Red Sox (Gray) vs Tigers (Flaherty): 4/20/26, 11:10AM

[FredLynn]

37 minutes ago, notin said:

And yet he is a career starter that took on a bench role.  If your biggest problem with this team is they spent too much money on a Gold Glove winning infielder that can play all 8 positions and put him on the bench, maybe “cheapskate” shouldn’t be your primary accusation. 

Again, it’s a one year deal for $6.25 mill.  IKF is hardly the biggest issue, and it wasn’t a choice between him and Pete Alonso…

There are only so many roster spots and allowing a stiff like IKF to take one of them was a mistake. There were far more talented players to be had this offseason, and we all know why we didn't get them: Henry is a cheapskate and Breslow isn't good enough.

[FredLynn]

2 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

I'm sure he'll slump, and you'll be right here letting us know.

By the end of the year, he will near the league OPS (like last season), and you'll still think he's a failure.

Right now he is doing very well. I am willing to wait and see what he does over the next 50 games or so. As I recall (without checking the numbers) he slumped badly as he got tired at the end of last year. I think this start is the proverbial "flash in the pan". I'd be glad to be proven wrong.

[FredLynn]

3 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Durbin and IKF Make 7M total. What more talented player are they getting for that? 

None. It would cost much more-which is exactly my point.

[moonslav59]

9 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

Right now he is doing very well. I am willing to wait and see what he does over the next 50 games or so. As I recall (without checking the numbers) he slumped badly as he got tired at the end of last year. I think this start is the proverbial "flash in the pan". I'd be glad to be proven wrong.

Like you were, last year.

Yes, he slumped near the end of last year, but as you will never mention, he didn't end the season in a slump.

Season OPS: .708

Last 9 games: 1.109

Last 14 games .825

Last 85: .730

Yes, you can cherry pick, like I did and find this...

.589 last 49 games, but such is the way of a streaky hitter.

His final numbers have shown steady growth, and you won't acknowledge that fact.

[notin]

38 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

There are only so many roster spots and allowing a stiff like IKF to take one of them was a mistake. There were far more talented players to be had this offseason, and we all know why we didn't get them: Henry is a cheapskate and Breslow isn't good enough.

There are only so many roster spots, but also only so many starters.  Someone had to go on the bench.  Do you think Josh Bell was going to sign on to be a bench bat?

Contreras was a good addition.  So far, Durbin has done very little.  If he can get it going, that can be a big deal.  But he has shown very little actual MLB power.

The Sox need Duran to turn his season around and Story to rise from the ashes again.  The young bats are also all off to slow starts.  Some will turn it around; some might just have a bad year.

[mvp 78]

7 minutes ago, notin said:

There are only so many roster spots, but also only so many starters.  Someone had to go on the bench.  Do you think Josh Bell was going to sign on to be a bench bat?

Contreras was a good addition.  So far, Durbin has done very little.  If he can get it going, that can be a big deal.  But he has shown very little actual MLB power.

The Sox need Duran to turn his season around and Story to rise from the ashes again.  The young bats are also all off to slow starts.  Some will turn it around; some might just have a bad year.

Too bad Story's arm is made of ash. 

[drewski6]

28 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Too bad Story's arm is made of ash. 

How dare you! Just his elbow

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

Too bad Story's arm is made of ash. 

I thought it was made of an overcooked noodle.

Oh, that's Anthony.

[mvp 78]

7 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I thought it was made of an overcooked noodle.

Oh, that's Anthony.

Anthony is still throwing the ball really hard though. It's just going straight into the ground. 

[notin]

4 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Anthony is still throwing the ball really hard though. It's just going straight into the ground. 

Anthony threw well enough last year.  This year, StatCast has his arm value in the 71st percentile…

[FredLynn]

1 hour ago, notin said:

There are only so many roster spots, but also only so many starters.  Someone had to go on the bench.  Do you think Josh Bell was going to sign on to be a bench bat?

Contreras was a good addition.  So far, Durbin has done very little.  If he can get it going, that can be a big deal.  But he has shown very little actual MLB power.

The Sox need Duran to turn his season around and Story to rise from the ashes again.  The young bats are also all off to slow starts.  Some will turn it around; some might just have a bad year.

Durbin is not a starter quality player. He's a bench player. Paredes was available for trade if the price was right. Breslow failed.

[FredLynn]

2 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

Like you were, last year.

Yes, he slumped near the end of last year, but as you will never mention, he didn't end the season in a slump.

Season OPS: .708

Last 9 games: 1.109

Last 14 games .825

Last 85: .730

Yes, you can cherry pick, like I did and find this...

.589 last 49 games, but such is the way of a streaky hitter.

His final numbers have shown steady growth, and you won't acknowledge that fact.

I admitted he has done well so far, but the sample size is too small to make much of it. If it continues, great. If he reverts to what I think he is then he is just a late inning defensive replacement.

[mvp 78]

6 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

Durbin is not a starter quality player. He's a bench player. Paredes was available for trade if the price was right. Breslow failed.

Season saved. They got Paredes who is OPS'ing 698 and has a -3 DRS at 3B.

[FredLynn]

1 minute ago, mvp 78 said:

Season saved. They got Paredes who is OPS'ing 698 and has a -3 DRS at 3B.

Paredes has a career OPS+ of 115. He has been an all star. He would be a vast improvement over the stiff we have playing 3B right now.

[mvp 78]

2 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

Paredes has a career OPS+ of 115. He has been an all star. He would be a vast improvement over the stiff we have playing 3B right now.

Scott Cooper and Shea Hillenbrand were an All Star 3b too. I don't think either would help this squad. 

[JoeBrady]

30 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Season saved. They got Paredes who is OPS'ing 698 and has a -3 DRS at 3B.

Sure.  If we had Paredes -0.1 bWAR instead of Durbin's 0.0, then we'd be much better off, assuming one believes that a worse bWAR is better than a better bWAR.  Not to mention Paredes would've cost us Abreu, our best player.

Some of the takes in here are embarrassing.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

5 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

Sure.  If we had Paredes -0.1 bWAR instead of Durbin's 0.0, then we'd be much better off, assuming one believes that a worse bWAR is better than a better bWAR.  Not to mention Paredes would've cost us Abreu, our best player.

Some of the takes in here are embarrassing.

If Paredes' WAR is actually Below a Replacement Player, then the Red Sox could just have a poster play third -- and it wouldn't cost anything. We're all below replacement players... but not replacement posters!

Well, a 1970s Farrah Fawcett is probably still a collector's item to someone... but not worth an Abreu. I was thinking more like the Incredible Hulk I got at Store 24 and hung on the back of my dorm room door. 

[moonslav59]

54 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Season saved. They got Paredes who is OPS'ing 698 and has a -3 DRS at 3B.

.698 is over 200 points better than Durbin.

[moonslav59]

22 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

 Not to mention Paredes would've cost us Abreu, our best player.

Word in HOU was they'd have take Duran 1 for 1, but the Sox wanted more.

[drewski6]

7 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Word in HOU was they'd have take Duran 1 for 1, but the Sox wanted more.

Paredes doesnt fix the lack of leadership and the lack of star power.

[notin]

8 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

Paredes doesnt fix the lack of leadership and the lack of star power.

Does Contreras?

He certainly brings the veteran part..

[notin]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

Season saved. They got Paredes who is OPS'ing 698 and has a -3 DRS at 3B.

To be fair to Paredes, he’s only played 96 innings at 3b.  Hard to save an average number of defensive runs in a below average number of inniings…

[notin]

11 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

Paredes doesnt fix the lack of leadership and the lack of star power.

How do we know he isn’t a leader?  I mean, besides the godawful haircut…

[drewski6]

3 minutes ago, notin said:

Does Contreras?

He certainly brings the veteran part..

Between Contreras and Story , I would have thought they would have had enough ....But Im hearing that they dont , and its hard to argue considering what we see on the field.  But we'll see if they win agian tonight.

[drewski6]

14 minutes ago, notin said:

How do we know he isn’t a leader?  I mean, besides the godawful haircut…

When I said Paredes isnt the leader or the starpower, I simply meant hes not good enough.

Im not crying over Paredes because he's a C+ overall player, and all he really does it fix us positionally.  But I dont think a positional problem is a problem in 2026.  I think the whole league has gone mix and match and when I post articles saying this I get responses that are like "I dont trust that source because everything that goes contrary to what I want to believe is fake news" 

The problem of this team is not too many outfielders  Had we traded this 81 overall outfielder for a 77 overall 3rd baseman, we'd be very close to where we are.  We did not need to optimize our lineup positionally, we needed more  A+ hitters.

Like I said all along, we need elite hitters and I care not where they play.  WE need redundancy and depth.  A lot of people overlook that depth is NOT having starting caliber players on your bench (IKF is not btw) its having 9 very good hitters, so if 3 get hurt, you still got 6.  You all wanted 9 starting pitchers but were fine with 4 quality hitters.  I think we focused too much on positions as it is and thats why we didnt get Schwarber.  We needed to get the 2 very best hitters we could, even if one was a DH and the other was a corner outfielder.  Dont care.

But like IVe been saying everyone wants to take a victory lap.  And the people who are like "I think we should have clear batting order and same positional group every day and now , this bad start proves me right" .... But literally no team is doing that in 2026.

Moving guys around is not the problem.  Juggling too many players is not the problem. The problem is not having enough blue chip , elite hitters.  We have 0.

[drewski6]

The top 4 hitting teams all made the playoffs last year.  Pitching and defense is for nerds.

[FredLynn]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

Scott Cooper and Shea Hillenbrand were an All Star 3b too. I don't think either would help this squad. 

Would you rather have Paredes or Durbin out there?

[FredLynn]

1 hour ago, JoeBrady said:

Sure.  If we had Paredes -0.1 bWAR instead of Durbin's 0.0, then we'd be much better off, assuming one believes that a worse bWAR is better than a better bWAR.  Not to mention Paredes would've cost us Abreu, our best player.

Some of the takes in here are embarrassing.

Yours in particular. Paredes has an excellent track record. Durbin has demonstrated a near total lack of the power this team needs. 

[mvp 78]

1 hour ago, moonslav59 said:

.698 is over 200 points better than Durbin.

Durbi 4 DRS

Paredes -3 DRS

Which da good one? 

[mvp 78]

43 minutes ago, notin said:

Does Contreras?

He certainly brings the veteran part..

He's supposed to be a good leader? Rafaela really likes him from the looks of it.