) with 3 HR's and 2 Doubles and and OPS of 1.417. A bit too early for an MLB call up but then again the bar for fielding and hitting is pretty low in the Sox OF. It's pretty easy even now to imagine his LHB and fielding ahead of Sheets, Pollock and Engel. I'd hate to see him traded unless it was for a big upgrade and that doesn't mean Happ.

Savage-Aid is highly recommended!

I expect .500 baseball until I have a reason not to.

I believe Tuesday is the day they finally get over .500 for the first time since May. And there will be much rejoicing. And they will be back to .500 the next day.

Yes, let us wildly celebrate a triumphant series split at home, successfully gaining no ground on a team they need to pass in the standings.

I bet the people in your life love your excitement with literal mediocrity. Aim average.

Don’t hate me but the Wild Card standings are getting much closer.

"Soto is way better than Colas at the same age" caused me to find out that Soto is actually 2 months younger than Colas! Colas might very well be the young savage we're all hoping for, but obviously Soto is on a completely different level from him and every other prospect in baseball. He'll be one of the most valuable players ever traded if & when it happens.

The schedule sets up well for this to be the start of a nice run. Hopefully the Sox can take advantage.

Now go 4-1 this week.

They've mastered losing the first 2 games of a 4 game set and then winning the last 2 to salvage a split.

Colas HR #3. He is in beast mode.

If it’s for Soto, then hell yeah

Chapelli hit a triple in the DSL All Star game

Get Rodon and a lefty outfielder from Giants… how about Luis Gonzalez too. Zing…

I wonder if he has vestibular neuritis. I suffered from it roughly 6-7 years ago and it took me months to finally feel better. A nasty vertigo attack that last 8 hrs and gave me 35% damage to my right vestibule nerve. I was even misdiagnosed with Meniere’s until a dizzy doctor downtown helped me out. I had to do a bunch of physical therapy to “rewire” how my brain worked so my balance got back to normal. The constant feeling of being dizzy or off was a prominent problem after the attack happened. Really annoying and aggravating until that doctor figured out what was wrong.

Would be shocked if the Giants traded him. Once again Rick Hahn's prowess as GM rears it's ugly head. No Qualifying Offer to Rodon.. check. No draft pick for Sox .. check. Makes it easier for another team to sign Rodon.. check. Sox don't sign Rodon... check. Giant's put innings pitched qualifier in his contract that he easily reaches but based on his medicals Hahn lets him walk ... check. Now that Rodon can be a FA next year Giants can get a draft pick for him when they undoubtedly will offer him a QO (barring a big injury) because Hahn thought he might accept the QO and Sox would be stuck with him ... check.

It's mind boggling to me that the Angels have quite possibly the 2 best players in baseball and cannot surround them with enough talent to even consistently break .500.

Rank Name Previous Rank Level Age 1 Colson Montgomery 2 A+ 20 2 Norge Vera 1 A 22 3 Oscar Colas 3 AA 23 4 Lenyn Sosa NR AAA 22 5 Wes Kath 6 A 19 6 Cristian Mena NR A+ 19 7 Jose Rodriguez 5 AA 21 8 Carlos Perez NR AAA 25 9 Noah Schultz NR TBD 18 10 Luis Mieses 10 A+ 22 11 Davis Martin NR AAA 25 12 Dario Borrero 19 Rookie 18 13 Bryan Ramos 11 A+ 20 14 Peyton Pallette NR TBD 22 15 Tanner McDougal 12 TBD 19 16 Yoelqui Cespedes 7 AA 24 17 Wilfred Veras 14 A 19 18 Jonathan Cannon NR TBD 22 19 Sean Burke NR AA 22 20 Kohl Simas NR A 22 21 DJ Gladney NR A 21 22 Yolbert Sanchez 16 AAA 25 23 Victor Quezada 17 Rookie 18 24 Erik Hernandez 18 DSL 17 25 Loidel Chapelli NR DSL 20 26 Leandro Alsinois NR DSL 17 27 Matthew Thompson 8 A+ 21 28 Jared Kelley 15 A 20 29 Romy Gonzalez 9 AAA 25 30 Andrew Dalquist 13 A+ 21 31 Randel Mondesi NR DSL 19 32 Carlos Jimenez NR DSL 20 33 Arxy Hernandez NR DSL 18 34 Godwin Bennett NR DSL 19 35 Arnold Prado NR DSL 17 1. Colson Montgomery, SS, 20 years old Montgomery has done everything in his first full season of pro ball except steal bases. The power has been on display, the exceptional bat to ball skills looks much better than originally advertised, and his on base ability has been better than elite with a streak surpassing 50 games in a row of reaching base. Could Montgomery even make it to AA this season, anything seems possible for this budding star. 2. Norge Vera, SP, 22 years old Vera made his much anticipated stateside debut this season in Kannapolis. The Sox appear to be building him up very slowly given his low inning totals in the DSL last season and a later start to this season. Possessing an upper 90's fastball that touches triple digits at times gives him a potential plus plus pitch. What will eventually determine his viability as a starting pitcher will be his offspeed pitches and more importantly his command of those pitches. This arm could be a very special one for the Sox as long as his development and progression stay on track. 3. Oscar Colas, CF, 23 years old Colas has started his pro career at A+ and showed very early that he was far too advanced to be there. We are now just past the halfway point and Colas is still at A+, hitting .311 with 7 homeruns for the season. A move to AA or AAA seems eminent and well past deserved. I would not be shocked if he starts the 2023 season in the bigs or at AA given the odd developmental path the Sox have taken with him. Effortless power and great contact skills is his calling card. 4. Lenyn Sosa, SS, 22 years old Sosa came out swinging at AA to begin the season and has not stopped. He has been so good that his meteoric rise took him all the way to the bigs before being sent back down to AAA. The brief taste of the majors should fuel him to keep the pedal to the metal and striving to get back to the show. Sosa has shown elite contact skills to go along with some budding power. A .336 average with 14 homeruns is a beautiful site to see for Sox fans that are desperately begging the front office for a second baseman and it looks like that could be Sosa. 5. Wes Kath, 3B, 19 years old Great size, sweet looking swing, good developing power and young. The potential for Kath is very high and he is having a decent season as a 19 year old at A ball. He has been tapping into the power a bit more than Montgomery has but the strikeouts and batting have suffered. He will need to work on getting more contact and cutting down the K rate while naturally getting to the power instead of selling out for it. If he does that then his ceiling should be pretty high, time will tell. 6. Cristian Mena, SP, 19 years old Mena is another pop up prospect that has burst onto the scene seemingly out of nowhere and is looking legit. Mena started at A ball before being called up go A+. Still at only 19 years old he is very young for A+ and in his first 3 starts there has held his own. With a nice fastball and good looking breaking ball (his strikeout pitch), Mena has the stuff to stick as a starting pitcher if he can keep his command as he progresses through the system 7. Jose Rodriguez, SS, 21 years old Rodriguez has not seen the same success in 2022 at AA as he did last season split between A, A+ and AA. The power he showed at the lower levels has disappeared completely. He hit 14 homeruns last season, while batting. 300 with 30 SB's. This season he only has 1 homerun at AA but the speed has been on full display with Rodriguez already amassing 27 SB's with a .279 average. His prospect stock will definitely be taking a hit with the midseason rankings as he is starting to look a bit more like a utility player with speed if he makes it to the bigs but he does have a higher upside than most. 8. Carlos Perez, C, 25 years old Perez came out blazing hot this season at AAA hitting .291 with 9 homeruns and 32 RBI's over the first 2 months. This hot start definitely put him on the map and even had some fans wanting a promotion to the bigs when Grandal went down with injury. Unfortunately, the Sox went with Zavala, who has been surprisingly good for the Sox. Perez could see himself getting a late season callup if he can rediscover his power from earlier this year. 9. Noah Schultz, SP, 18 years old 3 words, Randy Johnson 2.0. That is the upside this kid has. Schultz is 6'9" and we all know the difficulty tall pitchers have had in the majors at finding longterm success. However, if there is ever going to be someone to replicate even a little bit of the success that Randy Johnson had it will be Schultz. Schultz topped out at 94 (sitting 89-92) last summer, if he can bump that up through the years, and there is reason to believe he can as he was sitting 92-96 in the fall, he might have a real chance to become the 6th player taller than 6'9" to reach 500+ innings in the majors. His biggest weapon right now is the slider which sits in the upper 70s with great horizontal break that can be decanting to lefties and unhittable to righties when he throws it to get back foot. 10. Luis Mieses, RF, 22 years old Mieses has gone under the radar for the last couple seasons but he has quietly put up great numbers at every stop along the way. With a .284 average, 7 homeruns, and 54 RBI's Mieses could be pushing his way up to AA late in the season. He has a great looking swing from the left side that produces a ton of gap power as he is currently leading the Southern Atlantic League in doubles. His swing really does look similar to Oscar Colas', great contact and developing power. 11. Davis Martin, SP, 25 years old Martin was pushed from AA to the bigs before settling back at AAA with a few back and forth trips to Chicago mixed in. Martin has not looked overrated anywhere he has been, solid pitch mix with a mid 90's fastball gives him a nice arsenal to attack hitters with. Martin has the potential to stick in the rotation if a spot ever opened up for him to have a real shot at it. Until then Martin looks to be a mix of spot starts, long relief, and getting work in at AAA. 12. Dario Borrero, 1B/OF, 18 years old Borrero has quickly become one of my favorite Sox prospects. Despite missing the 2021 DSL season, Borrero has shined at rookie ball in Arizona hitting .333 with hits in 22 of his 26 games to date. Being very young still and already with a large frame, the power projection here is pretty high as he begins to fill out. Reports have trickled out about how smooth looking his left handed swing is, that coupled with the power projection, and his ability at such a young age to put the bat on the ball with solid enough contact for hits has me very high for this kid's potential. No video 13. Bryan Ramos, 3B, 20 years old Ramos followed up his great 2021 season by improving on his numbers while at a higher level. That is something that to me shows he might be the real deal, especially if he can keep improving year over year. So far this season Ramos has cut down on his K rate, while increasing his power production and his batting average. 14. Peyton Pallette, SP, 22 years old Pallette had Tommy John surgery shortly after the beginning of the 2022 season for Arkansas. Pallette has a plus fastball that can reach 99 mph but mostly sits in the mid 90's. His arsenal also includes a curveball and changeup, so he is ahead of the game it seems as a lot of pitchers struggle to find a good 3rd pitch. The curveball is very high spin and can be a devastating pitch for hitters. 15. Tanner McDougal, SP, 19 years old Drafted out of high school in the 5th round of the 2021 MLB draft, McDougal only appeared in 5 games before needing Tommy John surgery. During his brief time in rookie ball, McDougal was showing a real knack for striking batters out with 17 K's in 9.2 innings. Look to 2023 for McDougal to show off the high spin rate slurve and mid 90's fastball. 16. Yoelqui Cespedes, OF, 24 years old Cespedes started back at AA, where he ended the 2021 season. The power overall seems to be slightly improved but his batting average has dipped and his has been caught stealing more. I'm a little more worried about what he can be at AAA and the majors but he does have the tools to at least be a 4th outfield type. 17. Wilfred Veras, 3B, 19 years old Veras has been able to turn more of his doubles into homeruns this year at A ball, however his average and K's does seem to have suffered as a result. Veras could really shine if he can improve the contact skills while keeping or even boosting the power numbers in the second half of the season. 18. Jonathan Cannon, SP, 22 years old Cannon had good command in his final season in college and will look to use that trait to pummel the strike zone in the minors. Cannon has 4 pitches including a great cutter, slider and changeup. He should overwhelm the competition at the lower levels and will need to be pushed some to get a challenge early in his pro career. 19. Sean Burke, SP, 22 years old Burke has been pushed relatively aggressively for being drafted just last year. He has reached AA and has been holding his own at most levels. Nothing eye popping but he does look like he could stick as a starter, maybe back end of the rotation. No video 20. Kohl Simas, SP, 22 years old Simas became the first pop up prospect in the entire league when he opened the season with a 5 inning, 13 strikeout gem against Delaware at A ball. Unfortunately Simas landed on the injured list and since coming back it seems the Sox are watching his innings very closely. Simas has a nice compact, smooth, and easily repeatable delivery that should allow him to have better command with time. 21. DJ Gladney, 1B, 21 years old Gladney is repeating A ball this season and has shown double the power with about 30 points better on the batting average. Unfortunately that average sits at .229 and comes with a big K rate. The improvement is encouraging but he needs to cut down the K rate and improve his contact skills to become more relevant 22. Yolbert Sanchez, 2B, 25 years old Sanchez has been a relative disappointment this season. He ended last season looking like he could be a potential player for the 2B job in the future, but despite looking great at AA in 2021 and 2022 he has been much more average looking at AAA. No power and a down batting average has me believing the ceiling will be a utility infielder type for Sanchez. 23. Victor Quezada, 3B, 18 years old Quezada is someone I've been excited about since last season when he showed some good power in the DSL as a 17 year old hitting 6 homeruns. The power is still there and is translating pretty well to rookie ball, however he has been the opposite of Borrero in regards to making contact. Hitting only. 188 and striking out over 50% of his AB's is definitely a cause for concern but not extremely alarming considering his age. 24. Erick Hernandez, OF, 17 years old Hernandez was a big signing alongside Oscar Colas, he began his pro career this season in the DSL. There is not a lot to go off of yet, but he is hitting .255 with 7 RBI's and has 14 walks. No video 25. Loidel Chapelli, OF, 20 years old Chapelli is destroying the DSL this season. Hitting .370 with 8 homeruns, 24 RBI's, and 6 SB's to go along with a 1.205 OPS. It is very difficult to get excited by his dominance of the DSL mostly because he is much older for the competition there and is height challenged being listed at 5'8". The number of unicorns that are that short and can maintain the high numbers he is putting up in the DSL is very very very small. I would say Chapelli is a prospect to watch for sure but not necessarily someone who I believe will ever be much more than a utility type infielder if he ever makes the majors. 26. Leandro Alsinois, CF, 17 years old Alsinois pops up to me for still being 17 in the DSL with about the same numbers as Erick Hernandez, the second half of the season could be key to see if he might be a real prospect or flame out before he could ever get going. No video 27. Matthew Thompson, SP, 21 years old I was very high on Thompson when he was drafted but he has been a giant disappointment along with the next guy on the list. Thompson was bad last season and has improved much if any this season. There has been a slight improvement though in WHIP and batting average against but he has given up more homeruns than last season. Thompson has a long way to go to regain any value he had after being drafted so high by the Sox. I wouldn't be shocked if he was moved into the bullpen eventually to see how he does there. 28. Jared Kelley, SP, 20 years old Repeating A ball after making 10 starts there last season, Kelley has improved but just does not show anything of value to me as a starting pitcher that will make it. The bullpen is where I see Kelley headed to, although he might be able to stick a bit longer as a starter than Thompson 29. Romy Gonzalez, SS, 25 years old Gonzalez has been hands down the biggest disappointment of the year for me. He showed so much promise last year with 24 homeruns and 24 SB's. The power/speed threat was looking like the real thing as the season came to an end. Unfortunately this season he has only played in 27 games, hitting .219 with 3 homeruns and 5 SB's. Being an older prospect, I am very down on Gonzalez after his first half of the season. I do hope the rest of the season we see the Romy that balled out in 2021. 30. Andrew Dalquist, SP, 21 years old Dalquist to me is just another carbon copy of Thompson and Kelley. They all have shown no real improvement year over year and look like failed starting pitchers. The bullpen will be in his future if he he doesn't start to put things together. No video from this year 31. Randel Mondesi, OF, 19 years old Trust the bloodlines. Mondesi is the son of Raul Mondesi and brother of Adalberto Mondesi. Unfortunately, Mondesi is repeating seasons in the DSL but not doing much better than 2021 while being older than the average player there. He will have to step things up to make it to the states in 2023 No video 32. Carlos Jimenez, OF, 20 years old Jimenez has the size that scouts love but is also repeating the DSL while being a year older than even Mondesi. He has a nice average but will be an unknown until he makes it to the states No video 33. Arxy Hernandez, 3B, 18 years old Hernandez has hit fairly well for the DSL but will need to make it stateside to become relevant No video 34. Godwin Bennett, OF 19 years old Bennett is in the same category as the other DSL players, making it stateside and performing well is really the only thing that will give any kind of evaluation of substance. He is showing power in the DSL with 6 homeruns but is older for that league. No video 35. Arnold Prado, OF, 17 years old Prado has hit fairly well for the DSL but will need to make it stateside to become relevant No video

This is so funny. When I saw this thread, I thought it was being sarcastic, making fun of the trade for Soto thread. You know, mentioning another silly trade idea. I was going to start a thread like, “Let’s trade Leary and Grandal for Judge and Stanton” to keep the idea going. Then I started reading the thread and was it was legit, that some people were discussing this like it could happen. Wow, so funny.

Any position player on any roster that doesn't spend significant time on the IL is going to have more appearances than any relief pitcher. That was about the most worthless statement ever made on this board and that's saying something.

What??? A bag of balls would get it done. Although why in the hell the Sox would want it done is beyond me.

Wait, you were serious?

Trade literally every player in the organization. Start over next year with a new name in a new city. Act as if every new player was part of the rebuild.