Article: Kristian Campbell Could Use Some Time In Worcester

[mvp 78]

5 minutes ago, TedYazPapiMookie said:

The only wrong guy is Cora.  Campbell could have been just fine, and he EARNED everything he's received unlike Mayer.  The right guy came up to play 2B.  Instead, while red hot the idiot manager started playing him in the outfield and then told him he needed to practice at 1B.  Think about the kid.  Should he have to shoulder all the BS from Cora?  NO.  Cora is a moron.  The kid might still be hitting over .300 if he hadn't been sent to 2 outfield positions and to practice 1B.  We'll never know now.  It was completely unfair of Cora to do it.  

Now we have people saying stupid things like they picked the wrong guy.  He was absolutely the right guy.  He simply got placed with an idiot manager and he's not one of the chosen players like Mayer and Anthony.  When Anthony gets suggested for 1B people are up in arms but when Campbell gets suggested for 2B, CF, RF and then 1B .... no problem.  The bias that exists in the organization and the fan base is pathetic.  Start treating the players as equal human beings.  Let the opportunities be based on performance and let the playing field be level between the players so ONE GUY doesn't have to burden all the idiot moves by the manager.

Campbell already has history playing OF in MiLB and this year's ST too! Anthony hasn't played IF since little league. I think there's a bit of a difference. Campbell has been primed for multi-position usage since he came to the organization. Don't be upset if Cora continues to use him that way. 

 

 

[TedYazPapiMookie]

1 hour ago, Hitch said:

There's a lot to work out, but what's best for Campbell is also what's best for the Sox. Having him scuffle is pointless. And I'd say going down and having a reset is probably best. 

Or maybe take 1B off his plate and CF and RF and let him be the 2B of the future or swap him with Story since he's a better defender than Mayer at SS.  There are lots of options for Campbell that would stabilize his situation but why did he have to go through it in the first place when he was coasting along looking like the ROY this year?  CORA.  Now you have identified the problem and the solution is to eliminate the problem and let Campbell be the 2B without Hamilton subbing for him all the time.  Put Hamilton where he belongs, in the minors.  I don't care how close he and Cora are from his days in Houston and Hamilton's days at UT.  The nepotism is obvious and needs to stop.  Hamilton is hitting .203 which is typical of his skills.  His ONLY value add is SBs so let him run for slower players and don't be displacing the Minor League Player of the Year to give Hamilton extra reps at 2B.

[mvp 78]

4 minutes ago, TedYazPapiMookie said:

Or maybe take 1B off his plate and CF and RF and let him be the 2B of the future or swap him with Story since he's a better defender than Mayer at SS. 

He's not better than Mayer. He may not even be better than '25 Story. 

[mvp 78]

 

[TedYazPapiMookie]

11 hours ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Is Cora also to blame for Rafaela's recent red hot streak?

No, just like Mookie and Duran I believe Rafaela has finally started to make the adjustments to be a break-out player.  I'm really happy for him.  I believed in him the whole time.  Too bad his manager didn't.

[TedYazPapiMookie]

11 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Campbell already has history playing OF in MiLB and this year's ST too! Anthony hasn't played IF since little league. I think there's a bit of a difference. Campbell has been primed for multi-position usage since he came to the organization. Don't be upset if Cora continues to use him that way. 

 

 

You sincerely don't get the point.  He's being treated like a utility player not a superstar 2B that earned the Minor League Player of the Year award LAST YEAR.  Why should he have to play 4 positions and Mayer and Anthony only have to play 3B like Bogaerts did and Anthony is SO special he gets to play OF only.  Rafaela is the best defensive player we've seen in the outfield since JBJ, yet he didn't get the respect of his manager to be the permanent solution in CF the minute he made several phenomenal diving catches BUT Abreu a weaker defender doesn't get passed around to other positions as a platoon outfielder who has fewer defensive skills that Rafaela, Duran and Anthony.  He batted second i 2024 and produced less than the 9th hitter.  Nothing has been earned by him, he's just the right nationality for Cora just like Robles was when he got all the relief chances over better relievers and he cost us so many games.  That's nepotism.

The team is made up of players who have Cora's respect for being Latin and for being drafted early in the first-round half a decade ago yet struggled in the minors.  There are players who get no respect despite their accomplishments like Campbell and then there are players that simply get no respect despite being ELITE at a skill like defense like Rafaela and Duran.  My post was about nepotism by Cora.  Hamilton isn't even a MLB skilled player but he is on the roster from when he built a relationship with Cora while cheating in Houston and Hamilton was at Texas in college.  

Now take the haves and have nots and see who gets treated like a utility player and who gets treated with more respect than they have earned.  I know Mayer isn't an outfielder but even if he was, he wouldn't have been asked as the 4th pick in the draft guy.  He sucked on defense in the minors but he's still the SS of the future.  That's privilege unearned.  It's unfair to the players not in Cora's good graces for whatever reason.  That's why the batting order doesn't produce as many runs as it should.  That's why the defense has been at the bottom for years.  That's why the pitching staff hasn't excelled like it should have.  Nepotism.

[TedYazPapiMookie]

11 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

He's not better than Mayer. He may not even be better than '25 Story. 

This is why it's hard to discuss things with you.  No facts.  I've pointed out a .953 fielding percentage for Mayer which is not terribly higher than Devers who is the worst fielding 3B of all time.  You simply say Mayer is better and you expect that to be enough because facts mess with your opinion.  That's my bad.  We should all just follow your opinion.  I still prefer actual performance to opinion.

[Hitch]

16 hours ago, TedYazPapiMookie said:

Let's review what Campbell has gone through.  He was the only one of the big three to make the MLB roster out of Spring Training.  He was to be the 2B or SS of the future depending on whether Mayer could get his act together.  He started off like he was going to win the ROY then Cora decided to start playing him in the outfield so he could put Hamilton in games, one of the players Cora uses rather than leaving him AAA where he belongs. 

Cora can't figure out that he's supposed to HELP the young guys adjust to the MLB not screw with them.  Then, Casas goes down and Cora decides to add more stress to Campbell as he's trying to adjust to teams having a book on him so he starts working him out at 1B when it's obvious he should be last guy to be at 1B since he already has a future at 2B.  This is simply Cora being Cora.  He's always been clueless and a crap manager.  Then Bregman goes down making it totally obvious that Anthony should be the one practicing 1B at AAA if ownership refuses to get a REAL 1B.  Anthony has already proven he can handle AAA pitching so bringing up Anthony to play 1B can be prepped and then he can start getting used to MLB pitching since the team is going nowhere.

Now go check the stats.  Campbell started far better than Mayer with respect to hitting and fielding.  Now to be fair, shouldn't Cora tell Mayer to go play two outfield positions and ask him to start taking grounders at 1B?  Or is there a double standard for privileged players like Mayer?  See 3B and SS aren't that much different but CF, RF and 1B are very different than 2B.  

If Campbell has had a massive fall off there is only ONE GUY to blame and that is his clueless manager.  You can send him down just to get him away from Cora but Cora has already pigeon-holed him just like he did Duran and Rafaela.  For a guy who came in with the best credentials by far, it's a shame his first exposure to MLB baseball is with a worthless manager like Cora.  They need to fire him now and watch how much better the team will perform.

Okay, well first off, Campbell wasn't hitting like ROTY and then it all fell apart after he occasionally got moved to CF. He was hitting like ROTY while he was still getting the odd game at CF.

Secondly, while I agree that I wish Campbell would have just been left at the 2nd and forgotten about in terms of moving around, it's not just Cora - there is an MLB-wide movement towards wanting more flexibility in their players and roster. This is just much more of a thing now, whether we like it or not.

It's getting tiresome hearing how Cora is 'useless' and 'worthless'. He's certainly got some fronting up to do when it comes to the errors and situational hitting mistakes this team continually makes, but he is a good manager and pretending otherwise is just childish. He has also not had a roster worth a damn for the majority of his time here. And even this one, which we hoped would be something, we all agreed that it was lopsided at best. He has questions to answer and needs to show something over these next few months, but let's calm it down a bit.

Lastly, I don't know what to do with the logic that Cora should be looking after these young players at the highest level and leaving them at their position while hearing in the same breath Anthony should be moved to a position he's never played before and brought up the big league to play it. 🙅‍♂️

[Hitch]

16 hours ago, TedYazPapiMookie said:

Or maybe take 1B off his plate and CF and RF and let him be the 2B of the future or swap him with Story since he's a better defender than Mayer at SS.  There are lots of options for Campbell that would stabilize his situation but why did he have to go through it in the first place when he was coasting along looking like the ROY this year?  CORA.  Now you have identified the problem and the solution is to eliminate the problem and let Campbell be the 2B without Hamilton subbing for him all the time.  Put Hamilton where he belongs, in the minors.  I don't care how close he and Cora are from his days in Houston and Hamilton's days at UT.  The nepotism is obvious and needs to stop.  Hamilton is hitting .203 which is typical of his skills.  His ONLY value add is SBs so let him run for slower players and don't be displacing the Minor League Player of the Year to give Hamilton extra reps at 2B.

I agree that 1B in particular was a bad move. I was against it from the moment it happened. I also, as previously mentioned, didn't like him in CF.  But sometimes needs must, and the sport sees things differently to you and I. 

Regardless, he's now scuffling in every way. A bit of time away from the glare to reset could be a good thing. 

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

Cora has had a pattern of dissing red-haired players like Campbell since he replaced Craig Kimbrel as closer with dirty blonde Chris Sale in the last game of the '18 World Series. That's a clear case of hair-colorism -- though an exception can be made for AC's #3 batter and Series MVP, Steve Pearce, who was bald.

Sale and Pearce are both from Lakeland, Florida, which is over 4 hours away from Cora's alma mater, U of Miami, so we can't say Alex was playing them because of alumnusism. More like Sunshine Stateism.

However, we can't forget how much AC also leaned on Mookie Betts and Mitch Moreland that year. Both Red Sox heroes are from Mississippi. They have different hair color, but obviously Cora was favoring Double Consonantism.

[mvp 78]

9 hours ago, TedYazPapiMookie said:

You sincerely don't get the point.  He's being treated like a utility player not a superstar 2B that earned the Minor League Player of the Year award LAST YEAR.  Why should he have to play 4 positions and Mayer and Anthony only have to play 3B like Bogaerts did and Anthony is SO special he gets to play OF only.  Rafaela is the best defensive player we've seen in the outfield since JBJ, yet he didn't get the respect of his manager to be the permanent solution in CF the minute he made several phenomenal diving catches BUT Abreu a weaker defender doesn't get passed around to other positions as a platoon outfielder who has fewer defensive skills that Rafaela, Duran and Anthony.  He batted second i 2024 and produced less than the 9th hitter.  Nothing has been earned by him, he's just the right nationality for Cora just like Robles was when he got all the relief chances over better relievers and he cost us so many games.  That's nepotism.

The team is made up of players who have Cora's respect for being Latin and for being drafted early in the first-round half a decade ago yet struggled in the minors.  There are players who get no respect despite their accomplishments like Campbell and then there are players that simply get no respect despite being ELITE at a skill like defense like Rafaela and Duran.  My post was about nepotism by Cora.  Hamilton isn't even a MLB skilled player but he is on the roster from when he built a relationship with Cora while cheating in Houston and Hamilton was at Texas in college.  

Now take the haves and have nots and see who gets treated like a utility player and who gets treated with more respect than they have earned.  I know Mayer isn't an outfielder but even if he was, he wouldn't have been asked as the 4th pick in the draft guy.  He sucked on defense in the minors but he's still the SS of the future.  That's privilege unearned.  It's unfair to the players not in Cora's good graces for whatever reason.  That's why the batting order doesn't produce as many runs as it should.  That's why the defense has been at the bottom for years.  That's why the pitching staff hasn't excelled like it should have.  Nepotism.

1. That's NOT the definition of nepotism.

2. Abreu's first visit to MLB: 12 G CF, 12 G LF, 3 RF after being mainly a RFer in WOO

3. Duran gets a TON of respect from Cora, maybe more than any other player in the clubhouse and even said that every kid should watch Duran and play baseball the way he does

4. I don't think Cora had any idea who David Hamilton (598 OPS Freshman) was in 2017

5. Abreu had an 881 OPS while batting 2nd in '24, much better than a 9th hitter

[notin]

53 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

1. That's NOT the definition of nepotism.

2. Abreu's first visit to MLB: 12 G CF, 12 G LF, 3 RF after being mainly a RFer in WOO

3. Duran gets a TON of respect from Cora, maybe more than any other player in the clubhouse and even said that every kid should watch Duran and play baseball the way he does

4. I don't think Cora had any idea who David Hamilton (598 OPS Freshman) was in 2017

5. Abreu had an 881 OPS while batting 2nd in '24, much better than a 9th hitter

Are you saying Cora never met Hamilton while coaching at Houston?  C’mon!  Hamilton was IN TEXAS, and a mere 3 hour drive away! They were practically neighbors!

[TheSplinteredSplendor]

10 hours ago, TedYazPapiMookie said:

You sincerely don't get the point.  He's being treated like a utility player not a superstar 2B that earned the Minor League Player of the Year award LAST YEAR.  Why should he have to play 4 positions and Mayer and Anthony only have to play 3B like Bogaerts did and Anthony is SO special he gets to play OF only.  Rafaela is the best defensive player we've seen in the outfield since JBJ, yet he didn't get the respect of his manager to be the permanent solution in CF the minute he made several phenomenal diving catches BUT Abreu a weaker defender doesn't get passed around to other positions as a platoon outfielder who has fewer defensive skills that Rafaela, Duran and Anthony.  He batted second i 2024 and produced less than the 9th hitter.  Nothing has been earned by him, he's just the right nationality for Cora just like Robles was when he got all the relief chances over better relievers and he cost us so many games.  That's nepotism.

The team is made up of players who have Cora's respect for being Latin and for being drafted early in the first-round half a decade ago yet struggled in the minors.  There are players who get no respect despite their accomplishments like Campbell and then there are players that simply get no respect despite being ELITE at a skill like defense like Rafaela and Duran.  My post was about nepotism by Cora.  Hamilton isn't even a MLB skilled player but he is on the roster from when he built a relationship with Cora while cheating in Houston and Hamilton was at Texas in college.  

Now take the haves and have nots and see who gets treated like a utility player and who gets treated with more respect than they have earned.  I know Mayer isn't an outfielder but even if he was, he wouldn't have been asked as the 4th pick in the draft guy.  He sucked on defense in the minors but he's still the SS of the future.  That's privilege unearned.  It's unfair to the players not in Cora's good graces for whatever reason.  That's why the batting order doesn't produce as many runs as it should.  That's why the defense has been at the bottom for years.  That's why the pitching staff hasn't excelled like it should have.  Nepotism.

You might want to google "nepotism".

Secondly, he's being treated like the .220 hitter that he is, doesn't matter what he did last year in the minors.

[mvp 78]

11 minutes ago, notin said:

Are you saying Cora never met Hamilton while coaching at Houston?  C’mon!  Hamilton was IN TEXAS, and a mere 3 hour drive away! They were practically neighbors!

I mean, I basically met Tito when he waived to me from the duck boat in 04, so anything is possible. 

[notin]

10 hours ago, TedYazPapiMookie said:

No, just like Mookie and Duran I believe Rafaela has finally started to make the adjustments to be a break-out player.  I'm really happy for him.  I believed in him the whole time.  Too bad his manager didn't.

That Cora kept playing Rafaela and keeps playing Campbell is extremely likely to be a sign he’s always believed in both.

Im indifferent on Cora, and think it is getting close to time to fire him.  But the logic here is beyond questionable.  Let’s start with the fact that not all Latin players are from the same country and dont all get along.  Cora, being Puerto Rican, is a US citizen who might not have as much in common with all of the Dominican players as you think…

[moonslav59]

There are a lot of current FT or near FT Sox players that have not been earning their slots. If Cora is one thing as a manager, he's loyal to those he thinks are better.

All of these guys have numbers that, at best, hint at a benching, demotion or a rest:

Story: We used to say, "Well, he's still a GG-type SS," and we'd hope he could hit over .750. Now, he's not the same defender and is on a really bad cold streak. How long is long enough? How Soon Is Now? The guy has hit .403 (OPS not a Ted Williams BA) in his last 153 PAs!

Campbell: The elephant in the room. His meager numbers are boosted by his first 8 games in the bigs. He's hit .553 in his last 193 PAs. That's about 1/3 of a season. It's at .490 in his last 135 PAs and .368 his last 107 PAs. The Sox have a long history of sticking with struggling rookies, JBJ & Pedey to name a couple, but this is looking really bad.

Now, one could have made the same argument about Rafaela, and some were. His OPS was pretty low, all year and for most of 2024. He's over .700, now, but just 9 games ago, he was coming off a .272 stretch of 11 games (34 PAs.) Some were arguing Devers should be demoted in the line-up in mid April, so many times, patience is a virtue.

With pitchers, it's a little harder to judge, but Houck did get 9 starts before the plug was pulled, and Gio is up to 7 starts, now, and he has a 6.42 ERA and a 1.634 WHIP. When is enough enough?

[TedYazPapiMookie]

14 hours ago, Hitch said:

Okay, well first off, Campbell wasn't hitting like ROTY and then it all fell apart after he occasionally got moved to CF. He was hitting like ROTY while he was still getting the odd game at CF.

Secondly, while I agree that I wish Campbell would have just been left at the 2nd and forgotten about in terms of moving around, it's not just Cora - there is an MLB-wide movement towards wanting more flexibility in their players and roster. This is just much more of a thing now, whether we like it or not.

It's getting tiresome hearing how Cora is 'useless' and 'worthless'. He's certainly got some fronting up to do when it comes to the errors and situational hitting mistakes this team continually makes, but he is a good manager and pretending otherwise is just childish. He has also not had a roster worth a damn for the majority of his time here. And even this one, which we hoped would be something, we all agreed that it was lopsided at best. He has questions to answer and needs to show something over these next few months, but let's calm it down a bit.

Lastly, I don't know what to do with the logic that Cora should be looking after these young players at the highest level and leaving them at their position while hearing in the same breath Anthony should be moved to a position he's never played before and brought up the big league to play it. 🙅‍♂️

First, I don't give a damn if you don't like hearing about Cora.  I'm free to voice my viewpoint.   Also, ROY is Rookie of the Year.  Your spelling alone told me EVERYTHING I need to know about your baseball knowledge.  Next, the decision to move Campbell all over the field is ULTIMATELY Cora's and trends are not forced on Cora, it's his choice.  

How dare you call someone else's comment childish.  Grow-up and act like an adult.  The correct or proper comment in response to mine is "I disagree" not a childish insult like you made. 

Next, if Cora had learned anything from his time managing the best team in Red Sox history in 2018, he would have stopped making the same mistakes over and over.  That didn't happen so he has not improved when he really needed to since Bloom dissolved the Championship roster.

The ONLY reason Anthony was suggested for a temporary assignment at 1B was to get his bat in the MLB.  He's a long-term outfielder but Cora can't figure out the right move which is to put the worst OF at 1B which is Abreu/Refsnyder.  The sooner the team starts playing its outfield of the future (Duran, Rafaela and Anthony) the better off the team will be.  Anthony has mastered AAA pitching and needs to be in the MLB.

Also, it wasn't in the same breath.  It was two different topics.

One was related to several players who have been treated by Cora like utility players and the other topic related to starting the development of Anthony as a hitter sooner.  He needs to stop wasting his time in AAA.  There was no contradiction in my comments.  Both points related to different topics.

 

[illinoisredsox]

One of my kids once had a tee shirt that said “I’m right, you’re wrong. Deal with it.”  It was cute on the then 3 year old.

It would not be as cute now that he’s in his 30s.

[TedYazPapiMookie]

17 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

1. That's NOT the definition of nepotism.

2. Abreu's first visit to MLB: 12 G CF, 12 G LF, 3 RF after being mainly a RFer in WOO

3. Duran gets a TON of respect from Cora, maybe more than any other player in the clubhouse and even said that every kid should watch Duran and play baseball the way he does

4. I don't think Cora had any idea who David Hamilton (598 OPS Freshman) was in 2017

5. Abreu had an 881 OPS while batting 2nd in '24, much better than a 9th hitter

If I had called it Cronyism what percentage of the readers would have been familiar with the word?  Nepotism is a familiar word that is adjacent to Cronyism, so I used.  Technically, you are correct.  I'm pretty sure most people understood the point was about favoritism.  So great irrelevant point.

Why would what he did at one level of the minors be so significant? In the minors he played 186, 148 and 135 games at RF, CF and LF respectively.  That says to me the organization saw him as a 4th outfielder when he got to the MLB because they knew Duran, Rafaela and Anthony were going to be the outfielders of the future.  He was groomed to be a utility outfielder because he couldn't hit left-handed batters.

Much like the front office learned to respect Mookie after they put Swihart as their top prospect, Duran has earned Cora's respect, but it wasn't given to him when got called up.  He got quickly pigeon-holed in the 9th hole like Rafaela.  After his demotion, he had to be exceptional to finally get the chance he deserved from his original call-up.  I also believe the Netflix thing brought out the respect in Cora after he found out all the things he triggered by not respecting Duran.  I think he felt guilty, if he has that emotion.

I will spend some time trying to find the interview where he said he first met Hamilton during an Astro visit to the UT campus.

The .881 OPS batting 2nd in the order doesn't include the failures he had at the 1 and 3 spots!  Rafaela didn't get those opportunities after outperforming Abreu in 2023 at the top of order.  FYI... Abreu went 9 for 49 in the 1st and 3rd spots in the order in 2024 significantly reducing that .881.  

Considering how bad the team was at hitting last year, Abreu's numbers were sufficient on a bad hitting team despite his inability to hit LH pitchers.  I would have liked to see what the historically better hitter (Rafaela) could have done in the top three spots in the order.  Let's hope Rafaela is better prepared to deal with the disappointment handed out by Cora and rebounds like Duran did.

 

  

 

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

I don't have stats for hitters batting in the top 3 spots in the batting order compared to the bottom 3 spots.

But I know coaches and the rest of the batting order favor guys at the top that take a few pitches, especially at the beginning of the game. It gives the whole dugout a view of a pitcher's arsenal and release points, his approach in certain counts on the batter, and most importantly, it raises his total pitch count -- which often leads to more mistakes vs. subsequent hitters, and can lead to the ultimate goal, which is forcing opponents to go to the bullpen early. 

In those regards, it's hard to justify batting Rafaela at the top of the order right now. We all know Ceddanne sometimes swings at every pitch... so hacking at three straight splitters in the dirt (which we've seen him do) does nothing in regard to accomplishing the objectives described above.

[notin]

On 6/5/2025 at 10:39 PM, TedYazPapiMookie said:

This is why it's hard to discuss things with you.  No facts.  I've pointed out a .953 fielding percentage for Mayer which is not terribly higher than Devers who is the worst fielding 3B of all time.  You simply say Mayer is better and you expect that to be enough because facts mess with your opinion.  That's my bad.  We should all just follow your opinion.  I still prefer actual performance to opinion.

During last night’s game, Jarren Duran was charged with an error for throwing a ball that struck a sliding Austin Wells from 250 feet away.  And with that (clearly on target!) throw, his fielding percentage went down.  Just another point against fielding percentage..

[notin]

On 6/5/2025 at 9:47 AM, mvp 78 said:

His k rate has gone up a little, but his walk rate dropped dramatically. His other issue is everything he now hits is being pounded into the dirt. Can MLB coaching fix it? 

Can minor league coaching?

It seems to me the only place to learn to hit MLB pitching is MLB.  I mean, if you aced pre-Calc, but next semester started off failing Calculus, your professor won’t send you back to pre-Calc and you learn Calculus there.  No, you stay and learn Calculys where the Calculus is.  I don’t see it as being about confidence, either.  Campbell already mastered AAA pitching and probably has the confidence that he can do so again.  But what if he struggles,which is the only possible change? Couldn’t that destroy his confidence?  Seems like making a player work to maintain the status quo is the solution many want.  We all want Campbell to learn to hit MLB pitching, but some do not want to watch it.  The problem is, the two are inseparable.

Demotions strike me as primarily being about two things

1. Not losing team control while the player struggles,. Campbell has already signed his extension, so he is immune here.  And

2.  Not having the struggling rookie bring the team down.

The article mentioned Matt Shaw, who had an OPS in the neighborhood of .550 when he got demoted.  He was recalled roughly a month later.  Was he recalled because he learned to hit MLB pitching in a month? Or was he recalled because the Cubs realized that Jon Berti and Vidal Brujan were not better solutions at 3b?

[notin]

7 hours ago, TedYazPapiMookie said:

If I had called it Cronyism what percentage of the readers would have been familiar with the word?  Nepotism is a familiar word that is adjacent to Cronyism, so I used.  Technically, you are correct.  I'm pretty sure most people understood the point was about favoritism.  So great irrelevant point.

Why would what he did at one level of the minors be so significant? In the minors he played 186, 148 and 135 games at RF, CF and LF respectively.  That says to me the organization saw him as a 4th outfielder when he got to the MLB because they knew Duran, Rafaela and Anthony were going to be the outfielders of the future.  He was groomed to be a utility outfielder because he couldn't hit left-handed batters.

Much like the front office learned to respect Mookie after they put Swihart as their top prospect, Duran has earned Cora's respect, but it wasn't given to him when got called up.  He got quickly pigeon-holed in the 9th hole like Rafaela.  After his demotion, he had to be exceptional to finally get the chance he deserved from his original call-up.  I also believe the Netflix thing brought out the respect in Cora after he found out all the things he triggered by not respecting Duran.  I think he felt guilty, if he has that emotion.

I will spend some time trying to find the interview where he said he first met Hamilton during an Astro visit to the UT campus.

The .881 OPS batting 2nd in the order doesn't include the failures he had at the 1 and 3 spots!  Rafaela didn't get those opportunities after outperforming Abreu in 2023 at the top of order.  FYI... Abreu went 9 for 49 in the 1st and 3rd spots in the order in 2024 significantly reducing that .881.  

Considering how bad the team was at hitting last year, Abreu's numbers were sufficient on a bad hitting team despite his inability to hit LH pitchers.  I would have liked to see what the historically better hitter (Rafaela) could have done in the top three spots in the order.  Let's hope Rafaela is better prepared to deal with the disappointment handed out by Cora and rebounds like Duran did.

 

  

 

So your defense is “I thought you people were too stupid to understand the right word”?  
 

It’s easy to argue it isn’t cronyism, either.  Why not just use “favoritism”? 

[Old Red]

55 minutes ago, notin said:

During last night’s game, Jarren Duran was charged with an error for throwing a ball that struck a sliding Austin Wells from 250 feet away.  And with that (clearly on target!) throw, his fielding percentage went down.  Just another point against fielding percentage..

Not all errors are the same. You could look at the box score from last nights game, and see that Duran was charged with an error, but if you watched the game the good old eye test told you what happened. The eye test can tell you so much such as Bregman could very easily have two more throwing errors charged to him that the eye test showed you, but the official scorer awarded the batter a hit that even had the Yuckers in the NESN booth befuddled, so  I agree fielding percentage isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and there different kind of errors that the eye test if available can differentiate.

[Hitch]

8 hours ago, TedYazPapiMookie said:

If I had called it Cronyism what percentage of the readers would have been familiar with the word?  Nepotism is a familiar word that is adjacent to Cronyism, so I used.  Technically, you are correct.  I'm pretty sure most people understood the point was about favoritism.  So great irrelevant point.

Why would what he did at one level of the minors be so significant? In the minors he played 186, 148 and 135 games at RF, CF and LF respectively.  That says to me the organization saw him as a 4th outfielder when he got to the MLB because they knew Duran, Rafaela and Anthony were going to be the outfielders of the future.  He was groomed to be a utility outfielder because he couldn't hit left-handed batters.

Much like the front office learned to respect Mookie after they put Swihart as their top prospect, Duran has earned Cora's respect, but it wasn't given to him when got called up.  He got quickly pigeon-holed in the 9th hole like Rafaela.  After his demotion, he had to be exceptional to finally get the chance he deserved from his original call-up.  I also believe the Netflix thing brought out the respect in Cora after he found out all the things he triggered by not respecting Duran.  I think he felt guilty, if he has that emotion.

I will spend some time trying to find the interview where he said he first met Hamilton during an Astro visit to the UT campus.

The .881 OPS batting 2nd in the order doesn't include the failures he had at the 1 and 3 spots!  Rafaela didn't get those opportunities after outperforming Abreu in 2023 at the top of order.  FYI... Abreu went 9 for 49 in the 1st and 3rd spots in the order in 2024 significantly reducing that .881.  

Considering how bad the team was at hitting last year, Abreu's numbers were sufficient on a bad hitting team despite his inability to hit LH pitchers.  I would have liked to see what the historically better hitter (Rafaela) could have done in the top three spots in the order.  Let's hope Rafaela is better prepared to deal with the disappointment handed out by Cora and rebounds like Duran did.

 

  

 

Well aren't you quite the little firecracker? 😂

Landing on here with a bang proclaiming yourself a 'superior baseball mind' while ignoring basic facts and posts pointing out you're arguing against yourself, and then your latest offering - suggesting people wouldn't know what cronyism means? Cronyism.

Fantastic stuff, sir.

 

[TheSplinteredSplendor]

1 minute ago, Hitch said:

Well aren't you quite the little firecracker? 😂

Landing on here with a bang proclaiming yourself a 'superior baseball mind' while ignoring basic facts and posts pointing out you're arguing against yourself, and then your latest offering - suggesting people wouldn't know what cronyism means? Cronyism.

Fantastic stuff, sir.

 

[TedYazPapiMookie]

2 hours ago, Hitch said:

Well aren't you quite the little firecracker? 😂

Landing on here with a bang proclaiming yourself a 'superior baseball mind' while ignoring basic facts and posts pointing out you're arguing against yourself, and then your latest offering - suggesting people wouldn't know what cronyism means? Cronyism.

Fantastic stuff, sir.

 

Firecracker?  Here is some free advice.  Stop with all the insults and start writing about baseball.  It will be sign of maturity.  If you disagree, just say so without an insult.  That's how adults discuss baseball.

FYI... I do what I need to do to slow the cyber bullying that goes on here.

This site is only as good as the participants who write about baseball here.  Clearly, the anonymity makes many very brave and aids in the ignorance with which they respond.  Thanks for being a prime example.

[moonslav59]

18 hours ago, TedYazPapiMookie said:

First, I don't give a damn if you don't like hearing about Cora.  I'm free to voice my viewpoint.   Also, ROY is Rookie of the Year.  Your spelling alone told me EVERYTHING I need to know about your baseball knowledge.  Next, the decision to move Campbell all over the field is ULTIMATELY Cora's and trends are not forced on Cora, it's his choice.  

How dare you call someone else's comment childish.  Grow-up and act like an adult.  The correct or proper comment in response to mine is "I disagree" not a childish insult like you made. 

Next, if Cora had learned anything from his time managing the best team in Red Sox history in 2018, he would have stopped making the same mistakes over and over.  That didn't happen so he has not improved when he really needed to since Bloom dissolved the Championship roster.

The ONLY reason Anthony was suggested for a temporary assignment at 1B was to get his bat in the MLB.  He's a long-term outfielder but Cora can't figure out the right move which is to put the worst OF at 1B which is Abreu/Refsnyder.  The sooner the team starts playing its outfield of the future (Duran, Rafaela and Anthony) the better off the team will be.  Anthony has mastered AAA pitching and needs to be in the MLB.

Also, it wasn't in the same breath.  It was two different topics.

One was related to several players who have been treated by Cora like utility players and the other topic related to starting the development of Anthony as a hitter sooner.  He needs to stop wasting his time in AAA.  There was no contradiction in my comments.  Both points related to different topics.

 

Equating someone's spelling ability to baseball knowledge is worse than childish.

[moonslav59]

28 minutes ago, TedYazPapiMookie said:

  It will be sign of maturity. 

So would not calling out someone's spelling ability.

[notin]

4 hours ago, Old Red said:

Not all errors are the same. You could look at the box score from last nights game, and see that Duran was charged with an error, but if you watched the game the good old eye test told you what happened. The eye test can tell you so much such as Bregman could very easily have two more throwing errors charged to him that the eye test showed you, but the official scorer awarded the batter a hit that even had the Yuckers in the NESN booth befuddled, so  I agree fielding percentage isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and there different kind of errors that the eye test if available can differentiate.

Of course all errors are not the same.  But they are all worth the same when you use fielding percentage.

Not sure why you’re blathering on about eye test won a play clearly being described for you, but your eye test needs glasses if it saw Bregman in that play.

There are two issues with errors - some guys opinion blah blah blah.  But more important, they’re not meant to measure fielding ability; they’re meant to explain baserunners.  Using errors and fielding percentage to evaluate a fielder’s defensive skills is like using wild pitches to evaluate a pitcher’s control…