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Yes it would and I know I made a long post about his hitting but Believe it or not I want to expand on it. There's one reason why Judge had a historic season. He's a big strong guy who was, in the past ,inside outing the ball trying to go the opposite way to take advantage of the short right field porch or reaching on outside pitches to try to do it. 2021 his walk rate was a career low 11.8 %. 2022 his walk rate went back up to 15.9 % . That's what happens when uyou hit bombs. They don't want to throw you strikes. Last year he pulled 95 balls compared to only 59 the previous year . In other words why have a big strong guy doing something that lessens his power ? It shouldn't have taken him until he was 30 years old to figure that out but it did. Colas is not as tall as Judge. He's actually around 5"11 but he's built like a tank and the best LHH power prospect they have had in a long time playing in a home park that is very conducive to LH power and they are teaching him to go the other way ? Lift and pull when your power bat is capable of hitting 450 ft. bombs . Lift and pull some bombs maybe then you can improve your walk rate. Teaching him to go the other way is just encouraging Colas to swing at outside pitches. Just look middle in and mash . I'll give pitchers props who can consistently hit the outside corner . If you get behind in the count , sure look to go oppo but if you are ahead 1-0, 2-0, 2-1, 3-1 ,don't try to go oppo just because you get a pitch away . Take it. Draw some walks. You can't get ahead in the count unless you take pitches. You can't take walks unless you take pitches. You hit more HR's taking pitches getting ahead in the count. Pitchers make plenty of mistakes. Learn, turn ,burn .

Big Baby Eloy !

I misread something when I looked up his spring stats. Mistook a B for meaning Both RH and LH . Not sure is it's usually a B or an S when referring to a Switch hitter

I'll repeat what I said earlier about him in a few recent threads. He worked with the hitting coach in Miami during the winter. Judging from the ST results which we know may not be indicative of what will happen in the season. But this is what I saw. He did not K a lot. He also did not walk a lot. He started hot then faded. He did K a decent amount in the minors but he still manged to hit for a high average and hit for power and many times massive power . Right now I'm not so concerned about his K rate as I am his GB rate which seemed observationally high. I don't know what his GB rate was in the minors so I could be talking out of my ass . I do understand trying to get him to hit like Vaughn , Eloy and Anderson who make it look so easy going to the opposite field. However I am questioning if that was the right approach with Colas. I guess I would've been more comfortable with him just using the same approach as he did in the minors. Yes it would mean more K's and maybe a high batting average isn't very sustainable in the majors when you can't take walks (unless you are Anderson). But we do not want to see Colas turn into Anderson. We want a power hitter and maybe specifically a pull hitter for power who gets the ball in the air and also hits doubles. Didn't see many doubles from Colas in the spring either only 2 with 3 HR's so the OPS was only .703. So my gripe is that maybe the coaches shouldn't have worked so much with him on going the other way. Maybe it zapped some power while cutting down on the K's and turning him into a slappy GB oppo hitter reminiscent of the dreaded Menechino approach. I also think now that he is opening on the 26 to start the season that it doubly magnifies why it was silly not to bring him up last year. He could've used the same approach that he did in the minors and if it didn't appear to be good enough THEN maybe work on him going the other way or at least looking for pitches up andout over the plate or inside and spitting on pitches away rather then just trying to make contact with them like we saw so much from Robert last year . They also could've worked with him on hitting the cut off man and got used to his home field and some fields around the league. The hitting coaches seemed to try to get him ready for the majors without actually seeing how he would do in the majors and then making adjustments. Grifol seemed to specifically talk about Colas when he talked about guys who had things to learn defensively. I seem to remember that when he got to AA he changed something and it was then that his numbers really started to soar even higher in AA then they were in A+. There's nothing inherently wrong in power hitters striking out. There are a lot of great hitters who have high K rates. But he definitely has to figure out how to be more selective and make pitchers come to him. That's when you start to see more pitches in your hitting zone that you can tee off on. Robert has the same problem but at least in the spring it wasn't a K problem for Colas, it became a GB problem.

I don't think it's a given Colas starts. Valdez is lefty and a high GB rate pitcher. The Sox will be beating the ball into the ground. While Colas has cut down on K's he's also beat the ball into the ground. I actually wish they had left him alone over this winter in Miami. Well, not left him alone but just said be yourself and we'll see how it plays while concentrating on him being more selective and having a 2 strike approach rather than a lets look oppo approach . Hate to see a buy strong guy like Colas not take his big cuts. As far as bombs go he's as capable of hitting it 450 ft as Eloy is. Romy and Zavala mostly pull the ball but both of them have show the ability to go oppo also. Yes they both K a lot but I'll take them looking to pull more. Zeby gets a lot doubles doing that also. Romy's last 10 games played, from March 17 to March 28 ,he was 11/29 (.379) with 6 HR's and 12 RBI. He finished ST with a .646 slugging %. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see Romy in RF.

Yea i was just coming back to edit my post when i saw the previous post said he was out of options. Would've had to stick him on the 26 and that wasn't going to happen.

Hard to believe the Sox mess around with Billy Hamilton when a switch hitting speed and defense guy like Pache was available for peanuts after he hit .302 this spring. I know many love Hamilton but this stick just don't play . Can't keep guys around just because they are a good cheerleader. At least find a guy with upside like Pache. No idea if Pache has options left and that figures in a decent amount of minor league acquisitions. Always other things to take into consideration also like a player's reputation and/or attitude inside the clubhouse.

I think I already predicted the Sox would win the division. However I wouldn't be surprised if the starting pitching collapsed. Gio and Kopech velocity seems to be down. Cease still can't find the strike zone as much as you would like an ace to do . I think the offense and defense will be better but with so many guys who can't seem to stay healthy , it's expecting a lot to expect them to stay healthy. Sox fan me says they win the division. Normal me says a helluva lot has to go right. They don't have the starting pitching depth and closing games may become a problem as well as the entire bullpen. Tough early schedule won't do them any favors as they try to unite as a team. 16 road games 13 home and many tough teams. Romy will be the most useful bench piece since he can run field and hit (maybe but at least he has power).

Sox will win today just so we can make jokes about being at .500 for the spring.

That's what I was doing early in the off season, combing AAA guys. I'm glad James Outman made the Dodgers opening day roster .

F Sox Machine. There's only one reason why they get time on 670 The Score, because they are boring and dwell on all the bad things. Like in that podcast. The only comments they put up all basically questioned final bench pieces. Well duhhh. There was no way to please everyone regarding the bench. Not enough decent hitters who could also field. Romy and Seby maybe and no one believed in Seby s defense or offense a year ago. Romy looks like he can play the OF. We don't have much of a sample to know but he's fast and athletic . He has power .Might as well have some power on the bench. If you are going to only get sporadic starts and PH, HRs will do more damage than any other hit. Alberto won a spot. Why play games if u can't win a spot by performing well or lose a spot by performing poorly . 3 of the 4 bench players are RH. Sheets or Haseley. That was your choice for a LH bench piece. They chose power and a guy with MLB credentials rather than the guy they released last year. Sure people wanted Burger ( all hit no glove) or Hamilton ( speed and D no bat at all ). Reading the tea leaves here wasn't that hard. The Romy hype train was rolling since early in the off season. He started spring bad . We heard he was hurt, disappeared then came out of nowhere and smacked 5 HRs. I like James Fox. He's a Sox fan and has some celebrity for being a level headed expert but close to crunch time he still got half the bench wrong and we all knew Seby was a lock so essentially he got 2 of the 3 others wrong. Many said Leury was a lock and they were shocked the Sox ate the money. Really ? Didn't the Sox eat more money with Keuchel ? The bench is basically built for as much power as possible to make big impact in a small amount of time . It's not meant for late inning defense or pinch running . Really how much better was Hamilton than Romy in those areas ? Burger is Romy without the speed and defensive versatility. Seby, Romy and Alberto seemed like the easier picks to make once Romy started blasting HRs. Alberto started hot and stayed hot the whole way and did fine defensively.

Pretty impressive rally considering it was 2 on 2 outs and 0-2 count and the score was 6-1. Even after the Romy HR made it 6-4, 3 straight hits with 2 outs tied it. Kath single, Glass double and Gladney the 2 RBI hit up the middle.

Yea we can talk all we want about stretching and adding muscle and it certainly helps in some and not at all in others. Genes have a lot to do with injuries , some people just aren't "built" right to give sustained max effort whether you're an athlete or a construction worker Gio experimented with extra pounds and Eloy too. Now they both decided they were too heavy.They are still figuring it out for themselves what's best for them so I don't see how we can decide that for them. Still I'd rather have Eloy in the batters box than in the OF by a long shot.

Could James be wrong on 2 of the 4 guys? I'm guessing he'll be wrong on 1 of the 4 certainly. Hamilton ? Really ? Makes me feel bad for guys who had good springs like Haseley and Erick Gonzalez. If it is that 4 for the opening series I'll start calling James the Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Good luck Leury. You were my adopt a prospect and I liked your speed and versatility and your big smile and often stuck up for you. However after last year it became apparent that there were going to be better options even though you had many supporters or was it Andrus detractors early in the off season ? A bit of both I suppose. But in the end you're not on the team and Andrus is a starting 2nd baseman for better or worse. In any case have fun with your money . You should have enough for the rest of your life to live comfortably.