Spring Training Game Thread for Week of March 8th

[mvp 78]

44 minutes ago, notin said:

Or on the “maybe he’s like Bogaerts and Devers in that he has a spot where he is comfortable and likes to play and when that all happens he has been known to crush baseballs wuth authority.”

 

Whether anyone likes the reason or not, it has to be considered as a possibly for issuing that statement.  No one said every statement has to be a pearl of wisdom…

'25 Splits

KC as OF: 103 wRC+

KC as 2B: 86 wRC+

 

[moonslav59]

4 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

If that's the case, why do some people in the org keep saying that they believe he can be good at 2b? 

Key word "can."

He's an "athletic guy," we kept hearing.

Nobody thought KC was already a good defender at 2B on opening day 2025, and no that's not praising managements for being geniuses.

Now, maybe they didn't expect him to look that bad, but they knew. Ohhhhh, they knew!

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

'25 Splits

KC as OF: 103 wRC+

KC as 2B: 86 wRC+

 

You've really gone to the SSS a lot, in recent months.

[notin]

2 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

'25 Splits

KC as OF: 103 wRC+

KC as 2B: 86 wRC+

 

227 PA at 2b

29 PA as OF

[notin]

2 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

'25 Splits

KC as OF: 103 wRC+

KC as 2B: 86 wRC+

 

Campbell’s OPS as a LF is 2.100!

Why are the Sox wasting time with Roman Anthony out there?!?

[drewski6]

Opportunity matters and KC is prob like our seventh best outfielder and might become our 3rd best infielder behind Story and Contreras by June.  Not saying he is or that he is destined to become that , just saying to help this team at OF, KC needs like 3 injuries.  To help this team at 2b/ss/3b - he may need 0 injuries....Because Mayer and Durbin dont have the same grasp on the jobs that abreu/cedanne/anthony/duran do, and Id put eaton above kc at this point.

[mvp 78]

1 hour ago, moonslav59 said:

Now, maybe they didn't expect him to look that bad, but they knew. Ohhhhh, they knew!

If they knew he'd be that bad, they wouldn't have shuffled him around as much as they did.

[mvp 78]

1 hour ago, moonslav59 said:

You've really gone to the SSS a lot, in recent months.

Seems like he's more comfortable hitting as an OFer. 

[mvp 78]

38 minutes ago, notin said:

227 PA at 2b

29 PA as OF

4 HR as a 2b.

2 HR as an OFer. 

Seems like he has more power and more comfort when starting in the OF. 

[mvp 78]

31 minutes ago, notin said:

Campbell’s OPS as a LF is 2.100!

Why are the Sox wasting time with Roman Anthony out there?!?

Anthony had decent DH numbers TBH.

[mvp 78]

27 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

Opportunity matters and KC is prob like our seventh best outfielder and might become our 3rd best infielder behind Story and Contreras by June.  

Zero chance of that unless several players die in a plane crash.

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

If they knew he'd be that bad, they wouldn't have shuffled him around as much as they did.

Huh?

Once they found out he was worse than they knew, the shuffled him around- yes.

[mvp 78]

7 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Huh?

Once they found out he was worse than they knew, the shuffled him around- yes.

If they knew that he was a terrible 2b from day one, they would have just shipped him off to the OF and wouldn't have shuffled him around the way they have. I guess I really needed to spell it out for you.

They were shuffling him around from day one! LF, RF, CF, 2B, SS. They needed to find one position for KC. He's not a good defender and wasn't really succeeding anywhere. He's passable in the OF and probably just needed to be sent there OR needed a fulltime spot at 2B if they really thought he'd eventually figure it out. 

[moonslav59]

1 minute ago, mvp 78 said:

If they knew that he was a terrible 2b from day one, they would have just shipped him off to the OF and wouldn't have shuffled him around the way they have. I guess I really needed to spell it out for you.

They were shuffling him around from day one! LF, RF, CF, 2B, SS. They needed to find one position for KC. He's not a good defender and wasn't really succeeding anywhere. He's passable in the OF and probably just needed to be sent there OR needed a fulltime spot at 2B if they really thought he'd eventually figure it out. 

You really think they thought he was good at 2B defense and were surprised?

Let me spell it out for you: They knew he was bad, but they've gone with bad before. They hoped his offense would overshadow the bad D, and maybe (just maybe) he was actually worse on D than they thought. 

We all know the offense never made up for jack.

IMO, his best spot might be DH, but he may become passable in LF, but we have 4 OF'ers plus Masa, so he's squeezed. Of course, there is no squeeze, unless he starts hitting and puts pressure on deserving another look-see. That may or may not ever happen.

My point was they knew he was bad and that was precisely why the shuffled him around so much, which is why I said "huh?" to this statement:

If they knew he'd be that bad, they wouldn't have shuffled him around as much as they did.

[notin]

57 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

If they knew that he was a terrible 2b from day one, they would have just shipped him off to the OF and wouldn't have shuffled him around the way they have. I guess I really needed to spell it out for you.

They were shuffling him around from day one! LF, RF, CF, 2B, SS. They needed to find one position for KC. He's not a good defender and wasn't really succeeding anywhere. He's passable in the OF and probably just needed to be sent there OR needed a fulltime spot at 2B if they really thought he'd eventually figure it out. 

Unless the line of thought was “we haven’t had a decent 2b since Pedroia, and not even ‘most recent Pedroia’, so if this guy can hit and find 2b on the diamond, that puts him ahead of Vaughn Grissom at the top of the depth chart”…

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, notin said:

Unless the line of thought was “we haven’t had a decent 2b since Pedroia, and not even ‘most recent Pedroia’, so if this guy can hit and find 2b on the diamond, that puts him ahead of Vaughn Grissom at the top of the depth chart”…

We've really had a carousel of crud at 2B for way too long. There is no sugar coating this. They knew it: we knew it. They didn't even try to pretend Enmanuel Valdez was the second coming.

I'f finding it hard to believe people actually think the higher ups had faith in KC's defense at 2B. They may have had hopes and prayers, but no way did they have confidence in his defense.

IMO, they hoped he could hit well enough to stick. They hoped the same with E Valdez. Others they tried at 2B had little hope on O or D.

I hope they find a suitable landing spot for him, but I'm still betting on DH as his best fit, but that brings us to the bigger issue: right now Duran, Masa and Casas are lined up to be the primary DH.

If he proves he can play LF, he's got Anthony & Duran ahead of him.

If somehow he miraculously learns how to play 2B, we'd have room for him, due to the Romy and Mayer injuries, but even at 2B, he might be looking at a platoon role, at best, and in his stage of development, that's the last thing he needs- riding the bench 7 of 10 games.

[Old Red]

42 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

We've really had a carousel of crud at 2B for way too long. There is no sugar coating this. They knew it: we knew it. They didn't even try to pretend Enmanuel Valdez was the second coming.

I'f finding it hard to believe people actually think the higher ups had faith in KC's defense at 2B. They may have had hopes and prayers, but no way did they have confidence in his defense.

IMO, they hoped he could hit well enough to stick. They hoped the same with E Valdez. Others they tried at 2B had little hope on O or D.

I hope they find a suitable landing spot for him, but I'm still betting on DH as his best fit, but that brings us to the bigger issue: right now Duran, Masa and Casas are lined up to be the primary DH.

If he proves he can play LF, he's got Anthony & Duran ahead of him.

If somehow he miraculously learns how to play 2B, we'd have room for him, due to the Romy and Mayer injuries, but even at 2B, he might be looking at a platoon role, at best, and in his stage of development, that's the last thing he needs- riding the bench 7 of 10 games.

Like I said the other day that KC has to improve just to be a Suspect again let alone an everyday player. He’s also been playing CF pretty much exclusively, and I don’t see 2B in his future at all no matter what happens. The only thing Casas is lined up for is to start running again so being the primary DH could be a long time off if at all.🤔

[notin]

6 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

4 HR as a 2b.

2 HR as an OFer. 

Seems like he has more power and more comfort when starting in the OF. 

His .513 OPS in CF disagrees with you..

[JoeBrady]

4 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

They were shuffling him around from day one! LF, RF, CF, 2B, SS.

I wouldn't try to massage too much of a message from the small sample.  LF (1 GS), CF (7), DH (1), RF (0), SS (0), and 2B (54).  That looks to me like he was their primary 2B, who filled in in the OF to give players a little rest.

If I had to draw a conclusion, it looks like all of KC's starts in CF put Ceddanne on the bench.  In every game KC played CF, Hamilton played 2B.  In all those games, we faced a righty SP.  So Cora was playing L/R matchups between Ceddanne & Hamilton.

[moonslav59]

2 hours ago, Old Red said:

Like I said the other day that KC has to improve just to be a Suspect again let alone an everyday player. He’s also been playing CF pretty much exclusively, and I don’t see 2B in his future at all no matter what happens. The only thing Casas is lined up for is to start running again so being the primary DH could be a long time off if at all.🤔

Hey we once had Orlando Cepeda as our DH!

[mvp 78]

11 hours ago, notin said:

His .513 OPS in CF disagrees with you..

SSS!

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

10 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

Hey we once had Orlando Cepeda as our DH!

Cepeda was the greatest DH in history that year in Boston. 

I was in the stands the day he went 4-for-4 off the Monster and limped into second with 4 doubles.

I was 13 and realized Orlando was the first big league ballplayer I could beat in a running race.

[mvp 78]

16 minutes ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

Cepeda was the greatest DH in history that year in Boston. 

I was in the stands the day he went 4-for-4 off the Monster and limped into second with 4 doubles.

I was 13 and realized Orlando was the first big league ballplayer I could beat in a running race.

I watched a video of Willie Mays playing in an Old Timers Game at age 50 and it made me feel much better about myself (not that I could have done what he was doing TBF). 

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

Cepeda was the greatest DH in history that year in Boston. 

I was in the stands the day he went 4-for-4 off the Monster and limped into second with 4 doubles.

I was 13 and realized Orlando was the first big league ballplayer I could beat in a running race.

I was 14 and fully enjoyed watching Cha-Cha hit line shots all over Fenway. That was a joyful time.