Who are the 4 bench players for the Sox?

[ChiSoxTrojan]

1 hour ago, Bob Sacamano said:

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/03/veterans-with-upcoming-opt-outs-on-minor-league-deals.html

Posted for relevance. It's a list of veterans with upcoming opt outs. Not sure it's a great list as I'm sure we/they don't know the language of every MiLB deal. But these are the guys who at least have an automatic one.

It has Hanser Alberto and Billy Hamilton listed for the Sox. Again, that doesn't mean that other guys don't have one, depending on their agreement.

Interesting, I didn't know that about the new CBA making it so that all players with 6+ years of service time on a minor league contract have opt outs. That confirms that Alberto and Hamilton can opt out, the question is will they? Alberto probably could get a major league job somewhere, but I'm doubtful Hamilton would, and a minor league assignment with the Sox probably gives him a pretty clear path to a major league promotion at some point during the season.

[ChiSox59]

1 hour ago, Bob Sacamano said:

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/03/veterans-with-upcoming-opt-outs-on-minor-league-deals.html

Posted for relevance. It's a list of veterans with upcoming opt outs. Not sure it's a great list as I'm sure we/they don't know the language of every MiLB deal. But these are the guys who at least have an automatic one.

It has Hanser Alberto and Billy Hamilton listed for the Sox. Again, that doesn't mean that other guys don't have one, depending on their agreement.

Kevin Pillar would be a nice fit as the 4th OF.  Much better than our in house options.  I wanted him a couple months ago.  Sounds like he may make the Braves, but if not, we should try to get him once released. 

[Bob Sacamano]

25 minutes ago, ChiSox59 said:

Kevin Pillar would be a nice fit as the 4th OF.  Much better than our in house options.  I wanted him a couple months ago.  Sounds like he may make the Braves, but if not, we should try to get him once released. 

Yeah I wanted him too.

[GreenSox]

Good to see Romy making a late push.

[flavum]

I would think Sunday when they play in Glendale they’ll know the 26 and let the players know. Hopefully Bummer is good to go and Vaughn gets a clean bill of health after tomorrow. 

[Sleepy Harold]

5 hours ago, fathom said:

Listening to Stoney talk about what Pedro is looking for on the bench, I think we get Sheets, Burger, Alberto and Seby

That team defense coming off the bench would make a t-ball team blush.

[ChiSox59]

1 hour ago, Sleepy Harold said:

That team defense coming off the bench would make a t-ball team blush.

It doesn’t make any sense. Believe that when I see it. 

[gogosox1959]

I think that rather than thinking about players first, start with roles first.  I come up with catcher, left-handed bat, infielder, outfielder.

catcher: Seby

left-handed bat: Sheets

outfielder: Leury, Marisnick, Billy, Hasely

infielder: Leury, Alberto, Romy

Burger is the worst fit.  I'd DFA Leury and then decide Billy/Marisnick, Alberto/Romy.  I'd pick Marisnick as he has a better chance of occasionally running into a pitch and Alberto as they can still hid Romy in AAA.  

 

 

[Squirmin' for Yermin]

7 hours ago, gogosox1959 said:

I think that rather than thinking about players first, start with roles first.  I come up with catcher, left-handed bat, infielder, outfielder.

catcher: Seby

left-handed bat: Sheets

outfielder: Leury, Marisnick, Billy, Hasely

infielder: Leury, Alberto, Romy

Burger is the worst fit.  I'd DFA Leury and then decide Billy/Marisnick, Alberto/Romy.  I'd pick Marisnick as he has a better chance of occasionally running into a pitch and Alberto as they can still hid Romy in AAA.  

 

 

Burger is the best bat out of this entire list.  That makes him a fit.

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

2 hours ago, Squirmin' for Yermin said:

Burger is the best bat out of this entire list.  That makes him a fit.

The best bat is debatable especially when his weakness is RHP. For as much as people dislike Sheets he has a distinct advantage being LH. Sheets just has to be more consistent. It's great to have a .900 OPS at home but it sucks when its a .500 OPS on the road. How the difference can be so wide is hard to understand.

[ChiSoxTrojan]

1 minute ago, CaliSoxFanViaSWside said:

The best bat is debatable especially when his weakness is RHP. For as much as people dislike Sheets he has a distinct advantage being LH. Sheets just has to be more consistent. It's great to have a .900 OPS at home but it sucks when its a .500 OPS on the road. How the difference can be so wide is hard to understand.

The dimensions of GRF definitely play to his strengths, but the home/road splits are obviously extreme.

[ChiSox59]

20 minutes ago, CaliSoxFanViaSWside said:

The best bat is debatable especially when his weakness is RHP. For as much as people dislike Sheets he has a distinct advantage being LH. Sheets just has to be more consistent. It's great to have a .900 OPS at home but it sucks when its a .500 OPS on the road. How the difference can be so wide is hard to understand.

Yeah, Burger rakes against LHP but so does the rest of the roster.  His role will be so minimal if Sox have their whole complement of position players, and rostering both Burger/Sheets as defensive butchers on the bench in that scenario makes little sense. 

Its been discussed, but assuming everyone is healthy enough to head to Houston with all position players, Burger's role will quite literally be DHing against LHP, which also means Eloy in RF and Colas on the bench.  No thanks.  Just send Jake to Charlotte to get everyday at bats and everyday reps at 3B.  He'll be needed in Chicago before long.  Of course, this calculus all changes if Sox don't break camp with Colas, but that seems unlikely at this point. 

Sheets on the other hand, despite the defensive shortcomings, actually makes sense to roster for pinch hitting for Seby, Elvis and other bench guys getting a start late against a rough righty, and getting the occasional start at DH/1B. 

With Romy getting his name back into the OD roster picture with his performance the last week, I think my current bench projection is Seby and Sheets and the final two rosters spots down to a competition between Leury/Romy/Alberto.  Romy may still be odd man out as he can be freely optioned.  

Edited March 24, 2023 by ChiSox59

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

13 minutes ago, ChiSoxTrojan said:

The dimensions of GRF definitely play to his strengths, but the home/road splits are obviously extreme.

Being a LH pull hitter the dimensions aren't that much different in most parks. Anything to straight away RF or down the lines is a lesser distance. It's when you don't pull it enough and it goes to RCF where the dimensions get bigger. But yea terrible home road splits. But I think most parks are around 330 down the line and some angle out more extreme then others but you can smack a lot of HR's hitting the ball less than 400 ft in a lot of parks from the foul pole to straight away RF.

[SoxBlanco]

When will we officially know the four bench players? I can't remember exactly when rosters get finalized.

[Bossanoveralls]

47 minutes ago, SoxBlanco said:

When will we officially know the four bench players? I can't remember exactly when rosters get finalized.

Yeah.

never mind, found in other thread

Edited March 24, 2023 by Bossanoveralls

[ChiSoxTrojan]

1 hour ago, ChiSox59 said:

Sheets on the other hand, despite the defensive shortcomings, actually makes sense to roster for pinch hitting for Seby, Elvis and other bench guys getting a start late against a rough righty, and getting the occasional start at DH/1B. 

Defensively I think Sheets is a better 1B than Vaughn. I could easily see Sheets making 2-3 starts/week at 1B, with Vaughn at DH or getting the day off.

This is also a division where the only team that has a decent LH starter is the Tigers (E-Rod). I agree Burger makes very little sense.

[ChiSox59]

8 minutes ago, ChiSoxTrojan said:

Defensively I think Sheets is a better 1B than Vaughn. I could easily see Sheets making 2-3 starts/week at 1B, with Vaughn at DH or getting the day off.

This is also a division where the only team that has a decent LH starter is the Tigers (E-Rod). I agree Burger makes very little sense.

The Sox are not making Andrew Vaughn a part-time player to get Gavin Sheets at bats.  2-3 starts per week at 1B is 1-2 too many.  

[Tnetennba]

17 minutes ago, ChiSoxTrojan said:

Defensively I think Sheets is a better 1B than Vaughn. I could easily see Sheets making 2-3 starts/week at 1B, with Vaughn at DH or getting the day off.

This is also a division where the only team that has a decent LH starter is the Tigers (E-Rod). I agree Burger makes very little sense.

Curious what you are basing this on.  Sheets hasn’t exactly shown to be good at 1B. 

[Bob Sacamano]

2 minutes ago, Tnetennba said:

Curious what you are basing this on.  Sheets hasn’t exactly shown to be good at 1B. 

Also wondered the same. Sheets has actually looked terrible there in limited time.

[Tnetennba]

1 minute ago, Bob Sacamano said:

Also wondered the same. Sheets has actually looked terrible there in limited time.

I don’t know if he is just being contrarian or what, but I seem to recall Sheets being pretty bad.  I haven’t done a deeper dive to confirm though. 

[ChiSox59]

10 minutes ago, Tnetennba said:

I don’t know if he is just being contrarian or what, but I seem to recall Sheets being pretty bad.  I haven’t done a deeper dive to confirm though. 

He’s just a big Sheets guy. Has been pretty consistent on this take all offseason. Seems as though he’d platoon AV / Sheets if it were up to him.

[ChiSoxTrojan]

2 minutes ago, Bob Sacamano said:

Also wondered the same. Sheets has actually looked terrible there in limited time.

I don't think either are great defensively, but I've noticed the opposite. I recall Vaughn making a number of mistakes at 1B last year, where my reaction was that "Abreu would have made that play." Maybe it's just that we haven't seen Sheets at 1B as much, but I haven't noticed the same with him. Sheets was the (slightly) better OF of the two, which probably translates somewhat.

If you trust advanced metrics for fielding, OAA and Drs both back up that Vaughn isn't a very good 1B. He somehow accumulated -3 OAA in not very many opportunities last year. Sheets doesn't really have the sample size to judge his ability there, but basically I think he's more athletic than Vaughn, despite his larger frame. In fact the extra 5 inches of height helps at 1B.

[ChiSoxTrojan]

1 minute ago, ChiSox59 said:

He’s just a big Sheets guy. Has been pretty consistent on this take all offseason. Seems as though he’d platoon AV / Sheets if it were up to him.

I think it's more that I haven't been all that impressed with Vaughn. Vaughn is also always hurt, which is a big deal to me, while Sheets is much more durable. I want Vaughn to be fully functional in September, which he hasn't been the last two years.

I'm not suggesting a strict platoon, and I want Vaughn to get more at bats than Sheets overall. But if it were up to me, I'd have Vaughn at 1B no more than 4 times/week, with 2 starts at DH, and 1 day off. That means 2-3 starts/week for Sheets at 1B.

[Tnetennba]

8 minutes ago, ChiSoxTrojan said:

I think it's more that I haven't been all that impressed with Vaughn. Vaughn is also always hurt, which is a big deal to me, while Sheets is much more durable. I want Vaughn to be fully functional in September, which he hasn't been the last two years.

I'm not suggesting a strict platoon, and I want Vaughn to get more at bats than Sheets overall. But if it were up to me, I'd have Vaughn at 1B no more than 4 times/week, with 2 starts at DH, and 1 day off. That means 2-3 starts/week for Sheets at 1B.

Ok, but in order to get Sheets in the lineup like this, you'd have to put Eloy in RF, or sit Eloy.  There is no universe in which I'd sit Eloy just to get Sheet's bat in the lineup.

[ChiSoxTrojan]

Just now, Tnetennba said:

Ok, but in order to get Sheets in the lineup like this, you'd have to put Eloy in RF, or sit Eloy.  There is no universe in which I'd sit Eloy just to get Sheet's bat in the lineup.

Agreed. I think Eloy will be in the OF a couple days a week.