Dominikk85

Vaughn actually should play LF against RHP. Leury is better against LHP (like Engel) so it makes sense to play him against LHP because likely his defense is better and Vaughn should be decent against RHP too. And against RHP you play Vaughn in LF to get collins into the lineup. So lefty pitcher vaughn+leury at DH and LF and righty pitcher Collins+vaughn Regarding the throwing Vaughn doesn't have a terrible arm but he is not trained to run a "banana route" and use a crow hop. Maybe he can learn that but it also means taking some extra steps which he might not have the speed to do so (he might use a more direct route to get to more balls which means he doesn't have as much momentum as when he runs an arc towards home plate.

That is right, Ks due to mechanical issues or chasing balls are not great either but not as bad as a guy with a good swing missing fastballs in the zone due to lack of batspeed or hand eye coordination

Kendall also hit 15 bombs his final college year. Definitely hard pass on a guy striking out 30% in college. I have seen an article that usually you can add about 5-10 percentage points to power conference D1 hitters to get their pro K rate, I. E above 20% college K rate is alarming.

Carry matters but there are also guys with good fastballs without great carry (cutters, sinkers). They are not as common as 10 years ago but there are still successful pitchers like that.

If yermin is on the roster you definitely have to DH him against LHP, you are not carrying him as a third catcher but as a DH/emergency catcher. That would mean that they are probably serious about trying Vaughn in LF. Once Engel comes back l think yermin gets send down, yermin is a better hitter than Engel but Engel is acceptable against LHP and provides a huge defensive upgrade over Vaughn in left.

I think the Sox are still the second best team in the AL behind the Yankees after the Eloy injury. Overall the AL is pretty mediocre at this point, there is really no team without a weakness like the dodgers or to a bit lesser extend Padres, each team has some warts (twins and blue jays starting pitching, Sox SP and outfield depth, Yankees, angels and astros SP depth too).

In his first spring he did pretty well hitting. 279/. 375/459 with 2 Homers which is about an 18 Homer full season pace with 20% k and 11% bb and an. 830 ops Obviously that is a small sample but would you take that for his first season? I would take 280 with a 370 obp and 20 Homers his first year but a bit more power would obviously be nice.

Yes, when Engel is back you don't need him anymore. I think he is a stopgap to survive the Vaughn in LF adventure

Not a fan of Hamilton making the team as wasting a roster spot in this age of huge bullpens for a pinch runner/defensive replacement who can't hit doesn't make much sense but as long Vaughn is playing left basically every time the Sox lead after 6 or 7 he will get pulled from the game and Defensively replaced. Ideally Vaughn gets on base in the 7th, then gets pinch run for and then Hamilton stays in the game for defense. If the Sox had a more capable defensive left fielder carrying Hamilton would make no sense of course as there wouldn't be enough opportunities to create value for him.

Losing Eloy hurts but I think that maybe costs the team like 2.5 wins or so. With eloy: LF:Eloy: 3 war, DH:Vaughn: 2 war= 5 Without Eloy LF: Vaughn 1.5 war (defense hurts him more than DH penalty most likely), DH: collins/yermin: 1 war=2.5 Sox should still be able to at least get s WC spot if not win the division with 2.5 wins less, the twins and Indians will have injuries too.

Eloy is a huge loss but if the Vaughn thing works somewhat and collins hits at DH the lineup still is very strong. Obviously the experiment could also fail because Vaughn is unplayable in left and the Sox are forced to play Williams or leury there and then offense would take a very big hit.

I think he is making up his mind before the pitch is released. Imo that is an issue. He is aware he needs to be more patient and he tries to anticipate ball or strike. This causes him to take meatballs and take late swings on fastballs down the pipe. My take is for now he should be MORE agressive even though it sounds counter intuitive because a guy with his batspeed shouldn't take late and tardy swings on fastballs. Don't mess with his mind by trying to make him "patient", he needs to be aggressive and all over the fastball. The cubs failed with the same with baez and almost ruined him by teaching patience. He then was much better when he was let loose and stopped worrying about chasing and pitch counts. You still need to work on pitch recognition with free swingers bug not artificial patience, you always want to be in swing mode and stop when it is not a strike. For example there is a tool where you throw through a rim and the player learns to project the ball out of the hand better.

Do you know whether TJ has a temporary effect on spin rate/movement too? I know it affects command but maybe the movement takes time to come back too:)

Is that guy even an insider? Or just speculating 100 times and than celebrating when he gets one right?

The development of the outfielders outside of Eloy and Robert certainly has been a disappointment. 2-3 years ago there was nice depth with Adolfo, basabe, Rutherford, Gonzalez and obviously Robert and Eloy but only the two made it. I would have hoped at least one had stepped up. Sox development of hitters outside the top guys hasn't been so great. The top guys developed nicely but among those 40 to 45 FV guys none really outperformed expectations at the plate with the exception of yermin who unfortunately is a DH.

I think the platoon at DH should be Vaughn and collins. Against RHP: Collins DH and Vaughn LF Against LHP: Vaughn DH and whoever RHB/switch batter in LF (maybe leury and later Engel) Collins has improved but is still better used against RHP and thus against LHP you get Vaughns glove out of the Of.

He is suffering from social anxiety and maybe even a mild form of autism (not confirmed but there are rumors). Some of the comments in the Twitter thread were pretty disgusting making fun of his anxiety and saying he shouldn't complain because he made 300 mil

Insane pitch

They are afraid to hit to him:)

Good thing with Vaughn is he will arrive at the wall 2 seconds after the wall so likely he won't get hurt:). Regarding vaughns hitting he has a quite solid spring considering his pro experience but he seems a bit vulnerable to offspeed on the outer half. He is very good on hard stuff in but might still need some work on that soft stuff. But I'm sure he will make that adjuatment

If the Sox are willing to take on some salary there are probably some decent trade options that don't cost a haul.

You are losing not as many runs Defensively and on the other days you can put the other LF guys in favorable matchups. Like when Engel is ready you put him inm against lefties, maybe once a week williams against righties and Vaughn the rest of the time against righties. That way you minimize Vaughns negative defensive impact and you also minimize the negative offensive impact of the other guys.

I'm curious how the Vaughn thing works. I still don't think he can play there every day but if he can play there like 2-3 times a week it would help the offense.

Apparently the Yankees are shipping tauchman. He had a down year last season but was very good in 2019 and probably wouldn't cost much.

How about trading for yastremski from the giants? Vaughn, madrigal and crochet should be off limits but they might still get it done without losing any of the top guys.