Lillian

Well, I said it before, but I'll say it again; extend McCann. He isn't going to hit .340, but he has convinced me that he should be our catcher, going forward. We are going to need 2 catchers anyway, and he certainly qualifies to be one of them. If Collins should develop and prove that he is a number one catcher, McCann could still be his back up. However, I doubt that Collins will bring enough to the table, to overtake McCann as the #1 guy. James has a pretty complete game, at this point. He is calling a good game, blocking balls, throwing well and hitting. He is also hitting smart. You guys know me, I love choking up on the bat, with 2 strikes and I have always advocated the approach of taking fast balls to right and up the middle, while pulling the off speed stuff. That is exactly what McCann is doing, as Stone pointed out, in tonight's broadcast.

Palka had a big night tonight. 3 for 5, with a double and his 10TH HR. He is the one I want to see get Yonder's at bats.

It is really annoying to see players, who just seem incapable of making adjustments and playing situational baseball. When Rondon had two strikes on him, I was screaming; "choke up and just try to elevate a pitch. to hit a sacrifice fly". With Anderson at third, it wouldn't have had to be hit very deep to score him. But no, there he was, with his hands all the way down on the knob of the bat. So stupid. I've seen enough of Rondon and his swinging for the fences, and I'm ready to see what Mendick can do. He seems like a pretty smart ball player.

Bleacher Report just posted their Mock Draft, and have the Sox taking Bleday: 3. Chicago White Sox: OF JJ Bleday, Vanderbilt Bleday went 8-for-16 with two doubles and a home run in four games in the SEC tournament to help lead Vanderbilt to a conference tournament title. That strong showing in front of a sea of scouts has pushed him into the conversation here at No. 3 after it had previously looked like a two-man race between Georgia prep star CJ Abrams and Cal slugger Andrew Vaughn.

I would continue to root for the Palehose, no matter where they resided. My loyalty is not to the city of Chicago.

That's fine, let them move to a city that will pay for a beautiful new stadium, with a retractable roof. It wouldn't bother me. I don't live in Chicago. Oh, and by the way, how about a new owner, while we're at it. LOL.

The Sox need to build a new stadium with a retractable dome. This is absurd.

Madrigal has 6 multi-hit games, in his last 11. That is very good to see.

Well Jack, it just may be that they "both suck, even though we hope they're good". However, like you, I am definitely rooting for them. The problem with Collins is that his bat would play fine, as a catcher. However, if he has to be a first baseman, or DH. not so good. I want a really good defensive catcher, and it seems most think that he will be just adequate, at best.

Being dissatisfied with the way the front office handled the ostensibly sincere interest in acquiring Harper and, or Machado, and being somewhat relieved that they weren't successful, are not mutually exclusive positions to hold. At the time, I agreed that they badly bungled the process, but at this point, I'm not unhappy that we didn't sign either of them. We are 1/3 of the way through the season, and neither one of them is coming close to performing at a level, for which they are being paid. The greater concern remains that the Sox front office seems to be incompetent at identifying the players with the best prospects to outperform their contracts, or even meet expectations. This is probably more of a failure of their scouting department, than of Hahn, or K. W. There were some players who would have really helped this roster, on affordable contracts. The guys we acquired have been awful, with the exception of McCann. They haven't contributed and are blocking young players, whom the organization needs to give playing time, in order to determine whether, or not they have a role, going forward. Let's hope that the Sox address this apparent short coming, and can better scout players, in the future.

I had completely forgotten about the wrist injury. Let's hope that has been the reason for his poor performance, to date and that he begins to demonstrate that 70 hit tool.

Rod Carew actually could hit for power. He simply chose not to, but rather to be a high average hitter. I doubt that we will see another Rod Carew, anytime soon. All of today's players seem to be "homer happy". Madrigal will likely never even sniff the the kind of production that Carew had, but I would be very satisfied if he could be a high on base %, Gold Glove second baseman.

He made that tremendous leaping grab of a foul ball, into the right field stands, and did look very athletic, nothing like the clumsy guy, whom we've seen in left. I like that he plays "loose," but does anyone think he acts a little too goofy? Have fun, but be serious about your job. We already have one "class clown," with Yolmer. We don't need another.

I never expected Madrigal to hit for power. My concern is that he is not hitting for average and he isn't walking enough. He needs to be hitting over .300, with an OBP close to .400. That would play, even without the power. However, he is a long way from those numbers. He has the ability to put the bat on the ball, but as someone here has observed, that may be to his detriment. It would be better if he were a little more selective, and tried to work counts to get a pitch that he can hit hard. Being so small, his strike zone should be conducive to drawing walks, at his current level. Pitchers at Advanced A Ball don't have very good command. I don't want him to be trying to increase his launch angle, and hit fly balls, but it would be better if he could hit more line drives. For a guy who had such an advanced hit tool, and was expected to be fast tracked through the Minor Leagues, he has a lot to work on. Look how far the other prospects have fallen, since moving to Birmingham, from Winston Salem. He better be hitting close to .350 in Advanced A, if he is going to be able to cut it, at AA and that's still a long way from the Major Leagues.

Well, if McCann isn't a good defensive catcher, then you can add that position as a hole to be filled, likely in free agency, because neither Collins, or Zevala are good defensive catchers and I don't see either of their bats being good enough to carry them.

Is there really much of a question about McCann's defence? He seems to be exceptional at blocking balls, and calling a good game. I don't know how his pitch framing grades, but he does also have a pretty good arm.

Collins really hasn't done much lately, either. Unless Rutschman somehow miraculously falls to us, McCann is probably the guy to resign and keep into his early 30's. At least he is a very good defensive catcher, who seems to have figured out how to be a smart hitter. He won't keep us his current pace, but he doesn't need to be anymore than a .270 hitter, with a little pop.

Well, if he were in this year's Draft and I were picking, I'm not sure I'd rank him in the top 10. Either this year is a stronger top of the Draft, or the Sox screwed up.

Interesting to consider the difference in potential value, between Madrigal at pick #4 and Vaughn at pick #3. And to think that Vaughn is not even our consensus pick. It makes last year's selection of Madrigal look really questionable. If you remember, I wanted India. The Sox better not screw this one up, as this could be the last time they get a pick, anywhere close to this high. The more I think about last year's pick, the more frustrated I become. What was Madrigal's upside? A guy who made contact and didn't strike out, with good defence, but only at 2ND. I want a potentially big impact bat, if I'm selecting a position player, with the #3, or 4 pick. If no players with that kind of profile are there, take a pitcher.

One has to question this notion that the only way to succeed in free agency acquisitions is to go after the top tier guys. So far this season, the best signings were Brantley, Adam Jones, Avi and Moustakas. None of them were in the same tier as Harper and Machado and certainly none of them received potentially crippling contracts, for their respective franchises. Harper and Machado have both been among the worst free agents acquired, based upon the amount of money they received. In the final analysis, it comes down to player evaluation and luck. Simply being willing to spend the most money, is not the most important criteria for success. Based upon risk versus reward, one could argue that the second tier guys are a better choice.

Given the way Machado is underperforming with that contract, maybe J.R. is right. We are almost one third of the way through the season and Manny is 72ND in RBI's, among all Big Leaguers. Harper isn't living up to expectations either. They certainly are not the "young stars" of the game, which everyone seemed to think they were. Bellinger, Yelich, Bell and Springer have grabbed that mantel, while Harper and Machado have suddenly become after thoughts, for this year's All Star game. If you had to base the vote on this year's performance, neither one of them would make the team.

I agree. They would constitute 2/3 of the outfield, with Eloy taking the 3RD spot, in LF. The best part of Robert and Basabe being the two to emerge as legit prospects is that they are the only two really outstanding defensive guys, with good arms. That would be the best way to "hide" Eloy's sub par defence, in Left. The disappointing part of the other outfield prospects having such poor seasons is that they aren't going to generate much interest from other clubs. I had hoped that they would at least be good trade bait. Maybe Walker will step up, and we still may end up taking an outfielder, with the 3RD pick in the Draft. You know that I like Bleday. Interesting though, how that outfield "log jam" has pretty much disappeared.

Bleday was 2 for 5, with another homer today. That was his 20TH, in the last 35 games and this one was in Tournament play. He leads the nation, with 26 home runs. The California vs. Oregon State game was postponed, so no Vaughn or Rutschman results.

I understand that, however those who have advocated trading Abreu, for the last couple of years, have usually mentioned that he had little trade value, primarily because he is a right handed hitting, first baseman. Again, I love Jose and think that he is the best hitter on the Sox. My point is that there should be other considerations, when evaluating the Draft, besides how good the various players are, in terms of their skill sets. Perhaps the best example is the one I cited, i.e.; Player A may be the best hitter in the Draft, however if he plays a position that is not very highly valued and, or hits right handed, he may be less valuable than another candidate, who is not quite as good of a hitter, but plays a premium position and hits left handed. This less tangible component of evaluation is often alluded to, however few want to really attempt to quantify it. Perhaps that's why a guy like Vaughn, who many claim is the best hitter in this class, may end up going 6TH. Yet no one would put any numerical grade on that factor. At any rate, I still prefer a guy who plays a more valued position, and hits left handed, to Vaughn, even if he is graded a notch lower, as a hitter, than Vaughn. If the consensus is that Vaughn is a significantly better hitter, then I would be in favour of selecting him, but if it's close, I'd prefer someone else.

To reiterate something I suggested, in a previous post; maybe they need to add some ranking component that reflects "value". When trying to determine the "best player available," it would be helpful if there were some quantifiable factor, such as cost of acquiring a comparable established player in free agency, or similarly, what his expected trade value would be, if he reached his potential. If Vaughn became as good of a hitter as our Jose Abreu, what would we have? I love Jose, but some here have argued that he has had very little trade value, precisely because his profile is of a slow footed, right handed hitting first baseman, albeit a very good hitter. If Vaughn produced like Abreu has, and that is likely a best case scenario, would we be similarly assessing his value, at some point?