Jake

Yeah he's just doing the extreme Chicagoland name thing. Lou-ee Roberts baby!

I'll give the Sox minor league development folks a thumbs-up on Colson's defense. Always nice when a guy is pegged as a question mark with the glove but he ends up being better than advertised. We'll leave discussion of his bat for another day

It's interesting how Tauchman, until this year, has been deployed almost solely as a platoon bat. But he has never had much in the way of bad splits against lefties. Out of necessity, the Sox have let him hit lefties and he's done very well against them.

I can't believe Vargas was able to pull a pitch that far outside all the way over the fence

My suspicion is that once he gets up near full speed he will have to shut back down due to pain or poor recovery. Just my hunch; many guys successfully rehab through these things (at least for a while) but I took his loss of velocity this season as a dark sign when coupled with the pain showing up later.

Are we ready to have a conversation about Yoendrys Gomez?

I'm not too sure what drove Santiago to change the way he described that pitch. But a lot of guys throwing changeups nowadays are essentially throwing screwballs. Hector gripped it like a circle changeup and threw it like one. I find that in youth ball, it isn't often taught the screwball way so a lot of fans don't realize this. But the best changeups are thrown with total wrist pronation, basically like you'd throw a curveball but with your hand facing the opposite direction (and usually gripped differently). This generates side/overspin, but of course due to the fact it's generally harder to pronate than supinate, it comes out harder and with less overspin than a curveball. Some guys can't really do it at all but they tend to have an easier time throwing sliders. Other guys who are natural at spinning the screwgie changeups often can't throw a slider very well. The "changeup" Devin Williams throws is very much an all-time great screwball. As for why fewer curveballs, I think the biggest thing is that "tunneling" is the prevailing theory about pitch mixing nowadays. You want all your pitches to look the same not only during your throwing motion but as long as possible after release too. The idea is that they are all traveling down a common "tunnel" towards home plate until at some late stage they diverge due to different movements. The classic tunneling trio is the four-seam/sinker/cutter. These are all very similar out of hand but the cutter darts gloveside late, the sinker darts armside late, and the four seamer stays a bit straighter and will feel like it's rising relative to the other two. Sliders don't tunnel quite as well but the extra movement is a good tradeoff for a lot of pitchers. Same for changeups which diverge a little earlier (mostly due to the speed difference). Curveballs generally don't tunnel very well because the ball comes up out of the hand, making it look different from the heater and everything else almost immediately to a discerning hitter. One thing I haven't heard an explanation for yet is why it seems en vogue nowadays to attack opposite-handed hitters with curveballs — and not so much with sliders. As best as I can tell, for a long time there has been a reverse platoon split for curveballs (same-handed batters hit them better than oppo-handed batters which goes against conventional wisdom). But this is mostly isolated to early in the count and when the curveball is thrown outside to the oppo-handed hitters. So basically, especially early in counts oppo-handed batters have a hard time judging the backdoor curveball and take it for strikes. Later in counts, they are more aggressive and don't take those pitches and don't whiff on them either. Same-handed hitters have an easier time judging curveballs because they can't be back-doored and the break is so big and slow they have a chance to measure it in a way that is unlike the slider.

Plesac has potential but man his verbal slip-ups have been going wild. By the end of tonight's game Sosa had become "Lean." Good vibes between Schriff and Plesac, though. They're clearly having fun. Sometimes Schriffen and Stone have a good time together but other times it feels like Schriffen is begging Stone to wake up (or lighten up).

Getz administration continues to have a type: good approach, good hands/contact

I'm sure Sox would have been open to flipping Booser, but he's basically a long-term piece with a lot of team control and not much mileage on his arm for his age

I'm a simple man. I like funny name kid from Chicagoland who throws 103

Pretty clear pattern with Getz by now that he really prioritizes players who take good at bats/make good swing decisions. He may be right that this is a tool that isn't too hard to scout and is really hard to teach.

Negotiating with who? lol

Nobody has really knocked my socks off, even at the top of this draft

Well folks, Emmanuel Clase has a career 1.83 ERA. He's hard to hit, especially when you stink. Sox countered with Brandon Eisert, who got squared up twice and one of the two proved decisive.

Benetti's speaking voice is like having Nolan Ryan's fastball. Just have to have a half-decent head on your shoulders and you've got a broadcasting career in the bag. Schriffen's voice is 92mph with a little bit of run. McKnight is 89mph and dead straight.

Eisert had a pretty nice run going but he's gotten pretty shaky as of late

I don't think either are super good, but Schriffen is a professional broadcaster who made the fans mad while McKnight is a nice guy who the fans like but isn't a professional broadcaster. I've made my peace with Schriffen — just imagine that he's a dog who was transformed into a man and a lot of things make sense, including his excitement when the subject of dogs comes up and his generally happy demeanor in all circumstances (except when umpires make bad calls)

2 strike three whiffs on curveballs since I posted this

Ball was only going 74mph so probably more like de-capped

Taylor has pitched pretty well as a major leaguer, but I continue to be surprised at how his offspeeds just aren't generating any swing and miss. His fastball is getting about 35% whiff rate, which is quite good for a heater. But his offspeeds are all a lot lower.

If they add a rule that 1. every field has a catwalk above the infield/outfield 2. you automatically win if the ball hits the catwalk Vargas would be the most valuable asset in the league

There's my franchise centerfielder

Not really fair to McKnight given his inexperience, but I don't think he's been good as PBP or sideline guy. Very much feels like a second teamer.

Walks love finding their way around