caulfield12

Somewhere between PICK 4 in the whole entire draft and the 5th round...there's some opportunities to not mess up 2nd and 3rd round drafts like pretty much every SOX draft in like FOREVER.

To me, it's Seby Zavala suddenly becoming part of the core of the team, much like a certain April Rookie of the Year the prior season and even having a sandwich named after him, even. That didn't end well. We went from TOUTING how Rodon, Z. Collins, Madrigal, Crochet and Fulmer had simultaneously been on the roster as former #1 picks to having almost NOTHING to show for all that with Vaughn completely out of position now.

Hahn has been the wrong one for the job ever since the Keppinger trade, another guy who just didn't want to play baseball for the Sox, much like Pollock and LaRoche and Cesar Hernandez/Kimbrel. I think the year that really defined Hahn was the Melky Cabrera/Robertson/Beckham/Bonifacio/can't remember the random junkball catcher (the equivalent of Jorge Fabregas)...that offseason was CLASSIC Hahn at his best/worst. Let's not forget Zach Duke, the failures of Beckham/Viciedo overhanging the beginning of Hahn and the Jeff Samardzija trade. That whopper (trade for Shark and then TRYING to resign him but failing) would have gotten HALF the GM's in baseball fired ALONE during that 2014-15 cycle...that eventually led to Frazier as the big ad, the clubhouse implosion (Sale/Drake LaRoche, Ventura not even wanting to be there) and then a little discussed trade with names like Big Game James Shields and Erik Johnson involved.

At risk of Sosa being the next HE WHO SHALL NOT BE NAMED. Actually, I don't think MOST baseball fans out there dislike the guy all that much, he's pretty much the perfect mentor/role model of that group of youngsters who will lead the sport into the future, such as Julio Rodriguez and maybe Acuna and of course Vladdy still. The bridge from Trout and Harper to where the sport is today. (Fwiw, a month ago, I would have said the Padres' only chance in HELL was to play the third divisional winner, likely the Cardinals/Brewers winner. Now, having a match-up with the Braves isn't as scary as it once was. That said, they're beating the Cardinals now and took them down two years ago in the post season.)

And that talent is mostly Cease and Kopech, crosses fingers ONE of them doesn't go down with TJS or that would be the absolute death blow to the rebuild....whatever is actually left of it right now. Sure, Lopez and Liam and Crochet and Bummer are undoubtedly talented, but a bullpen isn't enough to carry a team, unless it is as good as the 2014-15 Royals. Of course, we end up getting the likes of Herrera about 2-3 years too late, just like Joe Kelly and Diekman and maybe even Graveman, who has taken a beating usage wise over the last half decade. Vaughn and Jimenez are the most realistic guys to get something out of moving forward, with our other three Cubans at risk of being flameouts or entirely new players under a different manager and/or operating system reboot. PS: please please please never allow either Leury or Engel another day on this roster after the conclusion of this season. Same with Mendick. Move on and see if any of our prospects can actually play, such as Sosa/Ca.Perez/Colas/Martin. The worst result this offseason was that guys such as Luis Gonzalez were actually more competent (and certainly better "values") than the likes of Pollock and Leury out there. Because of how poorly our roster is currently constructed, Davis Martin, Seby and Sheets are all due for recurring roles in 2023, and we all know how likely that is to work out in the end. Same with overpaying Andrus, Harrison or Cueto.

Perfect leader for their youngsters like Oscar Gonzalez, Rosario and Gimenez...mentoring opportunities abound with all their Latin American infield prospects as well. Essentially co-captain with Ramirez, although he's the bonafide superstar and Abreu likely to end up more like Encarnacion in his final year/s.

Ultimately, AJ Preller is the winner for not giving up on getting to the playoffs this season, despite the Hader and Bell trades not going swimmingly in the beginning...Bell's numbers have been horrific. But anyone in baseball could and should have traded for Brandon Drury. RH/LH aside, he would have been the perfect addition. As far as the Twins and Indians go, I was pretty consistent that those teams were going to lead the Sox at least through June/July. The one thing I didn't see coming was the complete and utter disaster that is now the Twins, because of both injuries and starting pitchers that couldn't consistently go more than 4-5 innings without completely wearing out their own bullpen (despite Jhoan Duran's best efforts)...trading Rogers to the Pads for Pagan/Paddack is where things first started going wrong, although that was actually a "net zero" move from an overall perspective since Rogers imploded as well (quite similar to Hader, who seems to have recovered at the perfect time for the post-season.)

Amed Rosario is going into his walk year in 2023. That's the ONLY decision they really have to make. Do they want to pay him for another season? Somehow, turning around and trading him would be unbelievable with how he's played the last couple of months. Civale and Plesac, on the other hand, good odds at least one goes and they simply plug in another youngster from their highly touted system. They've already broken the club record for rookies used in a single season.

Discovered something interesting thinking about the Guardians. Out of the Top 90 sprint speed guys in the majors, 12 are/were connected to the Padres. In theory, every team "on average" would have just 3 players (3 X 30). 1. Trea Turner LAD/FA 2. Ruben Mateo Balt 3. Esteury Ruiz MIL 4. Oscar Azocar SD 5. Jankowski NYM/PHA 6. Abrams WASH 7. Owen Miller CLE 8. Edward Olivares KC 9. Trent Grisham SD 10. Jack Suwinski PITT 11. Tuppy Marcano WASH 12. Jorge Alfaro (C) SD Of course, Tatis Jr. would also be a part of this list as well, so 13 out of 90 or almost 15%.

Statcast Sprint Speed Leaderboard | baseballsavant.com (mlb.com) Gives the average sprint speed for every position and an individual ranking by players. Highly-touted rookie Corbin Carroll of the DBacks is now #1 overall. Witt, Jr., is right up there in the Top 5. Same with Trea Turner, a player we most assuredly won't be even with a seat at the table in terms of "in on."

Graveman himself is embarrassing. He's hardly become some kind of team leader with his constant lack of availability.

How can Robert and Moncada be so slow, it's mind-boggling!!!!!!! Grandal, we all get that one. Leury, Anderson and Engel are the only players on the White Sox that can run a bit. And Engel's so bad at hitting right now his value is almost entirely negated, same with Garcia's. Sheets is somehow even faster than Vaughn. And somehow Mendick's slower than both. Our bench is just never going to be a strength, is it? How is Burger after two Achilles' injuries be faster than Moncada? TWTW/hustle-ability? And right on the heels of Pollock and Robert? WHAT THE ____K?

Statcast Running Player Age Sprint Speed (ft/s) Lg Rank Pos Rank Age Rank % Rank AJ Pollock 34 27.8 238 39 3 60.8 Adam Engel 30 29.0 52 24 2 91.6 Lenyn Sosa 22 27.6 268 35 8 55.8 Jake Burger 26 27.8 247 19 33 59.3 José Abreu 35 26.0 483 30 5 20.2 Luis Robert 24 27.9 212 58 25 65.1 Seby Zavala 28 25.8 499 48 43 17.5 Adam Haseley 26 27.9 214 59 28 64.7 Elvis Andrus 33 26.0 476 52 15 21.4 Gavin Sheets 26 26.6 408 64 46 32.6 Leury Garcia 31 28.4 121 14 9 80.1 Tim Anderson 29 28.3 140 24 11 77.0 Andrew Vaughn 24 26.2 452 69 44 25.3 Danny Mendick 28 26.0 481 53 41 20.5 Eloy Jiménez 25 25.8 505 30 57 16.6 Josh Harrison 34 27.1 339 44 6 44.0 Romy Gonzalez 25 28.1 183 21 14 69.9 Yoán Moncada 27 27.3 304 29 50 49.8 Yasmani Grandal 33 22.0 604 91 22 0.2

He wouldn't even be above average speed for 1B/DH.

Prime Rib sandwich is really tasty, lol...excellent sauce/s.

Quentin Holmes Stats, Fantasy & News | MiLB.com Already released. Guardians don't waste time when they make mistakes.

Counting Nolan Jones, Clement, Freeman and Palacios, that's 11 players in the TOP 33% or better. AMERICAN LEAGUE CENTRAL Indians: Quentin Holmes, OF Holmes parlayed his top-of-the-scale speed and tag as the fastest player in the 2017 Draft into a $998,970 bonus in the second round that June. The New York high school product has struggled in pro ball, however, batting .176/.242/.275 with a 35 percent strikeout rate and 30 steals in 44 tries over 160 games.

Statcast Running Player Age Sprint Speed (ft/s) Lg Rank Pos Rank Age Rank % Rank Luke Maile 31 25.3 540 60 40 10.8 Josh Naylor 25 25.2 543 40 62 10.3 Myles Straw 27 29.3 38 18 5 93.9 Nolan Jones 24 28.0 193 33 23 68.2 Owen Miller 25 29.0 53 1 6 91.4 Steven Kwan 24 28.4 135 24 16 77.8 Will Benson 24 29.4 34 15 4 94.5 Amed Rosario 26 29.5 27 6 5 95.7 Austin Hedges 29 24.5 575 76 49 5.0 Ernie Clement 26 28.3 147 10 21 75.8 Gabriel Arias 22 27.5 293 25 10 51.7 Tyler Freeman 23 28.1 180 13 20 70.4 José Ramírez 29 28.5 110 6 8 82.0 Oscar Gonzalez 24 28.9 63 5 9 89.7 Bryan Lavastida 23 25.7 506 50 35 16.4 Richie Palacios 25 27.9 223 34 22 63.2 Andrés Giménez 23 29.3 37 2 7 94.

In 2021, Cleveland ranked near the top half of the league in average Sprint Speed. Early into this year, that ranking has surpassed the rest. The Guardians rank first among all 30 clubs in average Sprint Speed (27.43 ft/sec). When looking at their top eight qualified runners, that average shoots up to 28.9 ft/sec. They currently have seven players ranked in the top 60 Sprint Speeds with Steven Kwan rounding out the 65th spot. Of the top eight CLE qualifiers for 2022, they come out to an average Sprint Speed in the 89th percentile. As of 5/11 The Cleveland Guardians are Building Something…Fast – BaseballCloud Blog

Seems more like Wade Boggs, but the point remains. Gwynn was quite the basestealer before he started putting on weight.

Overall: Kwan is the old schooler's dream. Light-hitting leadoff type who walks more than he strikes out and has good defensive chops. His instincts help his average range play up and allow him to get to balls he wouldn't otherwise have a play on. The approach and frame show zero promise for game power. Despite having a hit tool that can carry him, none of the other tools are potent enough to play at the top level. He profiles best as a defensive replacement who can also get on base for you. If he can optimize his swing and get a little more power out of the bat, there's a path for him to sneak into a below-average regular or platoon role because the hit and glove are so strong. OFP: 35 Role: 30 - Up/Down Emergency Depth Risk: Low Power: Fringe raw at best, but that might be a stretch. Small frame, average bat speed, and suboptimal swing path make it well below-average game power. There's no projection here, so there's little reason to expect significant power growth. Extra bases will come from driving the ball in the gaps and running. Doesn't lift the ball well. Grade: 30 Field: Good instincts and routes. Appears to track the ball well off the bat and react immediately. Instincts help range play up with only average speed. With aggressive defensive positioning in the modern game, he shouldn't have an issue sticking in center -- which is good because the bat doesn't play in a corner. Grade: 55 Arm: Average carry and zip from the outfield and typically on target. Good instincts get him in position to get the most out of his arm. Enough for center and left, but would be below-average in right. Grade: 50 Run: Clocked 4.16, 4.29 H-1st times. Shows a range of below-average to above average run times. Quick to get up to speed; tick above- average underway. Given maxed out frame, any additional weight will drive down speed. Likely settles in around average with risk to drop lower. Grade: 50 Steven Kwan - Scouting Report — Prospects Live

Class of 2015 HS Baseball Player National Rankings | Perfect Game USA Madrigal was actually ranked just 101 coming out of high school. Quite a few familiar names on that last, including Mr. McKenzie. "Can flat out play. Very good defensively and hitting tools."

Kwan gets so much value from his defense and baserunning. For Madrigal, those are neutral values, at best. He has MUCH better speed. Basically, he would be right around the fastest player on any team in the majors or no worse than second. Madrigal was around 7th-9th in sprint values for the Sox. Defense much worse than advertised, which was close to Gold Glove level. Baserunning instincts terrible for such a high level D-1 program star. He doesn't come close in the XB and HR power, either.

Or this case.... Oscar Gonzalez signed as an international free agent with the Cleveland Indians on July 2, 2014, for a $300,000 signing bonus.[1][2] He played for the DSL Indians in 2015, hitting .203/.266/.324/.590 with 4 home runs and 38 runs batted in.[3] González split the 2016 season between the AZL Indians and the Mahoning Valley Scrappers, hitting a combined .297/.340/.554/.894 with 8 home runs and 26 runs batted in.[4] He was named the 2016 Arizona League MVP.[5] He spent the 2017 season with Mahoning Valley, hitting .283/.301/.388/.689 with 3 home runs and 34 runs batted in.[3] González spent the 2018 season with the Lake County Captains, hitting .292/.310/.435/.745 with 13 home runs and 52 runs batted in.[6] He split the 2019 season between the Lynchburg Hillcats and the Akron RubberDucks, hitting a combined .293/.315/.418/.733 with 9 home runs and 70 runs batted in.[3] He did not play a minor league game in 2020 due to the cancellation of the minor league season caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. González elected free agency on November 7, 2021, and re-signed with the Indians to a minor league contract the same day.