caulfield12

Gee, nobody did this at all during the Anaheim series. If some posters just want to unrealistically act like the Twins are dead and buried, more power to you. It’s going to be a long, long season compared to the epic sprint last year. It’s also not like 2/3rd’s of the board wasn’t discouraged by Madrigal...now suddenly everyone’s back in his corner when he’s outperforming expectations. So yeah, it’s human nature to be harder on and expect more out of your own team...just like as a coach I’m more critical of my son versus other parents’ kids. And sometimes one can lose the forest for the trees and be less objective due to the emotionally-charged vs. dispassionate arguments, especially about Madrigal’s height/lack of power. They almost come across as personal.

Because Kopech is going with almost all two seam, sinking or riding fastballs with heavier movement...but 2-3 mph less than a four seamer which tends to straighten out and get hit if it’s lower in the zone even at 98-101. Even at the lower speeds, he’s either getting a lot of extension or there’s some deception going on because nobody’s jumping all over it like Dahl did with that flat slider that was poorly located. Offspeed stuff effective enough to keep hitters off balance and guessing.

Fans need to stop putting the cart before the horse. It seems many are already dismissing the Twins when many of their losses have been just as fluky or even more inexplicable than ours. When we go 12-7 or 13-6 against them consupistently, then we will have turned a corner. The point is that we SHOULD be expected to beat a team with a sub $50 million payroll.

https://barrettsportsmedia.com/2021/04/23/ratings-growth-popularity-resurgence-good-news-for-mlb-its-broadcasters/ From a familiar voice, sometimes Sox spring training broadcaster Andy Masur Ratings Growth, Popularity Resurgence Good News For MLB & Its Broadcasters By Andy Masur / April 23, 2021 I know it’s early but baseball is setting records already. The sport many experts have left for dead managed to surprise everyone and hit new highs in viewership. MLB.TV and ESPN saw ratings climb over the first three weeks of the season. Just what does this mean? How does it affect a broadcast and a broadcaster? According to Major League Baseball, the beginning of the season marked the most-watched 18-day period in the 20-season history of MLB.TV, including the 7 most watched days ever. Viewership was up 43 percent when compared to the same time period of the 2019 season (12 percent up from 2020). The release also indicated that fans have already watched 1.34 billion minutes of live games. ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball and MLB Network saw record viewership in the same period, so it’s not just the streaming aspect that is flying high for the league. ... With baseball trying to gear itself to a younger audience, is an announcer relating well to that segment of the audience? Television broadcasts are trying to help by putting up graphics featuring advanced metrics like “weighted runs created”, “WAR” and of course “spin rate”. This is helping because that’s what these young fans are craving, more and more stats. They want better stats that tell a more impactful story. We old school broadcasters need to take a crash course in the meaning of all of these new numbers, because this is where the next generation of fans is taking the game. Some networks have gone as far as producing “secondary” broadcasts that may focus just on StatCast numbers. I’ve even taken part in a few of these telecasts that provide “enhanced” coverage of games. On MLB.com a few years back, from studios in New York, we would watch the MLB Network showcase game and focus mainly on what the numbers meant. What were they telling us? We also used the broadcasts as a teaching tool to allow fans to understand the new terminology. Those broadcasts set the stage for what ESPN and MLB Network are doing with a few baseball broadcasts in a season. A few networks are now focusing on the gambling angle of the game. It’s another lure for a younger viewer to get his/her fix of a Major League game with a chance to score themselves. It also makes sense because MLB is partnering with a gambling app, and these broadcasts focus strictly on the “in game” lines and trends and props. This attracts a whole different audience that needs to be served. Big bump for Braves-Cubs Braves-Cubs averaged a 0.9 rating and 1.54 million viewers on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball last weekend, up a tick in ratings and 25% in viewership from the comparable date in 2019 (4/14/19 Mets-Braves: 0.8, 1.23M). Compared to the third Sunday night game of last year’s delayed, shortened season, ratings jumped 76% and viewership 91% from Indians-White Sox in early August (0.51, 802K). In other weekend action, FS1 drew a 0.22 and 392,000 (+86%) for White Sox-Red Sox on Saturday afternoon. Shifting to the workweek, Mets-Cubs drew 630,000 viewers on ESPN Tuesday night — the most-watched weekday game since Opening Day. https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2021/04/nascar-ratings-richmond-cubs-braves-espn-pga-tour-heritage-alabama-a-day/

Agreed. Hence the potential move to the outfield. He's just trying to force everything, to create a whole set of ESPN highlights every single game instead of letting things come to him. Rushing. He and Cronenworth turned one of the best DP's of the season that changed the course of a game this series, but he can't just seem to ever put the ball in his pocket. Sometimes, that's the cost of having an arm like Shawon Dunston.

I feel like we said this in 2003, 2006, 2008 (before Quentin went down), 2010, 2012, 2016... We've got a long ways to go, we swept the Rangers, but the Twins and Indians are just too proud to lie down and die like many are assuming.

Therein lies the question...can the White Sox put up those performances on the biggest stage? Right now, there's no dominant AL team. If someone says the A's, that's kind of the point. The Yankees would need a 100% healthy Severino, Kluber, Taillon, along with Voit. Meanwhile, the four best teams in the NL (Dodgers, Mets, Padres, Braves) are going to push each other to the limit. Statistically, nobody would argue that the White Sox have a much easier path to the post-season and World Series, but actually doing it is another thing altogether.

Or 5 homers in two and a half games against Kershaw, Bauer and May, as well as Buehler last weekend. But you make a very good point. Is TA really going to be paid like Lindor/Tatis/Seager/Correa by the White Sox starting in his age 31/32 season in 2025?

Way too early to have THAT particular discussion...

That's because he's the most entertaining player in the sport today. And he just beat a record that only Barry Bonds on steroids had in the entire history of the game. And, he was once a White Sox, although I'm not sure if he was ever issued an official jersey or number...not to mention his brother and potentially youngest brother will be on the White Sox, although there's very little reliable scouting information available on Daniel Fernando. There, I did it again, lol.

I seem to remember being 17 games over .500 last year and barely holding on there at the end...granted, 50% of it was stepping off the gas after beating the Twins, the Indians owning us and then Renteria managing/experimenting.

The Pirates actually aren't that bad despite dealing Bell, Musgrove and Taillon. And KeBryan Hayes (Charlie's son) was supposed to be one of their best players entering the season, but hasn't played yet due to injury. So Pittsburgh will give a lot of teams problems. Partially just because almost every team is underestimating them. That said, beating up on the Tigers and an Indians' team hitting barely above the Mendoza Line doesn't re-transform us suddenly into World Series favorites or anything like that. However, the Kopech outings have been quite impressive, and he'll likely be 96-99 instead of 95-97, touching 98, as the weather warms up and he keeps going out there and pitching every 4-5 days with higher and higher pitch counts.

Yes, Tatis is on a pace for 96 errors...and many of them have cost the Padres critical unearned runs. I wouldn't be shocked if he ended up with 35-40ish errors and the conversation throughout the season focused on the positives of moving him to the outfield to clear SS for CJ Abrams (and, most importantly, protect him from further injuries). That said, he was one of the better defensive middle infielders in baseball just LAST year, he's still very young and it's going to be incredibly difficult for them to convince him to leave his favorite position.

Undoubtedly there are better players out there, maybe even for THIS season, but Madrigal makes a lot more sense from a mid-market payroll standpoint. And we know there's a lot of room for improvement with his baserunning and fielding...not to mention the ball starting to jump off his bat as we get into warmer weather for doubles and triples. He SHOULD be what many predicted, a solid 2.5ish (maybe 3) fWAR second baseman who fits in perfectly with some of the more free swinging power hitters in the Sox line-up.

You mean TLR...?

Even then, the aluminum vs. metal bats issue is elusive, unless you watch these kids extensively in the Cape Cod League. Everyone transfers their game to the pros with varying impacts from that changeover. Madrigal has kept the high contact skills, but power is much trickier to calculate.

He gained 15 pounds of muscle this season...after wearing down in second halves of seasons, or derailed by injuries. I tend to go with scouts who ranked him the #1 overall prospect at 170 pounds versus unfounded internet speculation or “guilt by association.” And that doesn’t explain why Garver, Polanco and Kepler have fallen off so much, if Cruz is getting away with it somehow this whole time.

On Wall Street, the quantitative models/indexes are probably closer to 85%...but then human beings don’t have automated must sell bells going off when investments hit some arbitrary figure like down 15-20% in 2-3 weeks. But there’s no model in the world that can easily capture guys like Trout, Acuna, Soto, Robert and Tatis, especially when they are 15-18 year olds. The proof is that many of those guys were passed over or received insignificant bonuses. A model would have forced Renteria or Hahn to give Mercedes a shot in 2019-20? A model most importantly can’t measure things like drive, character and ambition...or detect defective morals and ethics. Look at the hundreds of NFL players who fizzle off after scoring off the charts in athletic tests, but fail to put it all together...and measure them vs. the anomalous Tom Brady’s or Patrick Mahomes of the world who possess intangibles that only a acout can pick up on from spending time with family, friends, gf or fiance, coaches, etc. Look at the White Sox scouting success with Paddy guys...even the ones not signed but targeted...versus the overall success of the much more analytically-driven scouting of NCAA hitters and pitchers for June drafts. Heck, look at KW signing Iguchi off old game videos from the Japanese PBL...sight unseen in person.

https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=40&type=8&season=2021&month=0&season1=2021&ind=0&team=4&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&startdate=2021-01-01&enddate=2021-12-31 Madrigal on pace for 1.6 fWAR, Grandal 0.8 fWAR. Leury, expectedly abysmal. Yermin and Robert lead at 1.1 (8.8 over 162) and Robert 0.9 (7.2)...Moncada 0.5 (4.0ish). Eaton and TA also 0.5, Jose Abreu 0.3. Yermin, unsurprisingly, the worst defensive numbers from his limited appearance/s. Vaughn at exactly 0.0. From Madrigal year, compare to Bohm at -0.1...

https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=50&type=8&season=2021&month=0&season1=2021&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&startdate=2021-01-01&enddate=2021-12-31&sort=21,d&page=1_30 Here’s a head-scratcher, Omar Narvaez as the second highest rated defender in all of baseball. For the White Sox, Moncada and Robert 1&2 despite the two early errors, Yermin last. Tatis with his nearly double digit errors at 198/228. If you converted his 0.4 fWAR value to 0.6, he’d be in a tie for fourth with Baez, Galvis, Rojas and Correa. Extrapolated, it would be 4.8, which would still be disappointing largely due to his 2019-esque defense. Only 9 SS with 100+ wrc+. Bogaerts far and away #1. Three of them (and Story) on FA market. Should be noted Baez is much improved over his 2020 numbers.

He was still a rental at the time of the deal, just like Machado in 2018...so the likes of Cease, Lopez, Dunning or Crochet wouldn’t have interested the Dodgers? They run Scott Alexander out there as their primary LH high leverage guy. How can we keep claiming to have the most amazing collection of young talent in the history of the universe (jerksticks) yet we either can’t trade them out of necessity or they’re overvalued by the Sox...? Are we so sure that Garrett Crochet is going to be worth more fWAR than Verdugo, for example?

Had we traded with the Dodgers to shore up RF last year...

The Twins will be much better when they can get everyone back in the lineup. Have had quite a falloff from Kepler/Rosario to guys like Cave and now Kiriloff is up and will likely scuffle. You can easily put their top 4 guys against our on offense (when healthy), but their bullpen has been even leakier, along with the defense. 2-3 years ago, guys like Polanco and Garver were world-beaters. Recently, not so much.

Let’s see where everything stands at the 54 game mark. Statistics will always swing violently over the course of just a week in the first 6-8 weeks. The question about his offensive punch left remaining was just as concerning as staying on the field. That has at least partially been answered. It’s also possible Verdugo would have been a better fit...trading for Mitch Haniger, etc. In terms of opportunity cost, surrendering no talent in return, just $$$ but not committing longer term seems to have been the best move.

Perhaps might want to rescind the inclusion on most disappointing list. Four homers over two consecutive nights versus Kershaw and now Bauer...along with one of the best DP turns with Cronenworth that saved a game. No idea how the second one got out...offspeed pitch at the end of the bat but still fully extended, when he returned a week ago he was holding onto the bat in the afterswing with both hands to protect the shoulder but now seems more comfortable taking a full swing again. Also wearing a shoulder harness. Bauer doing this putting the sword in his scabbard thing at the end of Ks, pretty entertaining stuff for any kid to watch. Those home run trots are both going to be played on a loop by ESPN and MLB Network...especially the second one.