Balta1701

You’re not going to offset eloys production, it’s just not going to happen. This costs the white Sox several games in the standings no matter what - even if things go well and Vaughn takes that position, well now we’ve lost depth somewhere else. But, if anything else goes wrong, this could turn into the kind of gaping lineup and defensive hole that costs the team a wild card birth. For now, at the very least you have to insure against that as well as you can, and buy time to see if another option appears.

Such as?

I know Reinsdorf doesn’t want to spend money but failing to bring in any external option would really be malfeasance. Between Vaughn platting out of position, Leury, Eaton, Hamilton, even Robert - pretty much all the options are guys with some injury risk. If there are no better options traded for, sign a Cargo or Cespedes, stash them at Schaumburg, and at the least you have a replacement level player who could step in for a week or two at short notice. Losing Eloy hurts a lot. Having to call up Rutherford and having him make Mazara look good because we assumed nothing else would go wrong would be way worse.

I count 14.2 in the last 5 seasons. https://www.fangraphs.com/players/jose-quintana/11423/stats?position=P

For Tampa Bay anyone is available if you meet the price. I just don't see the prices people just quoted accomplishing it.

A couple years ago I thought they were going to have an OF logjam with Eloy, Rutherford, Adolfo, Basabe, Gonzalez, Walker. That's 6 guys in their top 15 prospects in their strong 2018 system, there's no way they don't have 2 starting OFs on their 2021 team out of that group.

The real worry is that he'll pull a hamstring running for a ball or tear up a shoulder diving for a ball or collide with a fence, or any of the other things that happen to guys who regularly play the OF sometimes - but which would be more likely with a guy who hasn't done this.

Don't count your chickens before they're hatched. Something like 30 states have increasing case numbers right now despite decreasing numbers of tests. Michigan, a pretty close neighbor to Illinois, has a big outbreak of B.1.1.7 and cases shot up 30% last week. Illinois Cases' increased by 14% last week. https://graphics.reuters.com/HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS/USA-TRENDS/dgkvlgkrkpb/

I mean, the problem with any of those is getting Reinsdorf to take on a $20 million salary this year.

I would definitely buy "This is a smokescreen to keep us from looking desperate in trade discussions". I can survive him being "Bad" out there. I'd really worry that a guy who isn't used to this and has never been coached on the position will pull a hamstring, or do an Avisail Garcia like dive for a ball.

That doesn't mean they won't do it.

They wouldn't.

Are the Giants punting on this season and selling off because of something bad that happened in Spring Training?

I mean, run through the list. In 3 years of college, Vaughn actually pitched 10 innings, but never once played the OF. The team has said they've put him to work in the OF for backup roles, but even when they resigned Abreu they didn't give him long stints there. They were looking at him as a DH this season, and even Engel getting hurt didn't make them suddenly start working him out there as a backup. He has 0 innings in the OF in spring training. They've literally told you the answer to this question. They may hope that they can "Get away with it anyway", but everyone who has worked with Vaughn has said "naw he's a 1b just deal with it".

Tony LaRussa saying it will happen doesn't mean it's anything other than insane.

Today, Merkin specifically asked.

Yes. You could also catch a more literal break if Vaughn collides with a wall.

Worst case scenario is season-ending injury to Vaughn in the near future.

Yeah, plus no one ever gets hurt putting in OF reps in Spring Training.

Someone noted in the game thread yesterday how, after having one guy injured playing LF poorly, putting another guy out in LF who has never played there seems...risky.

If this person runs a business that caters to LA Area athletes, as implied in the articles, they really, really don't want their name out there as it will ruin their business. If the LA District Attorney's office gets that name...do you have confidence in them keeping it quiet?

When Pt jumps in - this sounds different than a torn pectoral muscle, would love to hear differences in prognosis and recovery.