Gavin Sheets

[Bob Sacamano]

Based on the comments from Rick Hahn, it looks like Vaughn may be ticketed for AAA to start the year. I think I'm totally ok with this because it at least guarantees him every day at bats instead of a weakside platoon and we can gain the extra year of control back. Of course, that can change if he has a better spring than Gavin or guys are injured. Get a RF and you can go:

1. TA SS

2. Moncada 3B

3. Robert CF

4. Abreu 1B

5. Grandal C

6. Eloy LF/DH

7. Right Fielder (hopefully Conforto, maybe hit him 6th against righties)

8. Sheets DH/LF

9. Leury/Harrison 2B

Edited March 14, 2022 by Bob Sacamano

[greg775]

Vaughn turns 24 in April. Cmon. The guy deserves to be in the big leagues. Sheets turns 26 in April. Is this solely an age thing? Sox have some good players. Time to assess which ones will be stars and make a trade or two involving those the Sox don't project as high.

[Tnetennba]

1 hour ago, Bob Sacamano said:

Based on the comments from Rick Hahn, it looks like Vaughn may be ticketed for AAA to start the year. I think I'm totally ok with this because it at least guarantees him every day at bats instead of a weakside platoon and we can gain the extra year of control back. Of course, that can change if he has a better spring than Gavin or guys are injured. Get a RF and you can go:

1. TA SS

2. Moncada 3B

3. Robert CF

4. Abreu 1B

5. Grandal C

6. Eloy LF/DH

7. Right Fielder (hopefully Conforto, maybe hit him 6th against righties)

8. Sheets DH/LF

9. Leury/Harrison 2B

I don't get that sense from the clip.

[Bob Sacamano]

2 minutes ago, Tnetennba said:

I don't get that sense from the clip.

Ah thanks. I only saw the tweets.

[KBX]

1 hour ago, Balta1701 said:

Between the high BABIP and surprisingly low hard hit rate, this actually makes a case that the White Sox offense is at risk of taking a step backwards this year that I hadn't realized was there.

Moncada .372

Anderson .350

Robert .394

But they're all in that range from year to year. You can maintain high-.300s BABIP if you spray the ball and with good velocity. Jimenez is the same way. His BABIP was only .293 so I'd expect that to go up. Hell it could go up 100 points. I'd honestly be shocked if the offense weren't dramatically better this year. One thing people need to bear in mind is that a lot of our expectations come from a reasonable prediction of young star development. The Sox are hoping to get this collection of young studs to peak around the same time and ride that to a title. That's why I'm not dismayed by the offseason. In a similar vein I'm high on Sheets partly because he would figure to be our #8 hitter or something, and I wouldn't exactly be stunned if he put up a similar wRC+ to Conforto, wherever he might be. You also want to see non-#1 draft picks pan out and become major contributors because that gives you further advantage payroll wise. 

[Balta1701]

2 hours ago, KBX said:

Moncada .372

Anderson .350

Robert .394

But they're all in that range from year to year. You can maintain high-.300s BABIP if you spray the ball and with good velocity. Jimenez is the same way. His BABIP was only .293 so I'd expect that to go up. Hell it could go up 100 points. I'd honestly be shocked if the offense weren't dramatically better this year. One thing people need to bear in mind is that a lot of our expectations come from a reasonable prediction of young star development. The Sox are hoping to get this collection of young studs to peak around the same time and ride that to a title. That's why I'm not dismayed by the offseason. In a similar vein I'm high on Sheets partly because he would figure to be our #8 hitter or something, and I wouldn't exactly be stunned if he put up a similar wRC+ to Conforto, wherever he might be. You also want to see non-#1 draft picks pan out and become major contributors because that gives you further advantage payroll wise. 

Here’s the one problem - why isn’t the team’s exit velocity nice and high if those guys are driving it upwards? 

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

5 hours ago, Balta1701 said:

Between the high BABIP and surprisingly low hard hit rate, this actually makes a case that the White Sox offense is at risk of taking a step backwards this year that I hadn't realized was there.

Not really when you consider the lack of HR's due to injury. HR's usually are harder hit balls. If the Sox power hitters can remain relatively healthy the high OBP can translate into more runs if  the BABIP goes down. Madrigal also probably didn't have a very good hard hit rate but a pretty good BABIP. Robert and Eloy at their best hit the ball pretty hard. Eloy still needs to elevate more though.

Only 6 White Sox qualified to be  listed in the Hard Hit Rate percentages., Grandal, Abreu, Vaughn, Anderson Moncada and Leury .League average is 39.3 . Among those 6 only Leury was below it at 32.6. When I unhide the non qualifiers the below league average guys are Engel, Eaton, Zavala, Williams, Goodwin , Mercedes, Mendick, Hernandez, Madrigal, Hamilton. Along with Leury all those guys had 2236 Plate appearances and most of them are gone.

The guys above league average account for 3,824 Plate appearances  from 13 position players and the only one gone from that list is Jake Lamb.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/CHW/2021-batting.shtml#all_players_advanced_batting         See for yourself.

 

Edit :I just looked it up. I was right about Madrigal a paltry 23.4 hard hit rate but a .324 BABIP

Edited March 15, 2022 by CaliSoxFanViaSWside