Mets (Senga) vs Red Sox (Dobbins): 5/19/25, 6:45pm

[Brandon Glick]

Kodai Senga has been really, really good this year. His WHIP is higher than his ERA! Tough matchup on a Monday.

[mvp 78]

Senga has an xFIP of 4.21. Sox are going to cause a bit of regression in this one IMO. 

[Maxbialystock]

The Mets have the best pitching in MLB and are tied with the Dodgers, also 29-18, for the 2d best record in MLB.  Detroit is best at 31-16.  They are ranked 4th in runs scored and 4th in team ERA.  The Mets batters have scored the 12th most runs.

So tonight's game is a no-brainer and the Sox will fall to 23-26.   Except that baseball has a vast capacity for surprising us.  Thus will I be watching the game intently.  Cora has said publicly his rotation (not including Crochet) needs to "step up."  

Breslow, the guy who brought in Crochet, a terrific acquisition, is also the guy who dumped Sale (and paid his salary with the Braves where he won the NL Cy Young) and brought in a disaster named Giolito for a cool $40M for missing one season and stumbling this one.  Funny thing, but Breslow was a MLB pitcher for 10 seasons.  

My opinion, which ain't worth much, is that all this hullaboo about 1b and Devers is Breslow's way of covering up this disastrous pitching staff.  Despite the brilliance of Crochet, the team ERA is ranked 20th in MLB.  Breslow has tried to get us to believe that the team is faltering because Devers won't play 1b (even though Devers' OPS of .920, all as the DH, is his highest ever).  

 

[TheSplinteredSplendor]

24 minutes ago, Maxbialystock said:

 Breslow has tried to get us to believe that the team is faltering because Devers won't play 1b (even though Devers' OPS of .920, all as the DH, is his highest ever).  

 

That's kinda misleading.

If devers was at 1B with a .920 OPS and someone like yoshi was in the DH spot with an OPS of .750 or better, wouldn't that be an overall improvement?

[Maxbialystock]

38 minutes ago, TheSplinteredSplendor said:

That's kinda misleading.

If devers was at 1B with a .920 OPS and someone like yoshi was in the DH spot with an OPS of .750 or better, wouldn't that be an overall improvement?

Whoa, Nellie.  I should have said so, but I believe very strongly that Devers' .920 OPS is mostly because he has embraced the DH position.  I also believe that trying to play 1b this season would be a big distraction and result in his OPS plummeting--to say nothing of the increased risk of injury.

About Yoshida's .750 OPS.  Gonzalez's OPS is .785 and he is due back this week to play 1b.

I am sympathetic to Breslow's trying to get some use out of Yoshida's $105M contract.   Same goes for Story's $140M contract.  In Story's last season for the Rockies, his WAR was 4.3.  Now in his 4th season with the Sox, his cumulative WAR  with the Sox is 4.2.   DD struggled with a similar problem when Hanley Ramirez and Pedro Sandoval played for the Sox.  But that Sox team was way better than this one.  

And that's the point, isn't it?  Our problem is that the pitching stinks, and there doesn't seem to be much Breslow can do about it that in the short term.  It did not help that he dumped Sale and brought in Giolito.  

 

[TheSplinteredSplendor]

5 minutes ago, Maxbialystock said:

Whoa, Nellie.  I should have said so, but I believe very strongly that Devers' .920 OPS is mostly because he has embraced the DH position.  I also believe that trying to play 1b this season would be a big distraction and result in his OPS plummeting--to say nothing of the increased risk of injury.

You can believe whatever you like, that doesn't make it true.

And the "increased risk of injury" is way over-blown. How many 1B go down for an injury every year due to playing in the field........

[TheSplinteredSplendor]

9 minutes ago, Maxbialystock said:

 

About Yoshida's .750 OPS.  Gonzalez's OPS is .785 and he is due back this week to play 1b.

 

 

gonzalez's OPS is a 52 at bat sample size. It's .672 over his career while yoshi's is .776 for his career.

[moonslav59]

36 minutes ago, TheSplinteredSplendor said:

gonzalez's OPS is a 52 at bat sample size. It's .672 over his career while yoshi's is .776 for his career.

Romy does very well vs LHPs, and could be a nice option in a platoon (with Yoshi or whoever.)

.795 career.

.879 in 2024 in 130 PAs, but he has reverse splits, so far this year in tiny sample sizes (.828/.707)

Yoshida has a .669 career OPS v lefties.

[Bellhorn04]

1 hour ago, TheSplinteredSplendor said:

You can believe whatever you like, that doesn't make it true.

Right, just like your belief that Cora is mishandling the Devers situation could be totally out to lunch.

[Maxbialystock]

1 hour ago, TheSplinteredSplendor said:

gonzalez's OPS is a 52 at bat sample size. It's .672 over his career while yoshi's is .776 for his career.

I'm sure you're right.  But right now we don't know what Yoshida's status is.  Plus, frankly, I'd rather have Devers as the DH--in the tradition of Ortiz and JDM.  I'm convinced that DD made two great moves after the 2017 season to enable the 2018 season.  First, he dumped both Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez.  And second he brought in a terrific DH, JDM, who I am convinced made the whole lineup better.  Maybe the two best hitters in the history of MLB--Babe Ruth and Ted Williams--were the practical equivalent of DH's because their defense was so-so at best.   I think they put Ruth in RF because he still had a great arm.  Williams got LF because he didn't have the great arm, plus he spent most of his time in the outfield thinking about hitting.  

 

[TheSplinteredSplendor]

11 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Right, just like your belief that Cora is mishandling the Devers situation could be totally out to lunch.

Well, I think it's fairly evident that it wasn't handled very well between cora, devers and brez.

[Old Red]

KC riding the bench again tonight in favor of DHam.

[Bellhorn04]

5 minutes ago, TheSplinteredSplendor said:

Well, I think it's fairly evident that it wasn't handled very well between cora, devers and brez.

Probably not in a PR sense, but Devers is raking, so if it worked out baseball-wise that might be more important.  It's all opinions.

[TheSplinteredSplendor]

8 minutes ago, Maxbialystock said:

But right now we don't know what Yoshida's status is. 

 

He's getting the rusney castillo treatment.

[moonslav59]

3 minutes ago, Old Red said:

KC riding the bench again tonight in favor of DHam.

DHam is hot (.985 in May and 1.636 in his last 6 games.)

He's also done a very nice job on D at 2B.

I'm not giving up on KC, but I'm fine with DHam playing, right now. (I hope KC can play 1B.)

[Nick]

Maybe it's a stupid idea but of all the starters, Bello needs to follow "an opener".  He just needs not to pitch the first inning.

[Maxbialystock]

10 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Right, just like your belief that Cora is mishandling the Devers situation could be totally out to lunch.

I'm astounded.  Someone else who just might agree Cora was right about Devers and Breslow was not.  

[Maxbialystock]

17 minutes ago, TheSplinteredSplendor said:

Well, I think it's fairly evident that it wasn't handled very well between cora, devers and brez.

Probably true.  Nevertheless, to me Cora's support of Devers is why he might have his best season yet as a hitter.  

[Maxbialystock]

13 minutes ago, Nick said:

Maybe it's a stupid idea but of all the starters, Bello needs to follow "an opener".  He just needs not to pitch the first inning.

Might be worth trying.    

[Maxbialystock]

14 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

DHam is hot (.985 in May and 1.636 in his last 6 games.)

He's also done a very nice job on D at 2B.

I'm not giving up on KC, but I'm fine with DHam playing, right now. (I hope KC can play 1B.)

Good points.  Plus Hamilton is good on the bases.  

Given that a whole bunch of us want Mayer to be moved up to Boston, Hamilton's solid play makes that harder to do.  

[mvp 78]

45 minutes ago, Nick said:

Maybe it's a stupid idea but of all the starters, Bello needs to follow "an opener".  He just needs not to pitch the first inning.

Bello has 4 ER in the 1st inning. Half of the ER were from the last outing. 

[notin]

2 hours ago, Maxbialystock said:

Whoa, Nellie.  I should have said so, but I believe very strongly that Devers' .920 OPS is mostly because he has embraced the DH position.  I also believe that trying to play 1b this season would be a big distraction and result in his OPS plummeting--to say nothing of the increased risk of injury.

About Yoshida's .750 OPS.  Gonzalez's OPS is .785 and he is due back this week to play 1b.

 

 

The reason Devers has a .920 OPS is because he’s leading the AL with walks and has a .404 OBP.  His SLG is .516, which is right around where it is every year.

Romy entered the season with a career OPS of .658.  I don’t think his current .785 is sustainable

[vegasbob]

3 hours ago, TheSplinteredSplendor said:

You can believe whatever you like, that doesn't make it true.

And the "increased risk of injury" is way over-blown. How many 1B go down for an injury every year due to playing in the field........

Ironic that Casas , the underperformer, went down at 1B although he wasn't playing 1B at the moment.

Just another in the jokes that this season is becoming . 

[TheSplinteredSplendor]

1 minute ago, vegasbob said:

Ironic that Casas , the underperformer, went down at 1B although he wasn't playing 1B at the moment.

Just another in the jokes that this season is becoming . 

Correct, which is my point. 

1B rarely go down with an injury in the field.

[Nick]

52 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Bello has 4 ER in the 1st inning. Half of the ER were from the last outing. 

No facts....just seems like he throws too many pitches in the first inning. But in fairness, he just throws to many 3 ball counts, early and often.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

So far this season Soto is batting .132 with RISP. Isn't that special?

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

So far this season Senga has a 1.02 ERA. Now that really is special.

[vegasbob]

Did not take Laz Diaz to get his first call wrong. Pitiful; example of preferential hiring and retention.

Dobbins rolling with a shutout

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

As bad as the Sox pitching  has been imagine how worse it would be  w/o this excellent outfield.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

Devers suffers a brain fart. I'm guessing the Sox lead MLB in brain farts.