Dominikk85

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.

I think they need to do a trade (or sign puig). Vaughn can play left once a week maybe but definitely not every day. And I wouldn't want leury or Engel play almost every day especially since we don't know how much Eaton has left in him.

Grandal is one of the best defensive catchers of the league https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=c&stats=fld&lg=all&qual=70&type=1&season=2020&month=0&season1=2020&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&startdate=2020-01-01&enddate=2020-12-31 That's like saying if Mike trout can hit great billy Hamilton can do that too

I wonder if the Sox can tell him to just avoid the wall and just catch the balls that are like in a 30 feet circle around him. Bobby Abreu was known for avoiding the wall and give up on balls that are near the top of the wall and he got a lot of criticism for that but he also was very durable and his bat was in the lineup 150+ games almost every year. Not sure if la Russa is the right guy for that though, he probably doesn't appreciate players not trying everything to make a play as he is pretty old school.

This. The Sox absolutely have no outfield depth in both majors and minors (they had good depth there but essentially it evaporated with Rutherford, Adolfo, basabe, Gonzalez, walker all underperforming expectations). Essentially they have Robert, Eloy and that's it and Robert is not even a fully proven commodity. Maybe that changes in 2 years with the Cubans but really in the next two years they need Eloy there unless they can make a big trade or signing. The Sox don't need a DH, they need an outfielder. What they could do is of course trading either Eloy or Vaughn for a young all star outfielder. Losing either would hurt but if you get an under 26yo all star with 3-4 years of control it might be worth it. Not many of those around who fullfill those criteria (under 27, good enough to produce 3+ war and 3+ years of control)

Abreu has no trade value though due to his contract if you look at surplus value so you would basically dump him (you probably get a 45 and a 40 fv but that's nothing). You wouldn't want to trade Vaughn either so Eloy has to stay at DH until abreu's contract is over.

Eloy is a much better athlete than vaughn. He is a bad outfielder but his sprint speed is actually above average if you look at statcast.

But we are talking 35m in arb plus 30m= 75m vs 44 guaranteed. That is quite a difference, especially for a guy who had like an 8m signing bonus.

How though? If you do it one of Vaughn or Jose have to go. I think Eloy needs to stay at lf until Jose's contract is over.

If he is an elite player 1 year can cost him 25-30 mil.

Collins (and yermin too) hasn't played much the last days. I wonder if this Indicates lucroy is getting the backup job. Would be a shame the way collins and yermin have been hitting but lucroy has hit decently too this spring (900 ops albwit with a sub 100 iso and more babip driven) and obviously is a better defender even though collins looks improved.

I could understand Vaughn not signing an extension. Yeah it means he won't break camp but really if he signs an extension that signs him through age 31 or so while that offers financial security it also means hitting the FA market at a quite unfavorable age for a 1b man plus first basemen tend to be payed well in arbitration as this is still looking at old school stats like BA, Homers and RBIs. Also Vaughn got a pretty big bonus so he can bet on himself. Really for him an extension to make sense it needs to be a lot of money. He probably can make like 40m before free agency if he is a good as advertised so taking like 60m and delaying his free agency into his 30s doesn't make much sense. Sure if the sox offer him like 90m today he probably has to take it but I don't believe they will do that.

I think the "arm swing is too long" isn't really a fix all for everyone. Plenty of hall of fame pitchers with great command have long arm swings. And plenty of short arm swing guys have bad command. For SOME guys shortening up the arm swing can simplify things and improve command but it isn't really an absolute. Lopez tried to shorten up his arm swing too and it hasn't worked so far. I'm not against starting the arm at 90 degrees instead of going to the classic "T" position before you cock the arm but it is not a magic bullet. Still glad Giolito made those changes as it seems to be exactly the right thing for him but it doesn't have to be for everyone. Regarding cease I do think he can be very good but I wouldn't overrated ST especially since his good results came with 5 K and 3 bb in 6 innings which is not a great k/bb rate.

They do this exaggerated drop the glove to the ground and rip it up catching the ball and it looks outrageous but they are successful with that, Contreras especially has really improved his framing stats.

Williams has tools but he strikes out a lot while not walking much.

Does the good performance by collins and yermin in spring increase the odds of Vaughn signing an extension? Without them fan pressure to bring up Vaughn would be very high but with them performing I think most fans and media would be OK with Vaughn being down a couple weeks so the front office has a good leverage to say if you want to be up at opening day sign this extension.