bmags

I actually want to extend him: - One, I don't believe they'd actually be forced to pay a premium for his peak offense of the moment - Two, it has been years since sox pitchers and catchers have had a relationship as good as this. Clearly he has been a mentor to a young pitching staff - regardless of results. I think he's a good vet anyway. I do not think he will be expensive, because catchers have been remarkably cheap in free agency despite everyone thinking they'll get paid a lot more.

Lillian it's worth mentioning that what Reed has done in AAA is in the PCL league, which has very inflated offense due to geographic factors but also some park factors. It allows the most home runs of all leagues in the minors. So his offensive numbers need to be taken with a grain of salt, especially when you factor in the MLB ball in AAA, which greatly improved offense - yet his declined. So if he comes in and goes on a Yordan Alvarez run - then we pay attention. But if it's relatively similar to this - an .800 ops, it's probably not going to translate much beyond what we can produce with other players in ML level.

Exactly this, I haven't been discouraged by Madrigal's lack of HR power, though I definitely do use it as a shorthand admittedly, it's the lack of doubles. I do think he is a guy that can turn doubles into triples, but to do that you need to get more basehits to the gaps which he has not done a good job of to date. It's his lack of xbh that has been discouraging to me, but that said, I was a high person on Madrigal and I am not saying he is now a bad player or prospect. But the pitching in the big leagues is going to be much better more often, will that lead to more of his bad contact? I think what has been heartening is his BB rate improving as he's gone up. I thought his power would be better, but I do think his path to plus-starter is through walking more often. The common wisdom that players without power will get walked less because pitchers aren't afraid of challenging them I have found to be overblown - because too many pitchers aren't that great at control if the hitter can actually avoid swinging at balls. And I think I'm being positive when I'm saying madrigal will improve his obp skills as he advances. So if Madrigal can refine his sense of the zone and really only swing at strikes, he can optimize his production. I just don't think that will be peak Rod Carew. But if he hits .390 I will not be complaining he doesn't hit enough home runs, it's just I don't think a player can hit .390 while making such light contact.

Gladney home run number 5. Also weirdly Camilo Quintero suddenly showed up in Birmingham. Assuming it’s for Madrigal but strange first ABs. Edit: never mind just your run of the mill milb.com screw up saying it was Quintero’s first game.

Eaton has a 9% BB rate, 14 HRs, and 9 triples. He’ll need to walk more than now, and hit for WAY more power or have a .350 avg

That said I don’t like Dragic.

Don’t forget you can use valentine and Hutchinson’s salaries.

I actually think it’s not enough to say he needs to be a good base runner, I think he’ll need to be elite in baserunning metrics to max out his value. Question for me is is there a willians astudillo amount of power out of Madrigal when he’s 26/27.

I don’t really know how to manage the likelihood’s. But what Alonso is doing in NY makes me say that yes, while forecasting a player to be a top 15 hitter in baseball is silly, saying Vaughn’s ceiling is as a top hitter is what I think his ceiling is, and Alonso certainly at his ceiling is at a 9 WAR pace. Now, the issue may be Vaughn’s power potential. But I do think even looking at hoskins he’s on pace for 4.5 on a very good year. Madrigal I just can’t really see topping 6 wins in his best year. Basically Eaton’s best year which means finding that power.

Ah so he had been in the major leagues spanning more than a single year? Great point.

Pray for any rookies on that team (tyler herro), going to get destroyed.

All signs pointing to heat. You would have to give up one of Lavine or Porter to start with. I am not certain that team would hit 40 wins.

Yeah I don't buy that for a second. Sox have room for this churn, probably have favorable scouting reports, like him more than their 40th guy, take a shot.

Who wrote this?

I've wondered about that but I asked about that at soxfest (last year sox barely played joseu guerrero, coronado, sanchez instead of playing them in DSL) and I guess they feel being in AZ and getting ABs in some backfield games is enough. I did not know backfield games were running but there must be some game play happening.

Yes, I'm sorry, please go on and explain how this 26 year old first baseman who has declining power numbers repeating AAA for the third time in one of the best hitting environments in baseball, in a season with a surge in offensive output due to a change in baseballs, in one of the best talent identifying and developing organizations in baseball, is going to be JD martinez. JD martinez of course, was an actual big leaguer for years before, a fringey poor defensive outfielder who completely remade his swing in an offseason and it didn't manifest itself in the limited playing time they had to re-evaluate it before releasing him. What has changed since 2013? Well they have added millions in technology and coaching that would have helped show them that his swing plane had changed, launch angle had become consistently better and his exit velocity improved. They have turned over almost all of the staff since then. They actually held themselves accountable for the mistake. But yes, nice anecdote. I'm sure AJ Reed is going to be JD Martinez just like Yolmer is going to be a superstar. You called it.

No, Tucker was the main piece that people put together from the astros after bregman with some version of musgrove/marte then reed/stubbs etc rounding it out.

Yeah, that was six years ago and they have changed as much as any organization since then to make sure it didn't happen again, including firing their manager for not giving him enough spring training at bats.

I think AA is a really big challenge so I don't mind that much, but I do think AAA is the better place to work on his BB rates, I don't think his power is much of a thing that is going to change this year.

To be fair, Reed was the favorite wild card third piece along with garrett stubbs. I don't believe either flete or rose are even in the org anymore either.

Good use of waivers, crazy that guy didn't pan out to more. Not optimistic that a player that couldn't work at Houston in 2019 is going to be a sudden piece.

Yes, Anthony Coronado was moved from DSL. But also I agree I think sox main concern is cultural assimilation and mental workload, and moving him with other teammates seems more their style especially for a 17 year old. I'd be excited to get more looks for him but they aren't hurting his development leaving him in DSL or anything.

In year 4, Westbrook is owed $47 million. FORTY SEVEN MILLION and if he is bad, there will be no one to bail them out.

I'm going to call him "Madrigal" who is with me?!

People shouldn't beat themselves up too much over this. As bad as he was, it's not like sox were sitting on a goldmine RFer (unless you count Avi).