Dominikk85

That post is a bit contradictory. The post you quoted said "no more mediocre players" and you agreed with it but at the same time you don't want to part with the key prospects. Either take is very understandable but you can't have both. Either you get just ok filler pieces for the second rate prospects or you get stars in their prime but then you have to give up some top prospect. So you can't have both unless you want the sox to not make any trades at all.

I would not trade vaughn. I think he basically will be the new abreu and post a 120-130 wRC+ every year. Abreu is still good but he gets older too and even if he doesn't there still is a DH spot and I think collins is not the answer there. Keep vaughn and trade away collins, Mercedes and sheets and you get some talent and still have a DH/1b duo in jose and vaughn that is one of the better ones in the AL. Of course hader on the open market is easily worth vaughn but while hader has control left relievers can lose it very fast.

Extremely dumb to steal third by the royals guy. That guy scores probably 70% of the time anyway with 0 out, so it is quite stupid to take like a 25% chance to make an out and lose the runner. Very negative expectancy play.

Their pitching isn't that good but their lineup also isn't that bad, Santana, lindor and mercado have clearly underperformed their projection. Don't get me wrong, they don't have a great lineup and the bottom is very bad but usually their first 4-5 guys should have been ok.

I would like getting lynn or bundy as long none of kopech, madrigal, Vaughn, stiever, crochet and Kelley are traded. You don't want to sacrifice the future but one year or the window has value too and if you give up a 40+ or two that is worth it because many of those will end up getting rule 5ed later anyway.

I think you need to find a solution for collins. He is 25 now and having him as a third catcher/second DH is neither helping his development nor helps the roster a lot. Either you find a spot on the roster where he can get at least like 400 PAs in a full season by for example trading McCann and make him second catcher/second DH or you just trade him now as long he still has any value. The sox made a huge mistake by not giving him a full go in 2018. The just should have given him full ABs and make it sink or swing, either he makes it or he is a bust but you can't let him hit twice a week for 3 straight seasons.

That would still be pretty high. Top40 is a 55 fv prospect which is only half a grade down from his 60 preseason rank at fangraphs. That is about what andrew vaughn (37) or madrigal (41) are ranked at fg (both 55s). Do you think you would get a prospect of that caliber on the market now after the injury and the other concerns ? Would you do that trade? For example to use other guys in the range of vaughn and madrigal would you trade kopech for mitch keller or Brandon marsh? And would you get that? Kopech won't have pitched in 2 years next year (except those few spring innings), I think you still get a lower ranked top100 and a throw in (40 fv) but not sure you would get top40 value at this point.

Definitely unfortunate and you wouldn't make that pick again but burger has raked in college and his bat would have projected at first too. He wasn't vaughn or torkelson but he averaged a 1000+ ops in college which was better than the first basemen white and smith who were drafted ahead of him. I was always sceptical that he could play third but I thought as a first baseman with an outside shot to play third he was an ok pick. He was really a rather low risk pick, nobody can predict an Achilles tear, that is not a very common injury in baseball (maybe like 1 in 50 guys or so get it during their career?)

I like them too and I think it is good that there is a change albeit I'm sad for hawk that he had so many bad years in the end and now they are good again. I think hawk was past his prime but his style of announcing also works better with a fun and winning team.

Why not just sign puig? With 30 games left just offer him a 1 year deal, prorated that can't cost more than like 2 mil at best if not just 1. Puig isn't that great but projections have him at like a 110-115 wrc+ which is a solid number 6 hitter and a big upgrade over mazara and engel. Now he likely is rusty but the playoffs seem to be almost locked up anyway so just let him play simulated games at Schaumburg a couple days and then use the season to ramp him up and you get one hole less in the lineup for the playoffs.

His value is still hurt because possible makeup and mental health issues are looming, there even were rumors he would maybe quit the game. Not having pitched in two years also hurts value. He still has decent trade value but his value at this time certainly is compromised. His value could drop more (if he gets hurt again or doesn't perform) but it also could get a lot higher of he comes back and shows that he is healthy and performing.

Don't think the scout worries about it at all. You can't predict injuries, they suck but they are part of the game. Sure you could say his body type was a risk but then again super fit players get hurt and bartolo pitched until he was 50. I think a pure performance bust is worse for a scout. Also baseball is not basketball, top10 overall picks bust all the time, even the supposed smartest front office in baseball (luhnow astros) busted a first overall pick.

If moncada is really injured I doubt that decision is on ricky, that would be a medical department/front office decision. Of course the manager wants his star players to play but in the end the medical staff will make the decision and I trust them that they are able to judge that.

Yeah, I doubt EE can be traded without adding a prospect because even if he gets better nobody will want to pay his salary. I think the salary means that EE likely won't be released, it is only 30 more games and the sox don't want to eat that salary. Most likely they will reduce his playing time a little and drag him through the year unless he totally stinks it all year and then of course his option is not picked up. The best thing the Sox can do is probably making it through the season with a combination of EE, yermin and collins and then next year service time vaughn and bring him up mid to late April or maybe keep him down till super 2 and then bring him up somewhere in may.

That is a stupid excercise because every team passes players that have success, that happens when hundreds of players are drafted. Sure they could have drafted happ (9) or buehler (24) but they just as well could have drafted dillion tate (4), Cornelius Randolph (10) or garrett (not Forrest:)) Whitley (13).

Madrigal did definitely beef up (before his IL stint already of course), his EV did improve quite a bit this year, his 87 EV is almost league average. His top EV also went up albeit I don't really buy that 112 read (Perriello said there is some technical issues with the new statcast tech from hawkeye). I still think madrigal could be a 15+ homer guy like longenhagen said pre draft.

There is clearly an issue with him either physical, mechanical, mental or a combination of those factors. Mazara has a .795 career ops against righties including a career high .834 last year, this year it is below .650. He always sucked against lefties but against righties he used to be solid and consistent. He also has a career low exit velo and a career high K rate. This is clearly not himself this season but the question is with like 30 games left can that be fixed? if it is a mechanical or mental issue there is not much time to fix it, the same goes for an injury problem.

Padres have a good core but I think the Dodgers are still better and they always have good young prospects too. They are not going away the next couple years.

Yermin definitely deserves a shot somewhere but I'm not sure you can really say he has monster power. Throughout his career he never really showed monster power and was mostly like a 15 hr guy until last year when he hit 23 in like 90 games which is big of course (40 pace albeit with the juiced ball). Longenhagen gave him 6 raw and 5 game power and 6 hit. That means he sees him as a .280 hitter with 20 homers, even if you bump that to 25 that isn't a bad hitter but teams don't tend to use a roster spot on that type of player. In fact most teams don't have a full time DH anymore and tend to rotate players unless you have a transcendent bat who can't field (like ortiz or Cruz). Really those ok but not great DHs are phased out from the game. Obviously if you are nelson Cruz they find a spot for you but if you are just ok many teams prefer rotating 4 outfielders through DH and save a roster spot if they don't have a monster hitter who can't field.

Update: the last 2 weeks the sox have been second in mlb in wRC+ at 140 behind only the mets and they of course lead the AL. Their K% and Bb% rank got even worse (13th and 14th) but they have been leading ISO by 50 points over the second team and Homers by 5. Interestingly their babip was down to .295 but if you hit Homers left and right that doesn't hurt so much. That of course means the offense is very dependent on power which makes it more susceptible to streaks and fluctuations but the power potential is clearly there in that team. I think Vaughn will stabilize that to a degree when he is up next year and he can improve that k to bb rate a little. Madrigal will also help in the k/bb department.

Overall he has been really good. He obviously is no prime pujols or miggy and he has some cold streaks including usually cold starts to the season but over his career he averaged. 294 with around 30 homers and 110 rbi per year. He also has his weaknesses in that his defense is not good and he also doesnt walk much but a .349 career obp is still solid and really a .290/350/520 line is all you need from your first baseman. If Vaughn can get there in his prime that would be great

Yeah grandal should play most of the time. However I think for the long term outlook it should be better like 120-130 games and not 140-150. Give him a couple games at DH too to get him some extra games in the lineup.

I have an off topic question since I'm from europe: Are sox fans on average more liberal than Cubs fans? I occasionally lurked at the old mlb.com forums and the Cubs forum was really super right wing with many outrageous comments regarding migrants, muslims, gays and other. Here people seem to be much more liberal. Is that a difference across chicago or is this forum here just moderated better?

Contreras "framing" is really a joke. You want to move the glove like two inches towards the center of the zone and then stick it there. But Contreras rips the glove like a foot across the zone, I'm surprised he gets any calls at all, that is like a 12 year old little league catcher who has learned about framing the first time and then totally exaggerates.

Yeah walker is 24 and rated a 40+ by fangraphs, the chance he becomes a star is small. Tatis wasn't really higher than a 40+ at the time of the trade either but at age 16-17 there is much more variance, a 17 yo 40fv can be a 60 2 years later (or out of baseball if it goes the other direction).