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Any idea if the Sox have started negotiating a long term deal with Mercedes to buy out a couple years of free agency? I’d love to see him retire in a White Sox jersey but I fear we won’t be able to keep him past arbitration years unless we get something done soon.

Where have I seen this before? Y'all just cursed Yermin.

The closest hitter we’ve had to this caliber in my lifetime is Jose Abreu. It would be nice to have Yermin around after Jose retires to give Trout some competition for MVP on a yearly basis.

Comparing Nick Madrigal, a 4 year college starter, to Tim Anderson, an extremely raw Juco player, isn't exactly instructive. Also, Tim's defense is still pretty bad but he makes up for it with explosive athleticism (range and arm in the field, power at the plate) that Madrigal does not possess. That's the biggest issue with Nick, he doesn't have any of the physical traits to overcome his limitations, he just can't afford at all to struggle with parts of his game that should come pre-baked with a polished 4 year college starter. Also, a lot of Nick's fuck-ups in the field aren't leading to errors.

Wow I didn't realize you were 10!

Bye bye in 3, 2, 1...

2014 draft related kinda?

Tough crowd in this room. Why all of the hate for Madrigal? Seriously. I don't get it. Here are the stats for another player. Year Games Errors Average Year 1: 98 14 .283 Year 2: 145 28 .257 Year 3: 151 20 .240 Year 4: 122 26 .335 Year 5: 49 6 .322 In Year 2 and 4, this player led the Majors in errors committed. Not the American League. The entire league! Where was all of the hate for Tim Anderson when he first came up? LOL.

He is playing like a 4th pick. This isnt the NFL The best number 4 position player in the last 15 years is Kyle Schwarber. And it’s not really particularly close. there are only 3(!!!) players drafted 4th overall since 1995 with more than 15 career war and one of them is Gavin Floyd

D'Backs were set to take him too but they switched to Barrett Loux. It got the scouting director fired.

Am I reading this right that the White Sox got "crushed" by picking hall of famer Harold Baines in the draft?

I know the fact that this is a false equivalence was already addressed, but also... where were you?? TA was loathed by many as recently as early 2019. The criticisms of him were so over the top and annoying in 2018 that at one point I just stopped defending him because nobody would actually listen

Tim Anderson got a lot of flack. He also wasn't praised as a future gold glove fixture and MVP caliber player. Nick is getting flack because it's been shoved down our throats that he will be a long term gold glove winner, elite baseball instincts, and very good speed. We have seen little of these attributes so far. He will definitely get better, but there is reason for concern.

This, plus there is no "conundrum", good teams have more than 6 or 7 hitters that are solid, 10-13 make you a solid contender with depth. You can't worry about 2022 until you see how this season plays out. For this year I would do the following: Catcher: Grandal 3 of 5; Collins 1 of 5; Mercedes 1 of 5. Outfield: Vaughn goes to AAA to play everyday LF for 4-6 weeks when Engel returns. Eaton Robert Engel OF w/o Vaugh, four OF rotation upon Vaughn's return. Eaton really should play LF when Vaughn isn't, but Tony / Hahn doesn't have the balls or sense to do it. Designated Hitters: Primarily the catchers to start, mix in part of the four OFers once they are in place, Eloy is the primary upon his return this year and beyond. Bench: Garcia is OF and 3B only; Mendick is 2B and SS only (emergency 3B). 2022: Upgrade bench, Cespedes up to replace a FA Eaton, sign a starting 2B if Madrigal doesn't make it as a starter.

dude, everyone who's hot and hitting everything looks like they have the best eye and the fastest bat, until the league adjusts way too premature to start calling him legit

We just need to convince the local sportswriters to put the pressure on JR with headlines like this. I know, fat chance, right? He’ll retort that with ballpark staff, concessions and security he’s still losing tens of millions. I mean, they were crowing about a 90% jump in tv ratings last year when they were starting with around a 0.9 share. Amazing, our percentage increase was higher than any team in baseball!

Is this a real thread, lol

It's also ridiculous to compare other draft classes because the baseball draft is not like the football or basketball drafts. The best players aren't always taken in order because money plays such a huge role on who is taken where. For example the Cubs took Kyle Schwarber with the 4th pick and signed him for $3.125M while the Sox took Nick Madrigal and signed him for $6.1M. Factoring in the money spent greatly changes the calculus for those picks.

Molitor is a legitimate First Ballot Hall of Fame inductee. The other, an excellent player, but a Jerry Reinsdorf & Tony La Russa Crony stained Veterans Committee sham selection. Yes, the other 24 teams passed on Trout as well. Data, analysis and scouting (depth and reach) have improved immensely from the early days. List wasn’t posted to cast blame or celebrate Larry Himes, but rather to illustrated looking at players selected immediately before or after a draft selection is a much more rational analysis than to compare Nick Madrigal to a Number 4 overall pick from several years ago.

@Quin once again claims another poor soul.

Are you 100 years old? Errors and Batting average??? And you even drop an "LOL". C'mon man. I legit LOL'd. I'll try to get past the ridiculousness and respond by saying comparing a toolsy raw athlete prospect to a polished low ceiling college player is not even remotely fair.

They missed the second they took a no ceiling 2B only with the 4th pick. They wasted a rare opportunity to draft a high ceiling superstar for an avg run of the mill player.

The problem with this is we don't know that we have missed yet, some people suspect it, some people believe it, and some people reject it. By the end of a full season we will know better. He certainly hasn't helped the negative opinions but I'm willing to give a guy who has succeeded in college the chance to show he can do it in the majors

Of the 181 players on an active roster with 1500 career PA's only 8 have a career batting average of .300 or greater and only 2 of those guys have a sub .150 career ISO, it's extremely hard to do. Assuming he'll be a perennial .300+ hitter because of his bat to ball skills while ignoring the role power plays in batting average seems unwise. Miguel Cabrera Jose Altuve - AKA the REAL reason Madrigal was drafted 4th overall DJ LeMahieu Mike Trout Joey Votto Charlie Blackmon Buster Posey Mookie Betts

He's not a 5 homer guy tho. I'm not sure he will ever post an ISO over .120. At best I think he does something like 290/340/400 for his career. If he's a solid 2B that's like a 2.5 WAR player. Just not much to really get excited about with him unless somehow he manages to hit 330 every year.

The umpire has already admitted he messed it up at least. https://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/mets/umpire-ron-kulpa-mets-marlins-hit-by-pitch-1.50208955 Kulpa, in an interview with a pool reporter from Newsday after the game, didn’t say if he felt awful or not. But he did admit he blew the call that allowed the Mets to win their home opener. "The guy was hit by the pitch in the strike zone," Kulpa said. "I should have called him out."

- Gordon was going to be a future MVP according to every baseball analyst in the universe. - Ron was all aboard Madrigal's "Little Magician" train until he wasn't. - Luis Robert looked like a baseball god until the league adjusted, now it's on him to adjust. The conundrum right now is this: TLR is being a numb skull and not playing Vaughn in LF. Once that's solved, do this until Eloy is back: LF - Vaughn DH - Yermin 1B - Abreu Collins gets regular at-bats backing up 1B, DH, and Catcher. There's no guarantee everyone is healthy come August when Eloy returns, everyone is hitting, etc. At worst, you add Eloy's and drop ... Jake Lamb?

Lynn's 111 pitches were the most by any starter this year (Bauer had 110 on the 7th), it's the only completed game and only shutout in MLB to this point.

But what if he starts chewing tobacco ?

We would have said the same thing in mid August of Gordon Beckham's rookie campaign. The next White Sox captain to take over from Paulie, Jeter-esque qualities. Yermin has to hit, because he's unlikely to play in the field or catch (rifle arm but lacking in other areas and Grandal/Collins ahead of him.) So far, first big test passed... sustaining that momentum. But llet's wait and see how he does against CLE.

I was sitting in front of some of his family. It was awesome to hear how excited they were. Despite the low attendance, the atmosphere (especially in the 1st inning) rivaled the buzz I haven't felt since Kopech's debut in 2018

Bring back Sox N Roll.

They haven’t even played their best baseball yet and have the third highest run differential in the AL. While fans focused on the negatives over the first week, it’s apparent to me that this is the most talented White Sox team since the 90s.

I’d say he’s already there

They used the 4th pick on a player other teams get in the 4th round. League average 2B are easy to find.

Did the entire first paragraph already happen? I don't think the season is over yet, to have predictions come true.

I gotta say, it’s pretty funny seeing some of the same people that anointed the likes of Tyler Saladino, Nicky Delmonico and Daniel Palka as future starters after a small sample size then kill prospects after an even smaller sample size. I didn’t like the pick of Madrigal when it happened because I thought his ceiling was too low for a top 10 pick. But it is what it is now, throw the memory of what pick he was away. Last year he hit the ball very well, this year he’s struggled through 20 something AB’s. If there’s a reasonable middle ground of him hitting .300/.340 without the mental errors in the field we’ll be perfectly fine with him as a starting 2B. And I’m pretty confident he’ll be able to do that.

Hitting for how long, exactly?

Maybe Trevor will do a video on how to doctor a baseball..."tunneling is very important but it is what you do to the baseball before you throw it that really matters"

Fixed it for ya

Wasn't Jonathon India linked pretty heavily to the Sox in that draft? Ended up going 5th right after Nick. Coincidentally he's shifted to 2B and has a nice little start to his MLB career with the Reds. It'll be fun to track their careers going forward as he was probably a more realistic alternative to Nicky than Kelenic (given the Sox reluctance to draft HS guys in the first round).

Madrigal has a good eye, last year his chase rate was a league average 31% and this year he has lowered that to an excellent 20% (not uncommon it is a bit higher in the first MLB year as you haven't seen that kind of movement at lower levels). He won't walk a ton if he is a 5 Homer guy but I think he will be around 7% or so and not be a 3% walk guy like Alberto. Billy Hamilton might be a good comp for this (obviously Billy has a way worse hit tool but he is a no power hitter with a solid eye and has a career 7% walk rate despite not being able to hit).

sure I'm down, we should let Soxtalk set the terms, I limit all my sports bets to $100 if you're cool with that

Gordon's swing was much longer than Yermin's. I'm confident Yermin will keep this up.

Man I just tried to tune into AM1000 and 670 and both are just streaming generic nationwide shows talking NFL salary cap? Oof. There HAS to be a market for more Chicago baseball talk on air.

I thought it was the right decision and maybe one Rickie wouldn't have made . That said I'm heavily biased.

It's very early in the season, but giving the bullpen two days off is nice

He may be a 28 year old version of Nelson Cruz. Be still my beating heart !!

FWIW I was going through the College World Series thread from after he got drafted and saw where he made a huge error and was really pressing at the plate.

So, why exactly do people do this to themselves? You don't need to closely track every player that's been traded away, you seemingly gain nothing from it but misery, seems really dumb.