chitownsportsfan

Do we play in Arizona this year? Maybe he's just practicing.

DAYLIGHT TIME

I'd just keep this group together position player wise for now. Who even better than what we have is available? For now Sam and Peters and Braden is a fine OF, flawed sure, but good enough and we need to get them all experience. As you said, Bonemer is our LF, and he'll hit 40 HR hopefully. Let Chase filter himself in or out for this season and than see whatsup in the offseason. If you have "too many good players" than sure, consider trades. Pitching wise yea, fucking add.

That one was the best one yet, Miguel deserved it, GO USMNT!

He's a pitcher. Look at _____ other the years. They are highly variable and often some mature later than others. He's an asset and one I'd hate to give up on with zero service time to get a guy that even in a good year, is pitching 80 innings.

Gross. Trading low is dumb on smith.

Thread drift but I think letting him DH and resting twice a week has rejuvenated his bat.

Today's dive will be posted in a couple hours as an appetizer for the USMNT game. The player will be our All Star and a great Sox development and scouting success story: Miguel, "Swag on 100" Vargas. Miguel is the son of famous Cuban league player Lazaro Vargas, a two time Olympic gold medalist with Cuba. Vargas the younger defected in 2017 (you can recall the Jose Abreu defection and hope it was easier) and was signed (of course) by the Dodgers in 2017, clearly seeing some blood lines and promise in the teenage Miguel. Vargas slowly creeped his way up the Dodgers' system, with MLB having him as their 15th rated prospect in 2020, and ascending to preseason #3 in their org prior to the 2023 season and trade to Chicago the following year. His initial struggles are well documented at this point: through his first 591 MLB PA he batted under 200 with a 73 wRC -- bad enough for a whopping -1.4 fWAR in roughly one full season. But then something happened. He showed up in spring 2025 noticeably beefed up: Part of Vargas’ struggles centered on physical conditioning, but more about him losing weight than being out of shape. So after Vargas dropped around 12 to 14 pounds throughout 2024, he made a promise to improve that aspect of his preparation. Vargas arrived in camp with 20 more pounds of muscle mass across his 6-foot-2 frame. “That was a main goal, to get stronger, get some pounds on my body. Try to be healthy and strong at the end of the year,” said Vargas prior to Friday’s workouts at Camelback Ranch. “I wasn’t aware of how important your body was and how important it is to take care of your body. The results didn't come right away, as adjusting to added bulk can be difficult, but eventually, perhaps in part because of a meme worth "swing change", things clicked for Miguel. Lets get into some of the analytics to see the improvement under the hood: This is a guy that went from 25th percentile bat speed, to 72nd percentile bat speed, and at the same time kept his whiff rate low -- while improving from a good eye, to an elite eye -- remarkable improvement. A lot of players will "sell out" for power, but their contact and o-zone swing percent will suffer -- not Miguel. He has a 47% pull compared to 42% last year and 37% as a Dodger. Fangraphs has classified 44% of his swings as "hard" -- 11.7% last year. Swing hard in case you hit it, and he does: 46% hard hit rate (wow) with an avg EV of 90.4, max 113. Pulling the ball for power will work at G-Rate and most places. Like most modern quality hitters, he's now a mostly pull hitter selling out for hard contact, and it's worked to the tune of an elite .407 xwOBA, some bad batted ball luck so "only" .370 wOBA. We'd be remiss to not mention his defensive and baserunning improvements as well. Initial scouting reports had him as a question mark to stay at 3B long term, with an adequate arm but questionable athleticism: Vargas lacks speed and quick-twitch athleticism, but he has worked hard to improve his body and range at third base. Despite his solid arm strength, scouts in other organizations question whether he can stay at the hot corner, though Los Angeles is pleased with his progress. First base is his only realistic fallback. Well, he's now a solid (+ 1.7 runs above avg) defender, with most of that value coming at the hot corner -- and he can run, don't need statcast to see that. Gets good jumps, is fast, and knows how to steal bases. That completeness is how you get 3.3 fWAR, good enough for 11th in all MLB. He's an All-Star, a complete player, and one that should still be ascending. The Sox would do well to wrap up a deal with him soon. He's a player that they should make a cornerstone of what is looking like a promising next 5 or so years on the South Side.

It's honestly a bit of a fairy tale if you'd say that 18 months ago coming off that season that in 1.5 years you'd have a .530 winning percentage, a positive RD, a 78 million dollar payroll with no bad contracts other than one remaining Beni year, a 20 WAR type position player core -- and oh, you get the 1,1 too, with all the benefits that entails throughout the draft.

The situation is a "bit of a mess" because you have three guys worthy of 1,1? That sounds like the opposite of a mess imo.

I'd have a hard time rooting for him as well.

Our old friend Reynaldo Lopez get the start the other day and went 5 strong with 1 ER. I always had a soft spot for him, even if his pitching drove us wild at times.\ He pitched well again last night looks like. Maybe we'll see him in the WS!

Steep price to pay. Given up projected 6-8 WAR over next 5 years at league min to get a good but aging bullpen rental. I duno, I'm not the GM, the guy we have is doing a good job, we'll see what happens.

My streams were in and out yesterday, was nice to finally sit down and watch most of it without an issue on the MLB.tv archive. In general the broadcast was garbage. Peacock is the absolute worst production with the laziest cheapest crews possible. Same s%*# with college sports. What is even the point of sending the Cleveland play by play guy, with their dugout guy, to join Steve Stone? It was so awkward when the dugout guy would chime in, like they forgot he was there and had to let him talk once and awhile.

What will be the cost of Chapman? We talking an org top 10 or nah?

Bad luck with the wet field in the first inning and infield seemed to affect Vargas and Colson, but those plays have to be made. Meidroth had a couple head scratchers too, one leading to the 3 run inning and that stupid glove flip late that could have opened the door had Gonzo not been alert. And of course Teal had a number of issues the entire series. Lets hope he's just a little rusty behind the dish as so far him and the staff are doing nothing to shut down any opponent's run game.

Twins quietly creeping up. We'll have to smack them down again.

Also, that's probably the most intense 4 days of baseball since the ALDS. That was ass puckering and at times infuriating. Good to care again.

Split feels better than 2-2 given how it could have gone. That's the sort of thing that keeps a season going. Now get Mune healthy, get some pitching additions from Farm or wherever and lets roll.

If we didn't step on our dick so much we'd have won 3/4 easy, but whatever.

HE GAWN @Colome's Hat take it away bud.

phew!

or make an error.

here we go again.