Moncada being called up

[Two-Gun Pete]

Or, maybe next season, when he has gotten over the unexpected death of his best friend, he'll play better.

Look, I feel bad for him having lost his friend, but I think that's been a bit overplayed. His K-rate is every bit as obese as it was before he lost his friend. His BB-rate is every bit as laughable as it was beforehand.

 

Again, I feel bad for him, but plenty of folks fight through personal loss and do just fine, in his walk of life, and in other professions as well. I think you're speculating just a bit by blaming his personal loss for his lack of ability.

 

 

[Jose Abreu]

Look, I feel bad for him having lost his friend, but I think that's been a bit overplayed. His K-rate is every bit as obese as it was before he lost his friend. His BB-rate is every bit as laughable as it was beforehand.

 

Again, I feel bad for him, but plenty of folks fight through personal loss and do just fine, in his walk of life, and in other professions as well. I think you're speculating just a bit by blaming his personal loss for his lack of ability.

I'd be more open to that argument if his friend had been killed when we were well into the season. Sure, Anderson wasn't playing well beforehand either, but when his friend was killed, Abreu wasn't playing well either, and look at him now. It was too early in the season to know if anything was concrete.

Edited July 19, 2017 by Jose Abreu

[beautox]

I would of prefered he didn't get the call, there are things he could still stand to learn down at AAA, but this is a bone to sox fans like Josh Nelson etc, with the constant "where is moncada??!??!?!??!" on sports radio and twitter.

[greg775]

No offense to you guys, but this is a great concession to those of us who don't care about trades and want to win now. We get Moncada on the big league club which pleases us and from what I can tell on this board, most people are upset Moncada will not remain in the minors for much more seasoning.

After all, the move truly should make no sense to you guys that love the trades and the rebuild. We're not going to contend this year. We're not going to contend next year, yet Moncada will be playing major league baseball as Anderson is doing. Thank you, Mr. Hahn for giving those of us who aren't particularly fond of trades a bone so to speak. Thank u.

 

Let's do a little drill to prove my point. Please be honest.

 

Answer this question. Are you happy Moncada is joining the White Sox? Yes or no.

 

My answer: Yes (1-0 yes).

Edited July 19, 2017 by greg775

[Lip Man 1]

Answer this question. Are you happy Moncada is joining the White Sox? Yes or no.

 

My answer: Yes (1-0 yes).

 

Maybe. Not trying to evade the question. I don't know. There is no need to rush the kid as I stated earlier and for God's sake they better not be thinking of having him play 3rd base to replace Frazier.

 

More any of the other short term infield stiffs there but leave this kid at 2nd base...he's got enough things to have to worry about. A new position doesn't need to be one of them (and yes I know he played a little there with the Red Sox last year. It affected him offensively.)

[Real]

I never understood why players who split awfully on the other side of the plate still choose to continue switch hitting.

[Jake]

I never understood why players who split awfully on the other side of the plate still choose to continue switch hitting.

 

He has a .760 OPS against lefties this year. In 2015, he hit lefties better than he hit righties. He's not one of those guys who is wasting his time as a switch hitter.

[whitesoxwinner]

It will be more helpful for him to learn in the show

[Señor Ding-Dong]

Goodbye, Yolmer Sanchez experiment. Wonder if we'll trade him now. We don't need Saladino, Sanchez, and Hansen (keep in mind Leury will come back and then there's Engel/Willy Garcia both in AAA). That's overkill.

Move Sanchez to SS and Anderson to CF.

 

2B Moncada, 3B Davidson, SS Sanchez and CF Anderson. DH can rotate and Leury can be the utility guy once he's healthy.

 

Saladino and Hanson don't factor into the future, they can be sent down, traded, DFAed, etc. at this point.

[Boopa1219]

The Sox have to maintain fan interest and try to avoid a real drop-off in attendance after trading so many players.

 

No.

 

Screw the fans, they need to do what's best for the org and it's players' development

[SoxAce]

Great news. It's essential for him and Timmy to develop chemistry together on the field.

[caulfield12]

it's not a marketing move, seriously, what about this rebuild gives you that idea? This kid has maintaining #1 prospect status all year for a reason. Look beyond the slash line and see a guy that isn't going to learn how to be a big leaguer facing minor league pitchers. He's 22 and had about 200 PA above A ball coming into this year, including his "flop" last year in his 30 odd PA in MLB. Boston thought he could help them down the strech, obviously that was optimistic, but the Sox got this kid 4 months in AAA and he more than held his own.

 

Closer to 20 at bats....

 

 

 

By Andrew Battifarano / MiLB.com | July 19, 2017 1:16 AM ET

 

The next time Yoan Moncada steps out on the field, he'll be donning a big league uniform.

 

After landing third-ranked Yankees prospect Blake Rutherford in a blockbuster trade with the Yankees, the White Sox will call up baseball's No. 1 prospect and reliever Brad Goldberg from Triple-A Charlotte prior to Wednesday's game against the Dodgers, the club confirmed Tuesday.

 

"We're not bringing him here to sit, we're bringing him here to continue the development that needs to take place in Chicago," White Sox GM Rick Hahn said. "He still has some work to do, he's obviously still very young, but we feel that he's ready for that next challenge that comes at the big league level."

 

Moncada has amassed a .282/.377/.447 slash line with 12 home runs and 36 RBIs in 80 games with the Knights this season. He represented his native Cuba by suiting up for the World Team for the second consecutive year during the Futures Game earlier this month. After hitting .236 in June, Moncada turned it around in July, compiling a .283 average with two roundtrippers and six RBIs over 13 games.

 

Originally signed by the Red Sox for $63 million in March 2015, Moncada was acquired by the White Sox last offseason along with third-ranked prospect Michael Kopech, No. 11 Luis Alexander Basabe and No. 25 Victor Diaz in the Chris Sale deal.

 

The second baseman went 4-for-19 during an eight-game stint with Boston last September.

 

"There's gonna be growing pains here. He's not a finished product," Hahn said. "I don't expect any of these players as they make their debuts here in the coming months and years, despite how highly anticipated they may be, there's still gonna be an element of development that's going to happen in Chicago. And the thought is that it's time for Yoan to get that opportunity to take that next step."

 

In three seasons in the Minor Leagues, Moncada has hit .285 with 35 home runs and 136 RBIs in 267 games.

 

Goldberg (3-1) compiled a 2.58 ERA and a 1.43 WHIP with four saves in five opportunities over 28 relief appearances with Charlotte. The 27-year-old was tagged for four runs in one-third of an inning for Chicago in early June.

 

Andrew Battifarano is a contributor to MiLB.com. Follow him on Twitter, @AndrewAtBatt. This story was not subject to the approval of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues or its clubs.

[caulfield12]

I view the skewed numbers coming out of Charlotte the same way I view the artificial numbers from a lot of places in the PCL. The park factor has skewed his numbers, IMO.

 

Given his poor numbers v LHP, & poor numbers away from Charlotte, & his decline in performance over the course of the season, & this org's s***ty track record with prospects, I'm naturally concerned.

 

I hope that I'm wrong, & I hope that Moncada overperforms. But I have reasons for my doubts.

 

July performance much better than June.

 

The wrist/hand injury really set him back but he learned to play through it. That's 50-75% of the reason for his mid year slump right there.

[bmags]

Ryan McGuffy said last week that Moncada felt about 90% with his wrist and when he felt 100% he'd come up.

 

[caulfield12]

Think of all the 18-20 year olds that have debuted in the big leagues...the best prospect in baseball has the stuff to handle it or he doesn't. The Red Sox and White Sox and rest of baseball believe quite strongly in him. (After all, he once ate 225 Twinkies in a single week.)

 

And a related question comes to mind...other than Byron Buxton, what other BA/BP consensus #1 milb positional players have completely flopped in the last 20-30 years? Any names comes to mind immediately?

 

 

Getting to that point had taken nearly 21 months of navigating the byzantine laws that allowed Moncada to leave Cuba legally, unlike every other star baseball player smuggled from the island. Moncada had hopped countries, landed in Guatemala, stayed in a hidden location with armed guards, made his way to the United States, thrilled teams in workouts and found himself waiting for Dave and Jo Hastings – a St. Petersburg, Fla.-based CPA and restaurant owner who served as his agents and stewards and proxy parents – to figure out where he was going to play.

 

Forty-eight hours before the flight, Moncada was at Habana Café, the restaurant Jo runs, leaning up against an island in the kitchen. Jo and Carlos Mesa, an older Cuban player who had served as Moncada’s mentor and confidant, sat nearby. Dave Hastings was in the final stages of negotiations. Teams had streamed in and out of the restaurant the previous month making their pitches. The San Diego Padres wanted to give Moncada a shot at going right to the major leagues as a teenager. Other teams pushed hard. Ultimately, it came down to the most classic of baseball matchups: Red Sox vs. Yankees.

 

New York wanted Moncada at $25 million. Hastings said another team was over $30 million. The Yankees refused to budge. Hastings said Moncada would go elsewhere. The Yankees pulled their offer. Hastings called Eddie Romero, the Red Sox’s VP of international scouting, and said: “We’ve got a deal.” Just like that, over the course of two minutes, a 6-foot-2, 205-pound, switch-hitting infielder with game-breaking speed, legitimate power and a jeweler’s eye went from being convinced he was a Yankee – “I really thought that’s where I’d end up,” Moncada said – to the Red Sox.

 

Moncada, Hastings and Mesa started high-fiving. Jo sat off to the side, quiet. They stopped celebrating and looked at her. Jo was never quiet. They wanted to know what was wrong. Nothing, she said. It’s great. She just … it was surreal.

 

“I feel numb,” she said.

 

Silence permeated the kitchen until Moncada broke it.

 

“And I,” he said, “feel rich.”

 

They all laughed and spent the next two days preparing to head to Boston and make the deal official. During that time, the future crystallized for Moncada. Even if he was playing second base, Dustin Pedroia’s position, and even if the Red Sox’s roster burst with enough big-salaried players to keep him buried in the minor leagues for years, Moncada refused to resign himself. Maybe it was the hubris of a 19-year-old, maybe the self-assuredness of someone who believes he’s destined for greatness, but when Moncada finished that steak and burger on Feb. 25, 2015, he vowed his next trip to Fenway Park after signing would be sooner than later.

 

“Next year,” Moncada said. “I tell myself I’m going to be there next year.”

 

Jeff Passan/yahoo sports

Edited July 19, 2017 by caulfield12

[SCCWS]

I think this year's call-up is radically different than the one in Boston last August where he flopped. Last year he was in the process of learning to play 3rd base when he arrived in the bigs. There was pressure defensively on him and he made mistakes. I will assume 2nd base is his this time he plays in the majors. Second, he was in the middle of a pennant race. The strike-outs ultimately were embarrassing. But maybe the biggest issue was his mental approach which resulted in him being booed on one play when he went in to pinch run in a big gameagainst the jays and forgot how many outs there were.

 

So he went back to AA after a bad experience. Adding to the drama was he came up from AA with Benintendi who also was playing a new position and he made a big splash in Boston. This year he is coming up with a chance to go out and play and mistakes will not be scrutinized. I think this will be his extended spring training for next year. Good luck to him.

Edited July 19, 2017 by SCCWS

[iamshack]

So #10?

 

Who is ordering a jersey today?

[Dominikk85]

Why start moncadas service time clock now?

[iamshack]

Why start moncadas service time clock now?

I think they want him to learn to play at this level now, so that he is fairly developed when the next wave of kids come up in a 18 months or so...

 

"waves of talent"

[Soxnfins]

Why start moncadas service time clock now?

His clock started last year, technically. Pretty sure he won't be a Super 2, but I could be wrong. Needed to develop chemistry up here. It's time.

[iamshack]

His clock started last year, technically. Pretty sure he won't be a Super 2, but I could be wrong. Needed to develop chemistry up here. It's time.

He's past the Super 2 deadline.

[hogan873]

I agree it's time to bring him up, especially with Frazier being traded. Question is, who gets the majority of the time at 3rd? Or do Saladino, Sanchez, and Davidson all share time there? I would assume Moncada will pretty much take over 2nd.

[Panerista]

So #10?

 

Who is ordering a jersey today?

Would it be weird if I said I already visited the shop and saw that his number is currently not configurable?

[Panerista]

I think they want him to learn to play at this level now, so that he is fairly developed when the next wave of kids come up in a 18 months or so...

 

"waves of talent"

This AND the fact that he'll play every day in the majors. There's really no reason to keep him in Charlotte. He should be up; he has earned it.

[iamshack]

Would it be weird if I said I already visited the shop and saw that his number is currently not configurable?

No...and I just saw the same thing.

 

They must be planning to sell it already stitched on that way?