SoCalChiSox

The world isn't gonna end if we have a 2 war 2B batting ninth. That's perfectly fine. Not everyone is an all star. He's having a rough spring, I suspect he might be trying too hard to prove he should be up on opening day which wasn't gonna happen regardless. He will find himself and even if he's just an average regular that's OK.

Vaughn is gonna put up clownish numbers at High A to start the season (and yes he will start there so they can use the "3 levels" excuse at the end of the year for the service time issue). Like .350/.500/.700.

The .625 would be very unlikely in Birmingham.

Couple walks for Collins

Flores pitching very efficiently.

The Sox future 1-6 is very impressive and hellish to deal with. Nowhere to breathe in that lineup 1 Robert 2 Moncada 3 Vaughn 4 Jimenez 5 Grandal 6 Anderson

Heuer impressive as expected.

Unless we get a really good offer for something we really need in ST, it may be better to wait till the deadline to move McCann, as there are many factors we have to see play out, including how good, bad or average the Sox look, how healthy Grandal is, how much further progress Collins has made as an actual catcher in AAA, and whether catcher demand looks like it may be stronger then than now.

Codi Heuer is ranked way too low

If he can increase

He's gonna start at High A so that by the time the season is over and he is raking at AAA they can say three levels in one year was already alot to justify getting the extra year of service time like with Robert and Madrigal.

Any link to reds radio?

If he's the future closer then it would make sense. Also there's very little on the books (outside of team friendly AAV deals for Jimenez, Robert and Anderson) after 2022 so there are still plenty of slots for big money deals even if the budget is only gonna be around 140.

Please announce a 6 year deal for Moncada. K thx

I thought tomorrow's game was getting rained out?

They can try it out in the beginning (before Madrigal gets here and as Robert is adjusting) to see if TA's BA regression is counterbalanced by a walk rate that improves from dumpster fire to merely below average. If he can find a way to somehow repeat 350 OBP and make it sustainable then I'm perfectly fine with him leading off. I'm not holding my breath though. If Robert is a 20 HR/30+ steals guy it works for him too, esp if he can have a halfway decent OBP and doesn't chase bad pitches. But I suspect Robert is gonna be a 30+ HR monster that also happens to steal 40 bases and it's a waste of his SLG% at 1. By all means tho start TA there and you don't have to have that difficult conversation with him about moving him down to like 8 until he shows he can't sustain it.

Anderson leading off doesn't make sense unless he can repeat 350 OBP which is unlikely given he isn't likely to hit 333 again. With some regression he's prolly a 280 guy which means he's prolly a 310 OBP guy and that doesnt work. That said Moncada is great and comfortable at 2 so he should stay there. Robert will end up hitting for too much power to be leading off. He could very well end up hitting third eventually right in front of Eloy. To me the best candidate on a long term basis for leadoff would be Madrigal. If he's a 290-300 hitter he should be able to get on base at around 350 or maybe a bit more. The speed helps too. If Ricky is insistent on using TA or YM at some combo of 1-2 tho then I'd go with: 1 Anderson R 2 Moncada L 3 Abreu R 4 Jimenez R 5 Grandal L 6 Encarnacion R 7 Mazara L 8 Robert R 9 2B fill in for Madrigal

Rick Hahn said we have some money for the deadline. Maybe JR wants to see how the team does for the first half of the season first?

I don't think they will undercut Mazara like that especially when Puig isn't great against LHP anyway. I also don't see Puig wanting to be a platoon player.

I loved the report on Blake at SSHP....while it's only BP it still looks like he had good launch angle and was killing the ball. Very encouraging.

I remember that. The rumor going around was the real injury was being punched by Trevor Pryce.

.280/.340/.540....maybe WRC+ around 130 or so would be a good year 2 at the plate. Ideally instead of being worth -10 runs in the field if he could cut it to -7 that would be nice.

Yes but it gives them an another financial albatross for the next few years. I can see why Preller would be willing to give up those prospects his seat is white hot, SD needs to be a 90 win team this year or else.

Yeah I don't see BOS taking on Myers full contract, that defeats the whole purpose of getting cap relief.

Grandal: A. Hopefully we can get two prime framing years out of him before the league transitions to the electronic strike zone. He checks a lot of boxes, and kills like 4 birds with one stone: solidifies the catching position for the next few years and hopefully can steal some strikes the next couple years, satisfies the need for high OBP, power, and the ability to bat LHH with an above average wRC+. FO deserves great credit for striking early and not playing games. I bet CIN regrets not matching the 4/73 deal when they ended up paying just 9m less for Moustakas. Home run signing. Hopefully he can also help Collins develop a little bit too so he can be ready to be the full time backup in 2021. Abreu: This grade was an D but now it's a C-. On paper, this was indefensible. An aging RH slugger who is a liability at 1st probably is a 2 win guy going forward (declining from there) so a three year deal for 16.8 a year makes little sense especially with Vaughn coming up in 2021 and the DH long term prolly should be a LHH. Yes, there is lockerroom value and leadership but even that couldn't totally justify this. I did read on this board that Abreu really pushed Robert to sign the extension, which if true, would help to justify the deal somewhat. If he can play a role in Moncada doing the same, the deal would go from a C- (post Robert) to a B. Keuchel: B+ Ordinarily give this a B or B-, but I cannot blame the FO for Wheeler turning down 125m. He would have been a more ideal 2, with untapped upside, but the valuation there was already stretched and the offer was very generous given the risk. Keuchel is nothing special, but should give us a lot of quality starts, and his groundball game should be a good fit in GRF. If the other pitchers develop, I doubt Keuchel will hit the IP marks to get the 4th year, so 55m over only 3 years to leave money for Kopech, Cease etc if they develop makes sense. He should be a solid 3 and being LH helps too. Given the circumstances with Wheeler turning down an overpay, this is probably the best risk reward deal they could have done. It's certainly less risky than 4/80 for Ryu. Gonzalez A Very good deal with additional option flexibility. Should be one of the better 5s out there. He can serve a variety of roles when other guys come back from injury. Mazara B I would have preferred Pederson but I suspect LAD was still insisting on Bummer. Props to the FO for coming up with an alternative LHH platoon in RF for a fraction of the cost. Even if he doesn't develop, I'll take 20-23 HR with 830 to 850 OPS against RHH for 70% of the starts. That's a ton better than what we had. The D will be slightly below average but that's not too bad. Looking at it in retrospect good cost/benefit signing. If he doesn't perform, we can sign Pederson for free next year and there's a lot of other OF talent available too. A couple years of control is good too....excited to see what Menechino can do with his swing. Even a small improvement would make him an above average player offensively. Cishek A Very good addition to the bullpen at a reasonable price. I like the option. RH has done a good job getting additional flexibility for 2021 with very cheap buyouts if they don't need it. Encarnacion: A Another smart short term signing. Makes so much more sense than having to give Castellanos 3-4 years. Putting him at DH is great because he will prolly give us more than the 2 WAR he is projected for considering there won't be too many situations where he will play on defense which limits the negative value situations. I'll happily pay 12m for about 30 HRs and decent OBP. Huge upgrade at DH for only 1 year and cheap buyout on the option. Again, RH did a great job on these deals for flexibility for 2021. Robert Extension A+ Tremendous deal. We will have Robert pretty much for all his prime. Id expect Robert to be a 3 to 5 WAR guy on average, which at AAV of about 11m (over 8 years) is great. He might have a few 5+ WAR seasons in his prime. This is an excellent use of the difference between Keuchel and Wheeler's deal. Overall: A-