Dominikk85

Wow slow guy steal.

Yeah it is essentially young privileged white people from wealthy families who can afford working in baseball as a hobby for 3-4 years after graduating from ivy league college because their dad paid the college fees and they don't have a family to feed yet. But after a couple years when they get married with kids they will switch to a better paying regular industry job.

TLR looks a bit better recently. Pitching management is better as he was leaving guys too long out there early. I wonder if he got a talk by the FO or Katz gets more involved into that (or both). Lineups are generally decent too (except for frequently batting bad guys second) and lamb is hardly playing but then again part of this is due to injury. At least he now is fully sold on Vaughn whom he was squeezing a little early on as Vaughn has played like every game the last 7 or so. I think especially the Engel injury was good for Vaughn as he was able to get in a rhythm, I'm pretty sure without the Engel setback Vaughn would have been in and out a couple more times and then been sent down for 4-6 weeks before being up for good. Wouldn't have been a terrible outcome either as Sox would have gotten an extra year but like it is now it is ideal of course. Abreu, Mercedes, Robert (when healthy again) , Vaughn, madrigal, moncada grandal will probably play almost every day and the other two spots will probably rotated between mendick, Hamilton, Eaton and leury.

The Royals had a hot start but they are just not very good.

Katz ruined him:). Just kidding but I feel like his compact arm motion (which is good and helped him) became even more compact and now looks a little robotic Maybe I'm seeing that wrong but to me it looks even more compact 21 2020 Not quite sure but maybe he overdid it with the compact motion

That was a pretty late call on strike three, it was down the middle but still strange it took so long almost like he forgot it.

He was looking to the Base to throw to before it was fully in the glove.

Vaughn is so good on pitches up and in, those are not easy to turn on

Gave up just rockets, even Billy hit a rope off him:)

I wonder if Giolito should skip a start, take a couple days off to get his head right and then do some extra work with Katz.

Gio gives up so many ropes in the last games, even if it is out it is often a shot to the outfield.

Not really, he totally didn't see Abreu and is out of the game too. Dozier was out even worse than Jose, I doubt he will play the next two days. If he was intentionally hitting him he wouldn't have done it with his head

Is there no rule how long such a sliding glove can be:)?

Recently the pen has been a little better but with foster (7.5 era), Marshall (7.4), heuer (5.1) struggling this is a lot of load shifted to bummer, crochet, ruiz and hendricks who could be burnt out if that continues. Now TLR has not taxed his pen a lot (dead last in AL reliever innings) and instead pushed starters more but recently he started to dial down that a little as some starters were left in too long and he pulled the guys more conservatively (Still not super modern early pulling but more 90-100 pitches instead of 110+) which I think is good but if the Sox don't have more reliable releivers could wear the pen down especially since they will have a dense summer schedule after all the off days and that can be tough on the pen. The good thing is that the sox have a great multi inning arm in kopech which has taken a lot of load of the pen, however if there is an injury and kopech has to start that will put extra pressure on the pen again. For that reason first I would prefer kopech to stay in that role a little to continue to have that "buffer" for the pen and I also think the sox need some help. Do you see anyone in the minors who could help by middle of the season? Or do the sox need external help?

Yeah DFAing him makes sense but really at this moment the sox don't have anybody to replace him so you can just as well keep him in the bench and play him once a week. Once Engel or anyone else of the injured guys comes back he probably is gone.

Lamb should not be on the roster but he is a good defender. Maybe he had a bad day but statistically he is pretty solid at first. Still he shouldn't be on the roster, the sox have enough 1b/dh types on that roster

That looked like a cross up:)

He is trolling you

When Abreu is gone I think Vaughn will shift to first.

Yeah, Robert and Eloy are big time power hitters and instead low power guys like madrigal, Leury and mendick are in the lineup (madrigal would be anyway but not the other two). That means currently the sox basically have to find other ways to score, when eloy and Robert are back and Vaughn finds his power stroke (maybe already has after yesterday) the offense will look different.

People underate eloy's elite power due to his missed games. Eloy has hit 45 homers in 730 career PAs which is a 41 Homer pace over 162. It is true that he could probably even more if he pulled the ball more but even like he is he is an annual 40 bomb guy when healthy. Robert has great power too but I see him more as a 30 Homer guy. If Eloy pulled the ball a little more he could hit 50, nobody else in the sox org has that much power potential.

I said they need someone before the season but with rodon and cease emerging and kopech coming back I don't see them needing a starter this year unless there is an injury. Gio, Lynn, cease, rodon, keuchel and kopech should be enough to get through the season. And if someone gets hurt they still can make a trade

The sox also have lost their best power hitter (Eloy) and Abreu is not really in great Form. Vaughn might not have quite the plus power some thought but he certainly isn't a 100 ISO guy like he was so far. So if you get a 20 Homer pace of Vaughn, a 30 Homer pace by Abreu and a 35 homer pace by Eloy when he is back in the second half that team will look better in the power department even if it is a little less than last year.

Even if it is still pointless and early here is another update on the torkelson Vaughn comparison: Tork has struck out 11 times in his first 24 PAs in high A ball. Not saying bust yet but like in spring it looks like he is going to have a serious contact problem. He also walks a lot and will have power but he might be more of an Adam dunn type who hits 240 with solid obp and 35 homers and not a superstar hitter like many expected him to be. Vaughn meanwhile is now doing quite good. Still having a hole on pitches outside but it got better and he went the other way a few times. His K rate for the season is in the high 20s but the last two weeks it was only like 18% which I also expect going forward. He is hitting the ball very hard Consistently but quite a few get caught at the warning Track which should change with warmer weather. You can see that he isn't a monster raw power guy for a first baseman but his. 100 ISO certainly got unlucky (. 422 xSLG vs 362 SLG) and I think the way he barrels the ball he will be a 270-280 hitter with 25-30 homers and good Obp.

There is some progress in his power. 0.78 ISO is still very low but more than doubled compared to last year. If he can increase that to like. 120 it would be nice.