tray

Stone commented yesterday that in prior years, pitching was the most sought after commodity in baseball, but now "power" is. I share that view with him. Yankees figured that out long ago, maybe a real long time ago.

For the time being...pencil Vargas 3b, Meidroth SS, Sosa 2B, Elko 1B, and Vaughn DH. Elko is an athletic defender at 1B with a long reach, good arm and great hands. He stays if he hits home runs at a decent pace. Speaking of Elko someone I know thinks that, head on, he reminds them of Travis Kelce.

We were jumping up and down complaining about Eisert going in to protect a one run lead. Hard to win too many close games with a terrible bullpen.

That's some good sh1t there.

Eisert. Cross your fingers. This guy is aweful.

Exceptional (better than average) power for a middle infielder. https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/video/brooks-baldwin-homers-2-on-a-fly-ball-to-right-field

Venable foolishly played Brooks in LF where he looked bad on a few balls hit to the wall and no doubt felt bad about that. He is a shortstop not an outfielder. The thing I liked about Baldwin was that, as an infielder, he had exceptional power. 3 and almost 4 HR....more than a lot of other players on this team. He started over-swinging and striking out so ultimately, he put himself on the cut list.

There is a lot to be said about evaluating players based on their work habits, motivation, and possibly commitment to winning and to the team. That was not my point but it may have been yours. So you can safely remain in good stead with other disagree-ers. My point was about the evaluation of hitting skills. There are players in the Minor league that scouts should evaluate based on their abilities to consistently see and hit the ball. Very simple. IMO as a fan only, Colson Montgomery's ability to hit at the major league level is questionable. Braden Montgomery is the opposite. He puts the bat on the ball. Same with K Teel. Nevertheless, Sox org. keeps pushing Colson Montgomery with every development tool at their disposal even though he may well be a lost cause and conversely waiting on players like Braden and Kyle T. to "develop."

IMO..."player development" has been be overrated specifically when it comes to the ability of players to hit the baseball. OK Vargas shows short term improvement by holding his bat up higher, but arguably, that is not player development. That is a tweak for a great baseball player who plays excellent defense and already had innate eye/hand coordination/ bat skills. Compare the development resources being afforded to Colson Montgomery and the results. Look, some players are born with the eye hand coordination and the physical tools to be good hitters. Others just waste time pursuing a dream that is never going to happen or with players like AV, hit a plateau in their careers that they will never transcend. IMO, with some exceptions I am sure, a good sense for talent evaluation is far more important than player development.

So let's say ishbia or some conglomerate like Live Nation owned the Sox in 2024. What do you think they could have done to elevate the Sox line-up, rotation and bullpen ...not just incrementally, but enough to compete with the Cubs? Two or three FA signings? Uh no. Did you watch any of the 3 games ? The Cubs line-up is stacked ...8 deep now and likely will add a hitter to bolster it further. Maybe not far from the '27 Yankees. Look, the Sox were the worst team in baseball last season and they just faced one of the best teams. It is what it is. The WSox are not going to build a line-up like the cubs have for a long, ,long time. Star FAs will become available in the future but most will sign elsewhere, including with the cubs. As for now, to paraphrase Dennis Green, the cubs are who we thought they were. Crown their ass and grab some bench. I know, it hurts, but it is what it is. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes you just get your ass kicked. Ouch.

LOL, they are utility players on one of if not the worst team in baseball. There are no long term position players on this team beyond Vargas and possibly Meidroth. Sosa and Baldwin can occasionally hit with power which is why they are in some games.

I expected a little more from our best starters. They lacked confidence in their pitches and threw too many gopher balls. Venable should stop spitting and focus on motivating this team to play their best against the Cubs. Only a few players looked like they did.

Maybe think outside the box and consider bringing up a few top pitchers from the Minors to act as short inning starters (1or 2 innings) ....or wait to bring them up as rotation starters next year with high inning loads and increased expectations.

I watched the game on TV. Shane left some hangers in the zone that got smashed. Thaiss sucks. There is no reason he is on the roster and Teel is in the minors.

Kyle Teel would likely have made at least one of the two tags that Thaiss missed. Bring up Teel now rather than later. Stop wasting time, a precious commodity for professional baseball players who have a short time window to play in the majors. I was disappointed in Shane today because he didn't have his usual stuff and left too many hangers that got smashed. He just wasn't on and Thaiss called a sh1t game.

Stay out of Murphy's Bleachers for a while. Bullets flying yesterday.

Baldwin has missed a few deep line drives but he is an infielder and has not had much experience in LF. Maybe use him in RF if the Sox need an outfielder. But Baldwin is an athlete who can run the bases and run down balls in the outfield. He has a gun for an arm and he has HR power to all fields.

Sox need Sosa, Meidroth, Vargas and Baldwin, each for different reasons and different situations. Infield is turning out to be a strength despite Colson, our number one prospect, still trying to figure things out in the Minors.

The Sox played a great game and absolutely deserved that win. Best game I have seen in a long time.

Vargas is relatively young (25 years old), has improved offensively and plays plus defense. Write him in as the WSox 3rd basemen this season. I Loved watching that game. Go WSox !

Baldwin has been in a hitting slump but, at least LH, he can be a useful power bat that can play infield and outfield. He also has speed on the bases and can pinch run for some of the slower players. Baldwin has misjudged a few deep flyballs (consider that he has been more of an infielder) but I'd rather have him in the outfield than Rojas who is going to be a butcher out there.

Based on what? I'm asking. Lack of sufficient bat speed, poor recognition of off-speed pitches, strike-out rate, lack of power, poor R/L splits? As far as the larger ball parks, Braden is 6'2 220lbs, and some of HR I have seen on YTube are what some would call bombs. *If * he hits a wall in the Southern League then he may spend a long while in the minors and could be a bust. It would men that he is over-matched by a lot of crappy minor league pitchers that will never make a major league roster.

If you remove the top enormous player contracts from the equation, the respective salary costs for each team begin to narrow. Remove Judge Giancarlo, Soto, Ohtani, etc... Then consider the reality that most of that top superstar talent is never going to sign with most of the remaining teams even with like offers on the table. And no, Ishbia isn't going to buy the team and change that reality with a few high priced FA contracts. At most it would be a sugar high just like the Sox experienced after Reinsdorf signed Fisk, Luzinski, LeFlore and got lucky with Kittle coming up. Yankees, BoSox and Dodgers will, over time, rule as they have for decades. 2005 was a template for trying to win again, but that template does not involve spending silly money on a few star players. It involves building a strong rotation like we had in '05, constructing a reliable bullpen including a Closer, then having a defense that helps them close out games. You can try to buy that kind of team or you can build it.

I enjoyed the win on Mothers' Day including Tim Elko's bomb. So did a lot of other Sox fans. Wish I was at that game to say hello to Nancy Faust and see Tim's HR.