The 1B Predicament

[mvp 78]

1 minute ago, Old Red said:

Casas went down on May 2nd. There has been No urgency whatsoever to fix the problem at 1B just like in past years.

Why should Cora rush to do it? He's got job security even if he stays at .500! 

[Old Red]

1 minute ago, mvp 78 said:

Why should Cora rush to do it? He's got job security even if he stays at .500! 

I agree, and that contract extension gives Cora extra cushion, and a long leash with JH.

[Hugh2]

7 minutes ago, Old Red said:

Casas went down on May 2nd. There has been No urgency whatsoever to fix the problem at 1B just like in past years.

Well Casas is (or at least was) their long term plan at 1B.  He went down this year. 

No MLB team has a good player in AAA ready to take over, unless that guy is a prospect working his way up.  THey have Toros' like us. 

Usually teams have a guy veteran who is willing to slide into 1B. 

[Bellhorn04]

14 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Why should Cora rush to do it? He's got job security even if he stays at .500! 

His mandate is clearly to stay at .500, and he's killing it!   

[notin]

18 minutes ago, Old Red said:

Casas went down on May 2nd. There has been No urgency whatsoever to fix the problem at 1B just like in past years.

There’s not much that can be done in May.  They’re using their internal option (Toro), and taking to other teams about AAA corner infield bats (notably Chicago’s Tim Elko and Philly’s Otto Kemp), but not many teams are selling yet, which is why numerous players around the league have gone down and not been replaced externally.

 I thought it was interesting Chicago called up Elko almost immediately after news of Boston’s interest went public.  Like they wanted to make sure he was going to work out before they traded away their more expensive first baseman.. 

[notin]

17 minutes ago, Hugh2 said:

Well Casas is (or at least was) their long term plan at 1B.  He went down this year. 

No MLB team has a good player in AAA ready to take over, unless that guy is a prospect working his way up.  THey have Toros' like us. 

Usually teams have a guy veteran who is willing to slide into 1B. 

And Boston had Romy Gonzalez and Abraham Toro…

[mvp 78]

22 minutes ago, Hugh2 said:

Well Casas is (or at least was) their long term plan at 1B.  He went down this year. 

No MLB team has a good player in AAA ready to take over, unless that guy is a prospect working his way up.  THey have Toros' like us. 

Usually teams have a guy veteran who is willing to slide into 1B. 

I'm not sure he is the plan anymore! 

[Hugh2]

1 minute ago, mvp 78 said:

I'm not sure he is the plan anymore! 

No he's not, I'm sure if the Sox could predict the future they would have traded him and moved Devers to 1B.  He might of put up the same stink but I think he'd do it and make the adjustment and settle in like he did at DH.  

[Old Red]

9 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

I'm not sure he is the plan anymore! 

I don’t know what Casas turned down for an extension, but that decision right now looks better for the Red Sox, but bad for him.

[notin]

1 hour ago, Old Red said:

I don’t know what Casas turned down for an extension, but that decision right now looks better for the Red Sox, but bad for him.

Can’t say without knowing what it was.  But it’s also not like Casas’ career is over.  Just this season.  Hes still only 25 years old and still has 3 full seasons until free agency…

[notin]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

I'm not sure he is the plan anymore! 

So you think they’ve given up on Casas because he got hurt?

[Bellhorn04]

22 minutes ago, notin said:

So you think they’ve given up on Casas because he got hurt?

At this point there are multiple reasons to give up on him and very little reason for optimism.  Which doesn't mean his career is over, but his value has shrunk to a very small amount.  His defense is lousy, he's had serious injuries and even his plate approach seems to have deteriorated a lot. 

[notin]

3 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

At this point there are multiple reasons to give up on him and very little reason for optimism.  Which doesn't mean his career is over, but his value has shrunk to a very small amount.  His defense is lousy, he's had serious injuries and even his plate approach seems to have deteriorated a lot. 

But also he’s 25, will only be first year arb, already here, not exactly tradable, willing to play first (which is a bigger deal in Boston than on most teams), and not threatened from behind by anyone in the system.

Get a stopgap for this year, and give Triston another shot next year.  What are the other options?  

[Bellhorn04]

6 minutes ago, notin said:

But also he’s 25, will only be first year arb, already here, not exactly tradable, willing to play first (which is a bigger deal in Boston than on most teams), and not threatened from behind by anyone in the system.

Get a stopgap for this year, and give Triston another shot next year.  What are the other options?  

The other options are to trade for one, sign one, or try Campbell there, I guess.

[jad]

HUGE MOVE!!!   As Estragon says, "WE"RE SAVED!!!!"

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/45273371/red-sox-acquire-1st-baseman-ryan-noda-angels-cash

Probably the best .137 hitter available!

 

 

 

[mvp 78]

1 hour ago, notin said:

So you think they’ve given up on Casas because he got hurt?

He's been hurt multiple times. Last year, Cora vented that it was taking him too long to come back from WOO. He does his own workout routine and doesn't follow Red Sox direction. It hasn't really helped his career either. Promoted in 2022, he's only earned 2.1 fWAR. He's an iconoclast and that doesn't work for the Boston Red Sox. He's not a guy you can count on or build around. He's shown he's more likely to be out or unproductive than a valuable member of the team. 

[mvp 78]

 

 

[notin]

1 hour ago, jad said:

HUGE MOVE!!!   As Estragon says, "WE"RE SAVED!!!!"

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/45273371/red-sox-acquire-1st-baseman-ryan-noda-angels-cash

Probably the best .137 hitter available!

 

 

 

That's the type of move to be expected in May.

Noda isn't horrible.   He's the less exciting version of Nolan Schanuel.   his carrying card offensively is his plate discipline.    Despite only hitting .137, he still has a higher OBP than Hamilton and not far off of Story, despite both having much higher averages...

He's a stopgap until actual options become available...

[drewski6]

21 minutes ago, notin said:

That's the type of move to be expected in May.

Noda isn't horrible.   He's the less exciting version of Nolan Schanuel.   his carrying card offensively is his plate discipline.    Despite only hitting .137, he still has a higher OBP than Hamilton and not far off of Story, despite both having much higher averages...

He's a stopgap until actual options become available...

And you think this is better than having any of RA, MM, Garcia brother in MLB?  Or do you mean stop gap until Campbell or somebody else internally can get some reps?

[drewski6]

We have too much talent to go shopping, my opinon.

[mvp 78]

13 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

We have too much talent to go shopping, my opinon.

Use the talent to go shopping for pitching. 

[drewski6]

No offense intended, but some of you are trying to present yourselves as new school, while simultaneously being a trend or two behind.

Whatever is current/hot/trending changes rapidly.  Bill James threw "moneyball" out the window 1.5 years after committing to it. Now you old school types might think that this shows that you shouldnt chase the trends because they are just going to change - so keep it old school - and you would be wrong too.

You gotta change, and you gotta change fast.  Or you'll get exploited.  For example: People threw high fastball with success, people stopped throwing it, people started throwing it again.  Had you threw the high heat all along, you would have gotten wrecked.  There was a reason why it went out of style and there was a reason it came back in.

Right now - its sell out literally everything for power.  Your nine best sluggers are your team and defense is considered, but thats why you want versatility and redundancy on defense.  So if someone goes down (Casas) you can replace him with your new ninth best slugger (whatever position that may be) and because you have so much versatility on D, you can figure it out.

Ideal defensive alignment, OBP chasing, lineup scrutiny.  All deemphasized right now.  Have your nine best sluggers in, and defense matters to an extent - but be willing to move guys around so you always have your nine best sluggers in.  Been this way for 2 years now.

[mvp 78]

6 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

Right now - its sell out literally everything for power.  Your nine best sluggers are your team and defense is considered, but thats why you want versatility and redundancy on defense.  So if someone goes down (Casas) you can replace him with your new ninth best slugger (whatever position that may be) and because you have so much versatility on D, you can figure it out.

Ideal defensive alignment, OBP chasing, lineup scrutiny.  All deemphasized right now.  Have your nine best sluggers in, and defense matters to an extent - but be willing to move guys around so you always have your nine best sluggers in.  Been this way for 2 years now.

Just because MLB is selling out for power right now doesn't mean it's the best way to play baseball. There were fewer games played in 1979 and more runs were scored per game back then than today. Back then it was about contact hitting, getting on base, moving runners over and was overall a more exciting game to watch. 

I don't think many of us on here are worried about being left behind. Our beliefs have evolved over time and will continue to do so. 

[drewski6]

7 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Just because MLB is selling out for power right now doesn't mean it's the best way to play baseball. There were fewer games played in 1979 and more runs were scored per game back then than today. Back then it was about contact hitting, getting on base, moving runners over and was overall a more exciting game to watch. 

I don't think many of us on here are worried about being left behind. Our beliefs have evolved over time and will continue to do so. 

Well pitching improvements are a big reason why, so its not particularly fair to judge what worked in 1979 vs today.  Part of the very reason why teams are selling out for power is because offense is down so if you are going to crack it, take the guaranteed runs cuz you cant count on those guys behind you to move you along, small ball you in or even get a hit, cuz pitchers are freaking nasty these days.  So if you get a mistake , punish it.

That being said, Im not necessarily endorsing everything current - but I do err on the side of new school generally

[drewski6]

44 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Use the talent to go shopping for pitching. 

Not against it, just against giving at-bats to a mediocre player over Roman or Mayer or Frosty-the-snowman-nixon or whoever is swinging a hot bat who we could call up jsut because such mediocre player is a worse defender and was therefore kicked to first base a while ago.  Because "he's a first-baseman"

[drewski6]

Even Josh Bell is a first baseman because he is a bad defender.  At some point in his career, he was moved to first base because hes a bad defender (it may have been college but still).  Roman Anthony is a better hitter and a better defender.  To advocate for Josh Bell over Roman is like saying I want the worse hitter and worse fielder and worse player on my team. Why? Because he was forced to move to first base a while ago and now has a "1B" after his name.

You arent going to ruin RA or MM or KC playing them at first base for a year.  They arent going to be so bad at first base that they send your team into a tailspin.  Theyll probably pick it up and be a better firstbaseman than any current "first baseman" because the reason they are not "first baseman" is because they were never the worst defender on their team.

Dont trade LaRoche for Kotchman and justify it by saying LaRoche was too good to be a backup and we needed a backup.

[mvp 78]

1 minute ago, drewski6 said:

Well pitching improvements are a big reason why, so its not particularly fair to judge what worked in 1979 vs today.  Part of the very reason why teams are selling out for power is because offense is down so if you are going to crack it, take the guaranteed runs cuz you cant count on those guys behind you to move you along, small ball you in or even get a hit, cuz pitchers are freaking nasty these days.  So if you get a mistake , punish it.

That being said, Im not necessarily endorsing everything current - but I do err on the side of new school generally

To say that pitching is the reason why runs are down is so weird. Hitting has also been given a lot of upgrades (better equipment, preparation, parks). If offense is down, maybe they are doing something wrong?!?!?

[drewski6]

34 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

To say that pitching is the reason why runs are down is so weird. Hitting has also been given a lot of upgrades (better equipment, preparation, parks). If offense is down, maybe they are doing something wrong?!?!?

Its not weird to suggest that a large part of the reason why offense is down is because todays changeups are yesterdays fastballs and the sweeper moves so freaking much and teams are pulling their pitcher before the dreaded third time through the lineup.

And you know this.

[mvp 78]

11 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

Its not weird to suggest that a large part of the reason why offense is down is because todays changeups are yesterdays fastballs and the sweeper moves so freaking much and teams are pulling their pitcher before the dreaded third time through the lineup.

And you know this.

It's not weird to say that runs are down because batters are striking out more than ever. 

And you know this. 

[drewski6]

11 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

It's not weird to say that runs are down because batters are striking out more than ever. 

And you know this. 

I do not think its weird to suggest that increased strikeouts are contributing to runs being down. I do not think its weird to suggest that strikeouts are increasing because approaches have changed. I do not think its weird to think that recent trends in approach (in this case more power, less contact) may do more harm than good. I do not think its weird to suggest that every change/trend/shift is not always for the better. 

I would disagree that offense is down for [insert any reason]. I think nothing in life happens for a singular reason and everything that has ever happened, happened because of a multitude of reasons.  I believe we live in a world of infinite variables.  If you took my comment for suggesting that [insert any reason] is the singular reason why offense is down, then you dont know me.  Im more likely to overthink the simple than oversimplify the complex.  Im Jewish.  I dont think I ever answered a question without first going "Hmmmm.....(beard stroke)..."