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The more guys playing baseball is good. What the random fan calls a "minor league washout" is actually the life blood of the game. When those guys are done playing they go back to their hometowns and become HS coaches, travel ball coaches, JC or college coaches and they pass the professional instruction they received to the next generation of players. People in the game understand how vital these guys are but unfortunately this new age of owner is more than willing to sacrifice the future well being of the game for short term financial gains. These short sighted decisions will do long term damage but they couldn't care less. It's all about cutting costs.

Nah I just laugh at your takes, really.

Also, 15-20M is out of line for a guy making 12.5M last year and had a crap year.

Injuries will happen. It’s inevitable. Engel will get his 100+ games as a fourth outfielder if he himself, can stay healthy. Sign Conforto, trade Burger and others not named Sheets, for a second baseman and rotate Vaughn with Abreu and Eloy. Sheets goes down to work on his fielding. Its ok to have depth.

We could all be giddy with excitement at the official start of spring, but the greedy owners are still holding our beloved game hostage…

If there was ever time for a cry face emoji.

Not to mention they wants to pretend that Andrew Vaughn has the pedigree of, well, Gavin Sheets. Vaughn was #13 on the overall MLB.com list. He came through with a 60 hit and 70 power, knowing that he was also a defensive 1B. The kid has an insane hitters ceiling, and too many people are caught up in freezing him based on one split in one of the craziest rookie seasons ever.

The only reason Conforto isn’t going to be a well north of $100M player is because of his down season. He’s been one of the best hitters in the game over the last half decade and he fills a ton of team needs. You’re overthinking this.

That is a fact but be careful because you might be accused of hating that player. LOL. You are right about how Vaughn and other outfielders cover up for their lack of speed by making sure they are positioned correctly for each hitter. No problem there - that is always a good idea. However, Vaughn went a step further than that by employing what almost became a signature AV dive/belly flop (like the Fosbury flop became in gymnastics). After Vaughn continued to lay himself out time after time to catch balls it became obvious that he had to dive because he lacked the speed to get to balls that would have been routine plays for average Major league outfielders. (Google "Andrew Vaughn dives for a ball" or something like that to see a bunch of them.) Here is one diving belly flop catch made by Vaughn where he is positioned pretty well but breaks a few steps left toward center and then dives to catch the ball to his right side before he crashes down. If you look back on some of his dives, you see the same thing over and again. He has to dive to compensate for lack of speed (and he has the hang time of a lead balloon.) Vaughn is a decent first base prospect but he is blocked for several years at that position by Jose Abreu. That leads me to suggest some hypothetical trades (or maybe diabolical trade suggestions to some Vaughn fans) that could help Vaughn develop, help the Sox in 2022 and likewise benefit the team that gets AV: Vaughn to the Dodgers for Lux or Bellinger, or Vaughn to the Cubs for Wilson Contreras and Ed Henry (or one of their other top prospects). Vaughn and Kimbrel to ____ for _____. (you fill in the blanks) If /when Vaughn gone, that might unblock a path for Burgur to finally make the team or for Sheets to become a full time player at DH/1B.

Why yes, I will be starting 9 DH’s 😆.

Come on poppy, this is just terrible.

I'm for a nine person defense and nine person offense like football. Unlike basketball and hockey baseball could platoon easily.

Conforto has a 3000 PA sample size of being a well above average hitter. Sheets has a 180 PA sample sized of good matchups showing he's an above average hitter. These two things are nothing alike. One is also a RF, the other is a DH only. Additionally, the Adams have absolutely nothing to do with Conforto, who isn't really even a "slugger" like those 2 were. Conforto is not a superstar. He is a well above average hitter that fits a ton of team needs and all he costs is $.

Yeah and when he’s struggling and some young guys are hitting, I really hope he is moved down a bit in the order.

Bunch of scumbags.

(Nods in frustrated agreement)

The last 5 season, Conforto has averaged 2.82 fWAR per season. That includes Covid season with only 54 GP, and 2017 and 2021 where he appeared in 109 and 125 games, respectively. On a per 162 basis, that is a 3.86 fWAR player. To suggest he isn't worth $15M-20 AAV solely based on 2021 is quite silly. The only reason he isn't getting a mega deal is due to 2021. Conforto goes back to who he has always been, and he'd a bargain at $18M AAV.

Point well taken, but no one (even the owners) are suggesting getting rid of the minor leagues. We're talking about a 16.67% reduction. 150 minor leaguers per org still provides plenty of washouts to go be coaches and steward the next the next generation of players. Not to mention all the guys that played collegiately and didn't have what it takes to hack it in pro ball aren't eliminated from being travel ball coaches because they didn't play a couple seasons riding pine in the Pioneer league. I am not that passionate about it, but I don't think a 16.67% reduction in the size of the minor leagues is the death kneel to baseball. There are plenty of other things that have resulted in today's youth having a lack of interest in the game, and a small reduction in minor league washouts being available to coach is pretty far down the list.

I'm sorry Harold, but it's called "Saving America's Pastime."

Which is why Dragic ain't signing here, especially over Milwaukee. He'll regularly get 20 minutes a game. Holiday also isn't the most reliable guy in terms of health, so he might even get more playing time than that,.

What convinced us that Engel will be prepared to play 50 games this year, let alone 100?

35 isn't that old in baseball. Will his production go down? Probably but with baseball hitting going to lift and pull and trying to hit everything out, Jose should be able to adjust and have above league average numbers till 41 or 40. Let him play ball.

Am I the only one that doesn't find reducing the size of minor leagues and the draft that big of a deal? Its so hard to make it to the big leagues. There are so many guys that play pro affiliated ball that have next to zero chance of ever making it to the big leagues. Would the elimination of 30 minors leaguers per org make it so that 1 out of every couple hundred guys that beat all odds never gets the chance? Maybe. But its also probably the best for the vast majority of these guys that never make it out of rookie and A ball. They never had a real chance anyway - may was well get on with your life while you're young. Get a job that is year-round so you're not trying to make ends meet each winter with odd jobs with no upside. Its not like making $18k a year playing baseball in what is effectively a deadend job for most low end draft pick and the undrafted is going to get you to a better place in life. Its kind of a hard reality, but its true. The owners probably have the wrong reasons for doing it, but at the end of the day, they're just doing all those guys a favor that waste a few years of their life chasing something they never had a chance at anyway.

Look, Sheets could well be a dude. But realistically, again we are looking at a SSS in a rookie year. He's also a guy who is even worse defensively than Vaughn. Sure he could have figure it out and turned into prime Adam Dunn, but I also think TLR protected him and used him in a lot of favorable match ups during his time here, and it is likely we could be looking at some very real regression to the means as well. I would love to see him hit at a high level, but if I have the choice between Vaughn and Sheets, there is literally zero question in my mind the answer is Vaughn.

This isn't going to end anytime soon...this whole ordeal can be summarized into one phrase: what a joke.

Way to create "urgency" MLB. You had one job.

It's obvious that this work stoppage is going to be a long one. I wonder what JR wants as a lasting legacy. Another World Series? Or breaking the union?

Why isn’t Jerry springing $80M on anyone? Like what does that even mean? He basically signed Grandal for that much and offered Wheeler north of $100M. Regardless, trading Vaughn for Marte and then going with a Sheets/Leury/Engel combo in RF doesn’t make sense at all to me. If you’re making that trade, then you better be going all in and that RF combo would be a major liability on day 1.

JR isn't springing $80+ on anyone. For me, the single best fit for '22 and beyond is K. Marte. Provides a ton of positional value (72 games in CF last year). Power (same # of HRs/14as Comforto in >60 fewer ABs). SH w/footspeed and immediately upgrades 2B. As much as I like Vaughn, I move him as part of a package for Marte and roll with combo platter in RF (Sheets/Engel/Leury) w/Marte also getting innings in RF and spelling Robert in CF when he isn't playing second. I don't know what the asking price will be but my guess is it starts w/Vaughn.

Like 7 players right now it’s just crazy. Amazing job by Coby tonight.

Sounds like Soxtalk views you and old Brucey the same way

Something seemed off about the whole experience tonight. Both teams played bad and holy shit was Collinsworth bad in the 4th quarter.

I think they shat their pants from the very beginning. I think they think that the rest of the industry stupidly over-values RPs as much as they do. And I think they didn't consider all the negative and positive consequences. Unfortunately, the rest of the industry read the book (not the stupid film) "Moneyball" 15 or so years ago, and discovered that RPs aren't worth as much as the SOX think they're worth. Now, with no negotiating leverage to sell an old, expensive, and mostly-ineffective closer, they're kinda screwed. Let's all hope for Philly's BP to have a few season-ending injuries like day 1 of ST. Just the mere fact that they got a player they didn't need, this far into their tenures as GM/President or GM/Asst GM should remove any benefit of the doubt. They should have known better, and they still did it. Now, as I'd mentioned before, reverse the situation: If some other schmucks already had an All Star at closer, and were DESPERATE to have Kimbrel's obese salary the fuck off their payroll, how eager would you be to pick up ALL $16M of an old, bad closer's contract? And were the roles reversed, what would you want the SOX to give up to get him? A bit of salary relief? A 27 year old AAAA type? A live arm in low A with a career 4.5 era? I'm genuinely curious. For me, If Kimbrel were on another team's payroll, and they were desperate to have him fuck off, I'd send Adolfo or Rutherford for Kimbrel, and the other team eats $8-10M. Take it or leave it. What would you send for him? All that said, I hope they can work miracles, so that a Conforto type can be signed here. We'll have to see.

Bad defensive teams usually don't win the World Series. If you saddle our pitching staff with Eloy in left and Vaughn in right, that's giving a lot to opposing offenses. And heck, if that's the approach, then you may as well just sign Castellanos for RF and load up the offense as much as possible.

I agree. Everything I read calls Conforto an above-average bat and passable right fielder. The Sheets/Vaughn/Engel "combo platter" would be considerably better than "above average" IMO. The "combo platter" would give us a similar defense as Jermayne Dye. Not great but I'll take it if we can get a massive upgrade at 2nd and pitching.

Sox long play of hoarding DHs finally paying off.

Some teams with lots of depths will be fine and you can find a couple guys on their roster that should get a bulk of DH at bats (Dodgers always have lots of depth, Mets Cano/Smith, Braves Ozuna etc) and the rebuilding teams don't really matter. Opens up more at bats for a young player for them. Plus, there are still plenty of free agents out there when they are able to spend again (Cruz, Castellanos can get DH/COF at bats, Schwarber, etc).

I would still be surprised if this goes into effect this year. Talk about putting NL teams behind the 8-ball. Ok you have 2 weeks and a diminished FA pool to radically change the structure of your team. Go get em, Boys!

Call up the Marlins' GM and see if she still wants him lol

I guess the found him at the team hotel this morning. RIP. WTF is with people in their 20s and early 30s dropping dead btw? There is a larger health issue going on here.