ChiSoxTrojan

Meh, he's got a .439 career OPS over 332 plate appearances spread across 3 years. If he had options that would be one thing, I'd gladly give him a chance in Charlotte, but how's he going to develop with 3-6 plate appearances per week that are probably going to be pretty ugly based on his prior performance? Romy has a better shot at contributing in the near term, and I'd rather have Burger around in AAA to be called up when the first injury hits.

Romy with another HR. He’s bizarro Jake Burger. Same offensive profile, polar opposite on defense.

I read that as a plug for Alberto over Leury. Alberto can play SS, but he's been more of a 2B/3B guy, and Grifol was basically saying that he's not going to hold that against him because the utility IF is never going to have to play SS (assuming everyone is healthy).

It depends who gets hurt. If it's Robert, I imagine you'd see Haseley up and getting the bulk of the playing time in CF. But if it's Benintendi or Colas that goes down, Eloy would likely replace him in the OF nearly every day, with Haseley as the 4th OF. Part of the value of having Robert covering so much ground in CF is that it lowers the burden on the corner OFs.

Engel looks like he might start the season on the IL with (stop me if you've heard this one before) a hamstring injury. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/03/padres-injury-notes-engel-soto-nola-bogaerts-musgrove.html

Well then I think you are going to both be disappointed. Eloy is going to play 40-50 games in the OF, easily, and maybe more if there are injuries to Beni or Colas.

It's really 4 guys (Eloy, Vaughn, Colas, Sheets) for 3 spots (1B/RF/DH) the way I see it. Since I think all 3 of Eloy, Vaughn, and Colas should get plenty of off days over the course of the season, I don't consider that to be a problem. Yes, I know this goes counter to the idea that Grifol will play his starters whenever they're healthy, but both Eloy and Vaughn have histories of nagging injuries and Colas is a rookie. Also the bench right now consists of 3 guys that are much better against LHP than RHP. There needs to be someone in there that can start against RHP without creating a black hole in the lineup.

Oh I completely agree, I would have loved a Duvall signing. I thought you were suggesting the Sox needed someone like Haseley, Marisnick, or Hamilton on the 26-man roster. Haseley is obviously a massive downgrade in the OF from the starters, but we've seen worse over the past couple years. There was a stretch in 2021 that Jake Lamb and Danny Mendick were getting regular OF reps, and then of course there's the Vaughn/Sheets situation. And Leury.

That would be the case even if they had a 20-man bench. They don't have a legitimate option at middle infield who is left-handed until Montgomery is ready. They don't need a "legit 4th OF who can play on a regular basis if needed" on the 26-man. If one of the starting OFs is actually hurt, he'll go on the IL and Haseley or Marisnick will be immediately called up.

You can still argue that everything Hanser can do, Romy can do better. But with Leury gone, they couldn’t also let Hanser walk because that gets rid of too much of the middle infield depth in the organization. One injury and you’re left with a choice between a couple young-for-their-level prospects who probably aren’t ready yet.

The only player in the organization with a better career wRC+ against RHP is Eloy.

I think he’s in as well. But there is an argument that the one thing he does well (hit LHP) isn’t all that useful to the team because the guys he’s replacing in the lineup (TA, Andrus) also do it well. So even if you’re platooning Alberto to maximize his value, it’ll drag the numbers down for the starters by making them take all their most difficult assignments. The Sox really needed to get a LH option at 2B, but they didn’t get it so they’re left with a bunch of imperfect options.

You say that about his OF defense, but he's looked good from the little I've seen. Also I'm reminded of this observation from someone who's seen more of him:

It was off a lefty so it doesn’t count.

They rode that to a division title in 2020.

Romy has 3 HRs this Spring (out of his 6 total hits). I know yesterday's was against a RHP, does anyone know about the previous two? Or generally, where to find L/R splits for Spring stats? I know we're looking at small sample sizes so splitting them further is kind of silly, but I'm curious how he's done against RHP, since that's the only thing that Leury has over him.

I don't expect Colas to be an everyday player right away. From the few sound bites I've heard from the coaching staff in Spring, they seem like they have some specific things they want him to work on and I think they'll ease him in relatively slowly. I'm not saying he'll be a bench guy, but he'll probably make 4-5 starts/week at first. I also don't agree with the idea that Colas will only sit against LHP, he's shown the ability to hit LHP just as well as he does RHP (if not better). His days off will come against RHP in addition to LHP.

I get that LF is a more demanding position than 1B, but is it that more demanding? It's generally considered to be the second-easiest defensive position to play. You rarely hear about 23-year-old players' bodies betraying the way Vaughn's has. I'd love nothing more than for Vaughn to have a healthy season as an elite offensive player. I know he has the ability, whereas Sheets has a much lower ceiling. But I want him to go out and prove it on the field, not just have it handed to him. I think that's what bothers me the most about Vaughn's career thus far. He was handed a roster spot in 2021 without any minor league credentials, and since then he has underachieved (relative to expectations), and now he's been anointed the heir apparent to the Thomas/Konerko/Abreu lineage at 1B. People make a lot of excuses for his mediocre performance (which may be warranted!), but I do want him to go out for once in his White Sox career and earn it. Prove he can stay healthy, and prove he can be an elite offensive player that deserves to play every day. If he does that, I'll gladly stop giving reasons why Sheets should eat into his playing time.

Agreed. I think Eloy will be in the OF a couple days a week.

I think it's more that I haven't been all that impressed with Vaughn. Vaughn is also always hurt, which is a big deal to me, while Sheets is much more durable. I want Vaughn to be fully functional in September, which he hasn't been the last two years. I'm not suggesting a strict platoon, and I want Vaughn to get more at bats than Sheets overall. But if it were up to me, I'd have Vaughn at 1B no more than 4 times/week, with 2 starts at DH, and 1 day off. That means 2-3 starts/week for Sheets at 1B.

I don't think either are great defensively, but I've noticed the opposite. I recall Vaughn making a number of mistakes at 1B last year, where my reaction was that "Abreu would have made that play." Maybe it's just that we haven't seen Sheets at 1B as much, but I haven't noticed the same with him. Sheets was the (slightly) better OF of the two, which probably translates somewhat. If you trust advanced metrics for fielding, OAA and Drs both back up that Vaughn isn't a very good 1B. He somehow accumulated -3 OAA in not very many opportunities last year. Sheets doesn't really have the sample size to judge his ability there, but basically I think he's more athletic than Vaughn, despite his larger frame. In fact the extra 5 inches of height helps at 1B.

Defensively I think Sheets is a better 1B than Vaughn. I could easily see Sheets making 2-3 starts/week at 1B, with Vaughn at DH or getting the day off. This is also a division where the only team that has a decent LH starter is the Tigers (E-Rod). I agree Burger makes very little sense.

The dimensions of GRF definitely play to his strengths, but the home/road splits are obviously extreme.

Interesting, I didn't know that about the new CBA making it so that all players with 6+ years of service time on a minor league contract have opt outs. That confirms that Alberto and Hamilton can opt out, the question is will they? Alberto probably could get a major league job somewhere, but I'm doubtful Hamilton would, and a minor league assignment with the Sox probably gives him a pretty clear path to a major league promotion at some point during the season.

That's what Sheets is for, at least against RHP. And most of the starters the Sox are going to face this year are right-handed. I don't agree with the idea that Colas is going to only sit against LHP, when (a) he's shown that he hits LHP really well, and (b) there aren't a lot of those starts to begin with. Colas will get days off because he's a rookie acclimating to the major leagues, but those off days are more likely to come against RHP than LHP. Sheets is also a much better defensive 1B than Burger, who has looked shaky (granted he's new to the position). In fact Sheets is probably a better defensive 1B than Vaughn. With Vaughn's durability questionable, he probably shouldn't play the field more than 4-5 times/week.