May 5, 2025May 5 He "chases" a lot but he doesn't really strike out either. Right around league average at 23%. Meanwhile we've watched him tee up a bunch of pitches outside the zone for rbi's. he's shown some pretty good contact skills this season compared to last even if the numbers don't really show it. I guess that's the usefulness of 'xwoba' but I don't really know how they come up with that. my question is where is his power? I don't think you worry too much about his bb/chase rates but instead hope he profiles sort of like Javy Baez and homers more than he walks. .260/.300/.450 with 20 home runs feels like something you could see out of Sosa. I think the interesting thing about WAR is how much more "highly" rated Sosa is compared to Baldwin. Both have looked pretty good to my eye but Brooks gets dinged because he plays every position, just not at a particularly high level. You still probably prefer Baldwin's defensive skillset to Sosa's. defensive WAR seems pretty arbitrary.
May 5, 2025May 5 1 hour ago, almagest said: I brought up the chase rate in another thread - that's why I'm out on Lenyn. There are 160-something qualified hitters in MLB right now, meaning Lenyn is the worst/second worst at chasing out of the zone. That severely limits his ceiling. It's not like this year is an outlier, either. His previous qualified chase rate wasn't any better - 6%. The Sox have also brought in coaches and players to try to make selectiveness part of the organizational philosophy, and we've seen other players make adjustments, but not Lenyn. He just doesn't fit what the Sox want to do, and he doesn't seem to want to/be able to change. I'd expect that he won't be a major part of this team past this season. You could be right but Sosa had more hits in April than anyone on the team. Unfortunately we don't get a lot of media coverage delving into if the Sox worked with him or Vaughn on their walk rates and out of zone swings the way we've heard about the success stories like Elko and Robert or the biomechanics guy who thought Vargas swing needed some tweaking to optimize bat to ball impact. Edited May 5, 2025May 5 by CaliSoxFanViaSWside
May 5, 2025May 5 1 hour ago, CaliSoxFanViaSWside said: You could be right but Sosa had more hits in April than anyone on the team. Unfortunately we don't get a lot of media coverage delving into if the Sox worked with him or Vaughn on their walk rates and out of zone swings the way we've heard about the success stories like Elko and Robert or the biomechanics guy who thought Vargas swing needed some tweaking to optimize bat to ball impact. He hits the ball hard when he swings at pitches he can do damage on. Some of them are outside of the strike zone (like the rocket RBI single up the middle yesterday). I'm totally fine with him being a free swinger, but only on pitches he can hit hard. The problem with being the worst in the league at swinging at pitches out of the zone is the vast majority of those it's not possible to hit hard unless your Vlad Guerrero Sr. Sosa's ceiling will probably be the mid .600s OPS guy he is now unless he makes this change, and I very much doubt he can. I hope he makes me look like a big fat idiot by the end of the year, though.
May 14, 2025May 14 Author He's hanging on to .2 fWAR. I know his errors are a thing but fangraphs thinks he's a solid 2B so far, at +1.3 run value and it's backed up with the statcast data, which has him at 86th percentile range.
May 14, 2025May 14 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.
May 14, 2025May 14 9 minutes ago, tray said: 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. Trades for Meidroth and Vargas sure helped, otherwise, ewww. Still not great but better.
May 14, 2025May 14 Author 20 minutes ago, ptatc said: Trades for Meidroth and Vargas sure helped, otherwise, ewww. Still not great but better. It's now a below average IF but when you're starving even leftovers taste heavenly.
May 14, 2025May 14 9 minutes ago, chitownsportsfan said: It's now a below average IF but when you're starving even leftovers taste heavenly. Exactly, its only below average not god awful.
May 14, 2025May 14 15 minutes ago, chitownsportsfan said: It's now a below average IF but when you're starving even leftovers taste heavenly. Lenyn Sosa is beef wellington compared to what the Sox have trotted out at second for the longest time.
May 14, 2025May 14 35 minutes ago, Quin said: Lenyn Sosa is beef wellington compared to what the Sox have trotted out at second for the longest time. Now do right field… 🤢
May 14, 2025May 14 13 minutes ago, WhiteSox2023 said: Now do right field… 🤢 Pray for Braden Montgomery to succeed because he could be a Surf & Turf accompanied with a bottle of champagne and baked alaska.
May 14, 2025May 14 2 hours ago, tray said: 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. Guys like Grebeck Merullo and McKay Christiansen would be studs today offensively. Heck 1984-1989 White Sox offenses look scintillating in comparison. At least you had Calderon Baines and Ozzie was occasionally entertaining, albeit frustrating as a hitter.
May 15, 2025May 15 Author He'll tick up to .3 fWAR after tonight. Raised his wRC+ to 88 from 78. It's nice to see him take a step forward as part of the youngish IF. Nobody seems to have star potential out of them but at least they are young players that are competing and holding their own.
May 15, 2025May 15 7 hours ago, chitownsportsfan said: He'll tick up to .3 fWAR after tonight. Raised his wRC+ to 88 from 78. It's nice to see him take a step forward as part of the youngish IF. Nobody seems to have star potential out of them but at least they are young players that are competing and holding their own. If Sosa keeps hitting, do you keep him at 2B and throw Meidroth at SS full time?
May 15, 2025May 15 5 hours ago, WhiteSox2023 said: If Sosa keeps hitting, do you keep him at 2B and throw Meidroth at SS full time? I think you have to.
May 15, 2025May 15 16 minutes ago, Bob Sacamano said: I think you have to. Probably makes sense with C. Montgomery’s future up in the air.
May 15, 2025May 15 17 minutes ago, WhiteSox2023 said: Probably makes sense with C. Montgomery’s future up in the air. Yeah he's not exactly knocking on the door (right now anyway).
May 15, 2025May 15 11 minutes ago, Bob Sacamano said: Yeah he's not exactly knocking on the door (right now anyway). I think this is right. Hopefully, he takes to the changes similar to Vargas. It was promising in the game yesterday when he had a hard double to the opposite field. He has not been doing that so far this season.
May 15, 2025May 15 1 hour ago, ptatc said: I think this is right. Hopefully, he takes to the changes similar to Vargas. It was promising in the game yesterday when he had a hard double to the opposite field. He has not been doing that so far this season. He hit it pretty hard yesterday even though he only had a 1-4 to show for it
May 22, 2025May 22 Author 92 wRC+ now. Funny thing is his iso is only .123. I bet if he stays healthy he ticks that up over .150 by year's end. I'm thinking 270/290/420.
May 22, 2025May 22 Just now, Quin said: delete this edit: lenyn "vladdy, but the other one" sosa continues to rock. i think i even saw him not swing at a pitch a foot off the plate. Edited May 22, 2025May 22 by nrockway
May 22, 2025May 22 2 hours ago, nrockway said: delete this edit: lenyn "vladdy, but the other one" sosa continues to rock. i think i even saw him not swing at a pitch a foot off the plate. Oh no, Big Schriff ain’t takin’ that! No one tells Big Schriff what to do, especially not to STAND UP for the SOUTHSIDE! Edited May 22, 2025May 22 by WhiteSox2023
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