How do the White Sox justify not starting Nick Madrigal from the first game of the season now that they’re starting the year in the month of Who Knows When and on the date of TBD? Such firmness with the MLB, huh? All you have to know about whether MLB owners are negotiating in good faith is they had the month of May to come up with a proposal and they submitted it to the players on May 26th. MLB owners negotiate like Kevin Spacey in Seven mixed with Robert Redford in Indecent Proposal. “You have 48 hours to come to the table or we will have Avisail Garcia screw your wife.” Well, whatever happens happens as they say say. Once baseball returns, it will come back with larger rosters. I’ve heard some describe this as taxi squads. The team will have, say, 30 men on the roster, but there will be another fifteen guys on a taxi squad who can be called up at any time for injuries. Nick Madrigal shouldn’t even be on the taxi squad. He should be on the MLB roster. Back, during Spring Training 1.0, we were expecting Madrigal to get called up around the end of May. Well, that came and went, huh? So, back to my original question, how do the White Sox suppress Madrigal from the majors now? To get Leury Garcia time at 2nd base, where he’s started eight total games since 2015? Don’t be daft. Madrigal is the starter at 2nd base, when the season starts, and I’ve begun drafting him, as such. Yes, I’m currently taking part in fantasy baseball drafts. I have a problem! So, what can we expect from Nick Madrigal in 2020 fantasy baseball and what makes him a great dart throw?
The Prospectonator has Nick Madrigal down for the 4th best rookie projections for value per game, if the season were 162 games long. It also has him down for seven homers, which produces a hearty, full-throated cackle from yours truly. If baseball returns with Rock ‘n Jock fences that are only 120-foot deep, then, sure, Madrigal could hit that many homers. Or if famous White Sox Jack McDowell plants some beans on Chicago’s South Side, and Guaranteed Rate Stadium thrusts into the sky, like on beanstalk, and becomes the 2nd mile-high stadium in the majors, then, yes, Madrigal could hit seven homers. More than likely, he’s good for about two homers, depending on how many inside-the-park homers he can get in 82 games. Madrigal’s more about what he can do with speed and average, especially that contact, which is humma-na-humma-na. Last year in Triple-A, he had a 3.7% K-rate and 9.7% walk rate, hitting .331. I’m sorry, are you Ty Cobb? Madrigal will not win a batting title in the majors; he will win multiple. In a shortened season, he’s going to kill pitchers, unfamiliar with him, and might hit .330+ in his rookie season. His speed isn’t terrible either. He could steal 25+ bags in a full season, and, as I keep saying with a shortened season, steals will come fast — three in one game, five in a week — and Madrigal may only have 25+ steal speed, but could steal 15 bags in only 82 games. That contact rate, and his speed also means he could be hitting leadoff for the whole year. Madrigal makes sense at least hitting 2nd. By the way, in case you’ve forgot, the White Sox lineup is stacked. They have rookie favorite Luis Robert hitting eighth or ninth there’s so many bats in that lineup. For a shortened season, Madrigal should be going off the board around 120th overall, but is instead going way later than that, making him one of the strongest dart throws.
