Dominikk85

You don't deal a 3rd overall pick who doesn't fail hard in the minors that quickly unless you get a young star for him (kinda like sale back then). Sure if the dodgers offer walker buehler you might think twice but that is not realistic. I'm quite sure vaughn will play for the sox, EE and abreu won't be here forever.

Moncada was different than robert tough. Moncada always had decent patience but he would be too passive and thus falling in many 2 strike counts because he would just swing down the pipe early in the count and sometimes even late in the count when he took pitches at the edges with 2 strikes. Robert is more like too aggresive and chases quite a bit but he is also not getting cheated on balls in the zone thus doing more damage.

Hopefully this is not his only AB of his mlb career. Could turn out that way albeit I could see a team like the orioles or royals take a shot at him. He obviously has no future with the Sox as they will have like 4 DHs next year (abreu, vaughn, EE, collins and other guys like eloy who at least need some days at DH as a breather). Still great for him at least he got that AB and maybe he gets another chance if somebody gets injured or covid.

I think that warmup swing is to remind him of not rolling over because he goal is to hit a straight line the other way. Votto has a similar on deck swing.

He doesn't have to fix it but Altuve did make changes and still was a 300 hitter after that while going from 10 to 30 bombs. I think he could use a little bigger load and still hit for good average. The 112 is interesting. He did get stronger and probably gained 10-15 pounds but I wonder if that wasn't a misread by statcast. If true that would be a good sign and mean he has potential for 25 plus bombs if he hits at the right angles.

I think madrigal has a movement flaw causing him to lose power. He loads his hips nicely and loads his hands too but his back is extremely stiff. I did this comparision with Cruz who is much more flexible with the spine as he slightly turns the spine in and bends the front shoulder slightly down. That causes the upper and lower half of nick being kinda disconnected while Nellie has the lower and upper half nicely connected with that more flexible spine and thus better separation and torque in the body. I have changed that with some kids I have worked with. This won't make him nelson Cruz of course but it could possibly raise his EV by a couple MPH.

But they also could have drafted Kyle skipworth at 6. Name is very fitting:)

Polanco has 40 WAR for his career (37 on fangraphs), getting that out of your 4th pick would be a spectacular success. Obviously he is not guaranteed to be that good but 37 career war would make madrigal the second best 4th overall pick of the last 20 years (just behind ryan Zimmerman and way ahead of the next guy).

Wow that is one crazy DP.

Btw most people in the industry didn't see madrigal as a 3 homer guy. Longenhagen for example thought he would eventually grow into like 15-18 homer power which he since has corrected down (but maybe could still happen). So I disagree madrigal had no upside, the upside was he grows into some power and hits .300+ with good defense and 15-18 bombs which is essentially whit merrifield or Dustin Pedroia who had 4-5 war seasons at their peak.

Howard and vaughn weren't even in the same draft

A bit early to say, isn't it? I think he will hit. I also think he will gain some power and not be a 3-5 homer guy like Dee Gordon but more of an 8-12 guy with good average like Howie kendrick. Ideal outcome would be a whit merrifield type who hits .300 with 15 bombs. Not this year obviously but if he gains a couple pounds and alters his swing a little he can be a double digit guy. But for this year I'm fine with him hitting 280 with 2 Homers and a couple doubles.

If Engel is playing shouldn't eloy DH then over him?

That looked like he was playing pepper and stopping his bat at contact, kinda like he wanted to check his swing but was too late:). But whatever, I think he will get his first hit tonight already.

Not a fan of bunting but starting the runner with madrigal on definitely can make sense because with his high contact rate there is some double play risk, especially since madrigal also seems to hit a fair share of grounders. Thus I think it is important to have a good runner like tim or robert batting after madrigal, definitely not slow guys like catchers, Jose or eloy because that would mean lots of double plays even tough madrigal is fast himself and at least could make it only one out if he beats it out. But generally they should have a fast runner in front of him that he can move over with his contact.

He definitely is super fast, already beat out a few double plays and infield hits/errors. I'm impressed with him. He has chased quite a lot but he also took some tough pitches and took tough pitches the other way. And defensively he already is a leader out there taking command in the OF.

Nothing really lost yet, projections say you only need to play .500 this year to get the last playoff spot. So as long sox are not more than 1 or 2 games below 500 after 30 games they have a good chance because after the Yankees, rays, twins, Indians and Astros and As there are still two spots left for the angels, white sox, red Sox and blue jays with the rest of the teams sucking. Somebody behind giolito and keuchel in the rotation needs to step up though.

Grandal is streaky and kinda one dimensional as a hitter but he still is a good hitter for a catcher due to his walks and decent pop. He will strike out and hit .240-.250 but hit 25 homers and lots of walks. The bottom line is still solid but that type of hitter will have some empty weeks.

I think eloy needs to stay in the OF until 22. By then EE and Abreu are gone, Vaughn has first and DH is free for eloy. But this and next year DH is really crowded and they need to make OF work for him.

Yeah, he really is a danger for himself and others out there in the OF, using strange footwork and not knowing where the wall and his other outfielders are. I really fear that there could be a collision with robert because robert very aggressively goes for balls into the gaps and eloy doesn't know where he is when he is just focused on the ball. Robert at least needs to be able to rely on eloy getting the hell out of the way when he is called off. But it seems sometimes eloy is just focusing on the ball and then blacking out everything else. The question is whether you can clean that up. He is not a plus athlete but just athletically he could handle left field a couple years. But he needs to improve his footwork and his general overview in the OF, you simply always need to know where the walls and the other fielders are so he can avoid hurtig himself or other fielders.

Yeah, probably doesn't make sense to trade those prospects for mediocre veterans, giolito and cease just need to step it up or you try again next year. Still early and maybe the second turn of the rotation is better.

Ricky Maybe made some questionable decisions but it is not his fault that neither starter has found the zone in their first turn and that the front office (understandably) keeps madrigal down a week for an extra year so he has to play leury at second. I would not bat delmonico 4th but really line-up positions are mostly irrelevant, those are fractions of a run decisions.

But it could have been had he signed an extension. Right now vanessa probably makes more than he does but if he had signed a 60m extension that would have been different.

They both took a very surprising turn though. Tatis was a prospect but he was ranked like 25th in his international class, nobody saw this coming that his tools took such a step forward. And semien was about an average hitter who had a terrible glove. I doubt he would have developed that way with the sox.

Kopech certainly has had make up issues before (like the wall punching incident) but we don't know what happend here. Not sure whether a Hollywood star is the right person to be around for him because that gets you to a lot of parties, drugs and idiots. Andre agassi had that too dating Hollywood stars and doing all kind of stupid stuff until he got steffi graf who set him straight. I think he needs something like this too. Steffi was really ideal for Agassi in that regard as she was rich enough to not chase his money but down to earth and "no nonsense" enough to set him straight instead of bringing in her own drama like the previous stars he has dated.