Question of the week: are you optimistic?

[drewski6]

3 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Contreras isn't a C anymore. He's a 1b and good at it. 

Dont care, bats

[drewski6]

If Contreras can play C at all, and there is a very good hitting first baseman who we may be able to acquire and we do not because of where Contreras fits in defensively......then simply, we have learned nothing.

Get the best nine hitters you can, figure everything else out as you go.

[mvp 78]

19 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

If Contreras can play C at all, and there is a very good hitting first baseman who we may be able to acquire and we do not because of where Contreras fits in defensively......then simply, we have learned nothing.

Get the best nine hitters you can, figure everything else out as you go.

Figure it out as you go is the motto of the 2026 Red Sox OF. It doesn't work. 

[notin]

1 hour ago, drewski6 said:

If Contreras can play C at all, and there is a very good hitting first baseman who we may be able to acquire and we do not because of where Contreras fits in defensively......then simply, we have learned nothing.

Get the best nine hitters you can, figure everything else out as you go.

Jim Hendry? Is that you?

The Cubs have won 9 games in a row headlined by mediocre pitching, timely hitting and immaculate defense.  They just took 4 from Philly, who played sloppy defense and had extremely weak situational hitting.

Don’t sleep on defense.  If you do, you put even more pressure on your offense.

[moonslav59]

On 4/21/2026 at 10:48 AM, drewski6 said:

I would have had Cedanne work at 2B all offseason.  

I fixed it for you.

(We all knew Ceddanne's CF defense was going to implode, this year.)

[moonslav59]

I'm not ready to call the season over, but I'm about as far away from "optimistic" as I've been since 2020, so that says a lot.

[alsoason]

Until We see a sign of life they are DOA, have they actually had a big hit yet this season, because I CAN NOT recall any game situation in the first 25 games where I can say, "they needed that". Maybe since the Red Sox are constructed more like a high school team, they can ask MLB to remove the walls in the ballparks so that the gappers can be Home Runs. 13 FRICKEN HOME RUNS, in 25 games(I wanted Alonso) soon teams like the Yankees and Dodgers will be hitting that many in a week

[mvp 78]

15 minutes ago, alsoason said:

Until We see a sign of life they are DOA, have they actually had a big hit yet this season, because I CAN NOT recall any game situation in the first 25 games where I can say, "they needed that". Maybe since the Red Sox are constructed more like a high school team, they can ask MLB to remove the walls in the ballparks so that the gappers can be Home Runs. 13 FRICKEN HOME RUNS, in 25 games(I wanted Alonso) soon teams like the Yankees and Dodgers will be hitting that many in a week

Masa's walkoff

Abreu game tying HR in 9th vs CIN

Anything else?

[drewski6]

4 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Figure it out as you go is the motto of the 2026 Red Sox OF. It doesn't work. 

I dont agree that the story of the red sox is that oh no, we have too many good outfielders. I think its oh no, we are maybe the worst hitting team since 2000, and the de-prioritization of offense began with Breslows tenure.

[drewski6]

2 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

I fixed it for you.

(We all knew Ceddanne's CF defense was going to implode, this year.)

I meant shortstop 4 cedanne.

[moonslav59]

7 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

I meant 2B 4 cedanne.

I fixed it for you.

[drewski6]

3 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I fixed it for you.

What are we even doing here?  You jsut keep changing my posts for fun?

Im fine at cedanne at 2b , im fine with him at ss. I dont care.  Im fine with him at Catcher. Defense is like +/- 5 wins max.

Defense can break you, but clearly, not nearly as much nor as quickly as not building around your bats.

When you were all giving this team As and Bs , I was giving it a D for not going after bats. When you were all saying we cant get schwarber because of positional alignment, I felt like I was getting trolled.

Get bats, I dont care where they play, I dont care if they DH.  Whether you have to play Cedanne at 2b/ss/cf/c - I care not. Positions are dead.  Managers will use 100 alignments this year.  Guys are moving all around. I would have Masa cross training , Cedanne cross training, everyone cross training, because thats how you fit the 9 best hitters wihtout being an absolute trainwreck defensively.  

But instead many fans work backwards.  Think about what position is best for a player and typecast the player to that position.  And thats how many here are like "what else could we have done?"  Those same people who said we were set up to have the best decade in history (before the offseason) and then said best offseason in history (I heard that stuff here) are now saying there was nothing we could have done.  And they fall back to War/$$, positions and more of the same.

I think compared to other teams, we dont move guys around enough.  There is literally no position I would not put Cedanne in.  None.  His value is that hes good defensively, so as long as you dont have 9 better bats, he can play. Unlike Schwarber who can only play 4 positions, so its easier to squeeze him out of the lineup.

Defensive versatility not defensive optimization.  I assure you we arent where we are becaus we are moving guys around too much or we have too many good outfielders or we have a 2b playing ss.  Its because we worry about that stuff too much already. Best. Nine. Bats.

 

[moonslav59]

1 minute ago, drewski6 said:

What are we even doing here?  You jsut keep changing my posts for fun?

Im fine at cedanne at 2b , im fine with him at ss. I dont care.  Im fine with him at Catcher. Defense is like +/- 5 wins max.

Defense can break you, but clearly, not nearly as much nor as quickly as not building around your bats.

When you were all giving this team As and Bs , I was giving it a D for not going after bats. When you were all saying we cant get schwarber because of positional alignment, I felt like I was getting trolled.

Get bats, I dont care where they play, I dont care if they DH.  Whether you have to play Cedanne at 2b/ss/cf/c - I care not. Positions are dead.  Managers will use 100 alignments this year.  Guys are moving all around. I would have Masa cross training , Cedanne cross training, everyone cross training, because thats how you fit the 9 best hitters wihtout being an absolute trainwreck defensively.  

But instead many fans work backwards.  Think about what position is best for a player and typecast the player to that position.  And thats how many here are like "what else could we have done?"  Those same people who said we were set up to have the best decade in history (before the offseason) and then said best offseason in history (I heard that stuff here) are now saying there was nothing we could have done.  And they fall back to War/$$, positions and more of the same.

I think compared to other teams, we dont move guys around enough.  There is literally no position I would not put Cedanne in.  None.  His value is that hes good defensively, so as long as you dont have 9 better bats, he can play. Unlike Schwarber who can only play 4 positions, so its easier to squeeze him out of the lineup.

Defensive versatility not defensive optimization.  I assure you we arent where we are becaus we are moving guys around too much or we have too many good outfielders or we have a 2b playing ss.  Its because we worry about that stuff too much already. Best. Nine. Bats.

 

I'm just clowning around.

I do prefer Mayer at SS and Ceddanne at 2B, if we make such a move.

I was fine with getting Schwarber. I wanted a big bat and viewed Contreras as a good get but should not be counted as the big bat we needed.

[drewski6]

43 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I'm just clowning around.

I do prefer Mayer at SS and Ceddanne at 2B, if we make such a move.

I was fine with getting Schwarber. I wanted a big bat and viewed Contreras as a good get but should not be counted as the big bat we needed.

I said train Cedanne for ss, not play him there.  If he worked at ss all offseason he would also be better at 2b.  Im not sure Mayer is long for this team. What if this time next year and hes still struggling , ya know?

Im fine with mayer at ss and cedanne at 2b for a spell.  Its also possible masa is cooling off.  More than anything , I believe in versatility and cross training.  So if a big bat becomes available you can make room and your cut ninth best, you arent limited to only cutting those who play that exact same position.

Also, I think that if cedanne played infield for a year, hed be awesome at it and if hes awesome at it, why not ss?  But if mayer breaks out , its fine.

[Duran Is The Man]

56 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

I said train Cedanne for ss, not play him there.  If he worked at ss all offseason he would also be better at 2b.  Im not sure Mayer is long for this team. What if this time next year and hes still struggling , ya know?

Im fine with mayer at ss and cedanne at 2b for a spell.  Its also possible masa is cooling off.  More than anything , I believe in versatility and cross training.  So if a big bat becomes available you can make room and your cut ninth best, you arent limited to only cutting those who play that exact same position.

Also, I think that if cedanne played infield for a year, hed be awesome at it and if hes awesome at it, why not ss?  But if mayer breaks out , its fine.

remember, this is an organization that is so stupid they wouldn't even think of moving Devers to first until Casas got hurt. the manager, the coaches, the entire front office and their overall organizational philosophy should be burnt to the f***ing ground.

[moonslav59]

2 hours ago, drewski6 said:

I said train Cedanne for ss, not play him there.  If he worked at ss all offseason he would also be better at 2b.  Im not sure Mayer is long for this team. What if this time next year and hes still struggling , ya know?

Im fine with mayer at ss and cedanne at 2b for a spell.  Its also possible masa is cooling off.  More than anything , I believe in versatility and cross training.  So if a big bat becomes available you can make room and your cut ninth best, you arent limited to only cutting those who play that exact same position.

Also, I think that if cedanne played infield for a year, hed be awesome at it and if hes awesome at it, why not ss?  But if mayer breaks out , its fine.

I do agree that Ceddanne could be a damn good defender at 2B or SS or even 3B, if allowed to play there FT for a long enough while.

I do know he's a great defensive CF'er, or at least I thought I knew. I'm not sure what to think of his recent fielding slump in CF.

I'm not sure moving Ceddanne just to accommodate Duran and Masa having a FT slot is worth the time and effort to get Ceddanne to where he needs to be at for a FT infield slot.

I like your theory on playing the top 9 bats, and right now Ceddanne is top 9. Hell, he's been top 4-6 for a couple years. I'm just not so sure his offense is that good to focus all this attention on finding another slot for him. Of course, if Durbin stays under .500 and Story & Mayer stay under .600, he'd be a major upgrade on offense playing in the infield.

A few times, this past winter, I suggested we trade Ceddanne and not Duran or Abreu, so our offense would be better off, but he's currently outhitting Duran, and Abreu's OPS is falling to near Ceddanne's number.

It's hard to be optimistic about this offense, but I do think it's better than 25th to 30th. I thought it would easily be top 20. I even suggested we might end up near 10-12, before the season started, but so many players are doing way worse than even the most pessimistic fans thought could happen.

I know- I know: small sample sizes. We're 15% through the season, so when does small become not so small?

[notin]

Keep Ceddane on CF. Call up Ward for 2b and leadoff.

Move Bello to the bullpen.  Cut/return Watson. 

[moonslav59]

4 hours ago, notin said:

Keep Ceddane on CF. Call up Ward for 2b and leadoff.

Move Bello to the bullpen.  Cut/return Watson. 

Try something!

[mvp 78]

On 4/24/2026 at 11:44 PM, moonslav59 said:

Try something!

Did they ever.

[JoeBrady]

On 4/24/2026 at 3:10 PM, alsoason said:

13 FRICKEN HOME RUNS, in 25 games(I wanted Alonso)

Imagine how bad this would be had you gotten your wish?

[alsoason]

20 hours ago, JoeBrady said:

Imagine how bad this would be had you gotten your wish?

yeah we would have 10, real earth shattering difference

[RedneckRedSoxFan]

Yeah, I'm optimistic. I've accepted where we are right now. My view has re-oriented to see the team we have (not the team I wanted), and wondering what they can do with the rest of the season.

I see Mayer hitting recently. Durbin is doing well defensively. I prefer Monasterio at SS, but I'm doubtful that changes. Romy comes back...eventually...hopefully soon. The pitchers are now doing well (except Bello). I can see carrying Tolle from here on out even after Gray returns and cycling in as starter if someone drops in performance or injury.

However, if Bello doesn't perform I don't know what is done with him. AAA? And, we are close to an all LHP rotation if Bello doesn't perform until Gray returns. If Bello is...replaced...I would expect Tolle to take that spot. That means only Gray is the RHP. Hmmm...Jake Bennet appears to still need secondary pitch development even though his ERA is 0.86 in WOR. We have Watson and Slaten in the bullpen. Kelly? Uberstine? Kutter returns...June-ish (not sure)? And Anderson is still possible? Ok, we have a lot of RHPs if Bello is not performing or Gray is hurt again later. 

All that optimism (looking from the bottom upwards) is tempered by then seeing the schedule coming up: Astros, Tigers, Rays, Braves, Guardians. With the Twins and KC sprinkled in.

Well, that optimism didn't age well at all. Lasted four paragraphs.

[moonslav59]

On 4/26/2026 at 2:28 PM, mvp 78 said:

Did they ever.

Cora? LMAO!

The guy couldn't even bring himself to politely ask Devers if he'd even consider just thinking about trying a 1Bmans mitt on.

[mvp 78]

8 hours ago, RedneckRedSoxFan said:

Yeah, I'm optimistic. I've accepted where we are right now. My view has re-oriented to see the team we have (not the team I wanted), and wondering what they can do with the rest of the season.

I see Mayer hitting recently. Durbin is doing well defensively. I prefer Monasterio at SS, but I'm doubtful that changes. Romy comes back...eventually...hopefully soon. The pitchers are now doing well (except Bello). I can see carrying Tolle from here on out even after Gray returns and cycling in as starter if someone drops in performance or injury.

However, if Bello doesn't perform I don't know what is done with him. AAA? And, we are close to an all LHP rotation if Bello doesn't perform until Gray returns. If Bello is...replaced...I would expect Tolle to take that spot. That means only Gray is the RHP. Hmmm...Jake Bennet appears to still need secondary pitch development even though his ERA is 0.86 in WOR. We have Watson and Slaten in the bullpen. Kelly? Uberstine? Kutter returns...June-ish (not sure)? And Anderson is still possible? Ok, we have a lot of RHPs if Bello is not performing or Gray is hurt again later. 

All that optimism (looking from the bottom upwards) is tempered by then seeing the schedule coming up: Astros, Tigers, Rays, Braves, Guardians. With the Twins and KC sprinkled in.

Well, that optimism didn't age well at all. Lasted four paragraphs.

Bello has been absolute trash. If they got 5 IP/3 ER every start from Bennett, they'd be better off. Not sure they should go with a starting rotation of 5 LHP's though! 

[notin]

On 4/24/2026 at 5:14 PM, Duran Is The Man said:

remember, this is an organization that is so stupid they wouldn't even think of moving Devers to first until Casas got hurt. the manager, the coaches, the entire front office and their overall organizational philosophy should be burnt to the f***ing ground.

Given how well Devers accepted the move to DH, it doesn’t look like changing positions was something that Devers was open to.

Cora appeared to know this, which could very well be why he was stand-off ish in the talks about DH and avoided the first base conversation altogether…

[notin]

2 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Bello has been absolute trash. If they got 5 IP/3 ER every start from Bennett, they'd be better off. Not sure they should go with a starting rotation of 5 LHP's though! 

So teach Bennett to throw right-handed.  Stop thinking inside the box!

 

Or, activate Sandoval and go with SIX lefties…

[mvp 78]

36 minutes ago, notin said:

Given how well Devers accepted the move to DH, it doesn’t look like changing positions was something that Devers was open to.

Cora appeared to know this, which could very well be why he was stand-off ish in the talks about DH and avoided the first base conversation altogether…

Sometimes when I have hard things to do at my job, I just avoid them altogether too and hope the problem just goes away on it's own!

[Bellhorn04]

34 minutes ago, notin said:

Given how well Devers accepted the move to DH, it doesn’t look like changing positions was something that Devers was open to.

Cora appeared to know this, which could very well be why he was stand-off ish in the talks about DH and avoided the first base conversation altogether…

Might be a small sample fluke, but in 200 PA's when he plays first base, Devers has a .571 OPS.

[mvp 78]

36 minutes ago, notin said:

So teach Bennett to throw right-handed.  Stop thinking inside the box!

Or, activate Sandoval and go with SIX lefties…

It might be more likely that Sandoval can be a RHP going forward...

[notin]

Just now, Bellhorn04 said:

Might be a small sample fluke, but in 200 PA's when he plays first base, Devers has a .571 OPS.

It also might be that right field in San Fran is a cavernous expanse that stretches all the way to the Pacific Ocean…