5/1 vs the city that always sleeps

[Palodios]

The real need is an impact player in LF.

 

That is a position with a significant amount of depth in the major leagues, and a great place to hide a strong bat/ weak glove type player, and somehow we've ended up with a platoon of .600 OPS hitters with mediocre defense in Gomes/Sizemore.

 

Gomes is great against lefties, he really is. But he is an automatic out against righties, posting up very low OBPs for most seasons of his career.

 

It doesn't need to be Stanton/Manny Ramirez, but it certainly would be nice to have a good lefthanded bat to platoon with him in left that has some legs.

 

Its a shame the Dodgers overpaid for Ethier so badly. His .308/.387/.515/.903 stats against righties would go well with Gomes, since both have such brutal platoon splits.

Edited May 2, 2014 by Palodios

[a700hitter]

The core of the team changed with the 2011 trade with the Dodgers. A changing core is not the reason for the frustrating performance in April. Bigger changes to the core were made last year when we fielded a new first baseman, right fielder. Left fielder, shortstop, third baseman and a whole new bullpen. This season we replaced our CFer and SS. Everything else is the same as 2012.

 

The difference is a fall off in performance. Last season, Buch burst out of the gate with 11 strait wins and a minuscule ERA. His drop off has been huge and probably the major contribution to our slow start. Pedroia has been a shadow of himself. He is the offensive key. When he gets hot, Ortiz will see more pitches to hit. Victorino has only played a handful of games. Uehara has been money, but he has shown signs of being human unlike last year. We can't expect him to replace last year's performance. The reason for the spotty below .500 start is not a changing core. That happened last year. The reason is a drop off in performance.

[SoxFanForsyth]

The real need is an impact player in LF.

 

That is a position with a significant amount of depth in the major leagues, and a great place to hide a strong bat/ weak glove type player, and somehow we've ended up with a platoon of .600 OPS hitters with mediocre defense in Gomes/Sizemore.

 

Gomes is great against lefties, he really is. But he is an automatic out against righties, posting up very low OBPs for most seasons of his career.

 

It doesn't need to be Stanton/Manny Ramirez, but it certainly would be nice to have a good lefthanded bat to platoon with him in left that has some legs.

 

Its a shame the Dodgers overpaid for Ethier so badly. His .308/.387/.515/.903 stats against righties would go well with Gomes, since both have such brutal platoon splits.

 

You could get Ethier plus a good chunk of money (taking his AAV down to 11-13mm/yr) for probably Ranaudo, to be honest. I'm not sure how much I value Ranaudo, I'd have to think about it, but either way he's not a blue chipper and Ethier, even with his platoon issues, is a consistent 120-125 wRC+ player.

[Palodios]

You could get Ethier plus a good chunk of money (taking his AAV down to 11-13mm/yr) for probably Ranaudo, to be honest. I'm not sure how much I value Ranaudo, I'd have to think about it, but either way he's not a blue chipper and Ethier, even with his platoon issues, is a consistent 120-125 wRC+ player.

 

These are Ethier's career numbers against lefties:

.233/.292/.347/.639

Those are abysmal. He is a platoon player with meh defense. He'd fit very well with Gomes as a platoon, but the Dodgers would need to eat a lot more money to get prospects for him.

[User Name]

So some of us can't read here?

[Palodios]

So some of us can't read here?

 

I read the post, but wanted to underline exactly how bad the platoon numbers were, and that 11-12 million a year would still be way too much for AE.

[User Name]

I read the post, but wanted to underline exactly how bad the platoon numbers were, and that 11-12 million a year would still be way too much for AE.

 

Sorry, i wasn't talking about you. I'm talking about a700 (as usual) taking one of my posts out of context. I clearly stated that they are having trouble right now because they're sucking with RISP and there are no excuses for that. What my initial post stated was that there will be growing pains as the core of this team changes. I also don't think a700 understands what a team's "core" actually is. A bunch of complementary pieces don't form a team's core. But guys like XB who profile as cornerstones of this franchise are a whole different deal and can't just be replaced on a whim.

[a700hitter]

Stanton is a pipe dream like King Felix was a few years ago. Stanton isn't going anywhere.

[mvp 78]

So some of us can't read here?

 

You have seen the gamethreads, right?

[a700hitter]

Unless their is a big drop off in ticket sales or some other sign of waning interest or support, we will not see any significant in season acquisition(s). Heck, we won the Championship last season. This season is all about paying homage to the banner and honoring the anniversary of the 2004 team

[User Name]

You have seen the gamethreads, right?

 

Touche

[Bellhorn04]

The AL East is a pigpile so far. Baltimore has the best run differential, at a cool -1.

[a700hitter]

The AL East is a pigpile so far. Baltimore has the best run differential, at a cool -1.

Which is all the more reason why we will not make any in season moves. We are currently competitive with that pig pile. As long as we remain in the pile, there will be no acquisitions or significant moves.

[mvp 78]

It is May 2nd, right?

[a700hitter]

Your point is that you can read a calendar?

[iortiz]

Lol!