Jake

This is a good post. When you evaluate the player, you evaluate the player. We don't know what players will be on the White Sox when/if Madrigal is ready. There might be some wisdom in thinking about how the skillsets of players complement each other, but when you're drafting in the first round you just get who is best. Madrigal either is the best choice or not, it can't depend on how many homers Yoan Moncada and Tim Anderson hit.

Worth noting that Collins currently holds the third-highest wRC+ in the Southern League, ahead of Eloy. Right now he's hitting really well regardless of position. Note: Eloy's OPS is about 50 points higher, but wRC+ adjusts for ballpark effects. I can only assume that Eloy's production has been more concentrated in hitters' parks.

The main thing for Carson is that he's at a level where he can stay in the game and work through the stuff. Problem in MLB wasn't so much the production so much as getting pulled so early that he couldn't actually throw enough pitches to improve. Hopefully he's getting his feel back in AAA.

I will say that in my recollection Melky Cabrera made a very similar statement after his suspension went public. It wasn't long afterwards we learned that he had attempted one of the most wildly dishonest (and hilarious) appeals of all time.

On the bright side, if all he's ever done is take EPO I suspect it may not have helped his play at all and he shouldn't have any serious issues playing out his contract.

Hopefully the Sox have word that Smith will be ready after the minimum days on the DL and we're just planning to ride it out without giving any time to Gonzalez.

That's a weird one. I'm not sure EPO would offer much benefit to a MLB catcher. Maybe he was trying to get more out of his training with it.

I don't know about Brett Austin's defense, but unless it's very good he looks like a great example of someone who has failed upward all the way through the minors.

That said, they haven't had much time knowing that their AAA catcher and one of their AA catchers are hurt.

It's not obvious to me that Swihart is any better than the no-name AAA reserves we have.

I think there's a pretty good chance that Welington is the one who told the reporter. As far as the appeal process, I think while it's not great for the fans you just can't have anything be made public by the league until the player is being punished. It would be very difficult for a player to rehab his reputation if it turns out he had an alibi or it was a false positive.

Yeah I don't know what I think about the idea of Collins being called up other than the fact it is plausible given the current circumstances. I'll be happy to see him live and wouldn't be surprised if he was good from the get-go and wouldn't be surprised if it went very badly.

TBH while it briefly looked the other way I think Collins's bat is ahead of Zavala's. Sounds like neither of them are very good on defense, but it's always hard to get reliable information about that for minor leaguers. Yeah it could be a masking agent though I'm not sure if a drug of abuse (weed, cocaine, etc.) is punished under the same scheme.

Might have to give some thought to Zack Collins, though it would be a risky move. FWIW, it may be similar to Cano or several others who test positive for drugs associated with steroid use (e.g., Manny Ramirez testing positive for a post-cycle therapy drug)

Really nice outing for Covey. Hopefully it's a sign of things to come for him.

Will be interesting to see how Sox divvy up playing time between Narvaez and Kevan Smith.

Yeah I closed the book on him a night or two ago. I just don't see anything there. Not sure if it's his injuries, his head, or some combination, but he doesn't look like he has any of the pieces of his game that are needed anymore.

I think it's a good philosophy as a manger to err on the side of under-managing and he failed in that regard. Also, I think I'm ready to close the book on the Trayce Thompson era.

Leury is fine in the outfield but does make mistakes that you'd expect from an infielder playing the outfield. He generally makes up for it in my view by making some exceptional plays and using his speed to make some tough plays look easy. I think it balances out to about an average defender. I mentioned this in the game thread that it seems like he's been making many more mistakes in LF than CF this year, but I don't know what good reason there would be for that and it may just be coincidence.

Hawk brought up an interesting comparison for Lopez today: Bartolo Colon. He definitely pitched like Bartolo today, throwing 75 fastballs out of 107 pitches. I think Reynaldo can become a more well-round pitcher than Bartolo (no fat joke intended), but I wonder if he can use this fastball heavy approach to his advantage while he polishes the secondary stuff.

It's funny because I don't even see Cease as a "main guy" for the rebuild. That's not meant as a knock on him at all but more of a statement about how deep our system. Plausibly could be the case that by the time Cease should be ready, we won't need him (but I suspect we'll be very glad to have him).

Love him big dogging it off the mound there.

This is really impressive to me — look where the swinging strikes are. He has been able to pound the zone and still get guys to whiff. This is what good stuff can get you.

Superb outing for Reynaldo. I hope we can get him some cushion to let him push deeper into the game if he lets a guy or two on.

Can't believe a team with a guy like Rougned Odor would have a bad attitude