Dominikk85

I would say whoever has the best last 2-3 starts. Dunning was excellent but he also had a very easy schedule only facing Pittsburg, KC and detroit. Obviously cease faced them a lot too as they are the teams in the division but at least cease had some starts against cleveland and one against the cubs too. So I would like him to beat (or look good at least) at least one good team.

It is not great to trot him out there but currently the sox have no alternative. Rodon is toast too and then you have Keuchel, giolito, cease, dunning and gonzalez/reylo Sure you could do a bullpen game and that might give the sox a better chance to win but the pen already was taxed a lot and needs to be fresh for the post season. Better lose a game than sinking the pen. If the sox didn't want him to pitch this year they would have needed to trade for a starter. But now they simply need to roll with what they have and hope for the best. Next year you might need an upgrade (hopefully kopech is that) but this year those guys are what you have.

His peripherals are worse but they did get better in the last weeks. Since August 15 his xWOBA is. 375 which is better than his actual wOBA in that time frame (.329). He still isn't great but he has been an acceptable DH the last month plus he actually was sitting some games. Just let him share DH with the two catchers till the end of the year and then let him walk.

Vaughn is not going to be traded. Next year mccann and EE are likely gone and then DH is open for him. As for the people wanting to trade him: consider that he is a good prospect but he still is a right handed first baseman. Fangraphs have him ranked 40th as a 55 fv. That means you are mistaken if you believe him and a throw in gets you bieber or buehler, more likely you would get a guy with 2 years of control or more of a mediocre guy and I rather have a 120 wRC+ first baseman the next 7 years (even if that is worth only like 2.5 WAR) rather than getting a mediocre pitcher for him and a throw in. If you really want a young super ace we are talking vaughn AND kopech and that is too much for me. Sure if the indians get a brain stopping and offer you bieber for vaughn and rutherford you do it immediately but that is not going to happen.

Eloy is not slow and he sometimes makes good plays especially when he doesn't have to make a tough route decision. Eloy is bad when it comes to planning routes and also general oversight in the OF (knowing were walls and the CF are) but when he can just go full speed without thinking he is not that bad. In this case the ball was hit straight into the gap so he didn't really have to think much but just took a direct route to cut it off, he basically just went the shortest way. That is no always good because if you miss the ball that way it probably is a triple but in that case it worked perfectly.

Not a good sign of course but I think it is the right decision to skip a start. sox absolutely need a fresh and healthy keuchel in the postseason and better skip one start now and give away a RS game than having a compromised keuchel in the playoffs. Hopefully the rest can resolve that or at least bring it to a manageable level.

I think nick still needs to get used to the level. He is a player who plays the game hard and takes chances. At lower levels being a bit reckless on the bases can be quite successful because the guys then get nervous and make errors. You still want him to do that but tone it down a little because big leaguers can make plays. The rule of thinking is run so that you are safe with a good throw but a perfect throw gets you because if you only run if you are 100% safe you are too passive. Madrigal still needs to find that happy medium. You want to get thrown out by a perfect throw but you don't want to get thrown out by any halfway decent throw.

Yeah, if the sox don't trust collins they can always get a bad hitting good glove guy cheaply on the market. For 40 games a bad stick in the lineup is not that terrible. I rather have Vaughn for 140 games in the lineup than mccann for 40-50.

Yeah, cease is not bad but as a rookie pitcher you can't hope for much more than 5. Maybe in the post season dunning can help out as a multi inning reliever and help the pen that way.

I do understand why RR is not using guys for 2 innings. He would win more games if he did that but the pen is worked hard anyway and 2 inning stints make regeneration harder. I rather occasionally have an inferior reliever getting shelled and losing the game than working the pen aces hard and going into the postseason tired. Ideally you would use a quick hook and use the aces more but the sox only really have two starters who can go deep regularly (giolito and Keuchel) so the pen will be used a ton in the postseason. Winning the division would be great but the sox absolutely need a fresh pen and riding the best pen guys hard would be bad.

Yes. Grandal is a guy who catches 120+ games in a full season. If it was more a 90/70 games split McCann might have stayed but not to catch 40 games.

Vaughn alone doesn't get you a true TOR in his prime with 2+ years of control and a rental is not worth giving him up. Just keep vaughn, get rid of EE next year and maybe sign a pitcher.

You simply keep playing grandal who is an elite hitter and defender and occasionally play mccann. Give grandal some days at DH too. McCann is a free agent after this year and likely will go to a team that offers him a starting job.

Before the season the sox hitting and rotation were seen as promising but the pen was considered a weakness by preseason projections. However the pen really stepped up this year and did rather well but the last 2 weeks the pen did not so well with a 5.1 ERA. Is that a regression that was expected or do you think that some of the guys stepping up are for real and that is not something you are worried about?

I would prefer facing the twins or blue Jays. The twins offense even though it struggled this year can break out but the twins starters are quite beatable. Same is true for the blue Jays. The Rays and indians just have nasty pitching and even though the indians offense is bad the top of their lineup has enough potential to score a couple runs which could be enough. And astros rotation got worse but their offense is a juggernaut and if Verlander is back they still have a great 1-2 punch. Yankees depends on their health. Currently they are kinda beatable but if they get a couple guys back they could all of a sudden be really good again.

The last sentence is an understatement, if they make a run in the playoffs ricky is back 100%. It think for ricky to get fired it would take a very bad last two weeks (like sub .400) AND and embarrassing sweep in the first round. I think even if they play .500 the last two weeks and then lose a close match in the first round most likely ricky is back. The real test for ricky is 2021 when there is a real playoff race again. I feel if the sox miss the 2021 playoffs ricky is gone.

I think the issue is not so much straight up 1Bs but guys who project either at 1b or DH. Sheets and vaughn were 1Bs but collins and burger also were bat first guys who had a decent chance to end up at 1b/DH. I'm not saying that is bad but the sox system is lacking athletes who can play all around the diamond and provide value on both sides of the ball. You can always put a Shortstop at third but you can't put a fringy 3B/1b corner type at short and even 3b is not guaranteed. I do understand the thinking though as the sox hitting development wasnt very advanced so advanced college bats would need less refinement and are less of a risk. Recently the sox invested into more modern player development but at the time taking guys who don't need much work was not a bad idea.

His K rate is up but his hard hit rate is 37% and his barrel rate per PA is 9.9 which is 4th on the sox only behind jose eloy and robert and ahead of tim, grandal and moncada, that is pretty solid. His launch angle isn't changed much either. Weak contact is up but hard contact is pretty good and weak and medium contact really has the same outcome. He is declining but still his babip shouldn't be that low.

Since august 15 EE has a 112 wRC+. Average is still low but power and walks have been there. That is not great but ok at DH.

Yeah I get that. But still sucks for him. Also not a fan of the sox not staying in contact with him (and probably other non Schaumburg players). Between the lines sheets seems to be pretty pissed, that interview was almost open criticism of the sox even though he mentioned positive changes.

I don't understand that he wasn't in Schaumburg. He is 24 and really would have needed those live ABs. It is good he does some lifting and hitting in the cage but that is not a proper way of developing an advanced college hitter. That is a lost year for him. Was there no room for him in Schaumburg?

You mean for signing those cheap extensions?

Isaac paredes is an interesting prospect. He is a very good hitter who doesn't strike out much and walks a lot. Isn't a great athlete at third though and doesn't have that much power (13 bombs last year in AAA) but could be a high on base guy who hits 15-20 bombs per year. Not super exciting but an interesting piece. They do lack hitting depth though and they don't really have a strong core yet. They have some interesting hitters at lower levels like adinso Reyes an de la cruz but they are at least 2-3 years away. Really illitch wanting to go all in till the end hurts them now because they waited until everyone was old and overpaid so they couldn't be traded anymore. Sox on the other hand got s huge jumpstart with the controllable pieces they could trade away (sale, Quintana, Eaton but some others too)

I think it is still an advantage to play at home because you don't have to travel, can sleep at home and so on. Still not the same as with fans of course. Some studies suggest that the biggest factor is umpires because unconsciously the are afraid to make close calls against the home team and getting booed

Obviously the trade was a huge mistake but was there any outlet in the industry who saw that trade as a big mistake at the time? Baseball America didn't have tatis in their top30 j2 guys of 2015 and obviously he wasn't even close to any top100 lists yet. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.baseballamerica.com/stories/scouting-reports-for-2015s-top-30-international-prospects-for-july-2/%3famphtml Mlb had him ranked 30th http://m.mlb.com/prospects/2015?list=int Kiley McDaniel didn't mention him at all https://blogs.fangraphs.com/scouting-the-top-2015-july-2nd-prospects/ I haven't seen a single article after the trade before 2016 saying he is a huge prospect. The worst argument I heard was you can't trade away potential before you know it. That is actually terrible advice because it means you will always sell low.