danman31

Yeah, nice profile with his bat, but I think the Tommy John he had in 2016 is why he is listed as a first baseman. Definitely agree that he profiles well for rookie ball.

Yeah, plenty of guys get drafted out of there. Between Chipola and U. Tampa, the White Sox tend to get a guy from one of those schools damn near every year.

He is actually hitting much better in Birmingham as opposed to on the road. .382/.417/.632 in Bham .283/.345/.491 on the road

Obviously that's his point, but that's revisionist history. He was ready. An injury can happen at any time. When the guy is capable of giving you MLB-caliber innings, you take them. Projecting 7 years out for pitchers is so difficult because of the high risk of significant injury.

His injury is exactly why you don't play the service time game with pitchers. Injuries happen so you want to get them when they are ready.

If he replicates those numbers in the majors, everyone is thrilled. The worry is that he struggles to maintain those numbers as he moves up the levels. You want to see some level of domination because it obviously gets harder as you move up.

His walk rate is only OK and ideally you'd like to see the batting average/on-base higher if he's not going to hit for power. I'm not saying he's been doing poorly, just that I want to see more before any rush to promote him.

I wouldn't expect him to struggle in the same way many of the other prospects have, but it's still a level up for a guy who has only been OK in High-A. Outside of his extremely low strikeout rate, there's nothing about his High-A performance that screams it's time for a promotion.

I'm not sure I would want him in AA until at least the midseason all-star break down there. Even then, I want sustained success. The concept of rushing him I think goes away when you're seeing the clear weaknesses in his offensive game. Moving him to AA, where he's likely to struggle out of the gate, isn't the best environment for him to make adjustments to his swing and approach. I wonder if he will end up like Whit Merrifield as a bit of a late bloomer because of his approach.

Heck of a concept

Both guys have walked way too many in AA. Hansen more than Burdi. The strikeout stuff is there, but they will have to improve their command. I feel like both guys are so fragile right now.

Oh yeah, I had a hard time understanding that previous post ha. It looks like service time will dictate when Robert comes up more than anything else. I'm honestly starting to believe he will end up being a more valuable player than Eloy too. Solid defender, plus speed. He will be valuable to the team without destroying the ball. Eloy is a much more well-rounded hitter, but Robert is a much more well-rounded player. Very cool to have both.

I know the Eloy situation was frustrating from a patience perspective, but there's no way Robert would be able to reach that level. Eloy entered 2018 with 18 games at a .956 OPS in AA under his belt. Robert didn't reach AA until May of this year. Even if he mashes in Birmingham, they're probably going to give him at least two months there. That would mean he would have only two months left in the season in AAA. There's nothing outrageous about having a guy spend two months at a level. Honestly, September is a reasonable best-case scenario target if the White Sox don't want play the service time game.

I watched his start on milb.tv today so I have no idea on velo. Nothing is straight. Has a bit of a leg hitch in his delivery that seemed to fool hitters. He pounded the zone, mostly kept the ball low. He made some hitters look really bad in the first 3-4 innings and then appeared to tire in the last few. He got behind more batters, got fewer whiffs and was giving up more solid contact towards the end. His curve has good movement. I could see him being a solid lefty reliever. He just got promoted to AA so I don't know that the Sox will be in a hurry to move him again, but I would like to see him try his stuff in a hitters' environment in AAA just to see if there's anything there.

I assume this is sarcasm, but I'll respond anyway. People were complaining about him striking out too much (and to some extent that he wasn't walking much) when he was destroying the ball for Winston-Salem. His approach seems to have changed based on early numbers in Birmingham. He has more walks with Birmingham (5) than he had in about twice as many PA with W-S (4). His K rate is much lower (16.3% vs. 23.8%) in AA. We're obviously dealing with a small sample size, but it's a good sign that he is improving in some ways while the other numbers aren't coming as easily as they did in A ball. I understand looking at box scores everyday and getting caught up in a small slump and noticing batting average because it's visible in every box. Madrigal I get worried about, but Robert will be a good player. Maybe he has a shot to be a great one, too.

Robert's home run was an eight-pitch at-bat and his last AB he took one to the track in left field. He will be fine.

Bryce Bush has an OPS over 1.000 since April 22. If he sustains anything like that for two more months, he's probably a top 10 prospect in the system for me. That also might be an indictment on how the 8-20 group has performed so far this season.

Without writing them out side-by-side, more or less similar. Frank had a better freshman year, Vaughn had a better sophomore year. Frank's junior year is currently a tick ahead.

I get the reservations on Vaughn due to position, but saying a guy who has only ever raked has to continue raking to be valuable is fine. His hitting profile is impeccable. Obviously, I'd prefer to have Rutschman, but that would be wild if he falls to 3. The bottom line is, as long as the White Sox don't go off the consensus board they're getting a stud prospect at 3. And in all likelihood, someone with a higher upside than Madrigal on top of that.

I think regardless of any of that, he was just too dominant for High-A. Yeah, he still had a high walk rate, but he struck out nearly half the batters he faced and gave up one hit. The batters weren't challenging him. I understand you want a low stress environment for him to work on throwing strikes and repeating his delivery, but there is a limit to that given the numbers he was putting up.

Considering the horrid start and that he is 19 in Low-A, I'd take an OPS over .700 at the end of the year. He also had an interesting postgame interview tonight. "I struggled in the beginning of the season. I couldn't see very well. I got my vision back. I'm seeing the ball very good right now." I'm not sure if this was literally what he meant, or he meant in the baseball sense, but "I couldn't see very well. I got my vision back" is interesting. If it was something as simple as that, maybe that start was an aberration. Either way, I'm calling his play a big win so far this season.

There are people who still like bunting? Huh

May need to bump the OBP projection if he hits .300. Madrigal has been walking more lately. He's at 9 in 98 PA, which still isn't elite, but is notable improvement in that area. His contact rate remains insanely good and it's still just the first month of his first full pro season. He's not polished, but he is showing a profile of a productive player with further improvement. That's every prospect in the minors, otherwise they'd be in the majors or wouldn't be considered a prospect.

I noticed that, too, but he is on a roll and showing discipline during his hitting streak.

He's not exactly killing it, but he's definitely playing much better the last week or so. Maybe they can get away with letting him play through it.