Dominikk85

The giants are totally in rebuild mode. They were decent but with a roster of 30 year old stopgaps except for bart, and the prospects like bishop, Luciamo, ramos and bailey are still in the minors. Yas is 30 next year and if the sox offer Rutherford, sheets and maybe a lotto ticket pitching prospect the giants might want to do it.

You mixed that up. Rotator cuff is shoulder while TJ is elbow

Of course he can play RF, I can play ST too:). I think Vaughn has the instincts to not embarrass himself in RF but longenhagen says he is a 30 grade runner which is a slow even for a 1b, I.e he likely is slower than Jose and maybe even EE. I think what he could do is play 5 or 6 games a year in RF but you don't want to play him 80 plus games in the OF, especially with eloy in the OF.

Yeah, all year long people said Ricky is not pulling guys fast enough and pitching bad guys (which of course is related to only having 2 starters) and then he does it and brings one of the best relievers and people don't like it either. Had dunning given up a 3 run homer everyone would have blown up. Ricky made mistakes but this game he did everything right: -pulled dunning before he could blow up -followed with a dominant reliever -brought in rodon with bases empty and two out which is the perfect spot as he doesn't have to complete 3 if he makes an out and also doesn't give up immediate runs if he gets hit -pitched all the good relievers Really just a ton of things went wrong as crochet got hurt and lots of usually good guys didn't get it done. The Padres actually used the same strategy and won a shutout.

Yeah no way Jerry takes on the almost 300 mil that are still left on Harper's contract. The sox will spend more but not THAT much more.

Sure but I don't think you can blame a team for what happens 20 years after the draft.

Actually he probably was an above average draft. He was bad but he was a 25th rounder and 95% or so of 25th rounders never make the majors at all.

The game has passend by him. Today you don't want flamboyant managers but guys who keep the players happy and do what the analytics people tell them. Even if people don't believe it ricky likely mostly does what the front office wants

Firing ricky would be risky for Hahn too. Firing a manager is a protective move for a gm that takes the heat of him because it blames somebody else but you can only do that once or twice before you are the one getting canned. That means this is an arrow you don't want to waste prematurely. As I said the sox won games on a 94-95 game pace and there is much more room to get worse than to get better. So let's say hahn fires ricky and hires a different manager who does a good job but then 1 or 2 injuries , one or two underperformers and the sox win 83 games and miss the playoffs and all of a sudden Hahn is on the hot seat. Going by process, not results sounds great in theory but nobody does it because in reality you are measured by results and much can happen out of your control. Thus for Hahn's job security it is much smarter to wait before the sox actually struggle (not two weeks which is nothing but two months plus) to fire ricky so the struggle is on ricky and not on hahn.

I think the ligament never really snaps at once. Of course at some point it will snap but it always was weakened before, an uncompromised UCL won't tear. One theory with the forearm strains that sometimes occur before tj is the ligament kinda gets stretched out or loosened a little and then forearm muscles try to do the job of the ligament and stabilize the elbow which can lead to overload of those muscles when throwing and subsequently muscle strains. Not sure if that is really true though and even if it is not every strain must be related to an ucl problem. Often forearm strains occur before ucl injuries but sometimes they are just forearm strains and the elbow is ok after a couple weeks of rest.

Yeah they have been pretty good with relievers. With Starters they weren't that bad either as dunning, cease, kopech and reylo at least reach the majors. Some big failures too but maybe the problem is more the development at the mlb level where they didn't make that last step or got hurt.

Some positions should get a big upgrade but obviously there also will be some regressions. Catcher: about the same. McCann gone but grandal could become a tiny bit better 1b: some regression, Jose is 34 next year expect more a 120-130 wRC+ than a 160. But still a good spot 2b: about the same, full year of Nick but leury and mendick were great in the beginning, could be again around a 110-115 wrc+ Ss: very slight regression (babip) but also think Tim could take another step forward and produce like a 130 3b: should be much better with a healthy yoan I expect a 120-130 wrc+ Lf: about the same if eloy stays healthy Cf: should be better,I don't expect a first half Robert but second half is not real either and bottom line should be better than 101. Expect more 115-120 range maybe more Rf: should be a big upgrade whoever that it. Can't be like a 75 wrc+ again and should be at least a 105 or so DH: big upgrade as EE is gone and Vaughn could produce a 115-120 wrc+ and whoever does the first month for Vaughns service time won't be that bad either. 1 starter: about the same, maybe a tiny bit of regression 2 starter: keuchel will regress some, expect more a mid to high 3s era but he is still solid 3-5 starter: should be better, not necessarily the ERA but the volume, as you will get guys who can actually go more than 4. Pen: there will be regression unless the sox make some moves. I think heuer and bummer are good but after them there are question marks that need to be addressed. Colome is gone (and won't be that good) and crochet might be out with injury or in the minors. Sox need to get one or two guys to maintain the level.

If you bring in Bauer he essentially becomes the pitching coach too:)

Yeah, he might be willing to stay if you offer him to play 50% of the time but grandal is an elite catcher on both sides of the ball and you want him to play 120+ games and it makes no sense for McCann to stay for 40 games and a few at DH. Don't forget DH could be pretty crowded next year, Vaughn will be up and eloy might also occasionally get a day or two at DH when he is a little banged up. McCann isn't young either and that is the last chance for him to get a starting job somewhere. Obviously the sox will lose some production of catcher next year but if grandal plays 125 games it is ok to have an offensive hole at catcher for 35 games or a defensive one if you use Collins.

I think everyone should get a chance in spring, even reylo and rodon (if he is not non tendered) but they really need to show something there (command, velo, strikeouts) to get a spot.

The team is on a good way but there were still too many holes. The acquisitions to fill RF and DH did not work and cease and reylo did not take the step forward that could be hoped for plus the kopech situation. The team did slightly overperform and some regression could come next year (anderson babip, jose will be good but not that good at age 34 and Keuchel got a little lucky too, maybe some relievers like colome decline a bit too) but on the other hand the team will add Vaughn, maybe a competent RF and a starter plus hopefully kopech coming back which will improve the team. I would be very happy if they replicate this year's win pace of 94-95 wins next year.

The sox recently invested into analytics on the hitting side by signing guys like Johanson and lisle but I think the pitching development was really subpar. The sox had lots of pitching prospects in the top100 the last 4 years and a lot of them busted or got hurt and the Sox play 2020 with only 2 reliable starters. Guys like Rey lo, cease did not really develope and others like fulmer and Hansen failed completely. Even giolito did stagnate before he made a change on his own. What needs to happen that the sox pitching development gets up to speed? Should they hire a driveline guy and give him full control?

The biggest issue except for everyone walking guys was crochet getting hurt. The sox would have needed two innings out of crochet. Dunning struggled the last weeks already and thus his leash was always going to be short. That being said I would have preferred crochet opening for dunning but I can also understand the thinking of hoping for 2-3 innings out of dunning.

Hamels is 36 and only pitched 3 innings this year due to a shoulder injury. He was a fantastic pitcher and still pretty good 2019 but I'm scared of a 36 year old with a shoulder injury. As a cheap reclamation project sure but not as a guy you rely on.

I agree. He truly seems to be an elite athlete when he is fit and you could dream of a young Yoenis cespedes with him. Hit tool probably needs work to get there but you are not getting a guy with that power, arm and speed often. A question is of course if he can hold that weight or whether he will gain it again.

Oh yeah I see. That should be easier to correct than a lack of spin rate though. Not sure how far the sox are with pitch design though.

No way as I said in the other thread, he won games at a 94 win clip with 2 and a half starting pitchers and narrowly lost a best of 3 series against the 2 seed. People say "because of jerry" but there is simply no precedent in baseball history that a manager coming off a losing season has such a successful season and gets fired. That has simply never happened white sox or any other team. He is back 100%. Of course he did make a couple mistakes but bottom line his team still performed much better than even the most optimistic projection said.

Cease FB spin rate is elite at 2500 (95th percentile), he just has no idea where it is going.

That sucks. Hopefully he can avoid TJ. It sounds bad but I would try conservative treatment first so you can keep him on the roster and send him down instead of 15 months of service time getting lost on the DL.

Really neither has done enough for that. That doesn't mean they can't ever but they need to earn it by tearing up the minors first. The sox aren't in a position anymore were anyone who does halfway decent in the minors eventually gets called up, at this point prospects need to earn it because there aren't as many free spots anymore.