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Engel hits like Mike Trout every Spring Training and then forgets how to hit during the regular season. It’s so weird.

Engel > Robert.

Madrigal dropped a single to right leading off the inning. He then draws an errant pickoff throw which moves him to second. The next batter hits a grounder to second, taking Madrigal to third. Instead of it being a double play ball and there being two outs for the Basabe single, he manufacturers a run. We will be seeing a lot of this type of intangible value for years to come soon... and I can’t wait.

New projected opening day lineup: Anderson Moncada Abreu Engel Grandal Jimenez Encarnacion Robert Garcia

How hard can it be to set up a static camera behind home plate? Don't even need announcers

I'm still a little puzzled as to why Yermin didn't get a look last Sept only to be added to the 40 man after the season was over. Seems like a real missed opportunity.

Not really. Yermin was in AA when Reed in in the big leagues. IF anything, Yermin should have gotten Castillo's at bats in September.

The Sox are currently operating like a fairly progressive, smart franchise. That wasn't the case as far back as, uh, 9 months ago when they were still trotting out Yonder Alonso in a rebuild year, with plenty of AAAA types already in house needing a look. They have gained some small amount of trust with myself and probably a few other fans. That trust can easily be lost if they revert to penny pinching or fail to capitalize on the talent they have acquired.

I think he is saying you can't just throw out random names as examples of players who couldn't produce at the MLB because we could just as easily do the opposite.. AKA provide names of former minor leaguers who put up big numbers and continued to in the MLB, specifically non-major prospects (Like Yermin). I am with him, stating bad MLB players who had a good year or two in the minors is not the same.

I have Madrigal starting on OD. If that is what happens then Mendick might not be needed on the roster. So the bench I have is McCann, Leury, Engel and whoever wins the 26th spot in Spring Training.

How do you know? We haven't even given him a shot in the majors yet.

Seems odd the Sox would broadcast so few spring trading games. How many poker tournaments and betting shows can one watch on the flagship? If you as an organization are excited about the product, show it off. Producing these games is relatively inexpensive.

Collins grounds out. Game over.

He still has a few check marks to hit, before he can come up 2 weeks into the season

Found this interesting about the 26th man. In Merkin’s latest inbox: Will there be a real competition between [Zack] Collins and [Yermin] Mercedes for the 26th roster spot? -- Vince, Melrose Park, Ill., @vinnyc52 It won’t just be a competition between Zack Collins and Yermin Mercedes. Veteran non-roster infielders such as Cheslor Cuthbert and Andrew Romine are in play for the final roster spot, as is Seby Zavala, if Chicago decides to go with a third catcher, or Nicky Delmonico, if the team wants another left-handed bat. There’s also a real possibility that the 26th man will be someone the White Sox acquire during Spring Training. With the White Sox lineup set and sturdy, the 26th man will be taking more of a pinch-hitter/part-time role, and I’m not sure the White Sox want Collins to have such infrequent playing time. Mercedes is a viable option, as he possesses big-time power and he is considered a decent receiver behind the plate.

He will struggle 6/14/2020 when he hears before the game that his dog, Loki is sick...Loki will recover....Andrew goes 2-3 the next day with 2 walks a double and 3 run homer. But that is mere speculation on my part.

I hope he starts in AA and then in August gets a taste of Charlotte and then is up with the big club next May.

Will Vaughn ever have a bad professional At-Bat?

I wish ALL ST games were on TV or stream.

Lol why? Seems like quite a leap.

There's just too much good info out there these days to give a shit what Law has to say. Yes, I clicked on the thread anyway.

You are a wonderful poster and insider and I hate to disagree with you. But it seems obvious to me that the spending to upgrade player development, scouting, etc. should have been done at the beginning of the rebuild when we were trotting out minimum payrolls. Why wait till you are coming out of the rebuild to do it ? You max out the payroll at $110 then JR says . STOP ! Then the fanbase gets so pumped about all the good players we signed, the extensions , the forays into modern techniques and IFA that they all fall in line to praise the FO . Am I supposed to be impressed the Sox are finally doing what even teams with lower payrolls have done to maximize talent evaluation. Doing all these good things now just seems like veiled reasons to hold down the payroll by saying look we want to keep the band together , we want to modernize, we want to become more active in IFA thats why we have to keep payroll where it is . Well why the hell wasn't all this done 10 years ago. I'll tell you why . It has always appeared in order to run the Sox at a profit Reinsdorf can't spend in every single area that needs money put into it to be good at it. Player development, scouting IFA , modernizing all took a back seat while the Sox were having higher payrolls and trying to win. They can't be profitable pouring money into all areas like successful organizations. The Twins have run a very successful IFA part of their organization supplementing the roster with good talent , Even they have a payroll right around $130M now. The freaking Twins run circles around the Sox FO. The Twins might as well be a Canadian team. The City that Works, The City of Broad Shoulders White Sox is still the least successful franchise in MLB history when it comes to winning and as usual there is one foot on the gas with the other foot on the brake.

It's funny because while all teams are going to copy-cat now because it was valuable, just yesterday the Yankees beat writers were talking about how the Yankees may not lock up judge because their pre-fa extensions to Hicks and Severino have gone so poorly. Just as is the case with scouting/trading/signing FA's, you still need to pick the right guys. I find it really interesting that the Sox have not even attempted to lock up their arms - by all reports - because I think they view them as riskier commodities with their injury histories.

It's been the worst 7 year stretch in franchise history; with the only comparison being the 40's or 20's. I'm with you 100% here; this anointing of greatness for the FO before anything has happened is absolutely baffling. Let's play and win some games first.

It’s just an example of a team that did much better than the Sox with Kenny and Hahn at the helm, with even less spending. I don’t see how anyone could say Kenny and Hahn did anything other than a piss poor job in the last ten or so years pre-rebuild.

Flu kills about 0.1% of all people it infects. COVID19 is killing 1-3% of its victims. So it's about ten to thirty times deadlier. Apples to oranges, man.

Ptatc, if anyone hasn’t told you today that you’re awesome... well, you’re awesome. So there.

Luis Robert, CF Andrew Vaughn, 1B Micheal Kopech, RHP Nick Madrigal, 2B Zach Collins, C/1B/DH Jonathan Stiever, RHP Matthew Thompson, RHP Dane Dunning, RHP Andrew Dalquist, RHP Micker Adolfo, RF Jimmy Lambert, RHP Luis Basabe, CF Yolbert Sanchez, SS Bryce Bush, OF Gavin Sheets, 1B Blake Rutherford, OF Zack Burdi, RHP Ian Hamilton, RHP Tyler Johnson, RHP DJ Gladney, 3B Konnor Pilkington, LHP Jose Rodriguez, SS Benyamin Bailey, OF Luis Gonzalez, CF Codi Heuer, RHP Bryan Ramos, 3B Lenyn Sosa, SS Luis Mieses, OF James Beard, CF Ronaldo Guzman, SP I would keep the same guys

You should probably re-read my post then. Because that is not what I did. I listed, literally, every Sox system player in the last 8 or 9 seasons who fit the general profile of Yermin: late 20's age (25+), C/1B positional slot, big AAA numbers, no former major leaguers. How on earth do you get "random" from that? What you are saying I should have done, is exactly what I did. On the bolded, do you know why those weren't listed? Because within that profile I just mentioned... there aren't any, other than Phegley, whom I listed. At least on the Sox. I did not look at the other 29 AAA teams but feel free to do so. You will find the same pattern - very few ever do anything meaningful in the majors.

I agree. It either happens or it doesn’t.

This is a pathetic attempt at trolling. I'm glad KW/Hahn got the ship in order, but no team should go 12 years+ in between playoff appearances. They did not get fired and they improved their operation (thank god!), but there are a lot of worthy people in this world who could step into the white sox baseball GM job after 2012 and not taken 8 years to get us to the point we have a competitive team. I'm glad Hahn learned from the mistakes of the previous 16 years he had been in the org by the time he shifted gears in 2017. But yeah, people change! But this job is a tremendous, rare commodity and it's fair to expect results. We can't all be Jim Boylen.

I don't doubt there have been discussions, and the sides are getting closer to a deal. Doing this soon makes sense for Moncada, but it makes A LOT of sense for the Sox. Both sides are saying what they should be. Downplaying it and trying to keep as many details as possible out of the news. No one from either side is going to say, "Oh yeah, we're working on an extension. Expect to hear more soon."

https://www.dailyherald.com/sports/20200225/some-hawks-surprised-when-lehner-moved-out?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter Notice who Kane said he's going to talk to about the direction of the team this summer. Not Bowman, Not Colliton....McDonough. Straight from the horse's mouth. Stuff like this makes me believe that he's the one making the major decisions. I do wonder how much autonomy Bowman actually has. Rumblings have been around for years that all moves have to go through him, so that's probably why it took the Hawks so long to move some of their players over the years, as well as yesterday. I have a feeling that the Hawks are going to start to have similar problems to the Cubs under the Tribune Co. as long as McDonough is still employed. It's the same quote that @SoxAce posted.

I hope all of you people who want Bowman gone realize that if McDonough is still there, then nothing will change. The organizational rot begins and ends with him.

wow that bacon signature is a time warp. can I be 26 again as well? Wow.

I was responding specifically to how he has raked at Charlotte. Anyway, it is true he has generally hit well, but his numbers didn't truly get to these mashing-level values until the last year or two. I don't think you know what a straw man is. What I did was show you a list of examples of players whose numerical profiles at AAA for similar positions and ages are not encouraging. That is called comparison. And on the bolded, it was you who talked about him putting up big numbers. That is what I was responding to. Of course the opposite happens, in fact that makes the point more deeply. That numbers should only be a small part of the picture when evaluating likely future outcomes for prospects. Yermin is fine for what he is - the 5th catcher on the depth chart. Emergency depth in AAA with a small possibility of doing something meaningful in the majors value-wise. But the idea of him leaping over any of Grandal, McCann, Collins or Zavala, or any of the 1B/DH candidates either, is being way over-hyped here. It would be a mistake. Not because anyone has a 100% or 0% chance of being good, but because Mercedes' odds are far longer than those other players.

Wanting to see someone get a shot in the majors doesn’t mean we’re getting ahead of ourselves. And cherry picking players with a 800+ OPS literally has nothing to do with whether or not Mercedes will be successful or not. Nobody, and I repeat nobody, is saying that he definitely WILL BE successful because of minor league numbers. Only that they think he deserves a chance. It may be you who doesn’t understand the context by evidence of the straw man you built above.

Shouldn’t be hard because that would be stupid

I said that it's possible this upcoming season. Abreu is old. EE is really old. Yermin absolutely demolished the ball last season. He showcased his power and hit a 500 foot bomb yesterday. I think it is definitely possible that EE or Abreu fall off a cliff/have a bad year, and Yermin outproduces them when he has a chance. Nothing is outrageous in that claim. All we are saying Is give Yerm' a chance

am I going to pull up pictures of a dong followed by a virus if I click on that link?

Imagine wanting to see a guy play who puts up incredible numbers over guys who do not (Collins). I know we’re going SO overboard.

Magglio was pretty damn good. I'm actually not that worried about his bat. I'd like to see his glove play ++ for another year.

Some of you take all these statements way too much at face value. What kind of advantage does it serve both the White Sox or the Yoan camp to acknowledge that they are working on an extension?

that’s my shortstop

I don't think it's that he is saying "he's david eckstein and david eckstein isn't that valuable" as much as "the only recent player who has succeeded with that profile is david eckstein" which makes madrigal actually more risky than many would admit. Madrigal really needs to keep his walk rate where it is though. He really needs that .350 obp

I just felt that as the only White Sox fan that actually liked Gavin Floyd that I was honor bound to say something.

Correct, he has 16; I think I searched for 20 first due to my first sentence. Will correct. Think the point still remains.

I will say this about Law, he is one of the most sensitive members of the media. Keith Law is the only person/thing/site on all of the internet who has ever blocked me from participating in discussions. I have never attacked Law, or said anything personal, and frankly I rarely ever interacted with him. If you disagree with Keith, he will likely block you regardless of how cordial you are and how well thought out your responses are. That is my one and only beef with someone like Law. If you want to put your opinions out there, and frequently go against consensus, you should be prepared to support your opinions and express them without anger.

The Twins didn't value David Ortiz very highly and he became a legend in Boston . That was after 6 seasons and around 1600 AB's in Minnesota, He wasn't a high contact good defense guy like Manager Tom Kelly preferred and some injuries always seemed to come right as he was looking ready to break out and the Twins ended up releasing him after his best season with them because they tried to trade him and found no takers and didn't try to negotiate a contract with him and didn't want to pay him $2M dollars for a DH who couldn't hit lefties. He started his Big Papi glory years with the Red Sox at the age of 27. The next 5 years in a row starting in 2003 he never finished less than 5th in MVP voting. Fellow Dominican Pedro Martinez was always in Ortiz corner.He requested the Red Sox sign him. After Ortiz was frustrated early in his 1st year with the Red Sox and was beefing to the media Pedro got him to keep quiet and asked that he always be in the lineup when he pitched. The rest is history. Just imagine if he was the DH for the White Sox all those years he played for the Red Sox.