Dominikk85

I think lindor is better Than he has played so far this year and had some bad luck but he also massively benefitted from the juiced ball. He is a pretty small dude like 170 or so and was hitting high 30s Homers, that was probably a result of the juiced ball. I think really he is more a mid 20s bomb guy the next couple years before he starts to decline. I think it is good the Sox didn't sign a Guy like harper and Machado. They will need all the money to pay and retain their core (once arbitration and later free agency kicks in) and possibly buy some pitchers in the next couple years.

Is there any way to still make crochet a starter? They Sox likely are going to be competitive the next 4-5 years and crochet is doing well in the pen. Are they going to keep him there? Or sending him down in the minors? Or trying to stretch him out as a multi inning reliever in the majors and working on his third pitch there even if it means he occasionally gives up a 2 run bomb on it and loses a couple games?

Robert and eloy are 30 hr guys, eloy probably a 40 Homer guy. That is already over 30 bombs missing. Grandal is about where you expect him to be (but now out), vaughn is about on a 20 hr pace which is solid but more like average (not saying he can't be better in the future), abreu has slightly regressed (high 20s pace) and Tim has regressed a lot (mid teens pace this year). And then you have several no power guys (0-5 homer pace) getting at bats like Hamilton, Goodwin,madrigal (now out), leury, mendick, Eaton (now out)

I like the 1-2 they got. They did punt a lot of picks to get it done with seniors but They got Montgomery at 21, Kath at 57 and McDougal at 155 Longenhagen has Kath at 27, Montgomery at 36. That is a solid plus for those two spots and McDougal has upside too, Burke probably is an OK depth piece too

I wonder if they are cheating again 2019: O swing 29.3% Contact 80.7% 2020 O swing 30.8% Contact 79.9% 2021 O swing 28.4% Contact 81.0% Their plate discipline was still good last year but did take a step back and this year it is even better than 2019. Knowing what pitch comes could help with that

Yeah but speed correlates with the ability to stick at shortstop, a guy who is a fringe average runner at 19 and 6"4 might quickly be below average when he gains another 20 pounds of muscle. But yeah, the power is also some concern because he doesn't have as much room to grow as a guy who is 25 pounds lighter and a year younger. So a lot depends on his present power, if it is legit with wood bats already that would be great but if it doesn't really show in games it would be some concern. I'm looking forward to see his minor league exit velos. His tee exit velo at perfect game was good but not absolute top of the line at perfect game (top guys like Witt hit 100 but there are also good drafted HS hitters in the low 90s.

I think he is a solid get at 21. Yeah there are some warts with him (old for hs, mediocre runner, not much physical projection, might not be a middle infielder but has to go to third) but we are talking a late first rounder here and you get a Guy who is legimitalely big already (so lack of projection matters less), who could hit for legit power and even some chance he sticks at short. Best case is you get a cal ripken type who is "too big for shortstop" but still can handle it and hit for some serious power. There obviously is risk too, he could maybe even grow out of 3rd and be more of a first baseman if he bulks up more and there are questions about the hit tool like with any hs player (in that case there is not much defense to fall back) but in the 20s you are not getting a blue chip guy with no faults and even the chance that you get a SS who can hit 25-30 bombs is a great thing.

Probably a deal to go overslot later like the Os too.

0Orioles "trading down" again and take a lower ranked player to go for quantity in round 2-5 with overslot. We will see how that will work out.

I wouldn't say the draft was a big driving force in their success yet. Maybe it will be in the future if Vaughn, crochet, Burger, madrigal all hit big, but really most of their productive guys right now are from trades (giolito, Lynn, cease, eloy) or international signings (abreu, Robert) or free agent signings (grandal). The only drafted guys with double digit career WAR are Anderson and rodon. I would say the biggest factor was how well the Sox hit on those big trades. Sure they had great players to sell but Really almost none of their guys busted and kopech, cease, giolito, dunning (who brought in Lynn) and eloy all seem to be above average mlb players.

I think the Sox should give him some rest but I would do it in late July when eloy is back because the Sox could still go on a pretty big losing stretch with the decimated roster. But when they are still 3+ up in late July they can afford a bad 2 week stretch and drop some games in the lead because the roster with eloy, grandal and Robert should easily be good enough to keep the indians at distance. HFA would be nice but the Sox really need giolito, Lynn and rodon at full strength in the playoffs.

Yeah. If course the indians can get more injuries too and not play as well but there could be another key injury or re-injury. Still probably a minor addition would make sense if the price is right.

I was always asking for trades but as the Sox made it so far should they maybe just do nothing and let Robert and eloy be their deadline acquisitions? I know it is about another month but even if the injuries finally show and the Sox go 10 wins and 15 losses the next 30 days (. 400 pace) that still would at the worst put them 1 or 2 behind the Indians (if Cleveland plays. 600 ball) and then you have another two months (assuming they are back in early August) with eloy and Robert to destroy that weak division. Obviously for that to work you have to expect them being both healthy and productive right away.

Even if bauer gets out of that legally and she indeed wanted those hard bdsm practices this still probably will hurt his career because a) people now know that he has this weird fetish and b) that he must be pretty psycho if he goes too far in doing that kinda as if he was a shark in a feeding frenzy.

The team definitely has outplayed expectations and projections but I'm not sure you can put that on TLR. But yeah, if you win the division with a team that loses like 10 wins to the DL that probably means some strong manager of the year considerations. But of course the Sox need to pull that through first, in June they already came down some with a 13 and 12 record (which is still fine considering the injuries but a bad June could change that). I would be fine if they play 500 in June and then hopefully pick up again in mid August when guys come back.

K% is about down one percentage point, that is pretty significant. Obviously the k rate didn't dive down a ton but 24 to 23% is something

Yeah, they probably also would have won a few more WS in that case:)

I think it is pretty clear the Sox don't see Mercedes as a catcher at all. He can finish a game behind the plate when the backup gets hurt but that's about it, the Sox want no part of him catching.

3.) God exists and he is an Indians fan:)

With another barrage of position player injuries I'm glad that the Sox position players didn't make the game. Those guys need some rest to heal up.

Yes. Collins definitely isn't a great framer but one knee guys also need good command from their pitchers because otherwise you need to jerk the glove around because you can't do a subtle shift as well as with a traditional stance. Maybe part of that was also Sox pitchers struggling with command.

Sox starters have struggled a bit recently. I wonder if especially cease and giolito are affected a bit more than other pitchers. I'm surprised Lynn is still doing so well as he kinda is a high spin FB guy.

I have listened to a podcast where a pitcher talked about this. Really many pitchers hate the shift and also creative outfield positioning because those alignments allow hits on some weak hit balls. They also take away some strongly hit balls and in the end they are a net positive but for a pitcher not getting rewarded for getting a weak dribbler off the end of the bat is much harder to accept than giving up a hit on a rocket. That is just because the reward system they have learned their whole career is a little out of whack: you expect to get outs on weakly hit balls and get hit on hard hit balls. But if a rocket to the 4 hole gets caught but a dribble down the third base line gets a hit that is a little out of whack. With OF positioning it is the same, you remember the times it backfires than when it works. Overall the numbers are in favor of the shift but the psychology of it is tough for the pitcher

Grandal has good modern Stat numbers due to the framing and walks but the casual fan who doesn't know that stuff is probably repelled by the sub mendoza line average.

Obviously the injuries are very bad but I think a good thing is that the bench guys are getting so many at bats. When eloy and Robert make it back that could mean they have a very good bench when needed as those guys like get like 400 at bats this year which could help them down the stretch and in the playoffs to get key hits.