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

[mvp 78]

22 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

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

If you knew this, you should have told Breslow. Why tell us? 

[mvp 78]

16 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

Would you rather have Paredes or Durbin out there?

Bill Mueller

[notin]

1 hour ago, drewski6 said:

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 may as well be "The fake news media And I believe that [insert something dense]" 

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.

… and having the better hitters struggle.  While Rafaela has probably exceeded expectations, Duran and Anthony have not.  And Duran was the best hitter on a playoff team last year.   Anthony actually has shown reasons to expect improvement.  Duran? Not so much.

And then there’s Story.

 

[drewski6]

40 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

If you knew this, you should have told Breslow. Why tell us? 

Because you are more fun to talk to than Breslow the stiff.

[notin]

1 hour ago, drewski6 said:

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

The New York Mets tied for fourth in offensive fWAR and missed the postseason.

There is no magic formula…

[drewski6]

4 minutes ago, notin said:

… and having the better hitters struggle.  While Rafaela has probably exceeded expectations, Duran and Anthony have not.  And Duran was the best hitter on a playoff team last year.   Anthony actually has shown reasons to expect improvement.  Duran? Not so much.

And then there’s Story.

 

Im not sure exactly what this is adding on to...But if its me saying not having elite hitters and you saying yes and having the best hitters on your team struggle, I agree :)

[drewski6]

1 minute ago, notin said:

The New York Mets tied for fourth in offensive fWAR and missed the postseason.

There is no magic formula…

Build your team around your bats and you will have much more consistent success.

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, drewski6 said:

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

No, but he's 200 points better than Durbin and balances the OF/IF unbalnce.

[notin]

1 hour ago, drewski6 said:

Build your team around your bats and you will have much more consistent success.

It helps.  But don’t denigrate defense.  While all four of the top offenses by WAR(ignoring the tie for 4th) made the pistseason, two of the top four by DRS played in the World Series 

 

no magic formula 

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

4 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

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

This is actually a hitters' post for drewski... seeing the name Hillenbrand did remind me of the '02 Sox that had four legit All-Stars (won't bore you with their stats), including Manny, Nomar and Johnny Damon. They won 93 games BUT didn't make the playoffs...

... so their new GM that winter went out and acquired another batting champ to play 3B, a home run hitting 1B, a 2B good enough to bat third in the postseason, and a Hall of Fame DH.

In '03, eight Red Sox had 85 or more RBI and five of them received AL MVP votes on a club that would've went to the World Series with any manager not named Little.

The GM was Theo -- who still works in Boston. Why can't they let him make moves like that again?

[JoeBrady]

4 hours ago, drewski6 said:

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

And 9 of the top 10 top run differential teams made the playoffs.

[notin]

26 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

And 9 of the top 10 top run differential teams made the playoffs.

Thats really the best measure.

To say it’s all offense? The Reds are 15-8.  The Red Sox are 9-13.  Which team has scored 5 more runs than the other?

(As the Reds are up 9-0 tonight, they are currently ahead of Boston.  But 7 more wins from 4 more runs?)

[JoeBrady]

3 hours ago, notin said:

It helps.  But don’t denigrate defense.  While all four of the top offenses by WAR(ignoring the tie for 4th) made the pistseason, two of the top four by DRS played in the World Series 

 

no magic formula 

It's all part of the same formula.  Run differential rules.  I don't think anyone challenges that any more.  Whether one gets to that difference between scoring, pitching or defense, makes almost no difference.

[drewski6]

12 hours ago, JoeBrady said:

It's all part of the same formula.  Run differential rules.  I don't think anyone challenges that any more.  Whether one gets to that difference between scoring, pitching or defense, makes almost no difference.

Run differential = Runs Created - Runs allowed
Runs created = hitting + manufacturing (bunting, stealing, sacrificing)
Runs allowed = Pitching + Defense

Run differential = hitting + Manufacturing - (Pitching + Defense) , basic algebra:

Pitching + Defense = hitting + manufacturing.

When it comes to winnning the game, using all 4 elements above, what percentages would you assign (note: both sides have to equal 50%) because that is implied working under an assumption that "run differential rules" (which I am not disputing).

The other element is the crapshoot element.  So I believe that because pitchers are more likely to get hurt (or fall apart or underperform or be effected by external factors), the return on pitching is not as stable as the return on hitting.  So this further, in my eyes, makes it wise to build bat-first team.  

However, Im more of a shade of gray guy than a black/white guy.  So I understand that sometimes if you are drafting 12 overall and 8 hitters off board vs 3 pitchers you may go pitcher there.  And I also want to acknowledge that top of the market for a stud hitter is higher than a stud pitcher.  

I do not think pitching nor defense is irrelevant.  I would say 

Pitching (38%) + Defense (12%) = Hitting (43%) + manufacturing (7%).  But I think the wisdom in building bats first vs pitching is more than the 43% vs 38% expressed above because I think pitching has a larger crapshoot element.

And I think everyone kind of knows the simplest and highest percentage chance one has (generally) to improve their club is through their hitting.  This is why hitters make more, get drafted higher....

Now again, Im not a black/white guy so I acknowledge that if you have 1 good pitcher and 6 good hitters and the FA market is making pitching relatively more affordable , then it makes sense to swerve to pitching there.  I understand that an all glove, no bat guy is cheaper than an all ba,t no glove guy, so you can get a defensive stud ss or cf on the cheap = sure that has budget saving value elsewhere.

I acknowledge all this stuff and dont believe that we shouldnt invest in pitching and defense, and I believe there is even a time and a place to prioritize pitching and defense over hitting (for example if you already have 5 very good hitters).

But this 2026 offense was a settle job, and that has been our biggest issue.

[drewski6]

And Paredes himself was a settle, so I dont see that as the one who got away.