almagest

He hits the ball hard when he swings at pitches he can do damage on. Some of them are outside of the strike zone (like the rocket RBI single up the middle yesterday). I'm totally fine with him being a free swinger, but only on pitches he can hit hard. The problem with being the worst in the league at swinging at pitches out of the zone is the vast majority of those it's not possible to hit hard unless your Vlad Guerrero Sr. Sosa's ceiling will probably be the mid .600s OPS guy he is now unless he makes this change, and I very much doubt he can. I hope he makes me look like a big fat idiot by the end of the year, though.

He also doesn't barrel enough pitches or hit them hard (32%/29%), which is directly attributable to his chase rate. xwOBA is also below average at 41%. I would love to be wrong, but "worst in the league at chasing pitches" is just not a workable long-term profile if he can't make any changes. Second division utility infielder is his current ceiling.

I think the idea taking him so high was he was almost MLB ready. The bat was supposed to be his carrying tool. This was also when the window was opening, so getting someone to play 1B/DH after Abreu to keep the window going was what they were going for. Unfortunately it looks like a big scouting miss. I don't know if any of the motivation or stubbornness issues we've seen hinted at were identifiable from his Cal coaches and teammates, but I'd bet they were. Maybe player dev was also an issue with Vaughn, but if what we've heard is true, no amount of player dev was ever going to help him. The big mistake now is not sending him down to AAA. He needs a wake up call, and Elko is worth bringing up, even if just for a bit while Vaughn shows he can actually listen and make the changes he needs to make.

I brought up the chase rate in another thread - that's why I'm out on Lenyn. There are 160-something qualified hitters in MLB right now, meaning Lenyn is the worst/second worst at chasing out of the zone. That severely limits his ceiling. It's not like this year is an outlier, either. His previous qualified chase rate wasn't any better - 6%. The Sox have also brought in coaches and players to try to make selectiveness part of the organizational philosophy, and we've seen other players make adjustments, but not Lenyn. He just doesn't fit what the Sox want to do, and he doesn't seem to want to/be able to change. I'd expect that he won't be a major part of this team past this season.

Yessssssssss a delay. Gooooooooood.

Man 2-1 fastball on the inner half and that swing hitch makes Vaughn late.

Think I said this before, but I love Quero. This is a different team with him, Meidroth and Robert hitting his stride. Get Elko and Fletcher up here and let's go 63-99!

Houston's bullpen sucks too.

Of course the next guy walks on 4 pitches after Vaughn swings at the first pitch. I don't think I've ever been as done with a Sox player as I am with Vaughn.

The approach difference between Vaughn and guys like Quero and Meidroth is stark.

Lol this ump sucks. That was strike three.

That swing was because of the s%*# strike zone. Good ABs that inning with 2 outs. Too bad they couldn't convert.

Per baseball savant, he also doesn’t have a good launch angle when he barrels the ball very often, so it ends up on the ground way too much.

He hits too many balls on the ground to take advantage of how consistently hard he hits the ball.

Must be hard to square up Brown’s two seamer. Lot of weak contact.

At least it wasn’t a double play!

Walking the lead off hitter at the bottom of their lineup is a great way to start the 9th with a 4 run lead

I love when Houston makes dumb plays

Bunting in front of Amaya, eh

“f*** Altuve” coming through again

Leasure man

I love Quero

One of the only things Soxtalk is united on is "get that bum Vaughn off this team".

His defense is improved but he still makes boneheaded plays. He's definitely not going to hit 2 WAR as a DH because he doesn't have the hit tool for it. Maybe as a utility infielder/LF (assuming he gets enough playtime), but even then I don't think so because he makes such poor swing decisions and isn't a guy you'd bring in for his defense (that's Rojas). I also don't think "maybe an alright utility infielder" is a role you prioritize. You can find those guys for cheap anywhere. I hope he discovers how to not swing at everything and makes me look like a fool. I just don't think it's likely.

I'd be fine bringing Fletcher back up and replacing Tauchman to see what he can do. I don't disagree that's how you handle over 30 players on your roster when you're rebuilding. I'm saying Sosa has a terrible, likely unfixable flaw in his approach and isn't one of the guys you'd do that for.