Chicago White Sox

Just put the game on, what did I miss?

Fully agree. Will be a bit better when Tauchman & Rojas are here. Jankowski really shouldn’t be on a major league roster. And Amaya and Maton leave a ton to be desired for even if they were just bench pieces. Just a lot of bad depth options for Venable unfortunately. That being said, Sosa should be DHing over Maton regardless of handedness.

Nick Maton DHing 2/3 of games to open the season is not something I would have taken 1,000,000-1 odds on if given to me

Keep your hands to yourself…this is a family friendly message board buddy

Alright boys, we officially have our first rubber match of the season. Lineups are obviously not out yet, but the Angels will be starting Jack Kochanowicz today. He is a massive RHP who uses a sinker heavy arsenal (73%) to generates a ton of groundballs (57%) similar to Soriano. However, he differs from the latter in that he’s got better command but weaker secondaries. As such, he won’t walk a lot of guys but won’t K too many either (his 3.4 K/9 rate last year would make Jared Shuster look like Randy Johnson in comparison). This guy should be much more beatable than Soriano yesterday. In terms of lineup construction, we need guys with speed or guys who are more likely to keep the ball of the ground. And as much as I want Vaughn riding pine, the lack of better options at the moment and the fact he has a bomb off Kockanowicz would have me slot him in at DH. On top of that, I’d move Vargas over to 1B today, play Baldwin at 3B, go with Maton at SS, Sosa at 2B, Thaiss at C, and an OF of Benitendi, Robert, & Taylor. It’s not a sexy looking lineup, but the goal today should be to scrap some hits together and manufacture a few runs. After two strong starts from Burke & Cannon, it should be very clear this Angels lineup is very much beatable. I’m optimistic Martin will continue that trend today with five or six quality innings. If the offense doesn’t beat itself today by pounding every ball into the ground, I think we should win this one. Bold prediction is a 3-2 win to take the series. Let’s fucking go!

Vaughn is the biggest bust of the past rebuild

A leadoff Vargas walk would sure be swell.

f***

The diehards suffer through him…the Balta’s self exit this site

No walks!

Wow

Because he was pressing in spring training and the front office used it as a reason to manipulate his service time. Smart move IMO. Also, he’s clearly in the 100 to 150 range at Baseball America given he’s their starting 2B on the “not 100 list”. Should he be higher? I’m not really sure because it’s an extremely unique profile. I think it will play up and he will be a league average starting 2B, but I am not a professional scout so my opinion doesn’t mean all that much.

JFC was that embarrassing Baldwin

The dude with the lowest swinging strike rate in AAA is going to struggle to hit .270?

Baldwin!

His job is to get on base at an elite clip, no idea where this idea he needs to impact the baseball comes from to be a useful major leaguer (he‘s a star if he does). Regardless, the dude put up league average exit velocities for Boston’s AAA last year. He isn’t Jeff Kent out there but he also isn’t Nick Madrigal.

Poor Winston Salem with the “no comment” on key minor league placements

I would bet big money that Meidroth is up before the end of April and that Amaya gets DFAed at that time. Until then, pray for a lot of lefties or hope that Baldwin gets some time at SS.

Yup, great start. Looks like spring training wasn’t all that predictive 🤔

He also made a comment one time about not being into analytics and all that, which shows will his failure to make any worthwhile adjustments.

He does, but all that does it make the front office believe he’ll put it all together one day (which he won’t). Hopefully with his salary rising they will finally cut bait on him at some point this calendar year.

Surprised by what?

I can’t wait for the end of the Andrew Vaughn era.

So what we thinking here? Baldwin single, Vargas walk, and then Robert gapper to drive two in? That work?

He was over 30% in AAA last year. He’s not as bad as Jones, but he also brings nothing else to the table but power and has no options. And don’t get me wrong, I’m not supporting the Jones pickup. I’m just arguing that Canario is a highly flawed prospect whereas Baldwin is super fucking underrated.