SoxBlanco

There we go! I'll be heading to the game tonight. Weather is going to be interesting. I'll take the train so that I don't have a vehicle in anticipation of several beverages during a rain delay.

Why isn't @Chicago White Sox starting this thread?

Who do you think TLR is pushing for? The rumor is about TLR, right?

Yeah, I’m not sure why everyone thinks it will take so long to develop Lackey. I would expect him to be up in 2028 at some point.

Good call. @Look at Ray Ray Run , I read your post again, and you are just talking about games played, not games caught. @Y2Jimmy0 , since the best catchers do play 140/150 games, why the hesitation on drafting a catcher? You have mentioned they take longer to develop, but is that really true? Davis was taken 1.1 in 2021 and made his debut in 2023. Adley was drafted 1.1 in 2019 and debuted in 2022. Bart was taken 1.2 in 2018 and debuted in 2020. Heck, even Teel (drafted 14 overall) was up in 2025 after being drafted in 2023. I just can’t get on board with not drafting Lackey because he’s a catcher. Normally, yes, you always take a SS, but Lackey even seems like the better athlete.

How about tomorrow? I’m going tomorrow, and I’m worried they will move it to an afternoon game. 3:10 would be fine for me, but I can’t make a 1:10 start.

I didn’t realize this. Raleigh, Perez, and Contreras all played 150+ games. I still don’t know who I would draft. It feels like Roch is the safer choice, but if you told me one the two would end up as the best player in baseball in five years, I’d guess it would be Lackey.

Yeah, it sounds like you and James are on the same page. Curious what @Look at Ray Ray Run thinks about this specific point. Are you fine drafting a guy who only plays 120 games? Or are you playing him somewhere else on the days he’s not catching?

When is the last time a player got drafted 1.1 who had a better sophomore year than junior year? I don’t necessarily disagree with your point, but I’m curious about that.

Are you asking what the point of my question is? If so, my point is that even though shortstops almost always give you more flexibility, that might not be the case when comparing Lackey and Cholowsky. But I don’t know for sure. I’m just trying to get that discussion going. Do you think Cholowsky has more positional flexibility than Lackey? And I do understand that Lackey will likely not be moved off of catcher. But Roch will likely not be moved off of SS either. We don’t know for sure for either player, so it doesn’t hurt to discuss the idea of positional flexibility when comparing them.

Agreed. But the post I quoted was about flexibility. You take shortstops because it gives you more flexibility in general, but is it possible that’s not the case when comparing Lackey and Cholowsky?

What if Lackey can play an above average CF but Roch cannot?

I’ve been anxiously waiting to see Drew Thorpe pitch this year. Have we gotten an update on him in a while? Since the appendectomy?

New rule where you can’t have two Montgomerys in the lineup at the same time.

You have the wrong college. They are both Spartans, which makes me like them even more. Fùck Michigan.

I don’t think anybody is ignoring Roch’s 2025 season. But wouldn’t you want a guy whose arrow is pointing up rather than pointing sideways or slightly down? And if you take Lackey, you can’t play him only 120 games. You would need to play him at a different position for another 30 games or so. Look, both guys are great. I’m just pushing you on it because I like to hear from both sides. I’m reading many pro-Lackey posts lately, and I want to read more pro-Cholowsky posts.

Good point about makeup. Do you know anything about Lackey’s makeup? Also, it’s really not the small sample size from regional games that people are looking at, is it? The full season stats for Lackey are insane, and he’s doing it in a better conference than Cholowsky. Slugging around .800 with a BB% near 18% has to be pretty rare. I’m trying to think of players in the last 15 years or so who have done that. Ivan Menendez and Brent Rooker come to mind, but they were 1B/LF type players who struck out close to 20% of the time. Kris Bryant obviously did it. He had one of the best college seasons ever. Andrew Vaughn is probably the best comparison when looking at slugging that high, walking that much, and not striking out much.

I’m also curious to hear what James thinks at this point. The only thing I’d give the nod to Roch to at this point is that he plays SS. But Lackey is having a better season, improved upon last year, plays in a better conference, and has an arrow that is pointing straight up.

How’s his plate discipline?

Wow. Anybody have an updated comparison of Lackey’s 2026 and Roch’s 2025?

I remember that. I’m pretty sure we won one of the games (or maybe even two) by getting out of a bases loaded jam in the 9th. Possibly a game ending double play. Keith Foulke is popping into my head.

I’m gonna need you to make some similar comments in the first inning of today’s game. Thanks in advance.

I know this post is from a couple weeks ago, but perhaps you were confused by the “WE” part? If you read it as the pronoun “we”, the last paragraph is very confusing. But if you read it as “WestEddy”, it all makes sense.