michelangelosmonkey

I don't think history has anything to do with unique individuals or teams. Historically Steph Curry shouldn't hit 43% of his 3pt shots...he will regress to the mean...except he happens to be Steph Curry. Historically the Cubs shouldn't have won the 2016 WS. I think history works if you say, "historically Yolmer Sanchez had 8 years of .720 OPS in the minors so his looking good in spring and going 5-5 on opening day is an illusion." But Yermin has 8 years in the minors with .860 OPS so...maybe we have something here. Still if you had said "historically guys who's first name begins with the letter Y can't hit in the majors"...well that would have made me happy out of the goofiness of it.

I think that's a bit too pessimistic. I'm not part of the "he hit everywhere" crowd" either because he was released by the Orioles at 24...because he had a sub .800 OPS in high A with no position. And yes he hit well after that but every year he was a couple years older than his competition...which matters in the minors. Still I think the narrative that he never really got a chance as a youngster because he had such a bad body and really had no position makes some sense...which justifies his being older than league average the last few years. I think you have to explore what you have here and it is a weird silver lining in the Eloy getting hurt thing. You get Collins/Vaughn/Yermin playing 120 games each between DH/LF/C/1B (160/100/50/50) and really learn what you have in them. If they are all good...and Eloy comes back...well that's a good problem to have. If nothing else...5 for 5 was magical for one night.

Fernando Tatis Jr struck out three times yesterday and committed an error. Dodged a bullet by trading that kid.

Honestly did no one notice the whole farm system was shut down in 2020 because of Covid? We had a bunch of interesting prospects that looked great in 2018...then they had a hard time transitioning to Birmingham...as many many do...with hopes for them catching up in 2020 suddenly the world changed. I think this is a very big year for the Sox farm teams...maybe they are all busts but let's be patient.

Carlton Fisk was 38 years old when they tried him in LF after spending 20 years squatting. As unathletic as Vaughn may be, he's 23 with fresh legs. It is a suboptimal solution but...Eloy is gone, Engel is gone all and of our OF prospects lost 2020 to the Covid. In trying times you try things out.

You are tying up my argument in semantics. No one knows precisely how much he played LF in Schaumburg but we know with certainty that they were trying to get him into the lineup and were trying him at LF and as he was there all day in Schaumburg for months I suspect every day for months they had him do some LF work. The real point is LF is one of the least valuable defensive positions in baseball and the one in the outfield where you can hide a bad arm. The Red Sox managed two World Series with a terrible fielding LF. I suspect Vaughn will be a bad LF but so was Eloy. It seems the real choice you make is Collins bat verses Leury's glove...which will add more value. Nothing is certain but I'd bet on Collins bat.

I'm not sure I follow...are you saying this is the long term switch of Vaughn to LF and Eloy to DH? I think this is really the thing that will make Collins our long term C. He will prove to be such a valuable left handed bat at DH this year and a passable C that it will be penciled in as full time catcher by...2023?

Manny Ramirez was a terrible LF...from 2003-2007 averaging -1.7 dWAR. For reference Eloy in 2019 was a -1.4. Manny did NOT make every catch every LF should make...in spite of his terrible defense the Bsox managed to get to the playoffs in four of those five years and won two WS. We are not doomed. Vaughn played in LF frequently in Schaumburg last year. He's 23. We aren't asking him to split them atom...and honestly with Robert in CF he catches everything anyway. It is terrible that Eloy got hurt but every team goes through injuries...expect more...it's how we manage around them and I am intrigued by Vaughn LF/Collins DH mix way more than I am about a Leury Garcia LF/Vaugn DH.

Thinking about this got me curious and I just looked at Frank Thomas's career split OPS by month... Apr: .917 May: .998 June: 1.016 July .978 August: .965 Sept: .965 Oh Frank how we miss you.

Baseball is such an interesting sport that way...for a month you won't be able to get a guy out and then for a month he won't be able to buy a hit. The great thing about this White Sox team is they have a roster of guys that can carry the team. One month it will be Robert, Anderson and Abreu and then it will be Vaughn, Moncada and Collins as long as we have three guys always hot and Madrigal, Grandal and Eaton just getting on base...we'll score a lot of runs...and with this pitching staff...we should win a lot of games.

I would actually be happy for him...as long as Rodon puts up a 4 WAR as well. i strongly rooted for Sox to bring in Q...though clearly I should have spent more time doing math.

I love Quintana too...and I would have been happy with a him as the fifth starter...but at the moment I'd take Rodon. I like your bold prediction of a 4 WAR but he's put up 5 WAR total in the last five years and it's been since 2016 since he's been great.

The doom and gloom on Cease is impressive. Working on his mechanics this spring IP H ER SO Cease 11.2 7 1 11 Every other fan base would be so excited by their 25 year old starter hitting 99 on the gun....and looks to be our 5th starter. We continue to scour the silver lining trying to find the cloud.

I can't believe what a total disaster Cease is. Why didn't they make that trade with Pittsburgh...useless management...total idiots. Spring Stats IP H R BB SO Cease 9.2 7 1 6 7 Musgrove 13 15 10 5 11 Soxtalk gonna Soxtalk

It's too bad...he looked pretty good three years ago. Four years on all we have to show for the Adam Eaton trade is Gio, Lance Lynn and Adam Eaton.

If I recall Rodon and Collins are garbage....and spring training is meaningless. But sure, mock away.

Honestly how is Collins not the back up catcher?? I know some of the insiders on here say that Lucroy is a lock...but why? Collins looks competent as a catcher defensively and he has good at bats and he's a lefty. Lucroy would be fine as a back up catcher but you can't carry three catchers...and why would you take old and fine over young, promising and left handed?

Wow that is aggressive correcting of a statement I didn't make. The way the whole quotation mark thing works is you're exactly quoting what someone says. Here's what I said "If after two years of sitting out he can come back for a late career surge..." I also said his arm fell off in 2019 which it did...they shut him down in August 2019 and he's coming back in July of this year. If you want to say "Dude they only shut him down for 23 months" fine. I'm just not sure what your point is.

The risk is he's just a shell of the guy he used to be. Adam Wainwright was TOR type pitcher, went out in his late twenties and then returned for a couple more elite seasons. Trade deadline is July 31st and CS is due back early July. If he throws four starts and looks really good...you can make the money work. Boston has lots of bad contracts and saving half of Sale's deal in a period when they are non-contenders should be interesting to them. Our biggest departure is on the "budget". Sox were top 5 payrolls in the 00's, 90's and 80's when the team was really good. Top five payroll now is $170 million and I'm not sure what you see that makes you think they won't follow the same pattern...cheap ass when we are bad but paying up when we are good...JR is a businessman and that all makes sense.

Not quite...he left early August 2019 and is due back July 2021.

Sportrac says the Red Sox Salary for this year is $180 mil...and $140 committed for next year...and they were a last place team. If you are looking at where to send the vultures...you go after high payroll, disappointing teams. If Sale could be talked into it...wouldn't you want him? 2018 he was 12-4 with a 2.11 ERA and 6.9 WAR...and then his arm fell off. If after two years of sitting out he can come back for a late career surge I can't imagine a more exciting, realistic, option.

Well yes...Sale would have to be on board. But why wouldn't he be? Seems like the Red Sox are in rebuilding mode. Sale got his WS ring and his payday from the Red Sox...but he had 7 years with the White Sox...he must have some good memories. And if he sees that he could come here and get two more rings??? Seems to make sense for Red Sox, White Sox and Sale...get it done.

I've mentioned this before but...what about Chris Sale? He's owed a lot of money by Boston...we should have a stock pile of money (please don't take us into the "JR is cheap" as he's had many top 5 payrolls when the team is good). He's been out for two years...he's only 32...could he be our Verlander? We get him at the trade deadline for three middling prospects (Stiever, Dahlquist, Jose Rodriguez) and give Boston payroll relief. When the playoffs come then we have Gio, Lynn, Sale and Keuchel or Cease? We don't worry about resigning Lynn and for 2022 we get a starting core of Gio, Sale, Cease, Keuchel and Kopech with Crochett building up to it.

Its completely fair to be skeptical about Rodon and his ability to stay healthy...but I do still look at the Mike Minor comparison...some guys eventually get through the injury part and find their TOR stuff. Minor put up 14 WAR in three years after being sore arm bad at 26 and missing all of age 27 and 28. It would be such a good problem to have to have Rodon be great this year and a free agent next year.

I don't hate the idea of Kopech and Vaughn in the big league camp for the two weeks or whatever it is they need to get an extra year. But I also think its not that risky to let them start in the majors as new collective bargaining agreement will probably tackle this gamesmanship. Honestly by allstar game SOME of our minor leaguers are going to take a step forward. If Lopez regains confidence and Mercedes is again hitting .950 and throwing out half the runners...ok they are both 28...but you throw in a Tatis, Jr lottery ticket and you could get an interesting something.