Dominikk85

Yermin and Vaughn have looked quite good so far in spring but are you concerned about the spring showing of some of the invited non mlb ready prospects? Burger, sheets, Adolfo, Gonzalez and Rutherford have not done very well so far. Granted those are not super important prospects for the Sox as the core is pretty much set and the future probably hinges more on the new Cuban hitters and the young pitchers than on those older second tier hitters but nonetheless it would be nice if one or two of them could step up. Obviously it is also only about 10 PAs or so for each so stats don't really Say much at that point. As I have not seen much spring training does anyone of them look better than their stats and has maybe taken a step forward?

There definitely is a link but not a strong one. The chance for a kid or brother of an MLB player to make MLB is a lot higher than for the general population but it is still not very high. The performance "window" is just super small so that just very few players have the genetic ability. But yes if you compare the athletic talent of The sons of an MLB player and let's say a random math teacher than most likely the son of the MLB player is more gifted. But pro players are so good that even a quad A player is like 99.9th percentile of athletic ability. In short: another brother of Tatis is much more likely to become a pro player than your or my kid but you can't predict whether he becomes Fernando Tatis or Gordon Beckham. Also apart from the genetic component a son of an MLB player like Tatis of course is more likely to learn baseball early and gets good instruction which helps their chance too. Still most sons of MLB players don't make MLB but obviously sons of random people make MLB even more rarely.

Mauer was an excellent defender before he got those concussion issues that ruined his career. Don't think that can be compared to Collins.

I think rodon will get the first 2 or 3 starts but if he sucks or gets hurt there will be a pretty quick hook and Lopez takes over.

I think this team has to be a chance to be the best team since at least the late 1910s. The 2005 team was good but this team has a much better offense (only plus hitters 05 where konerko and dye if you don't count the 37 games of Thomas) and while the pitching 05 was really good I think they got very lucky as those pitchers weren't truly at that level. But they got it done so until the Sox win again they have that.

I think he probably can play third in a way young miggy Cabrera did, I. E you can put him there occasionally and he fields balls directly at him and throw them to first. I don't think he is a capable full time third baseman by any stretch, that probably is more of an experiment

He will probably catch like 30 games, la Russa played molina 130+ games at catcher and will do so with grandal

I think la Russa will play grandal a ton. Molina also caught a lot of games every year with la Russa (often around 130+). This could mean lucroy gets a shot because for 30 games catcher offense doesn't really matter. If he played a more even split (say 110/50 or even 100/60) then offense of the backup catcher would matter a lot more because you don't want an offensive black hole in one third of your games. So it all depends on how much he wants to use grandal. I'm sure he wants to use him a lot but maybe the FO tells him to give grandal a few more days at DH to rest his legs and then offense of the backup catcher could matter a little more.

Doesn't mean much but spencer torkelson so far is hitless in 11 PAs with 3 walks and 5 Ks. Not quite comparable to Vaughn who is a year older and least had a season in A ball and a full alternate site season but so far Vaughn looks better than torkelson. Tork still has more raw power potential but Vaughn could have a better hit tool, he struck out less in college too (75k, 123 bb vs 104 Ks and 110 bb in about 100 less PAs for Tork).

There are also scouts who don't love Leiters big drop slow curve. That works in amateur ball but scouts think that pro hitters will see that loop out of the hand and would prefer a straighter power curve. Giolito had a similar issue, had that big curve which was great in amateur ball but pro hitters would pick it up which is why in pro ball he leaned more on the slider and now works on a less bendy curve that is straighter out of the hand.

Yeah I think he is really good. Some people hold size against Leiter (listed at 6"1 but many say he is more like 6"0 at best) and rocker has more of a classic ace starter body but if he is really good I don't care about that.

The delayed Milb start will obviously have no implications on getting that extra year because sitting around for two weeks won't hurt his development. However it could have an effect on keeping him down until super 2 deadline because with no minor leagues in until the second week of May keeping him down that long wouldn't be great.

It depends on how his plate discipline developes. He doesn't have to be Carlos Santana or Joey votto at the plate but over 40% chase rate is not going to cut it. If he can maybe lower that to like 32-33% he could be a real superstar. It was his first year so there definitely should be some room for growth. Don't get me wrong, Even with a high chase rate he can have 5 war seasons if he has some babip luck but to be a consistent performer he needs to tighten up that a little.

It's not really an issue, you figure that out when it's time. Maybe one gets injured or underperforms. Maybe Jose declines finally. Usually that stuff figures itself out, having too many good guys rarely is an issue.

BTW his low launch angle and pull rate might actually be a good thing for him. Generally pulling more and higher launch angle increases performance but they are also negatively correlated with Babip, I. E high pull rate and high launch angle guys often have low BABIPs (prime example of this is Jose Bautista who was the ultimate fly ball pull guy). So if Eloy can hit 40 bombs like this he might actually be better off to hit like this and gain the higher babip because he doesn't need any more power and if he loses some physical steam later in his career he still has it in his back pocket to pull the ball more to keep up his power.

BTW even if it is unlikely I think if yermin continues to rake like this they should put him at DH for two weeks until Vaughn is "ready". I don't think yermin is the second coming of miggy Cabrera and his hitting might be worse in the majors but he has nothing but hit so far and I think at least he wouldn't be terrible. He also has more than earned his shot. So why not bring him up, see what you got for 2 or 3 weeks and then trade him when Vaughn comes up?

Not much but generally batting left is a slight advantage due to the platoon situation plus sometimes people bat worse from their non natural side so there really is no reason to bat like this while a natural righty batting left gains the platoon advantage. It worked for Rickey Henderson though:) but generally it is not something that is recommended and thus it is very rare.

Eloy simply has to make two more years in the Of. Abreu is a free agent after 2022 and while he has been good he will be like 37 or so in 2023 and I think at that point Vaughn takes over first and Eloy goes to the Of. Defensively that is not ideal and it is some injury risk but having those 3 in the lineup produces so many runs that you can live with some runs lost in the field.

Batted ball quality is definitely already off the charts and the scary thing is that there is more in the tank with a little higher launch angle and pull rate. If he is a 40 Homer guy like this a bit of optimization could make him a 50 plus bomb guy. On the flip side his plate discipline of course still is below average in both walks and strikeout department. Would be good if he improved that but even if not his batted ball quality is good enough to compensate.

There was a lot what went wrong for Bryant though. It is probably even better for him now to be a FA later but it took injury, a bad year and the cubs faltering to make it work that way. An additional year can make a big difference as you are forced to make a decision a year later. 7 So let's assume that it is Vaughns last year and the Sox have about one year in the window left. What are you doing then? You know you have to take a step back as several players are leaving so do you offer Vaughn a 7 year contract that could haunt you or do you let him walk and hurt the last year of the window. The Nats kinda had that decision with harper before 2019. They were nearing the end of the window and didn't want to commit 10 years to harper but they were not totally Done yet. They would have loved to have harper one more year for 2019. I know it worked out anyway for them but another harper year would have helped. And even if your window is over an Extra year can help as you can trade that player if he has contract left. Yes it could also happen that the white Sox miss the playoffs by one win (or only make the WC and get dropped there) due to the 14 days of Vaughn and that would suck, especially if you never win a WS after that but chances are it won't move the needle too much.

Vaughn definitely looks ready, he doesn't chase and is on time when he gets a fat one like in this Homer. I still think they should keep him down those two weeks, if they can't survive two weeks of Collins or Mercedes at DH they weren't ready anyway. I once did the math and even having a 70 wrc+ guy at DH for two weeks only costs like. 3 war assuming Vaughn is a 3 war player which is optimistic (I would be fine if Vaughn is a 110 wrc+/1.5 war DH his first season). So we are talking trading 0.3 wins for 3 future wins, I. E a net gain of 2.7 wins. Easy choice.

Ganzalez is not great but he also had a. 240 babip last year, he is projected to have an ops that is about 50-60 points higher than leury.

I'm not sure what to think about that. On the positive side this could give the sox an absolute monster pen. Also this doesn't completely rule out them becoming starters later but it probably isn't an ideal way to develope. But for 21 it definitely should make the team better.

Tigers top prospect spencer torkelson will miss the start of spring training because he cut his finger in a kitchen accident.

I agree. It should bei different for college, HS or international players though. Make it 10 years for international, 9 years for HS and 7 for college or so. That would incentive teams to develope players quicker.