chitownsportsfan

National prospect and fantasy guys going wild over Kopech today. Hype here seems a bit muted in comp. Prospect fatique I guess. Anyways, if MK can come out and command that fastball for 5 innings every 5th game he's a star. Now. I just wanna say Grandal's frame of that pitch is a thing of beauty after Narvaez and James.

Washington state is banning gatherings over 250 tmr. Mariners will play in front of nobody opening day. So will all teams most likely. Let's hope prudence has this thing blown over by May.

totally. which is why spring training trades are very rare. you don't want to blow your wad this early. as I've said a million times for all we fucking know the Sox pen is lights out this year and Don Cooper lays his moneymaker down again. Let it play out before using assets. It's not like McCann is going to depreciate in value between now and mid-summer.

No player is happy being a backup but frankly I don't see a lot of teams contending that would want McCann as their primary catcher. When I looked the other day there were only maybe 2-3 clubs at most that were a) contending and b) needed a 1.5-2.5 WAR catcher. And that's optimistically.

16 days now. Today's player O/U is Eloy Jimenez. While the hype train has moved to the Luis Robert station Eloy remains perhaps the most intriguing young Sox position player. Is there 50 HR power in that bat? How about playing passable defense in LF? Can he put it together enough to be a 5-6 WAR player in his prime or will he be more like an "El Caballo" type and never quite unlock that superstar potential? We'll see. 2019: 818, 31, 1.9 ZIPS: 861, 33, 2.2 ZIPS likes Eloy and so do I but not enough to go over on the OPS. I'm going to go UNDER on OPS, OVER on HR and OVER on fWAR. He's going to improve his defense, be a sneaky good baserunner and struggle with whiffs. My prediction is 270/330/530 but he stays healthy, plays 150 games, and improves to simply "bad" in left instead of "brutal" and finishes with around 2.7 fWAR.

Usually agre e with your posts but not this one. The expected career war of the 4th pick is like 8. People vastly over-rate the value of any pick other than the 1st really.

Yup. A large component of the Sox' failure from 2007-2017 was simply an inability to find the "average regulars". If Madrigal is "only" an average regular he's still going to contribute on what should be 90 win type teams and he'll be doing so on a relative pittance, freeing up money for a hole elsewhere on the roster. If he craters completely the Sox will have to bring in a 2B in FA or trade next year. Hopefully that doesn't happen.

I agree with most of that but I'm not a huge fan timing of mechanisms pre-pitch that are lower body mechanisms. Moncada's toe tap for instance is similar, and he makes it work, but it can lead to too much movement if not carefully practiced and is consistent day to day. Agree tho that such fluidity from a huge big teen is promising. From his writeup on Future Sox last year he absolutely mashed the DSL at 17 so that's promising. Where is he going to start this year? AZL than maybe a taste of Great Falls?

This would be one of those 60 you flush in the regular season. But it's spring so who cares. No injuries and Kopech was fire. That's all that matters today.

Well that ball carried.

Leury is playing a helluva 2B this spring. Good to see.

She'll love it too!

Not at all.

Must be fairly tough hitting conditions with the clouds as these RHB are not seeing him as well as they should.

Bah. Vaughn jammed himself.

Eloy flying open right now.

they were sliders. his curve is essentially just a show me pitch.

changeups at 90, sliders were 81, 82 I believe. Slider looked really sharp. not much curve but bottom was falling out.

90 on the changeup. lol. beast mode.

Great inning Micheal!

drops in a beautiful breaking ball.

I agree with Law on that point but he's just being stubborn not putting him in the top 100. Look at some of those guys on his back end. You can't tell me with a straight face his last 5-8 guys are better bets to produce 10 career WAR than Madrigal. That said, I think he's the perfect 2.5 WAR 2B for the squad around him. Perhaps in his prime he can get to 3-4 WAR. I liked the Marco Scutaro comp.

First on the rebuild in general Second on Madrigal

They might get the game in today but the forecast looks as bad as I've ever seen it for Phoenix this time of year. Literally rain for 10 straight days is forecast. If so, the fields are going to be deluged and many games will be cancelled. Maybe a small positive if it slows coronavirus a bit.

you must be used to corporal punishment.