Future First base

[mvp 78]

20 minutes ago, notin said:

As long as we have Cora, Abreu will be platooned.  Cora has some religious convictions about letting left-handed hitters face left-handed pitchers if it can be avoided.

If Cora had managed the Sox in the 1940s, I truly believe he would have platooned Ted Williams in LF with Pete Fox…

 

Truly? Teddy Ballgame had a 921 OPS vs LHP in '39. He wasn't going to be platooned after that. 

[notin]

43 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Truly? Teddy Ballgame had a 921 OPS vs LHP in '39. He wasn't going to be platooned after that. 

No one talked about OPS in 1939.  Stop ruining the hyperbolic examples…

[Deja Doh]

Make a trade with the A's and get Nick Kurtz.  He's 22, and good.

[moonslav59]

17 hours ago, notin said:

As long as we have Cora, Abreu will be platooned.  Cora has some religious convictions about letting left-handed hitters face left-handed pitchers if it can be avoided.

If Cora had managed the Sox in the 1940s, I truly believe he would have platooned Ted Williams in LF with Pete Fox…

 

I disagree. If Abreu shows improvement, he will play FT, assuming we relieve the OF logjam, soon.

Look at this... Jarren Duran:

.438 v L in 2021 (28 PAs) 6 gms started v L (20 v R)

.509 v L in 27 PAs in '22 (42 PAs) 6 GS v L (48 v R- platooned)

.749 v L in 49 PAs in 2023 (9 GS vs L & 73 v R) mostly platooned.

The platoon stopped after 2023.

.665 v L in 2024 (230 PAs) 43 GS v L & 117 v R (No platoon)

.578 v L in '25 (163 PAs) 28 GS v L/ 82 v R (No platoon)

.570 Duran '21-'23 in 119 PAs: stopped platoon.

.588 Abreu career in 135 PAs v L

_________________________

.632 Duran '21-'24 in 349 PAs

.615 Duran career in 512 PAs

.588 Abreu career vs L

______________________

Duran's speed keeps him in the line-up, but Abreu's great RF D might keep him in the line-up if he can get his numbers up a little v L.

 

[moonslav59]

16 hours ago, notin said:

No one talked about OPS in 1939.  Stop ruining the hyperbolic examples…

No, but they knew who was good and bad as hitters.

[notin]

8 hours ago, Deja Doh said:

Make a trade with the A's and get Nick Kurtz.  He's 22, and good.

He’s their Roman Anthony.

Bear in mind the A’s expect to open the 2028 season in Las Vegas and shed their small market economy.  As Kurtz will either be in his first arb year that year or the next, they might not have as much fear about affording him as they would if they stayed in Oakland.

Simply put, Kurtz is not a solution for the Sox any time soon…

[notin]

1 hour ago, moonslav59 said:

No, but they knew who was good and bad as hitters.

But would that have stopped Cora from platooning  Williams, hyperbolically speaking?

[Deja Doh]

Abreu is young (26) and good .  He needs to play against left handers.  What we like in Anthony (in limited plate appearances) is that he gets on base (OBP 0.392).  His plate awareness is good, though he has yet to show power.  In contrast Abreu is at least demonstrating power and hitting better against lefties this year than last.  With Refsnyder hitting well, I see the platooning continue especially for the first 5 innings of games.

1 hour ago, moonslav59 said:

I disagree. If Abreu shows improvement, he will play FT, assuming we relieve the OF logjam, soon.

Look at this... Jarren Duran:

.438 v L in 2021 (28 PAs) 6 gms started v L (20 v R)

.509 v L in 27 PAs in '22 (42 PAs) 6 GS v L (48 v R- platooned)

.749 v L in 49 PAs in 2023 (9 GS vs L & 73 v R) mostly platooned.

The platoon stopped after 2023.

.665 v L in 2024 (230 PAs) 43 GS v L & 117 v R (No platoon)

.578 v L in '25 (163 PAs) 28 GS v L/ 82 v R (No platoon)

.570 Duran '21-'23 in 119 PAs: stopped platoon.

.588 Abreu career in 135 PAs v L

_________________________

.632 Duran '21-'24 in 349 PAs

.615 Duran career in 512 PAs

.588 Abreu career vs L

______________________

Duran's speed keeps him in the line-up, but Abreu's great RF D might keep him in the line-up if he can get his numbers up a little v L.

 

 

[drewski6]

3 hours ago, notin said:

But would that have stopped Cora from platooning  Williams, hyperbolically speaking?

The armed forces draft?

[drewski6]

If you could have 40 people on your active roster, there would be like 4 position players in the mlb who would not be platooning

Platooning isnt a problem, get use to it.

[drewski6]

Teams are starting to consider not even carrying a true backup catcher anymore.  4 platoon players on the bench teach one to catch so he can double-serve

I dont think its long before teams go back to carrying 5 bench players.  5 platoons/team.  ANd if your catcher has equal splits, your backup catcher is whomever can (and I do not mean whomever can "well")
 

[drewski6]

Prob be cleaner if one of your catcher is one of the platoons, but wont always be the case.

[moonslav59]

5 hours ago, notin said:

But would that have stopped Cora from platooning  Williams, hyperbolically speaking?

No brainer- yes.

[moonslav59]

5 hours ago, Deja Doh said:

Abreu is young (26) and good .  He needs to play against left handers.  What we like in Anthony (in limited plate appearances) is that he gets on base (OBP 0.392).  His plate awareness is good, though he has yet to show power.  In contrast Abreu is at least demonstrating power and hitting better against lefties this year than last.  With Refsnyder hitting well, I see the platooning continue especially for the first 5 innings of games.

 

On another team, Abreu would not be platooned, just for his defense, alone.

If we did not have Refsnyder, and now Anthony on the 26, he'd have been FT.

If Rafaela is no longer needed at 2B and Ref retires, maybe Duran and Abreu alternate days off vs LHPs, and Anthony DHs vs RHPs.

[Kimmi]

On 8/6/2025 at 7:05 PM, moonslav59 said:

Does Campbell count?

The jury is still out on that, but sure, he could possibly be a very good first baseman.  I hope he continues to get reps there.  

It's nice to have the versatility of players being able to play multiple positions.  Some players can handle it well.  For others, it might be a bit overwhelming.  It's up to Cora and management to figure that out.

[Kimmi]

On 8/7/2025 at 1:26 PM, notin said:

Toro’s success was brief, as it is every year.  But Romy has been a revelation…

Indeed.  We were fortunate to have the 1B situation work out as well as it did.  Of course, Casas wasn't doing that great before he went down with his injury.

[Deja Doh]

Casas has been Dalbec 2.0. He can't hit.  Trade or DFA.  Time to move on.

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, Deja Doh said:

Casas has been Dalbec 2.0. He can't hit.  Trade or DFA.  Time to move on.

Kind of a quick hook.

He had a pretty major injury. Maybe it's career ending, but I think if he's healthy, he will be an .800+ batter. He may never be even close to average on D at 1B, so I think DH is is spot. It might keep him from getting hurt, as often, too.

The problem, again, comes down to Yoshida. I'll take Casas over Yoshida. How about Yoshida + Fitts for Willson Contreras? The money is almost even.

Contreras plays 1B, Casas DH and we trade an OF'er in a package for a #2 SP'er. Bring Bregman & Chapman back and call it a winning winter.

If Casas gets hurt, finding a DH is easy: Jh Garcia-Romy (Refsnyder)

[Jasonbay44]

Trading Casas is one thing; but why the hell would they DFA him? 

[Hitch]

3 hours ago, Jasonbay44 said:

Trading Casas is one thing; but why the hell would they DFA him? 

There's definitely a world in which he gets DFA'd. We're not anywhere near it yet though. 

[mvp 78]

7 hours ago, Jasonbay44 said:

Trading Casas is one thing; but why the hell would they DFA him? 

He's only getting DFA'd if he's struggling to come back from the injury. He still has 3 MiLB options left so it's more likely they stash him in AAA for all of '26 if he's really struggling before ultimately DFA'ing. 

[moonslav59]

7 hours ago, Jasonbay44 said:

Trading Casas is one thing; but why the hell would they DFA him? 

I seriously doubt he's the next Dalbec, but even Bobby Dee deserved a long look before cutting ties.

.819 Dalbec over his first 545 PAs in MLB. Over the next 3 years, he got 499 PAs to prove those first 545 PAs were not for real. (He his .599.) Maybe they gave him too much time, but Casas is no where near Bobby Dee territory.

While the frustrations, due mainly to injuries may make us want to just give up, his injury history is not as long as Chris Sale's and we all know what happened when we traded him out of frustration.

.830 in his first 840 PAs: Casas. That's nearly 300 more PAs than Dalbec's nice start, and his.580 stretch in 2025 was just 112 PAs long. Way, way, WAY! short of giving up and thinking his first 830 PAs were NOT for real.

Okay, okay, go ahead and add the last 103 PAs of 2024 at .580 to that 112, and you come to 215 straight, but then you have to add his first 122 PAs at .888 to his career start, making that over a 950 sample size! (near .840!)

I am so far away from giving up on Casas, that a DFA cannot be taken serious. I'm not even for trading him, while his stock is low. We need a 1Bman, and this guy hit .840 over his first 950 PAs of his career.

I'm fine with making him the DH and finding a way to rid ourselves of Yoshida, but that horse has long been beaten senseless.

[moonslav59]

On 8/8/2025 at 12:43 PM, drewski6 said:

If you could have 40 people on your active roster, there would be like 4 position players in the mlb who would not be platooning

Platooning isnt a problem, get use to it.

It's better than having 4 bench players who never play, except on rest or injury days.

[Kimmi]

16 hours ago, Deja Doh said:

Casas has been Dalbec 2.0. He can't hit.  Trade or DFA.  Time to move on.

I'm not ready to give up on Casas yet.  If he can stay healthy, and so far, that's a pretty big if, he could be a very good left-handed power bat.  

[mvp 78]

14 minutes ago, Kimmi said:

I'm not ready to give up on Casas yet.  If he can stay healthy, and so far, that's a pretty big if, he could be a very good left-handed power bat.  

He was an 850 OPS guy over a full season. If he can get over this injury and back to 100%, he could get back there at some point. I don't think many of us saw '23 as a highwater mark. 

[Kimmi]

10 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

He was an 850 OPS guy over a full season. If he can get over this injury and back to 100%, he could get back there at some point. I don't think many of us saw '23 as a highwater mark. 

100%

We just need him to get healthy and stay healthy.

[moonslav59]

17 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

He was an 850 OPS guy over a full season. If he can get over this injury and back to 100%, he could get back there at some point. I don't think many of us saw '23 as a highwater mark. 

Yup, .843 over his first 725 PAs in MLB.

.653 in last 231 PAs since AuG 2024. (Still better than Toro & Lowe, of late.)

[mvp 78]

7 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Yup, .843 over his first 725 PAs in MLB.

.653 in last 231 PAs since AuG 2024. (Still better than Toro & Lowe, of late.)

Better than Meidroth too. 😎

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

Better than Meidroth too. 😎

The thing about Casas is that he really should DH.

He could be MLB's worst defensive 1Bman.

His injury history indicates he could get hurt by sneezing, so the less he's out on the field, the better chance he stays healthy and hit .825-.875 or more.