It's great to be watching baseball again!

Yermin Mercedes - I'm probably overreacting to his Spring Training success, but Yermin Mercedes needs to be on the 26 man roster. He has a good aggressive quick and powerful swing. He's too old to justify keeping him down in the minors to get more development from extra at-bats. Zack Collins is younger and he's worse behind the plate and at-bat; he needs to stay down to get the extra practice.

Nicky Del Monico has looked great so far. He's changed his batting stance and it's paying dividends. I read he played last season with a partially torn labrum in his non-throwing arm. I don't know if there's room on the 26 for him since I'm rooting for Mercedes to make the 26.

Nick Madrigal doesn't look great behind the plate. It looks like he's going to hit into a lot of double plays in the early part of his career. His defense looks just a hair worse than Yomer, so still elite. I think the argument to keep him up is to get him through some expected growing pains. Pitchers have very little fear from him because he can't punish them with a HR threat. Before spring training started I heard an interview from Nick where he said confidently that he didn't know what he needed to work on the make the major league roster. Given the trouble Eloy and Yoan had when they first came up, I think he's a little too cocky for my taste.

Luis Robert looks as great as advertised. I bet he beats Zip's projected slugging % of .455. Someone should ask him to stop sliding headfirst during the spring training games. He doesn't need to risk another hand injury at this point.

Andrew Vaughn - Can't wait to see this guy come up to the Majors. I bet he starts 2021 as the sox starting DH or First baseman.

Madrigal is catching?

The only guy to me who is done is Palka. The guy just looks like he has forgotten how to hit the baseball. I feel sorry for the guy but he looks like he's done.

I couldn't agree more. He looked bad today.

I couldn't agree more. He looked bad today.

This guy gets it

I am kinda done seeing Nicky Delmonico.

It's great to be watching baseball again!

Yermin Mercedes - I'm probably overreacting to his Spring Training success, but Yermin Mercedes needs to be on the 26 man roster. He has a good aggressive quick and powerful swing. He's too old to justify keeping him down in the minors to get more development from extra at-bats. Zack Collins is younger and he's worse behind the plate and at-bat; he needs to stay down to get the extra practice.

Nicky Del Monico has looked great so far. He's changed his batting stance and it's paying dividends. I read he played last season with a partially torn labrum in his non-throwing arm. I don't know if there's room on the 26 for him since I'm rooting for Mercedes to make the 26.

Nick Madrigal doesn't look great behind the plate. It looks like he's going to hit into a lot of double plays in the early part of his career. His defense looks just a hair worse than Yomer, so still elite. I think the argument to keep him up is to get him through some expected growing pains. Pitchers have very little fear from him because he can't punish them with a HR threat. Before spring training started I heard an interview from Nick where he said confidently that he didn't know what he needed to work on the make the major league roster. Given the trouble Eloy and Yoan had when they first came up, I think he's a little too cocky for my taste.

Luis Robert looks as great as advertised. I bet he beats Zip's projected slugging % of .455. Someone should ask him to stop sliding headfirst during the spring training games. He doesn't need to risk another hand injury at this point.

Andrew Vaughn - Can't wait to see this guy come up to the Majors. I bet he starts 2021 as the sox starting DH or First baseman.

As am I. Also, if Adam Engel could fall into the Springfield Mystery Spot like Ozzie Smith did in Homer at the Bat, that would be great.

Sox should just roll with a five-man bench and make Madrigal the opening day second baseman. Engel, Mendick, Leury, McCann and Mercedes. A lot can go wrong with Edwin Encarnacion, it would be wise to get Mercedes acclamated to the bigs should he be needed to fill in.

Hate the idea of trading McCann unless its a really hot deal. But truth is I dont see them getting anyone I'd rather have in the current starting five than status quo (Giolito, Keuchel, Lopez, Cease and Gonzalez) and Kopech will replace the weakest of the herd within a few weeks. Reinforcements for the bullpen are pretty imminent with Dunning available by May and Rodon by August.

Obviously its not impossible to upgrade the likes of Rey Lopez, Gio Gonzalez or whatever will fill out the back end of the bullpen. It is however very unlikely James McCann will be able to net a player who meets that threshold.

You are not getting an ACE for a deal involving McCann

Not by himself you won't. My POINT though is that McCann has a lot of real value. Good two way catchers are one of the most valuable commodities in baseball. McCann can be used in a lot of ways, either in a BIG DEAL to land an Ace or in a straight up deal to land a good starter, great reliever, or a couple of stud prospects. And this is exactly how the White Sox are going to use him in the coming season.

You live in a dream world when it comes to McCann. He is not valuable enough to be part of a package for an ACE unless he is just a throw in at the end of the deal. He is not going to get you a good starter straight up. He is not getting you a great reliever.

He is a back up catcher that came back down to earth after a really good half season.

You are WRONG. He is a top 6-8 all around catcher in baseball right now. You can count on virtually one hand the number of good two way catchers in the game and the White Sox have two of them. You are the one who significantly undervalues him by calling a "back-up". When a contender loses their starting catcher, the White Sox will be the first team that they call.

You live in a dream world when it comes to McCann. He is not valuable enough to be part of a package for an ACE unless he is just a throw in at the end of the deal. He is not going to get you a good starter straight up. He is not getting you a great reliever.

He is a back up catcher that came back down to earth after a really good half season.

He is a good back up catcher. He calls a good game and handles pitchers well. The Sox are lucky to have him. But there is a reason they went so heavy on Grandal. They knew what McCann was. He is not a top 6-8 catcher in the league.

Any team that would trade for McCann would presumably be wa ting to win in 2020, and any team trying to win in 2020 isn't going to give up an ace starter (or really any above-average starter). It would be one step forward and two steps back. There's no match, unless you get a guy demanding a trade or whatever

McCann is rated as a quality major league starting catcher by outfits that analyze talent. That is the plain truth of it. Signing Grandal was done for a couple of reasons, the primary one being that Grandal is considered the best hitting catcher in all of baseball and is a switch hitter which helps balance the Sox line-up offensively. The other reason is that last season the Sox did not have a 2nd catcher that could hit worth a shit nor catch either. And because of that McCann wore down from them having to use him so much.

So the Sox made a choice and instead of ponying up and re-signing McCann for a worthy contract based on one really good season, they decided to sign Grandal who is the best catcher in baseball. It was a smart decision for sure but doesn't mean that McCann wasn't a good major league starting catcher.

He only had 1 bad month. July. OPS+ of 35. Every other month he was at least 106 or above. That July really killed his year end rate, which was 109. Grandal's was 119.