Would you move Rafaela into the infield to make room for Anthony?

[TedYazPapiMookie]

4 hours ago, dgalehouse said:

The question is, is Rafaela's defense enough to offset his relatively light hitting?  Roman Anthony is looking like a special talent. A very possible star.  He needs to be in the Sox outfield ASAP.  There is no reason to wait any longer.    

Anthony makes perfect sense at 1B right now.  With the timetable for Bregman being so long, this team's pitching isn't good enough to make up for it's lack of hitting.  Get Anthony the reps at 1B and have the big 3 prospects in the line-up asap to go with Duran, Rafaela, Abreu, Narvaez, Story and Devers.  That's your future team so start the future right now.  Rafaela's defense will improve from GREAT and hit hitting will improve from bad so he absolutely needs to stay in centerfield because his upside hitting is better than JBJ's was and his upside fielding might also be better than JBJ's was.  Abreu is the real question mark if Anthony goes to 1B.  Abreu can't hit lefties so you need Refsnyder for the games vs lefty starters.  

[oldtimer]

7 hours ago, notin said:

I just don’t see how bringing up Anthony fixes anything.  The Sox can put an OF of Duran/Anthony/Abreu out there but they weaken the defense and still have to start one of Toro or Sogard, and the pitching doesn’t improve.  And the only change is they upgrade the offense from the guy batting 8th? 
 

I suppose they could move Rafaela to 2b and Campbell  to 1b.  But that’s asking a lot of players to play new positions mid-season, and we saw how cranky just one can get.

Not to mention having 3 rookies in the lineup is fairly unpredictable…

You seem to be advocating the status quo. It isn't working so move toward the team of the future. Anthony is the No.1 prospect in baseball, so get him up now. If Rafaela needs to move, so be it. He wasn't a hitting force last year and isn't this year either. 

[notin]

33 minutes ago, oldtimer said:

You seem to be advocating the status quo. It isn't working so move toward the team of the future. Anthony is the No.1 prospect in baseball, so get him up now. If Rafaela needs to move, so be it. He wasn't a hitting force last year and isn't this year either. 

There are more than 2 options.  It’s not just Anthony or status quo…

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

Replacing Rafaela won't fix this team. Losing his superior defense only weakens the Red Sox.

At the plate, there are only two Red Sox batters who strike out less than 20% of the time. One is Bregman, gone probably until mid-summer.

The other is Ceddanne.

[Bellhorn04]

16 hours ago, dgalehouse said:

The answer is yes according to who and what ? I wrote that I heard this analyst/ analysts ( not at all geeks) actually watches every pitch of every game to arrive at his conclusion of WAR. Notin got upset and said that is not how it is done at all. How do they do it ? I am thoroughly confused. How does one player get 1.8, while another only gets 1.5 ? All I know is that I would take Roman Anthony ahead of Cedanne Rafaela in the Sox lineup. 

You have no interest in learning about how it's calculated, Denny, you just want to crap on it, and that's never going to change, I fully realize that.

[mvp 78]

14 hours ago, TedYazPapiMookie said:

Anthony makes perfect sense at 1B right now.  With the timetable for Bregman being so long, this team's pitching isn't good enough to make up for it's lack of hitting.  Get Anthony the reps at 1B and have the big 3 prospects in the line-up asap to go with Duran, Rafaela, Abreu, Narvaez, Story and Devers.  That's your future team so start the future right now.  Rafaela's defense will improve from GREAT and hit hitting will improve from bad so he absolutely needs to stay in centerfield because his upside hitting is better than JBJ's was and his upside fielding might also be better than JBJ's was.  Abreu is the real question mark if Anthony goes to 1B.  Abreu can't hit lefties so you need Refsnyder for the games vs lefty starters.  

Campbell is already working on 1B. Why move Anthony there? It makes no sense. 

Campbell has been really rough at 2B and there are questions on if he can stay in the IF. Maybe 1B works out for him? 

[Hugh2]

Rafaela's value is mostly tied into his defense.  I think you have to keep him in CF.  There's only a few ways the Sox could really fit Anthony in. 

If Devers would move to 1B it would open up the lineup to bring up Anthony and rotate him with Abreu/Duran in the outfield and at DH. 

A trade.  They would have to trade Duran, Abreu, or Rafaela.  It's not trading seasons right now, so it might be hard to move a player at this moment. 

Lastly, the Sox could just move Anthony to 1B.  Which is overall a horrible ideal, but it might be their best option for 2025.  They might have to sit him down and tell him he is in their long term plans for the OF but for 2025 or at least the next few months they want him to learn some 1B to break him into the majors quicker. 

I wonder how well Mayer/Campbell/Anthony play off of each other once they're all in the majors at the same time. 

 

[mvp 78]

1 hour ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

Replacing Rafaela won't fix this team. Losing his superior defense only weakens the Red Sox.

At the plate, there are only two Red Sox batters who strike out less than 20% of the time. One is Bregman, gone probably until mid-summer.

The other is Ceddanne.

22.5% since May 1. He's going to be over 20% in the next week or so since he's already at 19.6%, 

[Old Red]

Just now, Hugh2 said:

Rafaela's value is mostly tied into his defense.  I think you have to keep him in CF.  There's only a few ways the Sox could really fit Anthony in. 

If Devers would move to 1B it would open up the lineup to bring up Anthony and rotate him with Abreu/Duran in the outfield and at DH. 

A trade.  They would have to trade Duran, Abreu, or Rafaela.  It's not trading seasons right now, so it might be hard to move a player at this moment. 

Lastly, the Sox could just move Anthony to 1B.  Which is overall a horrible ideal, but it might be their best option for 2025.  They might have to sit him down and tell him he is in their long term plans for the OF but for 2025 or at least the next few months they want him to learn some 1B to break him into the majors quicker. 

I wonder how well Mayer/Campbell/Anthony play off of each other once they're all in the majors at the same time. 

 

If if, if on Devers. IT AIN’T HAPPENING! No matter how many times you, and others complain about it, or even suggest it. Raffy, Cora, and JH have put that to bed.🤭🙈

[mvp 78]

3 minutes ago, Hugh2 said:

Rafaela's value is mostly tied into his defense.  I think you have to keep him in CF.  There's only a few ways the Sox could really fit Anthony in. 

If Devers would move to 1B it would open up the lineup to bring up Anthony and rotate him with Abreu/Duran in the outfield and at DH. 

A trade.  They would have to trade Duran, Abreu, or Rafaela.  It's not trading seasons right now, so it might be hard to move a player at this moment. 

Lastly, the Sox could just move Anthony to 1B.  Which is overall a horrible ideal, but it might be their best option for 2025.  They might have to sit him down and tell him he is in their long term plans for the OF but for 2025 or at least the next few months they want him to learn some 1B to break him into the majors quicker. 

I wonder how well Mayer/Campbell/Anthony play off of each other once they're all in the majors at the same time. 

 

If they were trading Duran for prospects, other teams would be open to it 100%, similar to how they traded Quinn Priester. Most other teams weren't going to trade their MLB caliber pitchers, but the BoSox were for the right price.  

Rafaela's "best value" may be as CFer, but maybe the best thing for the team is just straight platooning Duran/Rafaela in CF, adding Anthony as LF, moving Campbell to 1B and playing Rafaela at 2B/SS as needed.

[notin]

2 minutes ago, Hugh2 said:

Rafaela's value is mostly tied into his defense.  I think you have to keep him in CF.  There's only a few ways the Sox could really fit Anthony in. 

If Devers would move to 1B it would open up the lineup to bring up Anthony and rotate him with Abreu/Duran in the outfield and at DH. 

A trade.  They would have to trade Duran, Abreu, or Rafaela.  It's not trading seasons right now, so it might be hard to move a player at this moment. 

Lastly, the Sox could just move Anthony to 1B.  Which is overall a horrible ideal, but it might be their best option for 2025.  They might have to sit him down and tell him he is in their long term plans for the OF but for 2025 or at least the next few months they want him to learn some 1B to break him into the majors quicker. 

I wonder how well Mayer/Campbell/Anthony play off of each other once they're all in the majors at the same time. 

 

There is a definite issue if the goal is to get Anthony into the lineup without weakening the defense.  That means Rafaela has to stay in CF, which makes the goal of replacing Toro’s bat with Anthony’s next to impossible.  
 

Moving Campbell to first makes sense when Bregman returns.  But how long is that?  And in the meantime, the Sox don’t have a 1b to replace Toro’s bat with..
 

 

[notin]

3 minutes ago, Old Red said:

If if, if on Devers. IT AIN’T HAPPENING! No matter how many times you, and others complain about it, or even suggest it. Raffy, Cora, and JH have put that to bed.🤭🙈

Whether it happens or not, why can’t people complain about it?  It’s a legitimate gripe…

[mvp 78]

3 minutes ago, notin said:

Whether it happens or not, why can’t people complain about it?  It’s a legitimate gripe…

It's not on the approved complaints list! 🧐

[notin]

14 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Campbell is already working on 1B. Why move Anthony there? It makes no sense. 

Campbell has been really rough at 2B and there are questions on if he can stay in the IF. Maybe 1B works out for him? 

He might stay at 1b.  But this only solves the (much lesser) issue of how to keep Mayer in the lineup.  The Sox still have Duran, Rafaela, Abreu, and Anthony, and only 3 positions to play them in…

[notin]

1 minute ago, mvp 78 said:

It's not on the approved complaints list! 🧐

How many signatures to get it on the ballot so it can be voted on during the biweekly committee meeting and then ratified during the semiweekly open debates so it gets added to the approved list?

[Old Red]

6 minutes ago, notin said:

Whether it happens or not, why can’t people complain about it?  It’s a legitimate gripe…

Legitimate gripe to some, but not to the people that matter. Raffy, Cora, and JH. Droning on about this is doing nothing more than listening to yourself talk.

[notin]

23 minutes ago, Hugh2 said:

Rafaela's value is mostly tied into his defense.  I think you have to keep him in CF.  There's only a few ways the Sox could really fit Anthony in. 

If Devers would move to 1B it would open up the lineup to bring up Anthony and rotate him with Abreu/Duran in the outfield and at DH. 

A trade.  They would have to trade Duran, Abreu, or Rafaela.  It's not trading seasons right now, so it might be hard to move a player at this moment. 

Lastly, the Sox could just move Anthony to 1B.  Which is overall a horrible ideal, but it might be their best option for 2025.  They might have to sit him down and tell him he is in their long term plans for the OF but for 2025 or at least the next few months they want him to learn some 1B to break him into the majors quicker. 

I wonder how well Mayer/Campbell/Anthony play off of each other once they're all in the majors at the same time. 

 

They’re already working out Campbell at 1b…

[notin]

4 minutes ago, Old Red said:

Legitimate gripe to some, but not to the people that matter. Raffy, Cora, and JH. Droning on about this is doing nothing more than listening to yourself talk.

Are you positive it’s not a legitimate gripe for Cora?  Are you saying Cora prefers obstinate players who put him in difficult positions?  

Id bet Cora would prefer Devers be willing to go to 1b, even if he never actually had to play there.  You know, like how Mookie Betts practiced infield for years despite never playing there, but he wanted to be prepared just in case the team needed him to move, if only for an inning…

[notin]

46 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

22.5% since May 1. He's going to be over 20% in the next week or so since he's already at 19.6%, 

But the point is - everyone else is already there…

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

I used to think the best way to prevent Rafaela from swinging at the first pitch was to send him up to the plate without a bat -- just for the first pitch!

Then I realized he still start the at bat 0-and-1 vs. every pitching staff in baseball except the one he can't face: the Red Sox. Then he'd swing at the next pitch anyway, and it'd be 0-and-2, as usual.

But none of that matters, because all he'd have to do while standing there batless is bat an eyelash, causing the catcher to immediately point to the first base ump, who'd eagerly punch air to let the whole world know he went around.

[mvp 78]

54 minutes ago, notin said:

He might stay at 1b.  But this only solves the (much lesser) issue of how to keep Mayer in the lineup.  The Sox still have Duran, Rafaela, Abreu, and Anthony, and only 3 positions to play them in…

Rafaela/Duran CF

Anthony LF

Campbell 1B

Mayer 3B

Abreu RF

[mvp 78]

22 minutes ago, notin said:

But the point is - everyone else is already there…

What kind of point is that? Shouldn't the point be what you're doing right now? Ceddanne had a very low k rate to start the year and is now just reverting (10% k rate first 11 games, 22% since then). 

[mvp 78]

10 minutes ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

I used to think the best way to prevent Rafaela from swinging at the first pitch was to send him up to the plate without a bat -- just for the first pitch!

Then I realized he still start the at bat 0-and-1 vs. every pitching staff in baseball except the one he can't face: the Red Sox. Then he'd swing at the next pitch anyway, and it'd be 0-and-2, as usual.

But none of that matters, because all he'd have to do while standing there batless is bat an eyelash, causing the catcher to immediately point to the first base ump, who'd eagerly punch air to let the whole world know he went around.

It's one of the few reasons his k rate is so low (56% swing first pitch vs 31% MLB average). 

He is terrible when behind in the count, but good when even or ahead in the count. I don't mind him swinging at the first pitch if the ball is a strike. I'd rather that than watching a meatball go right by him and then whiffing on two pitches out of the zone like we've seen a bunch from him. 

[mvp 78]

I will say, Cora having him bunt is a complete waste. The dude can't bunt at all and seems to be missing signs frequently. It's a part of the game that is gone and Cora needs to learn that.

[Hugh2]

1 hour ago, notin said:

They’re already working out Campbell at 1b…

So what. 

You going to roll with Mayer/Story/Hamilton up the middle all year? I'd rather let Campbell work thru it at 2nd and get Anthony into the lineup somehow. 

The youth can either get the team going, or get experience to be better suited to get going next year.  But at this point you're wasting free time from Anthony in AAA. 

[Hugh2]

They also started working KC out at 1B before Bregman went down.  Between that and Story laying an egg I don't think any can definitively say the plan hasn't either changed or other options are being explored. 

[mvp 78]

1 minute ago, Hugh2 said:

So what. 

You going to roll with Mayer/Story/Hamilton up the middle all year? I'd rather let Campbell work thru it at 2nd and get Anthony into the lineup somehow. 

The youth can either get the team going, or get experience to be better suited to get going next year.  But at this point you're wasting free time from Anthony in AAA. 

It would take even longer to get Anthony up if they are going to move him to 1B. He'd be down in WOO for another 3-4 weeks. If they leave him in OF where he can rotate all 3 spots, he'll be up sooner. 

[Hugh2]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

If they were trading Duran for prospects, other teams would be open to it 100%, similar to how they traded Quinn Priester. Most other teams weren't going to trade their MLB caliber pitchers, but the BoSox were for the right price.  

Rafaela's "best value" may be as CFer, but maybe the best thing for the team is just straight platooning Duran/Rafaela in CF, adding Anthony as LF, moving Campbell to 1B and playing Rafaela at 2B/SS as needed.

They could load up on prospects and make moves at the deadline.  

Looking ahead, I'd want target pitchers with more than .5 years of control.  Get a guy to help you down the stretch this year and next.  

[Hugh2]

1 minute ago, mvp 78 said:

It would take even longer to get Anthony up if they are going to move him to 1B. He'd be down in WOO for another 3-4 weeks. If they leave him in OF where he can rotate all 3 spots, he'll be up sooner. 

Even more of a reason to do it right now. 

Unless they plan on trading Duran, or sitting someone for Anthony. 

[TheSplinteredSplendor]

On 5/24/2025 at 8:28 PM, moonslav59 said:

Unless Mayer is already holding down a FT infield slot, and Story or Campbell have gotten hurt or sucked so badly, they lose their job, I would not move Rafaela out of CF and into the IF.

Define "sucked so badly".

Does slashing .222/.269/.325 qualify?

How about .224/.313/.356?