Chicago White Sox

Yeah, I’m going to give it more than 30 plate appearances before I believe Vaughn is suddenly transformed. Dude had multiple holes in his offensive game, and even if the Brewers found a way to tap into his power more, no way did they teach him how to stop chasing pitches outside the zone in a month.

Post draft rankings: CWS’ Top 20 List: Noah Schultz, LHP Kyle Teel, CA Braden Montgomery, OF Hagen Smith, LHP Billy Carlson, SS Caleb Bonemer, SS Colson Montgomery, SS Grant Taylor, RHP Drew Thorpe, RHP Jaden Fauske, OF George Wolkow, OF Bryan Ramos, 3B Tanner McDougal, RHP Mason Adams, RHP Ky Bush, LHP Christian Oppor, LHP Sam Antonacci, 2B William Bergola, SS Jacob Gonzalez, SS Jeral Perez, 2B

Thanks! He’s under 50 total innings pitched, so I believe he’s still eligible for prospect status under Baseball America’s methodology but technically would not have rookie status anymore to exceeding 45 days of service time.

If I were Vegas, I’d comfortably put the over/under at 5 players being moved. We traded six players last year including the corpse of Eloy Jimenez. To think no one would want Slater’s 140 wRC+ against LHP or Steven Wilson for bullpen is depth either undervaluing these guys because the Sox are terrible or somehow believe every other team has a flawless roster. No one is suggesting we will get a ton for either of them, but I will be shocked if they are still on the roster come August 2nd.

So you think they won’t be traded then? Seems like you arguing we may not be all that active at the deadline. I’d personally be shocked if Robert, Tauchman, Slater, Houser, & Wilson aren’t moved at minimum. They are all useful players to a contender and all but Robert are dirt cheap. And if they’re willing to eat some money on Robert, then there is no excuse not to move him either.

That doesn’t mean they won’t be moved. I’d expect at least five players to be traded which would be a pretty active deadline.

Beyond ridding ourselves of Reinsdorf, we have to find a way to add power to the lineup. In particular, we got to find a way to get 20+ HRs from all the major corner spots and get couple guys who can give us 30+. I like us targeting guys who make good swing decisions and will get on base, but power wins at the Rate and we are going to need a fuckton more of it than what’s currently in the system. And to add here, I really don’t like the idea of Vargas at 1B. He feels like a guy who will max out at around 20 bombs a year and ideally 1B is a spot you should be able to get more out of. Without any obvious internal candidates, it feels like a spot we should address in free agency.

Doesn’t know if they will be active? lol…ok Josh.

Austin Slater is 41% better than league average against LHP. There will be plenty of teams looking to acquire him.

Civale pitching like he wants out of this org ASAP

Slater has gotten way too many ABs against RHP. He has destroyed lefties like we hoped he would, but the overall numbers are brought down due to his struggles against RHP. I get some ABs against righted is inevitable, but it’s shouldn’t be close to 50% of his total.

I love me some Chase Meidroth.

I don’t think anyone wants to trade Lenyn unless he returns some real and can address a different position of need.

I think he could end up being a good defensive 1B, my real is concern is he will have to hit a ton to be valuable there.

Hopefully we see Chase & Vargas turn things around here. I am still a believer in both of them, although fully acknowledge that Miguel is a harder buy if destined for 1B.

I think it’s just showcasing all the OFs we are trying to move. Robert, Tauchman, Slater, & Taylor all in the lineup and I expect at least three of them and possibly all four of them to be traded in next 10 days or so.

I haven’t seen him play, but he’s not a bad guy to an opportunity post deadline and see what you have based on his AAA numbers alone and the fact he has some legit raw power. Would rather give him a shot than Fletcher or DeLoach.

Luis Robert + Steven Wilson + cash to the Phillies for Justin Crawford Who says no?

For what it’s worth, Robert’s xwOBA is .321, which is 42 points higher than his wOBA. His xBA is 37 higher than his actual BA. There is some bad luck here with his batted ball output, which should theoretically normalize to some extent over the remainder of the season. If it does, he’d be above league average as a hitter despite the ugliness of certain metrics. Combine that with plus defense and plus base running value and there is package here that will interest contenders. Beyond that, I still believe Robert’s offense can be fixed. His power / ISO is down considerably despite his elite bat speed still being there, but so is his launch angle sweet spot rate. He is popping up / coming underneath balls way above his career average and his production on fastballs is also way down. Feels like his desire to be more selective has come at the cost of being quick to the ball. Basically, he is selling out some of his power to increase his BB rate (now at the 75th percentile). Unfortunately, I’m just not sure that tradeoff has worked for him overall and once he’s part of a better lineup where he will actually need to be pitched to I think him going back to being more of a guess hitter who punishes mistakes might result in more overall offensive production.

So what’s the controversial reason Jerry & Brooks approve of Schifren?

f***, didn’t realize he already required Rule 5 protection. But if he does, then you are right and it ultimately doesn’t matter.

Are they actually going to consider him for a rotation spot by OD next year? I just don’t love the idea of calling up a young pitcher in September if they aren’t going to realistically be part of the pitching staff to start next season. Requires you to burn an option almost right of the gate and if they get injured down the stretch or in spring training they potentially lose service time if you decide to protect the option. But if they do think he could be part of the OD mix, then I’m more than ok with it.

Getz needs to find a way to get one interesting prospect out of Robert. Eat money, package him with other pieces, get fucking creative. Ideally we come away with an OF prospect who isn’t too far off, even if they come with some question marks. I can’t stress enough the value of the playing time we will have down the stretch and into next year. Basically zero major league ready OFs outside of Baldwin if that’s where we plan to play him. Look at a guy like Stowers who had a ton of question marks and would never have gotten a shot with the Orioles. He’s now an All-Star and even if his performance drops off some as the league adjusts to him, it seems likely the Marlins have an everyday player. We can afford to take guys like that or even post hype guys (say Jordan Walker on the Cardinals) and give them an extended runway to prove themselves.

I like Sosa but he is limited defensively and has zero plate discipline (and hasn’t shown any real improvement this year). I certainly wouldn’t give him away, but if someone was willing to give me say an OF of similar value I’d probably make that trade. The chances of him being more than a role player or second division regular are fairly slim and he can only play a position that we are loaded at. As for Meidroth, he’s a quality defensive player who can handle SS and has two elite skills in his contact ability and plate discipline. His ceiling will be limited if he can’t provide some impact when hitting the baseball, but I still see a 2 win floor at maturity and I fully expect more impact when it’s all said and done. If a high ceiling prospect comes along and pushes him to the bench then so be it, but he’s one of the more productive players we have at the moment in his current state.

Here are the guys we should be trading: Robert + cash (weak side platoon CF at worst w/ significant upside) Tauchman (productive corner OF on the cheap => 129 wRC+) Slater (weak side platoon corner OF => 137 wRC+ vs. LHP) Taylor (solid bench piece / 4th OF for depth purposes) Houser (middle of the rotation SP who can soak up innings) Wilson (decent middle reliever with team control) Try to package some of these guys together in hopes of getting the best couple of prospects you can possibly get. I’d certainly look to dump Civale, Altavilla, Alexander, Benintendi (with cash), & Rojas but just not sure any value would be there. I’d certainly explore offers on Sosa, Cannon, and especially Martin, but my guess is they need to be holds for another year before having any meaningful value.