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Early days but....


Chimpton

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Spring training in AZ is not to be trusted.  The breaking pitches don't bite as much, some mediocre AAAA hitters look like Mike Trout for a few weeks.  Some veteran pitchers look like crap for a few weeks.  These are glorified practices.  Sometimes a pitcher is working on a specific task in a start.  Like, throw this one pitch a lot.  This is all about getting into shape for a 162 game grind.  Sometimes a player can play themselves onto a roster.  But until they come north and see real MLB regular season pitching or pitch to regular MLB regulars it's all a crapshoot.  

Edited by southsideirish71
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Gonna be another week probably before you can really start to assess that imo.  A lot of players who aren't ready are out there trying to make themselves known and there is a lot of players that will feast on some players that aren't ready or not worthy 

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Players you'd hope to have success are Carlos Perez (backup catcher), Romy and Colas+Cespedes.

I don't have high hopes for colas, cespedes, but it sure does solve a lot if they out of nowhere explode onto the scene.

pitching wise, boy it would be nice if emilio vargas's weird jump was like a junior guerra revelation. We are sitting here hoping a 28 year old journeyman, Brandon Finnegan, and Jimmy Lamberts bionic arm can be starting pitchers.

 

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apologies to Emilio Vargas, he is only 25 which is pretty reasonable. Let's hope we hear good things, he was great in AA last year. Pretty sure he throws with a lot of spin too. Maybe he'll be a nice boy, our new Mike Wright.

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Just now, chitownsportsfan said:

I believe he then hit about a buck eighty in the high minors that year and basically ceased to be a prospect.

Yep. And convinced a generation of message boarders that drafting high schoolers was bad.

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Remember a few years ago when Courtney Hawkins lit it up in Spring Training?  That was awesome. These games mean nothing. The players know it. I guess it's better to look good than bad though. But I wouldn't put much stock in any of these results, especially with the late start and quick ramp up. The minor leaguers who had been working out and playing, have a clear advantage right now, and will probably look better than they are.

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14 minutes ago, bmags said:

I remember the Courtney Hawkins spring training when he was hitting walk offs and looked incredible.

I remember Jared Mitchell having a great 9 at bats, then destroying his leg and becoming "guy drafted two picks before Mike Trout"

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24 minutes ago, bmags said:

Players you'd hope to have success are Carlos Perez (backup catcher), Romy and Colas+Cespedes.

I don't have high hopes for colas, cespedes, but it sure does solve a lot if they out of nowhere explode onto the scene.

pitching wise, boy it would be nice if emilio vargas's weird jump was like a junior guerra revelation. We are sitting here hoping a 28 year old journeyman, Brandon Finnegan, and Jimmy Lamberts bionic arm can be starting pitchers.

 

Souza has been intriguing as well.

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6 minutes ago, Quin said:

I remember Jared Mitchell having a great 9 at bats, then destroying his leg and becoming "guy drafted two picks before Mike Trout"

A posterior tib rupture is such a devastating injury.

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1 hour ago, Chimpton said:

I know it is very early in Spring Training but have any of the call ups impressed you enough to think that they will play a part in 2022? 

I have been wintering in Florida for 10+ years. I usually went to 5-6 games every year at different parks since the White Sox don't play there. Florida has a good number of 2-3 hour commutes each way for the visiting teams. About 3-4 years ago, I realized that spring training games totally changed. Prices went up and quality went down. Boston and New York (Yankees) were the hot tickets.  But over the last few years, pre-covid,, the visiting team usually played 3-5 of their starters while the home team played most regulars. Usually the 3-5 were a starting pitcher, 2 roster relievers, and 1-2 everyday players. Teams realized with the driving distances and the traffic, MLB players got more benefit working out in their training facilities than spending 4-6 hours riding busses. So at least in Florida, it was usually a games of AA/AAA players against mostly an MLB  roster. This year may be different because of the reduced ST. I don't know if the Arizona teams are different  due to their travel. 

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44 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

Anyway, Cespedes has seemed impressively competent on defense. That might hold?

For the Sox I like any player who appears to have a chance to be good defensively and offensively. And frankly I would prefer guys who are already good on defense. A guys offensive upticks come at unknown intervals. You can't make non athletic guys into good defenders because they lack the tools but you can make bad hitters into good hitters if they have the bat speed, some patience and intelligence.

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1 hour ago, MiddleCoastBias said:

Sounds like Rick Hahn has a plant in Soxtalk and is looking you see who he can start in RF without a riot, you guys ?

Don't worry I am not Rick, and I would probably do an even worse job than him if my efforts on OOTP are anything to go by! ?

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