Jake

Soxtalk has been a great thing in my life and Heads is a big part of what has made Soxtalk great. Terrible for him to go, and so young too.

By my count, Colson is 3 for 17, all singles, 2 BB, 4 K in the complex league.

Hahn drafts chicken s%*#, Getzy turns it into chicken dinner!

The commitment to Palacios has been one of the biggest headscratchers to me. I assume he'll be gone when Tauchman returns but I'm still surprised we haven't tried running somebody else out there. I'm not surprised they have left Julks down there though as his Statcast metrics look bad.

I was pretty surprised to see that he was playing in games. I had assumed he wouldn't see pitching faster than about 65mph coach tosses for at least a week and a half or so.

They'll have to re-score that play, giving the E to Taylor is heinous. Timing on that play for him was tight so he had to barehand it while on a full sprint. Not a play for him to be proud of but the E (and blame) for that play is all Meidroth.

Could raise the question about Booser coming in to face 4 out of 5 right-handed batters as well while the prospect righty who has been getting high-leverage situations had only thrown 3 pitches.

For those keeping score at home, that Dominic Fletcher walkoff bomb was a real cheapie tonight

Regardless of the disposition of the India ball, I hope the brain trust will take the opportunity to ask themselves whether Amaya's glove is giving enough value to justify his use of that roster spot

Statcast would place him as the 3rd fastest runner on this rather slow White Sox team

Watching the botched grounder to SS, I don't think there's much hope to get double play there. It's probably a ball that a Meidroth doesn't touch at SS given how hard it was hit and how far from the starting position it was. The problem for Amaya is that he actually had plenty of time to get the force out but didn't use it. IMO, at least. Amaya played it like it was double play or die

Let me state for the record that I would have just left Leasure in. If you lose with Leasure, it usually takes a lot less time

Idea: IBB Witt

Welp

I don't really feel like either team deserves to win. Maybe the 9th will settle it one way or another

Entire Royals lineup has been up there hunting sliders. Makes life difficult for the two-pitch relievers, especially Leasure who seems a little shell-shocked by hitters smashing well-placed heaters his last two outings

I think Baldwin shows some natural aptitude in the outfield — he does have the highest-difficulty catch of the year for the Sox — but yeah, he's been the team's worst defender all around the diamond and we'll have to take some lumps with him if we want to see if he can stick in the outfield.

AAA Statcast statistics In case you wondered, Julks is tied for 1st in AAA in wOBA - xwOBA, Elko 6th, Gray 13th

They need some starting pitcher depth in AAA. Seems like the kid has been okay at that level, but basically no upside for MLB besides someone who might be able to make a start or two without completely melting down.

There's probably a story there, whether we end up hearing it or not. He was nails his first 3 outings this season and then got shelled in 3 of the next 4. Seemed like the Sox may have been trying to stretch him out. Per Statcast, his average fastball velo was down by about 2 mph this season relative to last season, which might suggest a health issue...although in his last outing, his fastball was at about last year's average. Was walking a lot of guys. Hope he's okay physically, mentally, and however else. And I hope the Sox were supporting him well.

Was he botching it?

Thinking back to Lenyn going up there and hitting a pitch on the corner for the first pitch of the inning, totally unaware the pitcher was hardly going to throw another strike. He's funny

I mean surely, the worst case is that you'd get a full year of competent play out of both of his friends/family.

It's not good when a player is struggling badly enough that you want to do something drastic like this. Definitely a negative indicator for the future. Sometimes when I see a guy struggling in the minors, you will think or hear that "there's time for him to improve" and other such hopeful things. But I'll wonder, who are the guys who had a legitimately hard time in the minors or had a particular problem and actually rallied back and solved it? Most players who have a horrible season in the minors are just not good and that's that. Saying that a guy is young and there's time to fix it can feel a lot like cope. [Side note: a large portion of the major turnarounds in quality of play seem to be pitchers] So I appreciated Getz mentioning Geraldo Perdomo and Barfield's experience with him in the AZ organization. Perdomo hit a hard wall in AA and was putting up numbers rather similar to Colson there (Perdomo struck out less, but still a lot for a hitter with a lot less power than Colson). Arizona sent him to extended spring for an entire month to work on his mechanics and let him clear his head. And then he went on a rampage, posting a .930 OPS for the rest of the season across AA and a brief promotion to AAA. He even had a strong week of hitting in MLB as a September callup. Given that Perdomo is a completely solid MLB starting SS, I accept that as a nice success story and a sign that this kind of move can work. There's also a warning in there, I think: Perdomo had a horrific first full MLB season the following year before an all-star sophomore effort, so this roller coaster may have multiple peaks and valleys.

He's right there in the lineup that you posted