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Has a better ring to it than Benyamin Bailey I guess

Low A is going to be very interesting this year, because their are a lot of fairly aggressive placements all around that league. Jose Rodriguez (19 yo, Fangraphs #8 Prospect) is slashing .406/.424/.594 through 33 plate appearances in his first taste of full-season ball, which is by far the hottest start on the team. Benny Bailey (19 yo, Fangraphs #9 Prospect) is just 2/21 with a homer, but that is somewhat expected at this point. As a guy who passionately follows MiLB, he's one of the box scores I check each day. He reworked his swing since his last game action, so I imagine it'll take time to get going. James Beard (20 yo, Fangraphs #22 Prospect) is an interesting watch as well. He's very raw as a hitter, but his .188/.350/,375 slash in 20 PAs is not a terrible start minus the 9 strikeouts. He has 4 walks already compared to 8 in 127 ABs last year. It's going to take a while to see how much he improved during the 2020 season. DJ Gladney (19 yo, Fangraphs #32) is slashing .238/.385/.381 so far this year with a few extra base hits and 4 walks so far. Jared Kelley (19 yo, Fangraphs #5) has had a rough start to the year as he has an 8.10 ERA and 3.00 WHIP in his two starts that covered 3.1 innings. He wouldve have some time at rookie ball last year to work on things if not for COVID, so his start is to be taken lightly. Matthew Thompson (20 yo, Fangraphs #10) and Andrew Dalquist (20 yo, Fangraphs #11) have all held their own this year in their appearances. Bailey Horn (23 yo, Fangraphs #30), who scouts pegged as a reliever out of college, was dominant in his one start throwing 4 hitless innings with 1 walk and 3 ks. If Horn can develop into a starter that would be a HUGE scouting success as he only started 9 games during his two years at Auburn. He logged only 55 innings in 22 appearances with a 4.75 ERA and 1.38 WHIP during college, so he was more of a projectability pick than anything. The Cubs drafted a similar player (Ryan Jensen) in the first round in 2019 with worse professional results at this point. The Sox have a very top heavy farm with most of the top players set to graduate this year. Kannapolis is loaded with young talent and will be an interesting follow all year.

For what he lacks in X's and O's he's seemingly doing a pretty good job of a few things. It would be easy for a young team to lose focus after losing two of your best hitters, but the Sox are playing their best baseball of the year. Whether its solely the positional coaches or not, players are making adjustments and significant improvements from last year. The analytics issues are very easily remedies as Tony appears willing to own up to mistakes. Have a quality control or bench coach more familiar with analytics in his ear during those decisions. Could Hinch or Cora have done this and also won two or three of these bullpen losses? Probably. But not every manager can get what TLR has gotten out of the Sox this year, either. Yes, the game has passed him by in some ways, but he seems up to the challenge. Keep in mind, I'm a Cubs fan that has always disliked TLR.

The solution to that would be to have him in ML spring training right? It annoying that this is still an issue

Oh hes VERY available

From a Cubs fan perspective that would absolutely get done. I said in the offseason thread that pre-Eaton, Heyward +Kimbrel would be a way to add some solid defense and a great closer for just money. I still think Bryant would be a great fit for the Sox, but that would only be done if that plan was to move Engel to center full time

I believe Gio but if this happened to TLR I would call BS.

100% agree. Although I always cover my hot takes by saying, "if he changes his approach he can be great". Madrigal is the type of guy that'll get a cult following. He shows little leaguers that they can make it even if they aren't 6'4 205 like Eloy. Im very happy to eat crow with this

Im not sure if it was the last movie, but I remember going to the theaters on my 7th birthday in 1995 to watch the power rangers. The teens were absolutely ruthless. They were wishing for the death of the 85 year old producer, questioning every decision the director made even it was objectively the right call, and were threatening to walk out of the theater after the first five minutes even though everyone knew that they werent going anywhere. Now that I say that out loud...

This is exactly right. Moncada costs the Sox $6.8M in 2021 and will cost $13.8M in 2022, $17.8M in 2023, and $24.8M in 2024. Robert and Eloy become $3 Million more expensive every year. Tim Anderson will be getting more expensive and has some club options that are nearly double his 2021 salary coming up. Gio is going into his Arb-2 year and the Sox are also trying to extend him. None of that is bad money, but the Sox have around $110M committed to 2022 without accounting for players in Pre-Arb (Madrigal, Cease, Kopech, Foster, Heuer), and the other Arb guys who will be brought back (Gio, Marshall, Engel, Fry?, Lopez?) but keeping the payroll at 133 means having to replace Lynn, Rodon, Eaton, and Leury very cheap or internally.

Hey, We have one of those on the north side! As frustrating as Javier Baez can be at times, having elite defense, elite baserunning, and elite power make the approach something you just have to live with. When pitchers hit their spots they'll swing and miss. But they have to do that three times before making a mistake and guys like Baez and Robert will make them pay. The best thing to do is to get him protection in the lineup and let him be. He's a joy to watch and even when he's slumping he'll be a 4 win player

I have been low on Madrigal for a while, so keep my bias in mind, but I just don't think his approach will allow him to be successful given his physical limitations. He has one elite skill and that is getting the bat on the ball. The problem is that he hits the pitches that the pitchers want him to hit. His chase contact percentage is 81% in his small sample of 134 plate appearances vs a league average of 59%. That is a great category to be elite in when you're down 0-2 with 1 out and a guy on third, but most of the time you're just throwing away at bats. If his fielding or speed were elite he'd be a fine everyday second baseman, but they arent. My hope with him is that adjust his approach so that he doesn't put so much emphasis on not striking out. He knows that he can always make contact when the situation calls for it, so why not sell out a bit with less than two strikes? His hands are certainly quick enough to do damage if he added some loft to his swing.

Sale pitched in 58 games and threw 2+ innings 11 times (3 innings twice). Theyre definitely asking more of Kopech. FWIW, I think Kopech is a starter long term and Crotchet is a high-leverage reliever.

I was not a fan of this from the start. I felt that Vaughn trying to learn a new position while also trying to learn to hit MLB pitching could lead to him not doing either well. The hitting may take some time, but he's showing promise as a left fielder. Eloy wouldve ran full speed into the wall on that play if he were in left.

Crotchet, Kopech and Hendricks look fine. The starters getting into the 7th inning (okay, ill take the 6th) would be nice.

He was supposed to be high IQ, but his base running suggests otherwise. Im starting to think he might not be the son a coach either. Or not the first one in the building each morning

I think at GRF you'll see more Tim Anderson jerseys than any other. He's a homegrown talent, has big likeable personality, and isn't going anywhere anytime soon. If Robert has a big year I could see him being a popular jersey nationally, which might be what it takes to actually make the Top 20.

I'm really curious to see what sort of mechanical changes Katz made with Cease. If Cease maintained his 2020 performance that would be a huge disappointment because he had a 6.36 FIP (80th out of 81 pitchers with 50 IP) and a 5.87 xFIP (79th). His LOB% was 81.7% (league avg is 74%). Hitters had a .238 BABIP despite being in the bottom 25% of the league in xSLG, xBA, Exit Velocity, and Hard Hit %. Essentially he got about as lucky as you could get last year. That said his stuff is filthy and he has so much room to improve and could do so very rapidly. He has the potential to be a star if he improves his command and it could easily happen this year. The projections for him all seem to believe that his K/9 will go back up and his walks will go down. I believe that too, but he needs to be a whole lot better this year. One reason I'm optimistic is that his splits when starting 1-0 vs 0-1 in 2020. After 1-0 (.310/.468/.643) vs AL avg of (.256/.357/.444) After 0-1 (.157/.229/.324) vs AL avg of (.219/.271/.361) Yes its a small sample size, but Cease is absolutely awful when he starts behind in the count and is pretty much elite after a first pitch strike. Getting ahead in the count is usually that last thing to develop for a young pitcher and hopefully this is the year he gets over that hump. Edit: I looked back through his splits and oh boy.. After 1-0 he has an xFIP of 8.70 and after 0-1 his xFIP is 3.63

This aged well

Kevin Goldstein of Fangraphs (Formerly with the Astros FO) just said in a FG chat that his biggest regret was pushing to trade Hader for Carlos Gomez and Fiers because he thought Hader was destined for the bullpen.

I think I am the president of the Benyamin Bailey fan club. Hes a beast phsyically and has the potential to be very good defensively for his size. I think his swing needs to be re-done as it resembles a golf swing, but you cant teach 6'5 and athletic with plate discipline

Ill take a solid OVER on Anderson, Robert, and TA and a healthy healthy under on Nick Madrigal.

Since Drafting Collins in 2016: White Sox Catcher Round 1-20 Draft Picks by Year + IFA signings: 2017: Round 7 (Evan Skoug 300K Bonus) + Cheap (probably 10-15k) IFA Signing (Mendoza) 2018: Round 9 (Gunnar Troutwine 10K Bonus) Round 16 (Ty Green 75K) Round 19 (Gabriel Ortiz 50K) + 300k IFA signing (Pineda) 2019: Round 8 (Ivan Gonzalez 10K Bonus) Round 11 (Victor Torres, 175K Bonus) 2020: None That's a total of 930K spent on amateur catchers since 2017. There are some very good points above about some of the development issues in the system and that could be part of the thought process in investing the position at the amateur level. Draft what you develop well and let other organizations develop your catchers.

I posted this on another thread: If he has one project this year it should be Cease. The analytics show that he has PLUS stuff but cant generate swings and misses. His awful swing/miss and chase peripherals remind me of 2018 Gio which makes Cease such a break out candidate IMO. Cease's O-Swing% (Swings on pitches outside the zone) was 26% (8th lowest among 81 pitchers with 50IP) and his swing and miss % was 9% (18th worst). He also had a first pitch strike percentage of 54% (7th worst). In 2018 Giolito's O-Swing% was 24%, his Swing and Miss % was 8%, and his first pitch strike % was 55% . In 2019 that went to 32%, 15%, and 62% respectively. Jake Arrieta, another guy who had a rough MLB start but had plus stuff had similar changes in those percentages. Both made minor adjustments on mound positioning and increased first pitch strike % significantly. Having plus stuff doesnt mean shit if youre behind in the count. His swing % was 41% which was sixth lowest which makes sense he started as many counts 1-0 as nearly any pitcher in the league. _______________________________________ The point is that I think, yes, he was lucky he didn't do worse this year, BUT, there is very real upside because if he's able to get to make some mechanical changes to improve his command

The Cubs cant afford anyone with upside that doesn't have some really significant flaws. Williams makes more sense for the Cubs on paper than a declining Jon Lester for twice the money. He has another year of Arb left if he hits and he's only 2 years removed from a solid year. In 2018 he had 170 IP with a 3.11 ERA (albeit with a 3.89 FIP and 4.54 xFIP). The floor for the Cubs is that he has made his starts for the most part for the past 4 years and can keep the Cubs from having to put one of their AAA "prospects" out there to get shelled. He doesn't have those elite spin rates or any advanced analytics that like him, which kind of makes me wonder if the Cubs saw anything in him other than cheap innings. I dont think he makes much more sense for the Sox instead of Rodon personally. The Sox are looking to win a title, not have the upside of a potentially cheap 4-5 starter in 2022.