In the windy city we have 2 young exciting teams either ready to win now with the Cubs or are 2 years away to be in October like the White Sox. The Cubs have all there top prospects in the show now and playing everyday while the White Sox have some prospects expecting to get the call up soon like Michael Kopech and Eloy Jimenez and they have some of there top prospects in the show now like Yoan Moncada. Yoan Moncada was the key piece that took Chris Sale to Boston being ranked the #1 prospect in MLB Top 100 before getting the call-up to play the last 2 months of 2017. Moncada struggled in his short rookie campaign batting 231 with 8 home runs, striking out 74 out of 199 at-bats, and committing 8 errors in 54 games at 2nd base, but don't let these number discourage your excitement for this phenom. Yoan's bar is set so high with his above average tools, entering 2018 at the age of 23, and for his versatility with the bat and glove. For defense his athleticism gives him the opportunity to play 3B,SS, or 2B which increases his value, has the arm of Robinson Cano and the glove work of Jose Iglesias. For his hitting Yoan's a switch hitter that has above average power on both sides of the plate and power to all sides of the field. Yoan is also an above average runner where we can see him cover enough ground in the grass and can see him being a threat on the base pads. The difficulties that Moncada experienced in the show last year was his impatience at the plate and would go for the Top10 play instead of making the right play. With the league's desire in home runs and less care about striking out, Moncada was a perfect example of the trend where he struck out 37% of his at-bats which is above the average strike out rate for the average MLB player. The errors he committed on the field were more of flash then careless mistakes which is nice to see that he doesn't struggle with the basics, but needs to understand that sometimes you're hurting the team more when forcing to get on SportsCenter then letting SportsCenter come to you. This is Moncada's year to blossom for now settling into the league, less hype from last year and for having a disappointing rookie year. If Moncada calms down and lets the game come to him then we can see Moncada being in the talks of an All Star candidate this year. Moncada needs to stop chasing every pitch and let his pitch come to him while not being home run hungry, and to let the glove do more of the talking. If we can these adjustments from Yoan and getting a full season under his belt. Then we can expect him to play around 120-140 games batting 265-285 with 20-30 hr's, 65-85 rbi's, 15-25 sb's, and striking out well over 140 times. It's an exciting time for baseball fans with all the young talent in the league and a more exciting time to be on the SouthSide with all this young surplus of talent that's ready to blossom in a matter of a couple games. Don't be surprise in 2-4 years from now we start talking about Moncada being a face of the MLB or of the White Sox's, just have to be patient. Once this monster get's into his groove, Moncada will never look back and so won't the ChiSox. So get ready Chicago because Yoan's here to stay.
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