mac9001

The bullpen projection is probably going to be a text book case on why spending on the bullpen doesn't provide value. I'm willing to bet they find a way to find servicable pen pieces and end up with a bullpen that's not ranked last. That's not a high bar, but it also goes to show you can probably just keep sending bodies out there until you find enough pieces to make the bullpen servicable.

I haven't seen Meidroth play, but my guess is if you don't think he can handle SS at the big league level you won't think very highly of Colson at short.

Young A-Rod was not stiff. He was a great athlete (I think he even swiped 40 bags one year). He got big and stiff in his late 20s, but Colson is already way bigger than A-Rod was even on roids. Colson is a big dude, he's gotta be around 6'5"ish, 240-250. He would make most 1B look small.

I don't know if I've seen anyone in the entire prospect industry give Colson a passable review at SS. He's not a bad athlete, he's actually a pretty solid, but he's a big dude. He would probably make a solid D1 TE. When you watch him there are two things there seem to be very apparent. 1) He seems a bit stiff. It might just be his size but it just doesn't look that smooth when he's on the move, especially to his right side. 2) His reaction time, or the initial explosive first step you would love to see in a quality SS is not there. Once he's moving he might be above average in terms of sprint speed, but with each play as SS my only thought was this guy is just way too big to play SS. I don't even think I'm being critical of him. For a man his size to be this close to the majors while still playing SS is very impressive. I look forward to seeing him at the MLB level. If I was making the decisions I probably would have moved him to 3rd simply because at some point this team will likely be semi-competitive again and you don't want to fool yourself into thinking you have a viable defender at SS and then scramble to fill a defensive hole. While at the same time developing 3B options that might be blocked (Ramos).

I probably watched 35+ games last year and at no point in watching Colson did I think he'll stick at SS. I don't see any harm in letting him butcher SS for a year, but long term it's not gonna happen. Ironically watching Ramos at third made me wonder at least a few times how he would handle SS. I definitely think he could be a 2B and he can absolutely play the outfield. My impression of him was his athleticism and speed was comparable to Baldwin.

I wouldn't be so sure the Sox will actually make a profit this year. The gate receipts might be pathetically low and the new TV network is likely not at the same level of revenue of their previous setup (with Comcast still not onboard it's probably a significant decline in revenue). Being this bad isn't exactly a wise business move, spending a $100M, taking on big losses and still being laughably bad is an even worse business move. You don't become this comically pathetic of an organization and just turn things around by throwing money around without a viable strategy of being competent. They need to show they can draft and develop (it should be cheaper than paying market rates for aging FAs). If you can't get the basics right you can't spend your way into competence.

Which isn't a reason to spend $100M this off-season to not be the worst team in baseball. Take the $100M, buy some Bitcoin and in 3-4 years if it looks like they might be average, its time to double down on black and start acting like you're the Dodgers.

To be fair the Sox are not in a position to spend their way out of their current situation. You need several years of solid drafting/development just to make a plausible argument on contending for mediocrity. The only thing more depressing than a 40 win team is a 60 win team that made an genuine attempt at doing everything in their power (by spending) to be more competitive.

Takes a lot more than a half dozen beers to beat up the first base coach. Any respectable bartender knows when it's time to cut someone off.

They should just do free admission if you buy two beers. If I buy two, I'll probably buy another half dozen.

Brownsville site seems a little small for a football stadium build. The 78 seemed like a bit of a squeeze for even a baseball stadium. AH should just force the Bears to do something with the land. Build something or pass some zoning changes to force them to sell. There's been some insanely impressive development around new stadiums lately all over the country. It just seems like neither the Sox or Bears are truly serious about building unless they can get a massive handout and if anything ever gets built it'll probably be another cheap half assed approach like their current stadiums.

Neither the money nor the playing time is really consequential in Vaughn's case. Bring him back or don't, the $3-6M won't matter and neither will his ABs both in terms of adding value (wins) or blocking anyone's development. Next year is all about getting our young arms reps and developing (or trading) for some positional prospect depth. That's probably true for 2026 too. We need a few years of good drafts, a decent trade or two and a hell of a lot of good luck to even entertin the idea of being less than mediocre (sub .500) in 2026. The lack of positional prosect depth has probably already put us into a second rebuild feedback loop where we'll be forced to trade our pitching assets to restart the rebuid after 2026 in the hope of developing a realistic rebuild plan that puts us on a path of respectability by the end of the decade.

I'm not disputing he wouldn't, but he's still young, he hasn't really made any "real" money by MLB standards and he'd have a chance to lock in a 100M guaranteed and still have a chance at a big deal down the line. If he thinks he's worth 300M and nothing less will do he should absolutely wait till free agency. If he wants to be setup for generations there's probably an offer on the table he can take and feel good about now.

If the Sox offered 100/5 he'd be crazy to turn it down. Won't happen but get paid while you can kid.

I would be very curious to see Eder in a bullpen role. Last few starts he's been 90-92 on the fastball. I've seen him hit 97 on the gun in B-ham, he probably would see his stuff play up quite a bit if he knew he only needs to bring 5-10 max effort fastballs a night and take a seat.

You have to believe Pallette gets another shot at starting, probably at AA to start the year next year.

Nastrini looked fantastic. Was throwing a ton of sliders that had some of the best swing and miss stuff I've ever seen from him. If he can get his fastball over and throw the slider he had tonight he's a legit big league starter.

He's had a decent month but for the season as a whole he's walked way too many guys and his BAbip is way too low to have any confidence on future success. I'll willing to bet Charlotte will not treat him well.

The LMG home runs are fun to watch. If he can make consistent contact the dude is gonna hit a ton of bombs.

Don't know if I agree. Prospect rankings have a tendency to favor unproven lower level prospects. I'd be curious if you took a top 100 list in any given year and did a 6 year WAR avg from those prospects following the year of ranking. My guess is you get more 6 year WAR on AAAA players than top 100 lists. Then apply the same principle to farm system rankings. If you take each teams top 30 and get the 6 year WAR from that year forward I doubt you'll get a huge difference between 1 and 11.

That swing looked like routine flyball. I'd love to get some EV data on him because anyone that can make an opposite field shot look that easy is a somebody.

Jake Peppers numbers don't look great this year but his stuff is legit. If he can't find consistent command as a starter I won't be shocked if he becomes a solid big league closer. Put him in a bullpen and I'd be surprised if he's not hitting 100.

Eder's profiles much better for a bullpen role. I'd put both him and Nick on the Sox pen right now and just cut some of the dead weight. There's no point sending these guys out to get hammered as starters in Charlotte's bandbox. Let's just see if we can make serviceable bullpen arms out of them.

Nick definitely seems like a guy who would be benefit from a bullpen stint.

Watching him today there's nothing that really stands out but he gets a hell of a lot swinging strikes. I swear he waits until the :01 on the pitch clock to throw every pitch. It was driving me crazy.