Dominikk85

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.

Will the new owner spend as much though? Mike Ilitch was an old man who was willing to lose money because he wanted to win a WS before he died (did not quite work as they lost two WS in his last 10 years). Apparently his son chris who runs it now is not willing to spend as much money as Detroit is more of a mid size market and after the downfall of industry not super affluent either. The tigers are not the As or marlins but I doubt they will spend 180+ M like they did in the last years under Mike Illitch.

Royals are super stupid. They got good depth in their system due to all the comp picks they got but they would have gotten much more if they had traded Hosmer, cain, moustakas and also Perez and merrifield instead of just cashing in comp picks. Comp picks are great but on average you only get a 45 which is great in the back half of your top 20 but not so great in your top5.

It depends on how well they do their rebuild. They have some good pieces especially pitching and have gotten some good hitting prospects too but the hitting still lacks depth and pitching can fade away quickly with injuries (as we have seen in the early days of the sox rebuild too).

Grandal won't stay this hot as he was the last two weeks and he will have empty weeks where he hits .100 with one extra base hit again (still will give you walks) but it is the bottom line you pay for and that bottom line is good.

It is pretty bad. After setting the all time homer record the twins have regressed quite a bit this year. Nelson Cruz is still nelson cruz but overall the team is hitting pretty pedestrian or better yet bad. The twins are ranked 11th in the AL with a 94 wRC+ which is worse than the orioles and tigers. Sure some of it is bad luck and players should get a little better but they probably also had some over performers last year. Wrc+ 19/20 Kepler 121/104 Polanco 119/93 Arraez 125/76 Buxton 111/76 Rosario 103/91 Gonzalez 93/68 New acquisition donaldson was solid but hurt most of the year, only sano and cruz have consistently performed well. I do expect some guys get a little better but I dont think kepler, arraez and polanco are 120 wrc+ guys and buxton is also probably more of a 90 wrc+ guy. Projections till end of 2020 Kepler around 110 Polanco around 103 Arraez around 100 Rosario around 103 I think some people maybe believed a bit too much into the breakouts they had last year (especially kepler, rosario, arraez and polanco). I probably overrated them a bit too.

He does hit the ball a bit harder than last year (85 average EV) but so far he has been exactly as advertised with very few Ks, no extra basehits and very few walks. The good sign is that he hits the ball hard enough to get it out if the infield. He was a bit lucky but his xBA for the season is still .333.

I agree. Moncada is a highly paid star player who should be in the lineup almost every day. Either he is healthy and then he needs to play (except for an off day or two) or he is injured and then the medical staff needs to speak out and put him on the DL. Moncada did get a few off days but playing a star player in his prime part time makes no sense, if a couple off days don't resolve it he needs to be on the DL.

Season wRC+ up to 122 which is basically what you expect. In a normal season a bad first two weeks probably wouldn't have been noticed but of course this year it is like a quarter of the season.

I hope kopech comes back strong but you probably can't expect more than 120 IP or so from him in 21.

The pitchers would probably go on a strike then. You could put vaughn in right 1 or 2 games as a fill in but having Vaughn AND eloy in the OF every day would be terrible.

EE has hit a bit better recently. Not great but a 114 wrc+ the last two weeks is at least playable and lowers the chance of vaughn getting called up (at this point I think you can't expect much more than a 110 wrc+ from vaughn who only has played intrasquad games the last months).

Sheets (and generally the 23-25 yo college guys) is really hurt by that cancelled milb season. Sheets did take a step forward last year hitting decently in AA last year with 16 homers and with another step forward he could have helped his prospect status. A strong season at age 24 would have been nice but now he was not able to build on that and next year he is 25 which is nearing the "non prospect" age. Obviously some of those older non prospects can still become dudes (like JD Martinez or jose bautista) but that is rather rare. Vaughn is hurt a little too but he is a bit younger and he is so advanced that his development is mostly finished so it doesn't hurt him as much.

It seems that that outrageous framing by contreras is really paying off. It looks crazy but it seems that way (starting glove a foot outside the zone and the move it in when catching) is the way to go. Good job by cubs coaching as he used to be one of the worst framers in the game.

Yeah if grandal becomes worse at catching and hitting he is no longer a top2 catcher:).