Chicago White Sox

For the millionth time, Alonso wasn’t a baseball move.

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Nice write-up and fully agree that we should have taken more gambles like this throughout the rebuild.

Yeah, I’m probably overthinking it with Pilkington. I’d still probably put Stiever ahead of them for the moment. His mix of stuff & results is good enough IMO to warrant next best pitching prospect after Dunning.

I think sometimes it’s done as a favor for the affiliate.

Steiver would definitely be in the 11 to 15 range for me. I’m torn on where I’d place Dalquist & Thompson. They’d be in the mix as well, but not sure I could put them ahead of Pilkington, Adolfo, & Rutherford at the moment and there are a couple other guys in that range I could make a strong argument they should be below as well (Gonzalez, Burger, & Lambert).

Speed doesn’t correlate on its own, but speed definitely helps when it comes to turning ground balls into hits.

Lol...that’s the exact I was referencing when I made my statement. Definitely a great article.

Groundballs, low line drives, and speed are huge factors on BABIP and those are all reflective of Madrigal. He should easily be a .330 BABIP guy IMO and potentially much higher.

Wow, this seems unfairly harsh. From what I’ve seen and heard he seems better than expected behind the plate. And while LHP may always be an issue, to say he can’t hit RHP is ridiculous. I’m guessing you’re just messing around on that latter point.

I just don’t see a .290 batting average being reasonable for him upon maturity. To me, that is a downside case and suggests a BABIP in the .290 to .300 range (which is league average or slightly below). Given his contact profile & speed, that seems ridiculously low.

What are realistic expectations for his ceiling? While I think Dam has gone to the extreme, I think some here are underestimating what he could be capable of.

First 32 games: 5.6% BB rate, 25.8% K rate, .120 ISO, .220 BABIP, .525 OPS, 51 wRC+ Next 43 games: 4.5% BB rate, 25.0% K rate, .102 ISO, .434 BABIP, .789 OPS, 130 wRC+ The only thing driving his OPS / wRC+ improvement is the normalization of his BABIP. His core peripherals are more or less the same. He really hasn’t turned anything around despite a bunch of singles grouped together.

Did you just refer Aaron Bummer as a “bum”? That’s weak even for you bro.

Never hurts to add a wild card like Reed so you have that flexibility.

Why in world would we call him up to work with McCann only to trade him? That doesn’t make any sense to me.

Rizzo has been a 5 win player multiple times, that’s high ceiling in my book.

So basically he’s not a good comp outside of a great K rate. Even with limited power, Madrigal could legit be a .330/.390/.820 hitter in the majors with plus base-running and defense. That right there could be a 5 win player (not far off from 2014 Altuve) and that’s not even his ceiling with even league average power.

Both guys have 5 win ceilings IMO and I would strongly disagree that should be considered low.

So?

Dude has a 1.9% K rate in AA with a 4.5 BB to K ratio. That is absolute insanity and reflective of elite, border-lining on historic bat control. Add in the juiced ball and a bit more lift and the kid has a chance to be a star when you factor in his base running & defense.

No Gavin Sheets in the top 15? Do you not buy into his recent power surge?

Gotta disagree here for several reasons. First, Walker has demonstrated better plate discipline than Blake. Second, Walker’s been the victim of bad batted ball luck (his BABIP is 60 points lower than Rutherford’s was at High A). Finally, you’re evaluating Walker on a much smaller sample size where his initial adjustment phase brings down his overall numbers. Over his last 33 games he’s put up a wRC+ of 141 and that has jumped up to 168 over his last 20 (both with normal BABIPs). He’s starting to dominate the league and I’d wager that his numbers would blow Blake’s out of the water if given a full season in Winston Salem. Also, I think Steele has the superior set of tools and doesn’t have a launch angle issue that he’ll need to overcome to be successful.

What did Blake turn around other than BABIP normalization? Hopefully, I’m missing something from not getting to see him much this year, but statistically he’s pretty much the same other than some batted ball regression.

But we can always replace them in free agency or via trade. I think us moving either guy is more of a reflection of what the market was for these guys than our intention to compete next year. The Sox aren’t going to waste another year of Moncada, Giolito, Anderson, Eloy, etc.