Dominikk85

Vaughn is so good on pitches up and in, those are not easy to turn on

Gave up just rockets, even Billy hit a rope off him:)

I wonder if Giolito should skip a start, take a couple days off to get his head right and then do some extra work with Katz.

Gio gives up so many ropes in the last games, even if it is out it is often a shot to the outfield.

Not really, he totally didn't see Abreu and is out of the game too. Dozier was out even worse than Jose, I doubt he will play the next two days. If he was intentionally hitting him he wouldn't have done it with his head

Is there no rule how long such a sliding glove can be:)?

Recently the pen has been a little better but with foster (7.5 era), Marshall (7.4), heuer (5.1) struggling this is a lot of load shifted to bummer, crochet, ruiz and hendricks who could be burnt out if that continues. Now TLR has not taxed his pen a lot (dead last in AL reliever innings) and instead pushed starters more but recently he started to dial down that a little as some starters were left in too long and he pulled the guys more conservatively (Still not super modern early pulling but more 90-100 pitches instead of 110+) which I think is good but if the Sox don't have more reliable releivers could wear the pen down especially since they will have a dense summer schedule after all the off days and that can be tough on the pen. The good thing is that the sox have a great multi inning arm in kopech which has taken a lot of load of the pen, however if there is an injury and kopech has to start that will put extra pressure on the pen again. For that reason first I would prefer kopech to stay in that role a little to continue to have that "buffer" for the pen and I also think the sox need some help. Do you see anyone in the minors who could help by middle of the season? Or do the sox need external help?

Yeah DFAing him makes sense but really at this moment the sox don't have anybody to replace him so you can just as well keep him in the bench and play him once a week. Once Engel or anyone else of the injured guys comes back he probably is gone.

Lamb should not be on the roster but he is a good defender. Maybe he had a bad day but statistically he is pretty solid at first. Still he shouldn't be on the roster, the sox have enough 1b/dh types on that roster

That looked like a cross up:)

He is trolling you

When Abreu is gone I think Vaughn will shift to first.

Yeah, Robert and Eloy are big time power hitters and instead low power guys like madrigal, Leury and mendick are in the lineup (madrigal would be anyway but not the other two). That means currently the sox basically have to find other ways to score, when eloy and Robert are back and Vaughn finds his power stroke (maybe already has after yesterday) the offense will look different.

People underate eloy's elite power due to his missed games. Eloy has hit 45 homers in 730 career PAs which is a 41 Homer pace over 162. It is true that he could probably even more if he pulled the ball more but even like he is he is an annual 40 bomb guy when healthy. Robert has great power too but I see him more as a 30 Homer guy. If Eloy pulled the ball a little more he could hit 50, nobody else in the sox org has that much power potential.

I said they need someone before the season but with rodon and cease emerging and kopech coming back I don't see them needing a starter this year unless there is an injury. Gio, Lynn, cease, rodon, keuchel and kopech should be enough to get through the season. And if someone gets hurt they still can make a trade

The sox also have lost their best power hitter (Eloy) and Abreu is not really in great Form. Vaughn might not have quite the plus power some thought but he certainly isn't a 100 ISO guy like he was so far. So if you get a 20 Homer pace of Vaughn, a 30 Homer pace by Abreu and a 35 homer pace by Eloy when he is back in the second half that team will look better in the power department even if it is a little less than last year.

Even if it is still pointless and early here is another update on the torkelson Vaughn comparison: Tork has struck out 11 times in his first 24 PAs in high A ball. Not saying bust yet but like in spring it looks like he is going to have a serious contact problem. He also walks a lot and will have power but he might be more of an Adam dunn type who hits 240 with solid obp and 35 homers and not a superstar hitter like many expected him to be. Vaughn meanwhile is now doing quite good. Still having a hole on pitches outside but it got better and he went the other way a few times. His K rate for the season is in the high 20s but the last two weeks it was only like 18% which I also expect going forward. He is hitting the ball very hard Consistently but quite a few get caught at the warning Track which should change with warmer weather. You can see that he isn't a monster raw power guy for a first baseman but his. 100 ISO certainly got unlucky (. 422 xSLG vs 362 SLG) and I think the way he barrels the ball he will be a 270-280 hitter with 25-30 homers and good Obp.

There is some progress in his power. 0.78 ISO is still very low but more than doubled compared to last year. If he can increase that to like. 120 it would be nice.

Sox had quite a few rainouts and off days so far which means there will be a lot of games in the summer. Do you see that as a problem, especially for the pitching staff?

The difference between his ops+ and wRC+ is interesting. Ops+ is 83 which is like replacement level but wrc+ is 102 which is slightly above average. That is unusual, wrc+ is considered more accurate but usually wRC+ is within 2-3 points of ops+ but in the rare case of low slugging and high obp it can differ as OPS overrated slugging and underrated obp.

The sox have underperformed their run differential but they also have also outperformed their projections despite severe injuries. Fangraphs had them like an 87 win team pre season and with the injuries more like an 85 win team (fg says 68-62 rest of the way). I don't think TLR managed everything great and he did make some mistakes but really the sox play way better than their projection. So you could argue TLR makes the team lose more games than their run differential but you could also say he made them play to a higher run differential than their true talent. Often his lineups are criticised and there is something to that but the sox scored 5.13 runs so far vs 4.86 projected so it is clearly working so far. I do hope that Katz supports him with the pitching management though an intervenes when necessary as Tony indeed missed some decisions there. The last games it got better though and he pulled the trigger earlier, the last 6 games all starters were pulled before they reached 100 pitches, so maybe he is listening to some guys.

Line up position almost doesn't matter. Best vs worst line up is maybe 1 or 2 wins. What matters more is who is actually in the lineup. In the beginning lamb and Hamilton did play too often but really in the last 10 days or so they mostly came off the bench. I liked the last line ups but part of it was forced by injuries of course.

Also even in the majors you forget most flame outs. Maybe then it was not declarated as ucl injury or labrum tear but you just heard "dead arm" and the guy was gone. We tend to remember the nolan Ryan's who pitched for 20 years and forget the guys who flamed out after two years so we think pitchers were more durable back then, but really those guys who threw 250+ innings for 20 years were 1%ers.

McCann obviously will get better as he is hitting now (babip and HR/FB way lower than career norms) but his Sox stats also were so good because he was protected and put in favorable spots. He likely is more of a 95 wrc+ true talent guy while grandal is like a 115-120 wrc+ guy.

Every team is streaky, that isn't a thing. There still is a strong platoon split but the sox did get better against rhp and posted a 104 wRC+ as a team against them so far which is not great but above average (6th in AL). They also absolutely murder LHP (mlb leading 141 wrc+). This is really the recipe for them, try to be slightly above average against righties and murder lefties and the offense will be fine. Just make sure you don't have long droughts against RHP, occasionally getting blanked by a good righty is fine but avoid long bad stretches against rhp.