chitownsportsfan

I would certainly say this is a minority view point among fans. We all root for the laundry but you also have fan favorites and Moncada with his production, beautiful swing and incredible athleticism is certainly a favorite of many. Trading him "to make the team better" (which I think you're conflating with the owner saving money) would piss many people off.

That picture of Frank rocks. Need to bring back that batting glove look.

Technically everybody is a "guess hitter" as every hitter goes up there looking for "their pitch" which for most guys these days is a low fastball out over the plate. What I mean with Eloy is that he needs to be guessing (looking really) fastball even when he's seeing a steady diet of sliders and junk. Eloy will hit plenty of mistake hangers out of the park just off reactions to when he's looking fastball but his talent and power take over on a hanger. Too often last year he looked really bad with 2 strikes, even with a pitcher struggling to get a pitch over other than a fastball, because he was surprised he saw a 2 strike fastball.

One thing he needs to stop doing is guess hitting. He's way too good of a hitter to be doing anything but sitting dead red and adjusting to off speed. No more 2-2 and 3-2 fastballs taken or weakly fouled off or whiffed on because he's looking for off speed. Now I think the injury had a role in that, as you noted. It's hard to get hurt midseason when everybody is already well match fit. Easier to come back in say May or June.

It's the classic argument as to who generates and thus deserves the most revenue: Without the players there's no MLB; Without MLB there's no baseball and no need for players! Although I usually side with labor in this case I do think the owners are correct: the institution of MLB, its history, its teams, everything about it -- would remain even if you swapped out the players for beer leaguers on every team. Most fans would STILL root for the laundry, even if filled by beer leaguers. However, the product would eventually suffer and be replaced by a higher quality professional league. It would take forever, but MLB would sow the seeds of its own ruin. Both the players and the owners need to realize they are sitting on a golden goose. The players' union needs to do a better job allocating revenue to younger players. Yes, without seniority there is no union, but the union needs to realize that the vets only makeup a small percentage of all MLB player. How many MLB players even play through their arb years? 50%? 40%? How many ever hit FA? The union needs to be unified and come with a real alternative to the pre-FA pay scale and reforms for the arb system. Let's hope they do and that there is no work stoppage in 2022 just when the Sox should be at the peak of their contention. @Look at Ray Ray Run -- ha, some people have a hard time realizing that the management phrase "if you can't measure it it doesn't exist or matter" is an OPERATIONS rule, not a statement about the existential nature of things.

yea just to clarify he's a good baserunner gets good secondary leads and is leaning in the right direction. in the OF his reads stink.

This is what they use right now: Does WAR get thrown around during the hearings for "on field performance"? I'd hazard a guess it does. A singular measure will never be in place to measure everything that paragraph above encapsulates but using a more accurate and precise player value metric, (like WAR over RBIs or Wins) is something I'd imagine owners and players would appreciate and push.

which is why any notion of trading Vaughn should be dismissed unless you're absolutely bowled over by an offer. Vaughn is the guy that's going to hit 290/385/510 and score a million runs batting 3rd with Eloy and company behind him. He's the OBP guy.

Eloy was quietly +1.8 runs on the bases last year. He's fast in a straight line and gets good jumps. Hopefully he worked on his agility this year that's where he gets tripped up on in LF.

That one is a head scratcher. ZIPS loves the Twins.

I'd have to look at all 30 teams projections and shit but just on Fangraphs the Mets' offense looks pretty loaded. They don't have a regular projected below an OPS+ of 98 and they have a couple guys above 130. By comparison the White Sox don't have a guy over 128 (Eloy) and while we might think the projection for Moncada is light (121) (and maybe we are right based on his statcast data) ZIPS thinks he's going to regress into "just really good" on BABIP instead of what it was last year. It's getting people talking, that's good. I'd say the two weeks before pitchers and catchers and then the two weeks before real games, when spring training is long boring, are the 4 worst weeks of the year baseball wise. So yea good time to release a controversial article.

That and avoiding stupid injuries by being uncoordinated and/or too gung ho at times in left. Just keep shit in front of you, make the plays at the wall and down the line, and let Robert handle the power alley.

He looks really slim. Good for him. He needs to keep the baby fat off. I can see 280/330/520 this year, which would be just fine.

The Sox have plenty of plausible deniability here. Madrigal has all of 134 AAA PA. He has all of 180 AA PA and hit for a 116 wRC+. Byrant had almost 600 PA AA/AAA and raked to the tune of like a 160 wRC+ when he was delayed. And Kris just lost his case. Madrigal won't even sniff a win if he files.

Thanks a lot to digest here. Just finished the OF preview. Man it would be nice if one of those OF prospects broke out. My money would be on Micker, health permitting.

Plus whoever the invite to camp and send to Charlotte. If TA gets hurt then we have a problem but otherwise Mendick and Leury can hold down those utility spots. I wonder if they will have Madrigal playing some SS in spring and in Charlotte so he can be the primary backup to TA. Leury had like 8 errors in 30 games at SS last year he's not really a SS. I'd feel a lot better with a sure handed if a bit loose armed Madrigal as the primary backup.

it takes two to tango. TA had a wife and baby when he signed his deal and comes from a fairly impoverished background. He had a chance to basically secure his family's future until they are old and grey and he decided to take that deal. From his perspective it made a lot of sense. madrigal is a single guy just out of college a couple years that came from a middle class background. He might look at a deal like TA signed and say "Nah, not for me, I have a support system if I never play another baseball game and I don't have any kids so I'm going to wait and bet on myself". tl:dr: Madrigal is unlikely to be looking to sign an extension right now.

Madrigal has little to gain by signing an extension right now. He'd be looking at something like TA's contract at absolute best, and while a guaranteed 15 million or so probably sounds pretty good he knows that if he puts down one solid rookie season his value will double or even triple. For various reasons you can't compare his situation to Eloy or Robert's, who had already proven more at the MiLB level and at least for Robert, Robert has probably the highest floor and highest ceiling of any non Wander, non Adell position player so he got paid on that.

IKR? Literally nothing to gain by responding in that way. But Stoney is a made man so he can be a dick to fans even tho his job is to be an ambassador. Whatever. Just win this year.

especially the lighter skinned ones. in afternoon games, he leaves them out there so long in the sun!

Prima Facie, it appears that's not the case. Otherwise, Dusty Baker wouldn't be the front runner, no? You can't hand waive away that 1) spring training is basically here and any manager has exactly two weeks to get ready to lead his men into battle, on a contender nonetheless, and 2) Nobody wants to work for someone that didn't hire them if they can help it. And that will be the case in Houston unless they somehow find a GM in the next couple weeks.

Yea there was absolutely zero need to do that. He could have just wished Yolmer well while noting that the Sox have a top 20 prospect in Madrigal that made moving on easier (and cheaper). I'm not surprised as Stone has asshole tendencies. Sox need to remind him he is an ambassador first and foremost, and an analyst 2nd.

What a jerkface. Just ignore the tweet and move on Steve no need to argue with fans EVER on twitter. Apparently JR likes Stone wading in the muck. Or he has no idea WTF Twitter is.

Dusty is a moron but in this case I'm guessing he's one of the few willing to work without a GM in place and the Astros are desperate to find someone before spring workouts begin in two weeks.

Perhaps jirschele will be that guy for the Sox.