Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by WestEddy

The team is better with Sam The Man leading off.

19 minutes ago, wegner said:

The team is better with Sam The Man leading off.

Meidroth's OPS split is .661/.943 (v. RHP/v. LHP). Ant-man is .875/.319.

Good day for Gonzo's first 💣

22 minutes ago, WestEddy said:

Meidroth's OPS split is .661/.943 (v. RHP/v. LHP). Ant-man is .875/.319.

That’s why I think they may ultimately form a 2b platoon.

2 minutes ago, Timmy U said:

That’s why I think they may ultimately form a 2b platoon.

I have no idea how Sam is defensively at 2B.....insights?

I saw a video this morning of an interview with Jeff Passan. Jeff said that he was very happy for Vargas that he was finding success because Miguel is easily in the top 5 of nicest guys in the MLB. Interesting and great to hear. I love having a roster of guys who are easy to root for.

3 minutes ago, wegner said:

I have no idea how Sam is defensively at 2B.....insights?

My memory was that Ant-man was rougher at 2B than Meidroth. From Fangraphs:

Chicago White Sox Top 40 Prospects | FanGraphs Baseball

11. Sam Antonacci, 2B

Drafted: 5th Round, 2024 from Coastal Carolina (CHW)

Age	23.0	Height	6′ 0″	Weight	190	Bat / Thr	L / R	FV	40+

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

Hit	Raw Power	Game Power	Run	Fielding	Throw
60/60	40/45	30/35	50/50	35/40	40

The Barons won their second-straight Southern League title in 2025 after getting a season-long Whitey Herzog Cardinals cosplay on offense, with Antonacci regularly batting third behind fellow high-contact chaos merchants William Bergolla and Rikuu Nishida and frequently turning the basepaths into the I-405 at 5 pm on a Friday. They teach their hitters to absorb hit-by-pitches at Coastal Carolina, and Antonacci only needed a single season there to become a zealot after two years of torching Division II pitching. If you count his AFL numbers, the 22-year-old lefty swinger got plunked 39 times in his first full pro season and hit .304/.444/.429 in 135 games. That is some notable high-level performance, even if the raw ingredients seem less compelling.

Antonacci’s swing is unsurprisingly compact and wristy, using a small leg kick from a slightly open position just to load into his backside, as he’s more interested in freeing up his hands to manipulate the barrel around the zone than he is in creating separation. He’s compactly built without much projection to improve his below-average raw power, but he’s also the type of hitter to choke up on the bat even when he’s ahead in the count in a spot where a single scores a run. Antonacci is capable of some jailbreak sprints a shade under 4.2 seconds out of the left-handed batter’s box, but he stole 48 bags with largely average run times. Maintaining third base versatility is important for his profile, but Antonacci’s arm is stretched there and it shows up in the form of rushed actions, though his range is also below-average at the keystone.

His contact rates are good, but he’s a little too vulnerable to velocity up and away to project Antonacci to be a 90% or better in-zone contact specialist. He only chased around 20% at Birmingham, but he’ll need to maintain his Caleb Durbin-levels of plunking absorbance to live as an OBP-machine with limited defensive value, though the Sox are entertaining the notion of trying him out in left field. Antonacci already has a reputation for the kind of relentless motor that minor league skippers love, and he’ll need one if he’s going to transcend a bench role. Because of their OBP-centered production and a burning intensity that allows them to outstrip meager physical tools, Antonacci seems comparable to Chase Meidroth. That Meidroth graduated as a 45-FV prospect is a testament to him being a meaningfully superior defender, but ironically, they could wind up as platoon partners by mid-2026.