Anthony leading off

[Bellhorn04]

5 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

Yeah, not enough room for everybody.  People are going to get squeezed on an improving team.  For too long, my opinion, the sox were the opposite.  Just content to run the same sub-par players out there again and again like Verdugo because of lack of aggression and will to win.

I dont like the complacency.  This team has been much too complacent over the last 5 years.  But I understand many sox fans are fine with how they operate.  "I just want a team that I enjoy and can stick in games" "I dont think they did bad at the deadline" "we made a trade? Oh no!! Who did we give up?"

This kind of thinking glues you in place.

There is still some complacency in how this team is being run.  The extensions are great, but there's something amiss when Toro is still getting crucial at-bats. 

[moonslav59]

12 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

Yeah, not enough room for everybody.  People are going to get squeezed on an improving team.  For too long, my opinion, the sox were the opposite.  Just content to run the same sub-par players out there again and again like Verdugo because of lack of aggression and will to win.

I dont like the complacency.  This team has been much too complacent over the last 5 years.  But I understand many sox fans are fine with how they operate.  "I just want a team that I enjoy and can stick in games" "I dont think they did bad at the deadline" "we made a trade? Oh no!! Who did we give up?"

This kind of thinking glues you in place.

Agreed on the 5 years, but it really began in 2019 (6 years) and to me, it ended after 2024. The complacency was with the big club, but not the farm, but they could never come out and say "We are rebuilding, while trying to trick fans into thinking we might compete, this year, if everything goes right."

I like this team. I think we are 1-2 major additions away from being a top 4 team in MLB. That assumes Bregman and Chapman return, otherwise we need 3-4 major additions, this winter. That is not something we should feel is beyond reach. I know that sounds like one more year of "wait till next year," and in some ways it is. I'm not happy about that. I had wished we'd done more to strengthen the pen, add a better SP'er than Buehler and deepen the options at 1B & 2B, but I do think the complacency ended after 2024.

5 years: 2020-2024, yes. (2021 was a blip, and if you count 2019, and not 2021, it's still 5 recent years out of 6.)

[moonslav59]

13 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

There is still some complacency in how this team is being run.  The extensions are great, but there's something amiss when Toro is still getting crucial at-bats. 

Agreed. They had time and resources to fix 1B. IMO, first basemen are not hard to get, and not all that costly. Hell, we could have traded for Lowe weeks or months ago, and got some cash thrown in or given WSH Yoshida and cash to get him.

Same thing last year, but at least we tried with Copper and then Dom Smith.

I was on the dump Toro train a very long time ago. (I was also on the Devers at 1B train, years ago and Casas to DH, as well. I'm not tooting my own horn, but why not try it?)

[cp176]

On 8/17/2025 at 12:21 PM, moonslav59 said:

Are you ranking our rookies?

How about Narvaez?

Narvaez has had a great season.  I think that in terms of what you have done for me lately, in my mind he tops the list of all of our rookies.  Like many here, I’m a huge proponent of the solid up the middle approach and that begins with the guy behind the plate.  He has been outstanding.

[moonslav59]

49 minutes ago, cp176 said:

Narvaez has had a great season.  I think that in terms of what you have done for me lately, in my mind he tops the list of all of our rookies.  Like many here, I’m a huge proponent of the solid up the middle approach and that begins with the guy behind the plate.  He has been outstanding.

He wasn't a bad hitter in the minors (decent OBP and moderate pop,) so I'm not sure why watching an over-worked rookie slump means he can't or won't ever be a good hitter, again.

I can see not anointing him a solid core player, just yet, but solid D from a catcher is solid to me.

[Kimmi]

6 hours ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Although I wish the best whenever he plays, I don't think he has earned much love, Kimmi.  Here are his fWARs to date:

2023 +0.7

2024 +0.9

2025 -0.2

Total +1.4 !!!

Now it looks like they've even decided they have to platoon him.

 

Yoshida's 2023 and 2024 fWARs were heavily influenced by a large negative dWAR.  I was responding to Max's post about Yoshida's recent offensive numbers.  Granted, when you factor in defense, Yoshida has been a disappointment overall, but IMO, he deserves more love than he gets.

[moonslav59]

Even as a DH, only, I want more.

If he was making $1.5M, he'd probably be gone, already.

Too many weak grounders to 2B for my liking.

[Kimmi]

6 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Even as a DH, only, I want more.

If he was making $1.5M, he'd probably be gone, already.

Too many weak grounders to 2B for my liking.

I get that.  He wasn't supposed to be a pure DH.  And as a pure DH, you'd like to see a stronger bat.  I guess I'm in the minority, but I'm okay with having him on the team.

[moonslav59]

35 minutes ago, Kimmi said:

I get that.  He wasn't supposed to be a pure DH.  And as a pure DH, you'd like to see a stronger bat.  I guess I'm in the minority, but I'm okay with having him on the team.

His bad defense force the DH only thing, and we have to see Casas as the same situation. The injury risk for Casas is very high, and I think he can and will be a better bat going forward. I do not think Casas can ever get to average on 1B defense, so to me, Yoshida's value is further minimized by this. If Ref comes back, he should DH vs LHPs, making our DH a full platoon for one year.

Writing off $18M x 2 is not easy. He does have options, so he could be Woo's DH, but why waste a 40 man slot for DH insurance?

Maybe we can trade him and save a couple-three Million- maybe we just have to DFA him. I'd like our 26 and 40 man roster more with Jh Garcia on the 26 and almost anybody else on the 40.