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.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

There absolutely needs to be a spot for Yermin Mercedes on opening day.

Madrigal is catching?

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Vaughn hit a bomb in today's game also. Looks like he will be a very good "mistake" hitter. He also stretched out and snared a line drive down the line and took a double away from a guy in this game.

Mendick had a nice double and will take a walk also. I think that he will start with the big club and we'll see from there.

Madrigal made a very nice play at second in the game, ranging deep to his left and having to throw a guy out from the outfield grass behind 2nd base. I still think that he will start at 3A. He looks fine to me at bat.

The pitchers who threw today looked balanced and with good stuff. No glaring warnings that were apparent. 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.

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An Ode to the Texas man who shot an Antifa terrorist:

Oh, he might have went on livin'
But he made one fatal slip
When he tried to match the Ranger
With the big iron on his hip

This guy gets it

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Whoops, I meant - At the plate, not behind it. I'm not impressed yet but this is just my initial impression. No way I'm writing him off just yet. I'm excited to watch him develop this year.

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

He will be considered elite until JORR declares otherwise.

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I am kinda done seeing Nicky Delmonico.

Bad version of Dan Pasqua.

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Sherman remarked, "Well, Grant, we've had the devil's own day, haven't we?" Grant looked up. "Yes," he replied, followed by a puff. "Yes. Lick 'em tomorrow, though."

Tsunami of greatness

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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.

I can almost see Mercedes being a huge fan favorite with the fans. The baseball world loves a fat man that can rake and Mercedes is fat and he can really rake. The guy actually looks pretty comfortable behind the plate as a catcher also. Looks like he can handle pitches pretty well and present a good target for the pitchers. If he continues to hit bombs, then don't be surprised if McCann isn't traded for pitching. Its just a matter of time before some contender is going to lose their starting catcher and McCann will be the best one available. I love McCann but I think that the Sox should strike while the iron is hot and make a trade if they get the help that they will need to win a championship.

_________________
An Ode to the Texas man who shot an Antifa terrorist:

Oh, he might have went on livin'
But he made one fatal slip
When he tried to match the Ranger
With the big iron on his hip

I just cannot believe how this team has changed within the last year. Last year we had probably the worst outfield group in all of baseball, especially offensively. Now the guys like Engel and Nicky are battling it out for sub jobs and they themselves has shown themselves to be decent major leaguers. I love it and wish all of them well. It also looks like some of the young outfielders that will end up in 3A have good talent themselves and could have teams interested in trading for them. There also appears to me to be good prospects for the replacement of Abreu and Encarnacion down the road as the DH and 1B spots in the line-up. Certainly Vaughn but also Sheets and possibly the unknown that is Burger.

_________________
An Ode to the Texas man who shot an Antifa terrorist:

Oh, he might have went on livin'
But he made one fatal slip
When he tried to match the Ranger
With the big iron on his hip

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.

We'll see. However, as I see it, McCann will be the first player talked about as a trade asset for pitching talent. I'd still like them to trade for a real ACE pitcher. We can talk about our starting staff all that we want to but we do not have a for sure ACE on this staff and Lopez, Cease, Rodon, and company all have big questions on them. I'm just being realistic. In addition to McCann, the White Sox also have a couple of absolute studs in the offing that could be used to acquire an ACE pitcher in the person of Vaughn and Madrigal as well as several high prospect pitchers also.

_________________
An Ode to the Texas man who shot an Antifa terrorist:

Oh, he might have went on livin'
But he made one fatal slip
When he tried to match the Ranger
With the big iron on his hip

You are not getting an ACE for a deal involving McCann

_________________
"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

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.

_________________
An Ode to the Texas man who shot an Antifa terrorist:

Oh, he might have went on livin'
But he made one fatal slip
When he tried to match the Ranger
With the big iron on his hip

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 loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

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.

_________________
An Ode to the Texas man who shot an Antifa terrorist:

Oh, he might have went on livin'
But he made one fatal slip
When he tried to match the Ranger
With the big iron on his hip

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.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

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

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.

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.

_________________
An Ode to the Texas man who shot an Antifa terrorist:

Oh, he might have went on livin'
But he made one fatal slip
When he tried to match the Ranger
With the big iron on his hip

I said before that I am not talking about a team giving up an ACE straight up for McCann. However, I am saying that a contending team that loses its good starting catcher to a season ending injury would absolutely be calling the White Sox for McCann's availability. He's very good and very affordable. In that scenario also, the interested team would probably have to offer some good player or players in return if they want to remain as contenders.

My thoughts regarding the Sox going after an "Ace", however, is a different situation. I think that if a team decides to rebuild its team, lower salary, etc. , then the White Sox should be positioned to go after that "Ace" and using McCann as part of a trade scenario would make sense to me.

_________________
An Ode to the Texas man who shot an Antifa terrorist:

Oh, he might have went on livin'
But he made one fatal slip
When he tried to match the Ranger
With the big iron on his hip

I'm a big believer in having a third catcher who is bat-first, as long as one of the other catchers can be the backup 1B. Let Mercedes catch once every 10 games and pinch hit a lot. With a 26 man roster, a guy like Engel should never be allowed to hit in late RISP situations.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

I don't think the Sox have enough in the minors to trade for an Ace. The package would probably start with Cease, and I think that would be idiotic.

I'd hate to lose McCann. He's good for the pitching staff. There's value in in mind-syncing with the mercurial entities known as pitchers.

Yeah. That grind took it out of him because of how terrible their other catchers were last year. It would be interesting to know how much weight McCann dropped last season.

_________________
An Ode to the Texas man who shot an Antifa terrorist:

Oh, he might have went on livin'
But he made one fatal slip
When he tried to match the Ranger
With the big iron on his hip