Angels (Soriano) vs Red Sox (Giolito): 6/4/25, 1:35pm

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, Duran Is The Man said:

i know you don't like DD, but i'm pretty sure he never would have made those s***** deals. let's face it, the Sox front office from Bloom thru Breslow has been a steaming pile of s***.

I loved DD and have defended him on the "emptying the farm" thing for years.

I'm not sure where you are getting this from.

My position is that he probably is not the best GM to have on a team looking to gut their budget. His biggest strength seemed to be signing the right big ticket players, something not many GM are that good at. NHe also did a great job knowing which prospects to trade and which to keep- another very difficult aspect of being a great GM. His "empty farm" still kept Devers, Houck, Crawford, Bello, Duran, Rafaela and others.

I have great respect for DD, but don't see him as a proven low budget GM. I also don't think he'd want to stick around after not only being forced to trade the face of the franchise, Betts, but also not being allowed to replace him with anything more than $5-10M deals scattered over a few years, until the Story signing.

That's not DD bashing. I wouldn't have blamed him for being pissed at JH and Co.

[Tedballgame]

A win is a win no matter how ugly it was. Good for Rafaela to get the Pesky Pole homer. He now has homered in three straight games. Something for him to build on. 

[vegasbob]

1 hour ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

Rafaela may be the best clutch hitter on this team.

I think he is Mr. June 

[iortiz]

If Rafaela is capable of avoiding infantil mistakes at both sides of the plate, he will be a very very good major league player. 

[notin]

2 hours ago, vegasbob said:

I think he is Mr. June 

June Junior…

[TheSplinteredSplendor]

33 minutes ago, notin said:

June Junior…

Any relation to Jean Genie?

[moonslav59]

5 hours ago, iortiz said:

If Rafaela is capable of avoiding infantil mistakes at both sides of the plate, he will be a very very good major league player. 

Bad throws are "infantile?"

[mvp 78]

9 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

Bad throws are "infantile?"

I think his post game reaction of saying he's making the right throw when Cora is adamantly saying he's missing the cutoff is a bad reaction. Cora has expressed a lot of frustration over Rafaela missing signs, missing cutoff guys, not following direction and just not being a good fundamental player. He's athletic as hell, but my guess is Cora would move on from Rafaela before he'd move on from Duran. 

[notin]

12 hours ago, TheSplinteredSplendor said:

Any relation to Jean Genie?

No.  Rafaela has no similar love for chimney stacks…

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

I think his post game reaction of saying he's making the right throw when Cora is adamantly saying he's missing the cutoff is a bad reaction. Cora has expressed a lot of frustration over Rafaela missing signs, missing cutoff guys, not following direction and just not being a good fundamental player. He's athletic as hell, but my guess is Cora would move on from Rafaela before he'd move on from Duran. 

Yes, after the game, Rafaela said he thought he would have gotten the runner out on an accurate throw. (I'm not so sure.) He kind of blew past the missing the cutoff point, which likely did not make Cora any happier.

It's hard to fault Rafaela for these errors, since he more than makes up for them in other plays, but he does need to hit the cut off man. 

I'm just not sure "infantile" is the right word choice.

[mvp 78]

15 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Yes, after the game, Rafaela said he thought he would have gotten the runner out on an accurate throw. (I'm not so sure.) He kind of blew past the missing the cutoff point, which likely did not make Cora any happier.

It's hard to fault Rafaela for these errors, since he more than makes up for them in other plays, but he does need to hit the cut off man. 

I'm just not sure "infantile" is the right word choice.

Don't beat up iortiz for his word choice please. He learned a lot of his English from posting with us. Any finger pointing you do, there's a few more right back at you. 

[Bellhorn04]

21 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Yes, after the game, Rafaela said he thought he would have gotten the runner out on an accurate throw. (I'm not so sure.) He kind of blew past the missing the cutoff point, which likely did not make Cora any happier.

It's hard to fault Rafaela for these errors, since he more than makes up for them in other plays, but he does need to hit the cut off man. 

I'm just not sure "infantile" is the right word choice.

iortiz sometimes uses different words, but I always know what he means.

[moonslav59]

6 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Don't beat up iortiz for his word choice please. He learned a lot of his English from posting with us. Any finger pointing you do, there's a few more right back at you. 

I'm not beating him up, and "infantile" is a cognate in Spanish. I just don't see how not throwing to the cutoff is infantile. Estupido, maybe. Descuidado o Temerario, probably. (Careless or Reckless.)

I like iortiz and know how hard it is to learn a new language at our ages. His English is better than my Spanish, and I lived in Mexico for 4 years.

[Maxbialystock]

2 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

I think his post game reaction of saying he's making the right throw when Cora is adamantly saying he's missing the cutoff is a bad reaction. Cora has expressed a lot of frustration over Rafaela missing signs, missing cutoff guys, not following direction and just not being a good fundamental player. He's athletic as hell, but my guess is Cora would move on from Rafaela before he'd move on from Duran. 

Fascinating.   I had no idea Cora is vocal about Rafaela's mistakes.  I'm sure he's right, but right now Rafaela has the second best WAR on the team, 2.4.  Only Bregman's is higher, 3.0, and he's out, so Rafaela's is in fact the highest.  Duran's WAR is 1.2 and he is 4 years older that Rafaela.  

On the other hand, even Jack Nicholson knows you have to hit the cutoff man.  

 

 

[mvp 78]

11 minutes ago, Maxbialystock said:

Fascinating.   I had no idea Cora is vocal about Rafaela's mistakes.  I'm sure he's right, but right now Rafaela has the second best WAR on the team, 2.4.  Only Bregman's is higher, 3.0, and he's out, so Rafaela's is in fact the highest.  Duran's WAR is 1.2 and he is 4 years older that Rafaela.  

On the other hand, even Jack Nicholson knows you have to hit the cutoff man.  

Cora probably looks at it as "what are you going to give me from June - Sept" rather than "what have you already done for me?" I think that's why he'd lean on Duran. He also likes that Duran POSTS every day. He wants Duran at the top of every lineup card for a reason. If he was the CBO, he would most certainly trade Rafaela to make room. He sees him as expendable and potentially uncoachable. 

[moonslav59]

57 minutes ago, Maxbialystock said:

Fascinating.   I had no idea Cora is vocal about Rafaela's mistakes.  I'm sure he's right, but right now Rafaela has the second best WAR on the team, 2.4.  Only Bregman's is higher, 3.0, and he's out, so Rafaela's is in fact the highest.  Duran's WAR is 1.2 and he is 4 years older that Rafaela.  

On the other hand, even Jack Nicholson knows you have to hit the cutoff man.  

fWAR differs...

2.5 Bregman

2.4 Crochet

2.0 Narvaez (just 47 games)

2.0 Devers

1.7 Rafaela

1.4 Duran

1.2 Abreu

I'm not dissing Ceddanne. He's one of my faves.

 

[Maxbialystock]

20 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

I loved DD and have defended him on the "emptying the farm" thing for years.

I'm not sure where you are getting this from.

My position is that he probably is not the best GM to have on a team looking to gut their budget. His biggest strength seemed to be signing the right big ticket players, something not many GM are that good at. NHe also did a great job knowing which prospects to trade and which to keep- another very difficult aspect of being a great GM. His "empty farm" still kept Devers, Houck, Crawford, Bello, Duran, Rafaela and others.

I have great respect for DD, but don't see him as a proven low budget GM. I also don't think he'd want to stick around after not only being forced to trade the face of the franchise, Betts, but also not being allowed to replace him with anything more than $5-10M deals scattered over a few years, until the Story signing.

That's not DD bashing. I wouldn't have blamed him for being pissed at JH and Co.

Completely agree--a thoughtful discussion of DD.  

[Maxbialystock]

2 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

fWAR differs...

2.5 Bregman

2.4 Crochet

2.0 Narvaez (just 47 games)

2.0 Devers

1.7 Rafaela

1.4 Duran

1.2 Abreu

I'm not dissing Ceddanne. He's one of my faves.

 

Tell me again why fWAR is better than WAR.  

[Maxbialystock]

50 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Cora probably looks at it as "what are you going to give me from June - Sept" rather than "what have you already done for me?" I think that's why he'd lean on Duran. He also likes that Duran POSTS every day. He wants Duran at the top of every lineup card for a reason. If he was the CBO, he would most certainly trade Rafaela to make room. He sees him as expendable and potentially uncoachable. 

What does "POSTS" mean?  

 

[mvp 78]

15 minutes ago, Maxbialystock said:

What does "POSTS" mean?  

He's posted on the lineup card everyday. 

The first time I heard it was when they did the All Star announcement video last season and Cora spoke about Duran and how every kid should play like Duran because he plays hard and posts. I think it was mentioned in the Netflix doc too. Outside of Alex Cora, I've never heard it before. 

[moonslav59]

8 minutes ago, Maxbialystock said:

Tell me again why fWAR is better than WAR.  

fWAR vs bWAR is up for debate. I'm not sure which is better, and they are pretty close on most players- just not Rafaela.

I hope he can keep hitting over .700.

[Nick]

21 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

I loved DD and have defended him on the "emptying the farm" thing for years.

I'm not sure where you are getting this from.

My position is that he probably is not the best GM to have on a team looking to gut their budget. His biggest strength seemed to be signing the right big ticket players, something not many GM are that good at. NHe also did a great job knowing which prospects to trade and which to keep- another very difficult aspect of being a great GM. His "empty farm" still kept Devers, Houck, Crawford, Bello, Duran, Rafaela and others.

I have great respect for DD, but don't see him as a proven low budget GM. I also don't think he'd want to stick around after not only being forced to trade the face of the franchise, Betts, but also not being allowed to replace him with anything more than $5-10M deals scattered over a few years, until the Story signing.

That's not DD bashing. I wouldn't have blamed him for being pissed at JH and Co.

He made a great deal to acquire Chris Sale. He knew that there was a player better than highly expensive Moncada. Of course that turned out to be Devers. You and I both hated to give up Kopech but that deal worked our well. 

That was a bold move and allowed us to have the 2018 magical season. 

You have to admit the % are always higher that prospects become a bust more often than not.

If you are going to spend to the tax limit each year, I'd hire DD in a second. 

[mvp 78]

31 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

fWAR vs bWAR is up for debate. I'm not sure which is better, and they are pretty close on most players- just not Rafaela.

I hope he can keep hitting over .700.

They tend to differ when it comes to the defensive calculation of WAR and it can get screwy with some players (Wong in '23 bWAR vs fWAR). 

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

43 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

They tend to differ when it comes to the defensive calculation of WAR and it can get screwy with some players (Wong in '23 bWAR vs fWAR). 

I always favor bWAR over fWAR because in school, all Bs meant honor roll, but one F made me academically-ineligible to play (nice coach got me at bats in non-league game).

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

I always favor bWAR over fWAR because in school, all Bs meant honor roll, but one F made me academically-ineligible to play (nice coach got me at bats in non-league game).

Small "b" and "f" do not count as grades.

[mvp 78]

2 hours ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

I always favor bWAR over fWAR because in school, all Bs meant honor roll, but one F made me academically-ineligible to play (nice coach got me at bats in non-league game).

I favor whichever site I’m using more at the moment.

[mvp 78]

13 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Small "b" and "f" do not count as grades.

bWAR is the back of baseball card stat FWIW.