Madrigal one of eleven on MLB's watch list

[Lake Shore Drive]

MLB has our boy Nick as one of the more intriguing names to follow this Spring:

Here are 11 players to keep an eye on this spring


And yet you'd never know this if you were to go by Keith Law's (The Athletic) take on the kid:

Nick Madrigal left out of Keith Law's top 100 prospect list

 

[navamind]

his strikeout rates are insane. has had a K% under 5% at every level (including a 3.7% in AAA). I think that bodes very well in regards to his contact abilities. ZiPS and Steamer project him to have a solid rookie season too. ZiPS has him as the #16 prospect overall

ZiPS Top 100 Prospects

he's #41 on Eric Longenhagen's top 100:

2020 Top 100 Prospects

41. Nick Madrigal, 2B, CHW
Video
Drafted: 1st Round, 2018 from Oregon State (CHW)
Age 22.9 Height 5′ 7″ Weight 165 Bat / Thr R / R FV 55
Tool Grades (Present/Future)
Hit Raw Power Game Power Run Fielding Throw
60/70 45/45 30/30 70/60 60/60 50/50
Madrigal is a contact and glove-oriented second baseman without much power.

Madrigal had the lowest swinging strike rate in the minors last year at a minuscule 2.2% — only Luis Arraez (2.8%) came close to that in the big leagues in 2019. Short players have short swings and Madrigal is no exception. He pulled and lifted the ball more last season than he did the year before, but unless the big league baseball is particularly kind to about a dozen of Magic Man’s wall-scraping fly balls, he doesn’t project to hit for more than doubles power. That’s fine, though. Second base has the lowest league-wide wRC+ of all the non-catching positions right now and several punchless contact hitters have had good careers (Arraez was a 2 WAR player in 90 games, Joe Panik was a 50 FV, etc.), and most all of them are nowhere near the runner or defender that Madrigal is — he has some of the fastest hands I’ve seen around the bag, and he’s going to steal outs because of how quickly he turns feeds from Tim Anderson around to first base. He doesn’t have a high ceiling because of the lack of power but I consider Madrigal a low-variance, above-average regular at second.

 

[Lake Shore Drive]

I think Law is placing a little too much emphasis on Madrigal's lack of power. It's obvious the Sox took this into account when taking him 4th in the '18 draft. They obviously liked his defense, speed, ability to get on base, to move runners along, and as you pointed out, to also avoid the gimme strikeout. When you put the ball in play, you at least have a chance at causing some damage. Maybe if our lineup contained a lack of power, Law would have a point. But the other 8 hitters are all capable of 20+ homers, with half of them capable of 30+. I don't think power is going to be an issue for this year's squad. It's important to have runners on base as well.

 

[idseer]

I think Law is placing a little too much emphasis on Madrigal's lack of power. It's obvious the Sox took this into account when taking him 4th in the '18 draft. They obviously liked his defense, speed, ability to get on base, to move runners along, and as you pointed out, to also avoid the gimme strikeout. When you put the ball in play, you at least have a chance at causing some damage. Maybe if our lineup contained a lack of power, Law would have a point. But the other 8 hitters are all capable of 20+ homers, with half of them capable of 30+. I don't think power is going to be an issue for this year's squad. It's important to have runners on base as well.

holy shit! you fucking hypocrite! what a joke.

 

[richig07]

I think Law is placing a little too much emphasis on Madrigal's lack of power. It's obvious the Sox took this into account when taking him 4th in the '18 draft. They obviously liked his defense, speed, ability to get on base, to move runners along, and as you pointed out, to also avoid the gimme strikeout. When you put the ball in play, you at least have a chance at causing some damage. Maybe if our lineup contained a lack of power, Law would have a point. But the other 8 hitters are all capable of 20+ homers, with half of them capable of 30+. I don't think power is going to be an issue for this year's squad. It's important to have runners on base as well.

Well, I think he's talking about Madrigal, purely as an individual prospect. Not taking into account the rest of the lineup makes sense.

He's going to have to get hits at a Tony Gwynn caliber clip in order to push his OPS up into the low/mid .800's consistently. HR's just don't seem like they're going to happen (hope I'm wrong - but it's the truth). He barely slugged over .400 in the minors last year.

That's going to cap your offensive upside. I think the article was pretty clear in stating that he could still be a very solid regular at 2B for years.

 

[Lake Shore Drive]

Well, I think he's talking about Madrigal, purely as an individual prospect. Not taking into account the rest of the lineup makes sense.

He's going to have to get hits at a Tony Gwynn caliber clip in order to push his OPS up into the low/mid .800's consistently. HR's just don't seem like they're going to happen (hope I'm wrong - but it's the truth). He barely slugged over .400 in the minors last year.

That's going to cap your offensive upside. I think the article was pretty clear in stating that he could still be a very solid regular at 2B for years.

Actually, no argument at all to what you said. My only take was if it's ONLY power that Madrigal seems to be missing, at least from a prospect point of view, then he deserves to be more highly regarded, being that he shines in so many other areas. I'd still like to see him tho rack up some doubles and triples by hitting the gaps and using his legs for those extra bases. That can and should be expected as well. We have enough guys on the team who can go deep. I want this guy to be on base for many of those.

 

[Jiddy]

Actually, no argument at all to what you said. My only take was if it's ONLY power that Madrigal seems to be missing, at least from a prospect point of view, then he deserves to be more highly regarded, being that he shines in so many other areas. I'd still like to see him tho rack up some doubles and triples by hitting the gaps and using his legs for those extra bases. That can and should be expected as well. We have enough guys on the team who can go deep. I want this guy to be on base for many of those.

Barry Bonds got fat...No reason to think Madrigal can't either...especially if Keuchel is dropping dime on 25k dinners for our organization. (Yastangibles strike again!)

 

[Lake Shore Drive]

Barry Bonds got fat...No reason to think Madrigal can't either...especially if Keuchel is dropping dime on 25k dinners for our organization. (Yastangibles strike again!)

Well, you see when you take into consideration that.......wait, what?

 

[Jiddy]

Well, you see when you take into consideration that.......wait, what?

Dallas Keuchel empties his wallet, preps for new start with White Sox

Undoubtedly, they’ll never forget the evening, particularly with the toast given by Keuchel’s mother, Teresa. She welcomed everyone, brought up the White Sox’s lofty expectations, raised her glass, and then brought the house down:

“Playoffs or die, (expletive)!’’


Dude buys the whole organization dinner spare no expense...and has his mom go up and speak, probably sloshed to all high hell...and she busts out "Playoffs or die, f*ckers." This guy was our best signing by far.

 

[Lake Shore Drive]

Dallas Keuchel empties his wallet, preps for new start with White Sox

Undoubtedly, they’ll never forget the evening, particularly with the toast given by Keuchel’s mother, Teresa. She welcomed everyone, brought up the White Sox’s lofty expectations, raised her glass, and then brought the house down:

“Playoffs or die, (expletive)!’’


Dude buys the whole organization dinner spare no expense...and has his mom go up and speak, probably sloshed to all high hell...and she busts out "Playoffs or die, f*ckers." This guy was our best signing by far.

Hey, now that I read that, I agree!!! I like Mom a lot.....that's my kinda gal!!

 

[Mingo]

@richig07 Challenged me when I said - I thought Madrigal was more major league ready than Robert. I was wrong, of course. You guys don't take me seriously do you? Robert is cruising through Spring Training - feeling no pressure. Madrigal is pressing at the plate.

I've seen two glimpses of Madrigal this Spring. On one he hit a lazy roller to SS and then he accelerates down the baseline and came very close to beating out the throw. He ran out a routine grounder like it was game 7 of the World Series.
On a daily highlight - Someone hits a swan dive fly ball to short center and Madrigal turns his back to Homeplate and sprints after the ball like he was going to catch it on the dead run over his shoulder. He has to pull up because the Sox CF is also inching toward the ball. The ball falls between the two. Madrigal picks up the ball immediately and guns a runner out at home plate. I'd pay to see that kind of baseball.

 

[richig07]

@richig07 Challenged me when I said - I thought Madrigal was more major league ready than Robert. I was wrong, of course. You guys don't take me seriously do you? Robert is cruising through Spring Training - feeling no pressure. Madrigal is pressing at the plate.

I've seen two glimpses of Madrigal this Spring. On one he hit a lazy roller to SS and then he accelerates down the baseline and came very close to beating out the throw. He ran out a routine grounder like it was game 7 of the World Series.
On a daily highlight - Someone hits a swan dive fly ball to short center and Madrigal turns his back to Homeplate and sprints after the ball like he was going to catch it on the dead run over his shoulder. He has to pull up because the Sox CF is also inching toward the ball. The ball falls between the two. Madrigal picks up the ball immediately and guns a runner out at home plate. I'd pay to see that kind of baseball.

Yeah, I was a dick on that one. I stand by the opinion but I went hard. My battles with Jiddy and Iddy make me trigger happy, at times.

Robert's tools are more ready. However, on the same token - he was a bit more volatile than Madrigal in the minors. Insane hot streaks before going cold, then hot again, etc. We'll see how that plays out when the real season rolls around. I could see him being like Eloy and taking a couple hundred AB's to get fully going.

 

[idseer]

Yeah, I was a dick on that one. I stand by the opinion but I went hard. My battles with Jiddy and Iddy make me trigger happy, at times.

Robert's tools are more ready. However, on the same token - he was a bit more volatile than Madrigal in the minors. Insane hot streaks before going cold, then hot again, etc. We'll see how that plays out when the real season rolls around. I could see him being like Eloy and taking a couple hundred AB's to get fully going.

hey, don't blame being a jerk on us. you do that quite well on your own.