August 18, 2025Aug 18 15 minutes ago, The Mighty Mite said: I hate it that a young guy like Sosa winds up as a DH, there has to be a position where he would be just average. Well defensively it is not at second base that's for sure.
August 18, 2025Aug 18 9 minutes ago, The Mighty Mite said: I hate it that a young guy like Sosa winds up as a DH, there has to be a position where he would be just average. That's the problem, there isn't. Sosa is just not very valuable as a player and I hope they can trade him in the offseason if some team becomes enamored with him. I would rather see Vargas, Montgomery, Meidroth, Mead get the bulk of the playing time moving forward into the future.
August 18, 2025Aug 18 8 minutes ago, Lip Man 1 said: Well defensively it is not at second base that's for sure. I thought first base was it but he failed to catch a fairly easy pickoff throw yesterday as he did a couple a weeks ago, definitely no Mike Squires at 1B.
August 18, 2025Aug 18 31 minutes ago, The Mighty Mite said: I thought first base was it but he failed to catch a fairly easy pickoff throw yesterday as he did a couple a weeks ago, definitely no Mike Squires at 1B. He looks very uncomfortable at 1B. His best defensive position is 2B, and he's bad there. Someone had mentioned giving him an OF glove and seeing what he's got, but I don't know if he'd be any good out there either.
August 18, 2025Aug 18 Author 1 hour ago, T R U said: That's the problem, there isn't. Sosa is just not very valuable as a player and I hope they can trade him in the offseason if some team becomes enamored with him. I would rather see Vargas, Montgomery, Meidroth, Mead get the bulk of the playing time moving forward into the future. Yikes. He's almost run neutral on FGs defensive values now. He leads our team in fWAR. If you want Sosa gone, you're insane. FGs -.7 runs below average. As a team the Sox are -40. Statcast: 55th percentile defender. Run neutral. You can use the eye test or you can use advanced metrics. Hell use both for all I care but don't ignore the metrics. He's fine at 2B. He works to improve his first step he could be solid. Edited August 18, 2025Aug 18 by chitownsportsfan
August 18, 2025Aug 18 42 minutes ago, hogan873 said: He looks very uncomfortable at 1B. His best defensive position is 2B, and he's bad there. Someone had mentioned giving him an OF glove and seeing what he's got, but I don't know if he'd be any good out there either. Well they tried that with Vaughan and Sheets so why not Sosa as well!
August 18, 2025Aug 18 15 minutes ago, chitownsportsfan said: Yikes. He's almost run neutral on FGs defensive values now. He leads our team in fWAR. If you want Sosa gone, you're insane. FGs -.7 runs below average. As a team the Sox are -40. Statcast: 55th percentile defender. Run neutral. You can use the eye test or you can use advanced metrics. Hell use both for all I care but don't ignore the metrics. He's fine at 2B. He works to improve his first step he could be solid. If Sosa winds up at second base for good that means Meidroth will be the odd man unless they move Monty to 3B and Chase takes over at SS, not my favorite scenario. The other possibility is sticking Mead at 3B where he would be another Vance Law, OK hitter but no power.
August 18, 2025Aug 18 Author Just now, The Mighty Mite said: If Sosa winds up at second base for good that means Meidroth will be the odd man unless they move Monty to 3B and Chase takes over at SS, not my favorite scenario. The other possibility is sticking Mead at 3B where he would be another Vance Law, OK hitter but no power. Right now I think Vargas is the odd man out, we've got another month of ABs to try and get some more data on these guys.
August 18, 2025Aug 18 4 hours ago, T R U said: That's the problem, there isn't. Sosa is just not very valuable as a player and I hope they can trade him in the offseason if some team becomes enamored with him. I would rather see Vargas, Montgomery, Meidroth, Mead get the bulk of the playing time moving forward into the future. He's already on that team they'll just end up with someone worse if they trade him but we like our trade frenzy for some reason though they just can't improve a player who can't catch a baseball. It's been that way a long time.
August 18, 2025Aug 18 3 hours ago, chitownsportsfan said: Yikes. He's almost run neutral on FGs defensive values now. He leads our team in fWAR. If you want Sosa gone, you're insane. FGs -.7 runs below average. As a team the Sox are -40. Statcast: 55th percentile defender. Run neutral. You can use the eye test or you can use advanced metrics. Hell use both for all I care but don't ignore the metrics. He's fine at 2B. He works to improve his first step he could be solid. Nah, he’s baseball dumb. He’s perfectly fine for right now but I don’t see anything special there and we have more promising players to give at bats to.
August 19, 2025Aug 19 Author 3 hours ago, DoUEvenShift said: Are we officially in Sosamania territory?
August 19, 2025Aug 19 11 hours ago, Lip Man 1 said: Well defensively it is not at second base that's for sure. Fangraphs puts him at 32nd in dWAR out of 80 players who have played more than 100 innings at second base. Guess that makes him above average. 1.2 dWAR isn't "great" but it's also "above replacement". Former #1 prospect Jackson Holliday is at -1.9 for reference. Is anyone questioning his 2b chops? Dude is the Jake Burger of this season, when are Sox fans gonna realize? Edited August 19, 2025Aug 19 by nrockway
August 19, 2025Aug 19 6 hours ago, kitekrazy said: He's already on that team they'll just end up with someone worse if they trade him but we like our trade frenzy for some reason though they just can't improve a player who can't catch a baseball. It's been that way a long time. Narvaez Semien immediately come to mind.
August 19, 2025Aug 19 14 minutes ago, nrockway said: Fangraphs puts him at 32nd in dWAR out of 80 players who have played more than 100 innings at second base. Guess that makes him above average. 1.2 dWAR isn't "great" but it's also "above replacement". Former #1 prospect Jackson Holliday is at -1.9 for reference. Is anyone questioning his 2b chops? Dude is the Jake Burger of this season, when are Sox fans gonna realize? Is Sosa really admired by Sox fans as much as Burger,eg. persevering/dealing with two consecutive torn Achilles' tendons, then all the health problems with his infant daughter?
August 19, 2025Aug 19 22 minutes ago, caulfield12 said: Is Sosa really admired by Sox fans as much as Burger,eg. persevering/dealing with two consecutive torn Achilles' tendons, then all the health problems with his infant daughter? His daughter wasn't born when he played here. I don't think anyone cares about the injuries, they care that he was good at baseball. To your point, I dunno if he has a nice backstory or whatever. Signing out of Venezuela is cool in its own right, but not particularly unique. I guess neither is getting injured (especially if you play for the White Sox) He loves his mom and his wife though and is a smiley guy. we like a smiley guy. Jake is a great guy obviously. Miss his attitude. Love that his first instinct regarding his daughter is to stay positive and to start a foundation to help a whole lot of other children. Miss his personality more than the home runs. I guess my point was they're both silver linings to otherwise bad, hard to watch seasons. The fanbase sorta wrote off both guys and then they turned it on in their mid 20s (similar tier prospect out of the draft/international free agency I'd say, comparable in that way). I think Sosa will be the better player ultimately. Jake is turning it on in the second half too though. Guy probably has other things on his mind, especially to start the season... Edited August 19, 2025Aug 19 by nrockway
August 19, 2025Aug 19 5 hours ago, nrockway said: His daughter wasn't born when he played here. I don't think anyone cares about the injuries, they care that he was good at baseball. To your point, I dunno if he has a nice backstory or whatever. Signing out of Venezuela is cool in its own right, but not particularly unique. I guess neither is getting injured (especially if you play for the White Sox) He loves his mom and his wife though and is a smiley guy. we like a smiley guy. Jake is a great guy obviously. Miss his attitude. Love that his first instinct regarding his daughter is to stay positive and to start a foundation to help a whole lot of other children. Miss his personality more than the home runs. I guess my point was they're both silver linings to otherwise bad, hard to watch seasons. The fanbase sorta wrote off both guys and then they turned it on in their mid 20s (similar tier prospect out of the draft/international free agency I'd say, comparable in that way). I think Sosa will be the better player ultimately. Jake is turning it on in the second half too though. Guy probably has other things on his mind, especially to start the season... 11th overall pick and $3.7 million signing bonus vs. $350k for Sosa. I guess the biggest comparison is they are both flawed players on the defensive side, but that's true for 95% of MLB. They're also not burners, although Burger's sprint speeds always surprise those who don't know how he he hustles watching on a daily basus. and growing to appreciate the other intangibles. Staying patient with Sosa might end up as the biggest current story of the season, along with his eventual position...as Vargas was the first half. At any rate, between Vargas Mead Montgomery Meidroth and Sosa, some really key decisions are coming up by the end of 2026. Also, Baldwin hopefully ends up improving his outfield defense and gets more regular playing time these last six weeks.
August 19, 2025Aug 19 no way do you trade sosa, he could hit 25 bombs next year, his offensive production has increased every year since joining the Sox OPS (by year): 2022: .368 / 1 HR 2023: .572 / 6 HR 2024: .642 / 8 HR 2025: .752 / 17 HR dude is figuring it out. maybe he can teach Robert.
September 1, 2025Sep 1 Sosa hit HR #18 today. His first 9 took half the season (81 games) but he got the next 9 more than twice as quickly (38 games). He's also very nearly doubled his RBI pace from the first half to the second (31 RBI in 81 games vs. 30 RBI in 38 games). Some of that is probably a result of the generally better team offense. Some is improved plate discipline as he's dropped his K% from 23.7 to 18.7%. Taking 8 walks in still 38 games isn't much, but it beats 8 walks in 81... He also just seems to be punishing "his" pitches more: 9 HR out of 24 XBH in the first half (14 2B), 9 HR out of 12 XBH in the last 38 games (3 2B). It's a big jump in ISO from .150 to .204 while simultaneously improving his AVG/OBP a bit. Will be interesting to see if the trend keeps up to finish the season or if it's just a hot streak in a (still solid) year.
September 1, 2025Sep 1 3 minutes ago, Autumn Dreamin said: Sosa hit HR #18 today. His first 9 took half the season (81 games) but he got the next 9 more than twice as quickly (38 games). He's also very nearly doubled his RBI pace from the first half to the second (31 RBI in 81 games vs. 30 RBI in 38 games). Some of that is probably a result of the generally better team offense. Some is improved plate discipline as he's dropped his K% from 23.7 to 18.7%. Taking 8 walks in still 38 games isn't much, but it beats 8 walks in 81... He also just seems to be punishing "his" pitches more: 9 HR out of 24 XBH in the first half (14 2B), 9 HR out of 12 XBH in the last 38 games (3 2B). It's a big jump in ISO from .150 to .204 while simultaneously improving his AVG/OBP a bit. Will be interesting to see if the trend keeps up to finish the season or if it's just a hot streak in a (still solid) year. Unfortunately, he’s not even a 1.0 bWAR player because his defense is so bad. That’s what we should hope improves.
September 1, 2025Sep 1 On 8/19/2025 at 12:52 AM, nrockway said: Fangraphs puts him at 32nd in dWAR out of 80 players who have played more than 100 innings at second base. Guess that makes him above average. 1.2 dWAR isn't "great" but it's also "above replacement". Former #1 prospect Jackson Holliday is at -1.9 for reference. Is anyone questioning his 2b chops? Dude is the Jake Burger of this season, when are Sox fans gonna realize? If that means some dumb team will trade a prospect for him, sign me up.
September 1, 2025Sep 1 On 8/19/2025 at 12:52 AM, nrockway said: Dude is the Jake Burger of this season, when are Sox fans gonna realize? He really isn't. He's hit at every level and improves every year. He doesn't K like Burger. Sox got a declining prospect for Burger. Won't gut much more for Sosa. No reason to trade him now.
September 1, 2025Sep 1 15 minutes ago, GreenSox said: He really isn't. He's hit at every level and improves every year. He doesn't K like Burger. Sox got a declining prospect for Burger. Won't gut much more for Sosa. No reason to trade him now. My point is that he's the "feel good" story of the year. Late bloomer and nice dude.
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