Devers Ready To Play WHEREVER The Giants Need Him To

[drewski6]

3 hours ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

They all suck, but if the Sox don't use their resources to make moves in the next month that upgrade their chances, then we'll know the front office was full of crap when Breslow said they weren't waving the white flag.

We'll see about that, because if Boston -- with its overrated offense clearly depleted -- loses more than it wins between now and the deadline, it will give Brez and Kennedy the perfect excuse to sell rather than buy. 

Try as they might, I doubt highly there is even a .900 OPS bat available. Bats like Devers arent easy to acquire.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

2 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

Try as they might, I doubt highly there is even a .900 OPS bat available. Bats like Devers arent easy to acquire.

The Sox need a top-shelf starting pitcher more than another bat.

 

[Maxbialystock]

3 hours ago, Hugh2 said:

The F.O. might share some of the blame pie for how they handled things with Devers, but in the end he was hurting his team mates the most by taking the "I'm not going to do what you tell me" mentality. 

It's really sad, and emotions fly high, and people love to look for someone to blame and a singular person to be mad at which is why we will forever see a debate between Raffy vs. the F.O. but these things just happen sometimes and there's no silver bullet.  

I don't blame Breslow for expecting him to be a team player and moving to 1B, I don't blame Devers for feeling jerked around, and I don't blame the Sox from moving on, nor do I blame Raffy for willing to play other positions in a new town. 

Pretty good, especially last paragraph.  

Where I blame Breslow is not being straight with Devers about 3b.  Apparently he lied repeatedly and told Raffy it was his.   I also think replacing Casas with Devers this season was unnecessary.   No question the trade was necessary and it's time to move on.  

[FredLynn]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

He's NOT obese. Not even borderline. You guys are ridiculous. 

At 6 feet and 245 lbs (which is what I found) his BMI is 33.2, class one obesity. Anything over 30 BMI is obese. Devers IS obese.

Now admittedly there are problems with BMI calculators because they fail to account for people who are overly muscular. But Devers isn't a body builder. He's just obese.

[mvp 78]

8 minutes ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

The Sox need a top-shelf starting pitcher more than another bat.

 

Last 7 games:

2.4 runs/game (tied lowest)

0.1 fWAR (team hitting)

70 wRC+

28.9% K (2nd highest)

629 OPS (24th)

12.5% LD (lowest)

37.9% Pull (25th)

41 H (lowest)

194 AVG (29th)

7 GDP (7th)

Campbell, Anthony and Mayer are all going to have ups and downs. Fans can't really count on them this season. Duran was supposed to have his breakout in June (739 OPS), but it hasn't happened. Narvaez has been good, but I don't know if you can count on a rookie catcher to have an 800 OPS for the whole season, especially one that wasn't known to be an offensive first guy. Toro is most likely on borrowed time. Romy should be platoon only. Hamilton should be DFA'd. Rafaela has fallen back to earth since the LAA series (536 OPS in 11 games) which was to be expected. Wilyer was on a downward trajectory before he hit the IL (456 OPS since 5/14). 

 

[mvp 78]

Just now, FredLynn said:

At 6 feet and 245 lbs (which is what I found) his BMI is 33.2, class one obesity. Anything over 30 BMI is obese. Devers IS obese.

BMI doesn't work for professional athletes. BMI would categorize every NFL running back as obese. 

[FredLynn]

2 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

BMI doesn't work for professional athletes. BMI would categorize every NFL running back as obese. 

OK, but the fact is he is obese based not only on his calculated BMI but also via the eye test. Baseball players are not always in the best shape. Papi was and likely still is obese. Sandoval.....many others. These people are not overly muscular. They are carrying too much fat. Devers IS obese and eventually its going to not only hurt his performance on the field but it will affect his overall health.

[Hugh2]

32 minutes ago, Maxbialystock said:

Pretty good, especially last paragraph.  

Where I blame Breslow is not being straight with Devers about 3b.  Apparently he lied repeatedly and told Raffy it was his.   I also think replacing Casas with Devers this season was unnecessary.   No question the trade was necessary and it's time to move on.  

I'm not trying to defend Breslow but I suppose I am a little bit with this point.  But I can understand the position he was in. 

What if he didn't land Bregman or anyone else? then he has to keep Devers at 3B.  It's almost like, you don't EVER put in your two week notice until you have a new job lined up, it's not so much dishonest as that's the way things are. 

I don't know how common of a conversation it would be to say "Hey, we are actively looking to replace you at 3B because we think your defense sucks there but hey, if we can't find someone you're going to stay there"

THat would have been the honest route.......and I don't think that would fly over to well with people as well, including Devers. 

[mvp 78]

1 minute ago, Hugh2 said:

I don't know how common of a conversation it would be to say "Hey, we are actively looking to replace you at 3B because we think your defense sucks there but hey, if we can't find someone you're going to stay there"

Maybe you just wouldn't use word choice like that and actually take the time to have some empathy when talking to the guy? 

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

The Red Sox brass are all highly-educated execs, and while that doesn't necessarily mean any have common sense or sound social skills, is it even feasible that none of the 89 Assistant Vice Presidents could concoct an acceptable plan to mollify even the most immature man-child multi-millionaire?

[notin]

8 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Maybe you just wouldn't use word choice like that and actually take the time to have some empathy when talking to the guy? 

How about straightforward deceitful flattery?

”Raffy, we’ve noticed that while you move to your left acceptably, but your lateral movement to your right is AMAZING.  We were thinking that in order to capitalize on this exceptional skill of yours, we should move you to the other side of the diamond.”

[notin]

23 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

OK, but the fact is he is obese based not only on his calculated BMI but also via the eye test. Baseball players are not always in the best shape. Papi was and likely still is obese. Sandoval.....many others. These people are not overly muscular. They are carrying too much fat. Devers IS obese and eventually its going to not only hurt his performance on the field but it will affect his overall health.

Devers is a bit pudgy by pro athlete standards, but let’s not go overboard and classify him as a Type 2 diabetic.  Plenty of people with his physique (often scaled down) are perfectly healthy…

[moonslav59]

I can't keep up with 17 threads on Devers.

[FredLynn]

8 minutes ago, notin said:

Devers is a bit pudgy by pro athlete standards, but let’s not go overboard and classify him as a Type 2 diabetic.  Plenty of people with his physique (often scaled down) are perfectly healthy…

I didn’t say he’s diabetic. But he definitely meets the criteria for obesity. And if you’re obese you’re certainly not “perfectly healthy”. Just because you don’t have complications related to your weight yet doesn’t mean you’re healthy. 
Now if Devers was squatting 500 pounds and benching 400 pounds and as a result his muscle mass was increased then the bmi calculator should be taken with a grain of salt. Football players do that-heavy lifting-but typically baseball players don’t train that way, so I think the bmi calculator is pretty reliable. By all means form you own opinion but imo Devers meets the criteria for class one obesity.

[Duran Is The Man]

Devers says he's willing to play "wherever the Giants need him" like he's being some kind of team player. i wonder why Cora never tried him at 1B before the blowup this season. Dever is horrible at third but Cora never even thought about moving him to first? is Cora that dense?

[Hugh2]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

Maybe you just wouldn't use word choice like that and actually take the time to have some empathy when talking to the guy? 

So it looks like Devers will play other positions, maybe that's all the Sox needed to do.  Was ask nicely. 

[Kimmi]

Raffy, you are breaking my heart.

Raffy's comments that he will play wherever San Fran wants him to play is not only his way to get back at Red Sox management, but it's also a huge slap in the face, intentional or not, to his former Red Sox teammates and to the many fans who adored him.

Raffy may have had good reason to be angry, but he handled the situation very, very poorly.  David Ortiz is 100% correct.

[Kimmi]

4 hours ago, notin said:

And when the Sox go to SF this week, I’m putting the over/under for number of Devers home runs in that series at 3.5.

I’m mad at him and don’t like him, but there should be no denying that man can hit…

It seems like our former players always hurt us when they play against us.  Raffy is out for vengeance, and as you said, the man can hit.  They may not all be home runs, but I'm guessing Raffy will get some big hits against us, stomping on the hearts of Red Sox fans a little more.  I hope I'm wrong.

[Kimmi]

2 hours ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

The Sox need a top-shelf starting pitcher more than another bat.

 

We have Bregman, Abreu, and Yoshida hopefully coming back at some point soon.  We should also hopefully see Mayer and Anthony start hitting a little more consistently once they become more acclimated.  We need a lot to go right offensively, but I'm comfortable focusing on starting pitching over offense.

We can't replace Raffy's bat, but perhaps a middle tier, veteran hitter would help solidify the offense.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

33 minutes ago, Hugh2 said:

So it looks like Devers will play other positions, maybe that's all the Sox needed to do.  Was ask nicely. 

Managers don't ask players where they will play on the field. They write out line-ups and assign positions.

They may talk to a guy individually to help soothe his ego, but the dialogue usually starts with a statement: "Casas blew out his knee; I need you to play first base tonight."

If the player is super sensitive and someone you don't wanna lose, you might end with a question to make him feel wanted, and let him know you're counting on him (with an arm around his shoulder, to keep him from shaking): "Can you do that for me?"

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

5 minutes ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

Managers don't ask players where they will play on the field. They write out line-ups and assign positions.

They may talk to a guy individually to help soothe his ego, but the dialogue usually starts with a statement: "Casas blew out his knee; I need you to play first base tonight."

If the player is super sensitive and someone you don't wanna lose, you might end with a question to make him feel wanted, and let him know you're counting on him (with an arm around his shoulder, to keep him from shaking): "Can you do that for me?"

I only wish the worst for the man-child formerly known as Raffy.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

1 hour ago, Duran Is The Man said:

Devers says he's willing to play "wherever the Giants need him" like he's being some kind of team player. i wonder why Cora never tried him at 1B before the blowup this season. Dever is horrible at third but Cora never even thought about moving him to first? is Cora that dense?

Yes. Hopefully, he, too, will be gone.

[Duran Is The Man]

6 minutes ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

I only wish the worst for the man-child formerly known as Raffy.

same.

[moonslav59]

58 minutes ago, Kimmi said:

Raffy, you are breaking my heart.

Raffy's comments that he will play wherever San Fran wants him to play is not only his way to get back at Red Sox management, but it's also a huge slap in the face, intentional or not, to his former Red Sox teammates and to the many fans who adored him.

Raffy may have had good reason to be angry, but he handled the situation very, very poorly.  David Ortiz is 100% correct.

While he certainly is slapping the Sox FO face, he's also undermining his own persona.

He's confirming this was more personal than about his feeling about being forced to play "every position."

Had he made this statement publically, a 2-3 months ago, he'd probably still be here.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

2 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

While he certainly is slapping the Sox FO face, he's also undermining his own persona.

He's confirming this was more personal than about his feeling about being forced to play "every position."

Had he made this statement publically, a 2-3 months ago, he'd probably still be here.

The baby is still pissed that the Sox didn't re-sign his best friend X-man.

[moonslav59]

47 minutes ago, Kimmi said:

We have Bregman, Abreu, and Yoshida hopefully coming back at some point soon.  We should also hopefully see Mayer and Anthony start hitting a little more consistently once they become more acclimated.  We need a lot to go right offensively, but I'm comfortable focusing on starting pitching over offense.

We can't replace Raffy's bat, but perhaps a middle tier, veteran hitter would help solidify the offense.

I don't see us trading for bat, rental or otherwise, except at 1B, and I don't like using this kind of logic- like about how poorly Casas was doing, so replacing him with Toro and Romy made his injury fortunate, but how much will a guy like Hoskins improve on Toro-Romy.

What size chunk will that take out of the Devers replacement apple? We'd have to trade for Alfonso to come close, and that ain't happening. ATL ain't trading Olsen, either.

As much as we can say there is room for a big bat at 2B or SS, we are not trading for someone that benches Mayer or Campbell, and we aren't going to even look at an upgrade in the OF. I think we are satisfied with Narvaez as our catcher for the next 5 years.

The biggest area we can improve on is pitching and trying to win in different ways than with our bats. That being said, we do have some hopes that little bites can be made to the Devers replacement apple by the kids, Story, and the returns by Bregman, Abreu and maybe Yoshida.

We can't even hope the whole or even half of the apple gets eaten for 2025.

[mvp 78]

I only wish they were able to trade him to the Padres as that would have been kinda fun for him and Xander. The Giants? Yuck!

[Kimmi]

39 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

While he certainly is slapping the Sox FO face, he's also undermining his own persona.

He's confirming this was more personal than about his feeling about being forced to play "every position."

Had he made this statement publically, a 2-3 months ago, he'd probably still be here.

Definitely.  This is not a good look for Devers.

[drewski6]

31 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I don't see us trading for bat, rental or otherwise, except at 1B, and I don't like using this kind of logic- like about how poorly Casas was doing, so replacing him with Toro and Romy made his injury fortunate, but how much will a guy like Hoskins improve on Toro-Romy.

What size chunk will that take out of the Devers replacement apple? We'd have to trade for Alfonso to come close, and that ain't happening. ATL ain't trading Olsen, either.

As much as we can say there is room for a big bat at 2B or SS, we are not trading for someone that benches Mayer or Campbell, and we aren't going to even look at an upgrade in the OF. I think we are satisfied with Narvaez as our catcher for the next 5 years.

The biggest area we can improve on is pitching and trying to win in different ways than with our bats. That being said, we do have some hopes that little bites can be made to the Devers replacement apple by the kids, Story, and the returns by Bregman, Abreu and maybe Yoshida.

We can't even hope the whole or even half of the apple gets eaten for 2025.

Trying to win via pitching as best foot forward is a suckers game in 2025.  Every pitcher has a 60% chance of getting hurt (or stinking out of nowhere).  Bats are more predictable and reliable.

Not to say we dont need pitching, but trying to replace Raffy by focusing on pitching, I dont want to hear about the bad luck when they all wind up on the IL or just plain not being any better than in-house candidates.

Also if we make the playoffs, we can lean on Crochet.

We are so much further away now :/

[Kimmi]

33 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I don't see us trading for bat, rental or otherwise, except at 1B, and I don't like using this kind of logic- like about how poorly Casas was doing, so replacing him with Toro and Romy made his injury fortunate, but how much will a guy like Hoskins improve on Toro-Romy.

What size chunk will that take out of the Devers replacement apple? We'd have to trade for Alfonso to come close, and that ain't happening. ATL ain't trading Olsen, either.

As much as we can say there is room for a big bat at 2B or SS, we are not trading for someone that benches Mayer or Campbell, and we aren't going to even look at an upgrade in the OF. I think we are satisfied with Narvaez as our catcher for the next 5 years.

The biggest area we can improve on is pitching and trying to win in different ways than with our bats. That being said, we do have some hopes that little bites can be made to the Devers replacement apple by the kids, Story, and the returns by Bregman, Abreu and maybe Yoshida.

We can't even hope the whole or even half of the apple gets eaten for 2025.

Agreed.  Though I am hopeful that the kids will take a big bite out of the apple for 2025.