Dominikk85

Double

I'm not at all worried about Vaughn long term and even short term but I don't quite understand why he was brought up on opening day. He murdered the first two weeks of spring but the last two weeks when pitchers noticed that the better pitch him away he was just OK and didn't do that much damage and strikeouts increased too. That is no knock on him, he barely has any high minors experience and only had simulated at bats last year but the way yermin and collins had been hitting they could have easily taken that extra year of control. I think he will adjust this year already and be OK but I'm not sure if he is already dominant enough to absolutely need him in the lineup. Maybe if yermin keeps hitting and he has not turned it around by end of April send him down a month to triple A to get the extra year. I still think he will be OK and get his first hit soon but I think currently his power is mostly on the inside of the plate and he is a bit challenged away. In college and the minors he could just wait for his pitch but in mlb pitchers can throw away consistently and I think until he improves that he is more of a. 275 with 20 Homers guy who occasionally destroys a mistake. But if he improves on driving the outside pitch too he can be really dangerous and be a 30+ Homer hitter.

What are you smoking, that was a great at bat, took several balls below the zone and then ripped a line drive at someone.

I understand the argument but how often does a catcher have to be taken out of a game due to injury reasons? 2 times a year, maybe 3? I wouldn't care about losing the DH for a couple innings of 2 or 3 games a year if that much, that risk imo doesn't warrant carrying a third catcher.

Heaney has pretty good strikeout to Walk ratios (last year 21st in K-bb%), he just gives up nukes. Even this game he struck out 4 in 3 innings which is good but giving up a granny doesn't help.

Yeah a switch hitter doesn't have to be equally good off both sides as most lefty hitters hit terrible against LHP. He just has to be OK against lefties.

Come on people, way too early to write off the offense after 2 innings. Heaney is a good strikeout pitcher but he is susceptible to the long ball and the Sox will get to him. Congrats to yermin on his first hit.

Not the prettiest dp but got the job done:)

Yep. I'm glad Vaughn is in the lineup today but leury should play against left handed pitchers and not righties. Leury hits a lot better against LHP and it would have made much more sense to play Vaughn in left against RHP and collins DH and against LHP you play leury in left and DH Vaughn. But I'm happy Mercedes is getting a start today, he has really earned it.

Not a great start but at least the twins and Indians lost too so no ground is lost. I hope leury doesn't starts again against righty pitchers. Just risk Vaughn in left until he really blows it. Collins didn't get a hit but he didn't strike out again and as long he is keeping that K rate under 25% I think you can pencil him in for 20 Homers and 80 walks if he gets 500 plate appearances. That is not monster production from DH but I still think he is a good platoon DH against lefties but you need to find a way to get Vaughn into the lineup. Collins shouldn't play instead of Vaughn even against righty pitchers.

I can understand larussa not wanting vaughn to play his first MLB game in left field and since it is a righty pitcher and collins did very well in spring DHing him makes sense too. Not sure why leury is batting 6th though, maybe it is to get the L R alternation?

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?