Balta1701

I don't think he's ready for this but maybe Getz is right and he has recently made some adjustments, or maybe the poster here was right and the wrist injury was really bothering him until literally just the last 2 weeks somehow. This is "classic White Sox" level aggressive. Anyway, the setup is still the same. As he moves up levels, the pitchers he face will be more apt to strike him out and the defense will be more apt to turn weak contact into outs - with the big league being the biggest jump in both of those. And as with before, it's all about the power numbers - not HR, but extra base hits in total. If the defense can play in on him because they don't think he can hit the ball over their heads, then he won't get hits on shallow fly balls or short line drives. If he can make his numbers improve at AA relative to A-ball, then he starts looking like a real big league starter. if his numbers deteriorate again, well we know what that means.

They're going to have to find someone to play 2b next year. They won't spend the money on Rendon since he's too good but they're going to have to add someone, after where this season went with Yolmer and Rondon.

Went to go have dinner and it was 5-2.

Does he have any options left?

I do not think the White Sox will want to wait much time before signing him. A short break perhaps but they're already talking about having him in the AFL this year and that means they want him to see high level competition soon. Last year Madrigal did short stops at Rookie (Arizona) and Kanny (low-A) before Winston Salem. I would imagine something similar, perhaps even more aggressive.

He's certainly in the conversation for the next month, I just didn't see what part of his numbers said "you absolutely must take this guy there's no question". His WHIP is particularly good for now, that's perhaps the feather in his cap. Just out of our division Shane Greene and Brad Hand both have better ERAs and more saves, and I'm not sure if Detroit has an all star other than Greene either, maybe Matthew Boyd but depends on how the rosters work out?

At some point the team would say "no the player isn't worth that amount" and if that happens the team can spend the money elsewhere. Teams will often take guys after round 10 who are thought to be tough to sign as they're likely to go to college, but every so often one of them will sign. For example, last year the White Sox drafted Bryce Bush who fell all the way to round 33. No one really thought they'd sign him as he was a high school kid, but they had some money left over and it turned out the kid wanted to start his career more than most teams thought, so the Sox signed him. So in that case, maybe we don't sign our 4th round pick, but we sign our 28th round pick or something like that. Usually, teams will also roughly know the signing demands for guys that they are drafting in rounds 3-4, they not only have scouted them but they had last night to be in touch with them once they knew what the first 2 rounds looked like. So the White Sox probably already knew before starting today how much money they'd need to have available to sign those 2 guys, they drafted them in rounds 3-4, and then started moving down their list of high school seniors until they reached the amount they need to save.

It doesn't matter if they haven't proved anything if they have "Going to college and leaving the team with 0 players in round 3/round 4" as a backup plan. If the team doesn't have enough money to sign the high school guy, the team gets nothing out of that round. That's the risk you take drafting high school guys; they're often the best talent, but if you cannot afford to sign them then you get nothing.

Well 9 to be precise, he's tied at 1.52 with Aroldis Chapman and Tommy Kahnle. But yes, there are 9 relievers in the AL currently with an ERA under 1.5 (20 IP or more).

Hampton is the guy who tweeted last night that he was happy to be going to LSU so that post is joking that we were going to draft him and throw all the extra money at him. IMO they're saving money right now to guarantee they sign rounds 2-4, and maybe to have a little somewhere later in the draft.

Neither one of those 2 guys "Torched the minors". Anderson had an .800 OPS in the minors 1 season, every year he struggled to start the year once he came up to the next level and usually had ok to good 2nd halves before they moved him up. Moncada had an .823 OPS (and falling) when we called him up from AAA.

Why do you think that Colome is a lock? There are 4 relievers in the AL with more saves than him, 11 with better ERAs, one of those is Ken Giles who will probably be the Blue Jays only selection.

The counterpoint is also true; way too many people wanted to rush him, move Moncada to 3b to clear space for him, declare that he has no issues, and have him up this season/immediately. He has a clear flaw in his game. The less important that flaw becomes the better of a player he will be. If he can't overcome it he's not a big leaguer. The most important thing this franchise can do is give him time to work on it. A-ball this year unless he finally forces the issue with a major production surge later this year. Then see what story AA tells next year. Find someone to cover 2b at the big league level on the FA market next offseason.

I have zero urge to have Vaughn spend the time in the minors it would take to move to a more difficult position where he hasn't played in several years. Put him at 1b and as soon as his bat forces him up to the next level, move him there.

Go out and sign Scooter Gennett or trade for Ian Happ and you put a LH or Switch hitting bat in your 2nd base hole.

I haven't seen anyone do this analysis in a couple years but I don't think the stats have changed much since 2014. Prior to a player hitting free agency, on average for a #3 pick, you expect the player to accumulate ~7 fWAR. That's of course the average of guys who bust completely, Carlos Rodons who are ok but fall apart, and your Manny Machados who are excellent. But let's focus on the average for a moment. We have Vaughn's control for 6 years. What would it take for him to put up ~7 fWAR? At 1b, that's not that far off from the 2018-2019 Jose Abreu pace so I'm going to use his numbers. If Vaughn can put up a .810-.820 OPS and is moderate at fielding, that's a 110 or so wRC+, if he did that for 6 years he would be an average or slightly above average #3 pick. How much value would the White Sox find in having another guy putting up current Jose Abreu numbers in their lineup? I'd say...a lot. That would make him a top 5 first baseman in the AL. We might not be great at that position, but we'd be getting good solid production there and we'd be doing it cheaply. More than that, maybe one of the guys like Abrams will turn out to outhit Vaughn, but that will probably take a few years. The White Sox have a timetable here, Giolito, Moncada, and Lopez hit free agency after 2023, Anderson after 2024. If Abrams turns into a great player at age 22 or 23, that's great, but that's 4 years down the road. We are going to have to pay premium prices for a RF and a left-handed starting pitcher this offseason to fill those roles because we hope this team can make some noise during the next 4 years. If Vaughn is just an average #3 pick, paying a premium price to get him into the lineup sooner is no different than paying a premium price for a free agent right now, and no different from talking about trading Abrams in 2 or 3 years to fill in a hole. If we can get more than that .810 OPS out of Vaughn, that's even better obviously, but I think that's a reasonable goal, and if he does that then we've just added a solid piece to the middle of the order and filled one hole on a contending team. So if people want to make the case that he won't do that, I'll listen, but there's big value for a team in the White Sox's position to get production sooner rather than later even if his ceiling turns out to be less than Abrams. Off topic...OMG how good would last year's top free agent signing have looked providing balance in the middle of this order? 1. Robert 2. Anderson 3. Abreu/Vaughn 4. Jiminez 5. Harper 6. Vaughn/Abreu 7. Moncada 8. McCann/Collins 9. Happ/Dozier/Madrigal/Other

Their record of drafting starting pitchers since 2010 is pretty much terrible. An injured Rodon, Chris Bassitt, and? You have to add in 2010 and Chris Sale to make it look decent.

He turns 23 something like a week after opening day 2021. April 3, 1998 birthday.

With the numbers he put up in college I think it's safe to say we should be disappointed if his numbers don't warrant such a debut.

Not a lot available on the FA market next year, from the LH side it looks like Markakis and Lonnie Chisenhall are about the only 2 options I see. I guess Corey Dickerson could count, 60 day DL for him currently and he's listed in LF.

Given how much people have struggled with BHam this year, I really hope we can get him some PAs there before the season ends just to get him a taste of it. Then yeah, BHam early next year and basically his job is to hit his way to the big leagues from there.

Without any special insight about his starting level - I would love to see him in AA in August. Wherever they do start him I hope he hits enough quickly enough that we can get him to that level.

Alex Colome is not part of this team's long term future. But, we have seen the White Sox convince themselves not to sell pieces when they were only a few games below .500 before (2015), and they will absolutely need substantial bullpen upgrades this offseason even if they keep him. If you want to make a case to keep him, it isn't "is he part of the future", it's "this guy isn't bad, if we want a competent bullpen in 2020 we need several more guys like that".

Based on his performance in our org I think that Madrigal generally seems to have an excellent hit tool, he continues to make contact at ridiculous rates while still taking walks/working deep into accounts. His problem has been that the power tool is so weak/poorly developed that it is dragging his hit tool down with it. If it was just "poor" so far then Madrigal would be coming off as a strong bat, and if he can just get it up to "poor" then suddenly he looks like at least a big leaguer.

As of right now, his May would have fit totally in with his 2018 season and looked totally normal compared to every other month. His April 2019 is the only month of his career where he really shined. Low-K rate, spectacular overall numbers. But he didn't maintain that low K-rate through May, he went right back to his old habits in May. Can he do what he did in April again because April 2019 Moncada is an all star? Or does May 2019 mean that April was the anomaly that he can't repeat? I don't know, but I will say I'm very disappointed he couldn't keep up the improved approach into this month.