almagest

I enjoy AJ on color commentary

I'm glad the Brewers fans are having fun with this, and it's nice to see Vaughn have some success there. Some players just need a wakeup call or to get in an org that can help them where others can't. I also doubt they bring him back unless it's as a platoon 1B/DH option.

They were exploiting matchups to put all their players in the best position to succeed, which you can do when you have a good roster. Vaughn still struggles against righties.

No, it was about a month for being scorching hot. He had the same number of games started and about as many PAs in July+September as he had in August alone.

I'd say the Cubs offense being substantially worse in the second half (from a solidly above average to below average offense by most measures) had more to do with the Brewers running away with the division than Vaughn's scorching hot month and then back to mediocrity. If they kept up their winning % from the first half the Cubs would've been right there at 96/97 wins with the Brewers. The Cubs this year reminded me a lot of the '00 White Sox - scorching hot offense for the first half, then they cooled off quite a bit and couldn't score in the postseason against a good team.

Blue Jays opening this one up a bit.

I switched to the Yankees/Blue Jays game. Did Fox die for anyone else?

Who are we to question the ways of the highest paid manager in baseball?

The Cubs look exactly like they did against the Padres offensively. That's not going to work against the Brewers unless the Cubs pitching finds another gear.

Javier Assad apparently has like a 2.2 ERA against the Brewers this year. Seems like a better choice than a guy who was fading down the stretch and started three days ago

How did I miss the second out? Ah well. Must resist the temptation to text wife's family full of Cubs fans...

6-1 Milwaukee with one out in the first LMAO

Announcers: "Matthew Boyd is READY for this start" Brewers: Three straight doubles

Yep, and I adjusted for this in a subsequent post.

Yeah, probably. I have no idea how any of these sites factor that in though. There's eight teams with four T100 prospects, so the Sox likely fall somewhere between 5th and 13th.

Seems like it'd be easier to find quality pitching that way, as position prospects are hoarded and I doubt the ones with any promise ever hit rule 5

Most people have already covered what I'd expect but: Move Cannon to the bullpen - he's hit 96 on his fastball and I wonder if he could get into the high 90s in relief. Pair that with an increased focus on whatever the Sox think his best secondary pitch could be and you might have a decent middle reliever. I'd expect Thorpe to be in the rotation mix unless he's not ready for spring training. I don't recall what his timeline was. I expect Robert here all season unless he destroys in the first half and they can get something nice for him at the deadline. I'd look to trade Quero in the offseason and see what offers are there. Also see what's out there for Lee and pick whatever makes the most sense between the two. Teel is 100% your every day catcher. Platoon RF again between Tauchman and a FA signing or rule 5 pickup. I assume they'd have given Fletcher a longer shot if they thought he was anything, but maybe he's in the mix for a platoon if they trade or release Tauchman. I mentioned it in another thread, but give Elko a shot in the offseason to fix his issues and see where he is in spring training. Maybe there's a .750+ OPS guy in there somewhere. If not, encourage him to take his talents to Asia. Find someone to take Benintendi, or just DH him so he stays somewhat healthy.

Seems like Oppor has a shot to crack top 100 lists if he keeps it up in A+/AA. Having the best changeup in the minors, and a top 20 slider will absolutely play.

The MLB update just went out yesterday. I'm sure they'll update their rankings and the Sox will be higher than 17th. If we're just going by number of prospects in the top 100 while accounting for placement, the Sox would be fifth, behind the Mariners (8), Dodgers (7), Reds (6) and Pirates (5, including the #1 overall). The ESPN ranking was from late August and didn't include Colson due to timing issues. Looks like they're expecting upward mobility from Carlson and Fauske as well. Their list also did not include Braden Montgomery for some reason. https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/43639138/2025-top-10-prospect-rankings-all-30-mlb-teams-kiley-mcdaniel#chw I think it's encouraging to see the Sox still have an above average number of T100 prospects after graduating three, but we'll see what the updated lists from ESPN, Baseball America, etc. look like in the offseason and into next season. If they can continue to replenish their top prospects after we see flame outs and graduations then we'll know we have something.

It's not a uniform distribution, though. And it almost certainly never will be. Teams with one prospect in MLB top 100: Astros, Dbacks, Rangers Teams with two prospects in MLB top 100: Angels, Braves, Giants, Orioles, Padres, Rays, Rockies, Royals

Cleveland could have traded Clase for a nice package of prospects, or if they kept him he could've been brought in during the 7th yesterday when they began to run into trouble.

Elko is the kind of guy they should be working to optimize, in my mind. He's got a ton of in game power but has pitch recognition issues/holes in his swing that prevent him from being anything in the majors. I'd have a very clear plan for him in the offseason to overhaul his swing and work on pitch recognition. It's likely to not provide any value and he's probably destined for Japan or Korea, but there's a .500 SLG guy in there if they can get him to hit even like .230.

You have to take it in isolation, because there's nothing they can do about the other teams in the division other than spend more on quality free agents, which they're not gonna do (yet, hopefully). All they can do is continue to draft and develop well enough to keep feeding the system with impact players, so when guys wash out or leave they have replacements. I'd also love to see continued wins on the margins like finding 2-3 WAR guys in the rule 5 draft, but I don't think you can count on that.

They might get more negative attention if they lose to the Brewers in the NLDS after blowing that division lead (97 wins is not insurmountable), and Tucker leaves. Though Tucker being just "good" is going to give them excuses. Both of my brothers-in-law are Cubs fans and they provide a pretty good read on the fan sentiment. Before the postseason they were pretty down on the front office.

https://www.mlb.com/milb/news/updated-top-100-prospects-list-for-october-2025?t=mlb-pipeline-coverage Braden Montgomery #38 Noah Schultz #40 Billy Carlson #71 Caleb Bonemer #73 Hagen Smith #88 Nice to see the system rebound a bit after graduating Quero, Teel and Colson. Hopefully Fauske can make his way into the back end of the top 100 sometime next year. I'd guess Montgomery, Schultz and Smith are possibly up next season, which means McDougal, Oppor and Lodise are next up on the Sox top 30 as potential top 100s. Not sure any of them profile well enough to make the list, though. If the Sox can draft well enough to find guys with enough potential future impact in the first three rounds, and find a few diamonds in the rough in later rounds, they should be able to build a continuously competitive MLB team.