FriendlyNorthsider

Scherzer was rightfully upset because he was pulled off of the mound mid inning in a big spot on the game. He wasn’t mad at the umps but mad that Girardi was essentially icing him

Great write up. There are a lot of important players playing in the ACL for the sox not only for the future, but for establishing some value at the deadline. The guys whose box scores I will watch closest are Tatis (obviously), Bailey, Mendoza, Guzman, and Mena. Mendoza is a key prospect for the sox considering the lack of catching depth in the minors. After the Collins pick, there has been very little invested in the catcher position in the draft or IFA other than the Mendoza signing. A legit catching prospect with defensive upside would be huge for the Sox.

He hit his first bomb yesterday. The jury is still out on him and will be for some time. That said, I think it's extremely unlikely he makes an impact in the MLB in 2022 let alone 2021.

The Sox window 2021-2024 IMO as the core becomes more expensive or is leaving in 2024. There isnt a single minor leaguer at this point that I wouldn't be okay trading if it made sense for the big league club. None of the minor leaguers are, at this point, top 100 guys. Jose Rodriguez is probably the best Sox prospect at this point (beyond the Cubans and maybe Kelley), and he isnt untouchable. The Sox have two Cy young candidates entering free-agency next year, making this year a good year to push some more chips in. Until we see the Sox play some more quality competition, I think we wont fully understand what their needs are until they play teams that are better than DET, BAL, KC, etc.. If they run through Tampa Bay and the Astros, then maybe you're right and there is no reason to mortgage any part of the future. But I worry that at some point, theyre going to need another impact bat and another impact arm in the pen as insurance for a Crotchet injury or having to use Kopech as an opener due to injuries. After the deadline the Sox have a run of 3 @ CHC, 3 @MIN, 3 v NYY, 3 v OAK, 3 @TB, 4 @ TOR, and 3 v CHC. I'd rather be over-prepared for the test than under prepared.The Sox are by far the best team in the AL Central and personally, I think they'll run away with it. I'm more worried about an ALCS against NYY where they made some big moves at the deadline. That gives them time to fully assess what they need and how badly they need it. Winning a World Series is incredibly difficult and may require some sacrifice in the long term. I always go back to my Cubs, but there isnt a Cub fan out there that regrets Gleyber for Chapman. The Cubs had a glaring need at the deadline and made a deal that put them over the edge. Quintana for Cease + Eloy or even Wade Davis for Soler were different. Those trades were anticipatory and ended up backfiring. The Dunning for Lynn trade was largely panned here as paying too much for a rental, but look at how its panning out. The Sox realized in 2020 that they needed top of the rotation pitching to win in the playoffs, and they struck gold. Anything the Sox can do to win in 2021-2024 should be on the table. If the Sox arent going to trade Kade Mclure or Jake frickin Burger to make them even stronger for the playoffs, then they should just trade Rodon and Lynn for a king's ransom and get back a couple of high school juniors like the Cubs did for Yu. Hahn has done a great job of turning Eaton, Quintana, Sale, and years of good draft picks into Giolito, Moncada, Kopech, Lynn, Vaughn, Eloy, Cease, Rodon, TA, Madrigal, etc. Give him the keys to put them over the top. Just my opinion

Well shit.

Ive written about this in another thread, but the Sox do have a lot of money committed to '22, '23, and '24 as they don't have too many contacts coming off the books and a lot of the young core is due for Arb raises or steep increases from their extensions. For comparison sake, the Sox have $85M (not including the Arb 2 years for Madrigal and Cease and Arb 1 years for Kopech and Crotchet) in payroll committed to 2024 and the Cubs have just $5M. The Sox financial commitments are pretty much entirely healthy. There arent any true albatross contacts and the long term commitments all seem like good investments at this point. The roughly $52M/year investment into Keuchel, Hendricks, and Grandal will ultimately impact what theyre able to spend in the coming summers, however. For 2022, the Sox have $116M committed (The Arb raises for Gio and Engle and the buyout from Eaton probably even out), but need to replace Rodon and Lynn who have been aces for a whopping $12M combined. The Sox will also have to patch up the bench and bullpen as their are a few expiring contacts (Lamb and Hamilton) and arb casualties (Marshall, Fry, and maybe Leury). The Sox need to go cheap and homegrown for as much of these spots as possible. Eloy can replace Eaton, defense be damned. I think Kopech needs to be converted back into being a starter. That would allow the Sox to afford to retain Lynn or Rodon and have money to address their other needs. The only other in house option that will likely be ready to start in 2022 is Stiever and Mike Wright who would be significant downgrades, but are serviceable As for relievers, Burdi and Medieros would be the in house options to fill in whats missing in the pen and Pilkington (maybe as a starter) and Gomez are also intriguing. As for hitting, next up in the pipeline is Burger, Sheets, Zavala, Cespedes, Adolfo, and Romy Gonzalez. I would love to see Burger and Sheets get some big league at bats this year and to see how well how they both can defend. It's also important to see if Yermin ends up more toward his player of the month April or his .567 OPS since May. It would be huge if he maintains his standing as a cheap long-term stars in the lineup along with Madrigal and Vaughn. If there was ever a time to increase the payroll this next offseason is it. The 2021-22 free agent class (pending extensions) is stacked which fits perfectly in this window over the next 2 years. Yoan goes from 6.8M in 21 to 24.8M in 24. Robert goes from $3,5M in 21 to 12.5M in 24. Eloy goes from 4.3 to 13.8. Timmy Goes from 7.2 to 14. Yoan, Robert, Eloy, Hendricks and TA cost the Sox $33.1M in 2021. The commitment to those same players goes up to 80.1M in 2024. As I said earlier, that doesnt include the Arb raises/extensions for Madrigal, Cease, Kopech and Crotchet. Gio and Keuchel are also UFAs in 2024 so thats two more rotation spots to fill. If the Sox don't develop their young pitching, they will have the same problem the Cubs had come 2024. If I were Rick Hahn, I would consider my window 2021-2023 and make whatever moves they need to get over the hump.

Here is a 2018 Mock Draft from the night of the draft. Both Mayo and Callis had Madrigal going at 3 to the Phillies and Brady Singer going 4 to the Sox. Both had Kelenic going 13 to the Marlins. Fangraphs had the Sox take Singer, the Reds taking Madrigal and the Mets taking Kelenic at 6. If you want to call it a scouting failure, fine. But Madrigal seemed to be a consensus top 5 pick and not just because of his connection to the White Sox. 2018 has a chance to be one of the best draft classes in recent memory, so there will always be what ifs, but the Sox have a guy who is a solid every day player on a playoff caliber team. Essentially half the draft class has been in the top 40 of a recent top prospect list

Gladney has been a huge bright spot in Kann. If he sticks at third, he has a nice ceiling

Has a better ring to it than Benyamin Bailey I guess

Low A is going to be very interesting this year, because their are a lot of fairly aggressive placements all around that league. Jose Rodriguez (19 yo, Fangraphs #8 Prospect) is slashing .406/.424/.594 through 33 plate appearances in his first taste of full-season ball, which is by far the hottest start on the team. Benny Bailey (19 yo, Fangraphs #9 Prospect) is just 2/21 with a homer, but that is somewhat expected at this point. As a guy who passionately follows MiLB, he's one of the box scores I check each day. He reworked his swing since his last game action, so I imagine it'll take time to get going. James Beard (20 yo, Fangraphs #22 Prospect) is an interesting watch as well. He's very raw as a hitter, but his .188/.350/,375 slash in 20 PAs is not a terrible start minus the 9 strikeouts. He has 4 walks already compared to 8 in 127 ABs last year. It's going to take a while to see how much he improved during the 2020 season. DJ Gladney (19 yo, Fangraphs #32) is slashing .238/.385/.381 so far this year with a few extra base hits and 4 walks so far. Jared Kelley (19 yo, Fangraphs #5) has had a rough start to the year as he has an 8.10 ERA and 3.00 WHIP in his two starts that covered 3.1 innings. He wouldve have some time at rookie ball last year to work on things if not for COVID, so his start is to be taken lightly. Matthew Thompson (20 yo, Fangraphs #10) and Andrew Dalquist (20 yo, Fangraphs #11) have all held their own this year in their appearances. Bailey Horn (23 yo, Fangraphs #30), who scouts pegged as a reliever out of college, was dominant in his one start throwing 4 hitless innings with 1 walk and 3 ks. If Horn can develop into a starter that would be a HUGE scouting success as he only started 9 games during his two years at Auburn. He logged only 55 innings in 22 appearances with a 4.75 ERA and 1.38 WHIP during college, so he was more of a projectability pick than anything. The Cubs drafted a similar player (Ryan Jensen) in the first round in 2019 with worse professional results at this point. The Sox have a very top heavy farm with most of the top players set to graduate this year. Kannapolis is loaded with young talent and will be an interesting follow all year.

For what he lacks in X's and O's he's seemingly doing a pretty good job of a few things. It would be easy for a young team to lose focus after losing two of your best hitters, but the Sox are playing their best baseball of the year. Whether its solely the positional coaches or not, players are making adjustments and significant improvements from last year. The analytics issues are very easily remedies as Tony appears willing to own up to mistakes. Have a quality control or bench coach more familiar with analytics in his ear during those decisions. Could Hinch or Cora have done this and also won two or three of these bullpen losses? Probably. But not every manager can get what TLR has gotten out of the Sox this year, either. Yes, the game has passed him by in some ways, but he seems up to the challenge. Keep in mind, I'm a Cubs fan that has always disliked TLR.

The solution to that would be to have him in ML spring training right? It annoying that this is still an issue

Oh hes VERY available

From a Cubs fan perspective that would absolutely get done. I said in the offseason thread that pre-Eaton, Heyward +Kimbrel would be a way to add some solid defense and a great closer for just money. I still think Bryant would be a great fit for the Sox, but that would only be done if that plan was to move Engel to center full time

I believe Gio but if this happened to TLR I would call BS.

100% agree. Although I always cover my hot takes by saying, "if he changes his approach he can be great". Madrigal is the type of guy that'll get a cult following. He shows little leaguers that they can make it even if they aren't 6'4 205 like Eloy. Im very happy to eat crow with this

Im not sure if it was the last movie, but I remember going to the theaters on my 7th birthday in 1995 to watch the power rangers. The teens were absolutely ruthless. They were wishing for the death of the 85 year old producer, questioning every decision the director made even it was objectively the right call, and were threatening to walk out of the theater after the first five minutes even though everyone knew that they werent going anywhere. Now that I say that out loud...

This is exactly right. Moncada costs the Sox $6.8M in 2021 and will cost $13.8M in 2022, $17.8M in 2023, and $24.8M in 2024. Robert and Eloy become $3 Million more expensive every year. Tim Anderson will be getting more expensive and has some club options that are nearly double his 2021 salary coming up. Gio is going into his Arb-2 year and the Sox are also trying to extend him. None of that is bad money, but the Sox have around $110M committed to 2022 without accounting for players in Pre-Arb (Madrigal, Cease, Kopech, Foster, Heuer), and the other Arb guys who will be brought back (Gio, Marshall, Engel, Fry?, Lopez?) but keeping the payroll at 133 means having to replace Lynn, Rodon, Eaton, and Leury very cheap or internally.

Hey, We have one of those on the north side! As frustrating as Javier Baez can be at times, having elite defense, elite baserunning, and elite power make the approach something you just have to live with. When pitchers hit their spots they'll swing and miss. But they have to do that three times before making a mistake and guys like Baez and Robert will make them pay. The best thing to do is to get him protection in the lineup and let him be. He's a joy to watch and even when he's slumping he'll be a 4 win player

I have been low on Madrigal for a while, so keep my bias in mind, but I just don't think his approach will allow him to be successful given his physical limitations. He has one elite skill and that is getting the bat on the ball. The problem is that he hits the pitches that the pitchers want him to hit. His chase contact percentage is 81% in his small sample of 134 plate appearances vs a league average of 59%. That is a great category to be elite in when you're down 0-2 with 1 out and a guy on third, but most of the time you're just throwing away at bats. If his fielding or speed were elite he'd be a fine everyday second baseman, but they arent. My hope with him is that adjust his approach so that he doesn't put so much emphasis on not striking out. He knows that he can always make contact when the situation calls for it, so why not sell out a bit with less than two strikes? His hands are certainly quick enough to do damage if he added some loft to his swing.

Sale pitched in 58 games and threw 2+ innings 11 times (3 innings twice). Theyre definitely asking more of Kopech. FWIW, I think Kopech is a starter long term and Crotchet is a high-leverage reliever.

I was not a fan of this from the start. I felt that Vaughn trying to learn a new position while also trying to learn to hit MLB pitching could lead to him not doing either well. The hitting may take some time, but he's showing promise as a left fielder. Eloy wouldve ran full speed into the wall on that play if he were in left.

Crotchet, Kopech and Hendricks look fine. The starters getting into the 7th inning (okay, ill take the 6th) would be nice.

He was supposed to be high IQ, but his base running suggests otherwise. Im starting to think he might not be the son a coach either. Or not the first one in the building each morning

I think at GRF you'll see more Tim Anderson jerseys than any other. He's a homegrown talent, has big likeable personality, and isn't going anywhere anytime soon. If Robert has a big year I could see him being a popular jersey nationally, which might be what it takes to actually make the Top 20.