Be Careful What You Ask For

[Peter Welch]

From the "Be Careful What You Ask For" file:

Milwaukee pitcher (and former Guardians' pitcher) demanded to be traded after being demoted to the bullpen by the Brewers the other day.

So yesterday the Brewers traded him to the White Sox (ha ha!) for OF-1B Andrew Vaughn, who was in AAA.  

Civale goes from a playoff contender to the basement.

By the way, Vaughn has been a bust since being the 3^rd overall pick by the White Sox in 2019.  Vaughn was taken 2 picks before Riley Greene that year.

Peter

[christopher tower]

LOL!! Yes, I just saw that. Maybe Civale will be happy if the Sox slot him into the rotation and he gets to start.

-cbt

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[Paul Meloche]

I remember hoping Vaughn would fall to the Tigers that year. 

I don’t have the numbers if front of me, but my sense is that Vaughn has had a generally similar career to Tork - slugging college first basemen who have not had sustained ML success. 

I suspect the very good but not great year Tork is having in ‘25 is better than anything Vaughn has produced in the majors.  

Paul M.

On Jun 13, 2025, at 8:55 AM, christopher tower <gmrtig...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Peter Welch]

I've made the same comparison between Vaughn and Tork, who were both great college hitters.

Vaughn had 91 OPS+ (.705 OPS with 15 homers and 48 RBIs) as a rookie at age 23 for the White Sox.

Tork had 72 OPS+ (.604 OPS) at age 22 as a rookie for the Tigers.

Vaughn had 111 OPS+ (.750 OPS with 17 homers and 76 RBIs) at age 24 in 2022 in his 2^nd season.

Tork had 107 OPS+ (.758 OPS with 31 homers and 94 RBIs) at age 23 in his 2nd season.

Vaughn had 102 OPS+ (.743 OPS with 21 homers and 80 RBIs) the 3rd season in 2023 at age 25.

Tork had 89 OPS+ (.669 OPS with 10 homers and 39 RBIs) in his 3rd season at age 24.

Vaughn had 98 OPS+ (.699 OPS with 19 homers and 70 RBIs) in his 4th season last year.

Tork currently has 134 OPS+ and .836 OPS in his 4th season this year.

Vaughn had 49 OPS+ (.531 OPS) with 5 homers and 19 RBIs this year in his 5th season.

You could argue that Vaughn has done better and been more consistent than Tork.

Vaughn hasn't been great and was seen as a disappointment but was mostly around or slightly above league average in his first 4 seasons.  Tork had a couple of terrible seasons, one slightly above-average season, and this year has been well above-average.  Vaughn tanked this year, got demoted to AAA, and the Sox gave up on him and traded him yesterday for an unhappy mediocre veteran pitcher.

The White Sox don't seem to develop hitters very well.  Vaughn never developed into a star and Luis Robert, Jr. has regressed terribly after looking like a potential future 5-tool superstar.  The Sox also had Yoan Moncada and Eloy Jimenez and they looked like potential future stars but never really developed.

I could see both Vaughn and Robert, Jr. doing better in a different organization.  If the Tigers could get Robert, Jr. for cheap he'd be worth a shot.

Peter

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From: detroit...@googlegroups.com <detroit...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Paul Meloche <meloc...@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, June 13, 2025 2:35 PM
To: christopher tower <gmrtig...@gmail.com>
Cc: detroit...@googlegroups.com <detroit...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: Be Careful What You Ask For

 

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