Red Sox (Suarez) vs Guardians (Bibee): 5/31/26, 1:40pm

[JoeBrady]

20 minutes ago, Duran Is The Man said:

i don't doubt this at all, but it seems odd that Durbin started hitting immediately after getting help elsewhere. i'm sure it's just a coincidence. 

Sometimes it is just one simple fix.

[mvp 78]

24 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

That's what makes it beautiful.  Barring an injury, offensive linemen rarely change their performance.  But hitters can go from 0-22 to 11-22 overnight, and no one in the world knows why.

Hit it where they ain't. 

[Duran Is The Man]

35 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

He was also benched for a few days to help clear his mind. I'm sure they've been doing a lot of work with him. Eventually, the balls were just going to fall in. It's not like his hitting the ball in the air now. He went 1 for 5 yesterday and his 3 hardest hits went a combined 165 ft in the air. If you hit a lot of ground balls, you need luck or a lot of skill. Not sure which Durbin has if either.

Anyway, I hope he breaks out. Him being a 700 OPS guy makes this team a lot better. He's a legit GG 3b. 

he does have a great glove, great hustle and good attitude. i'm rooting for him and his bat to improve.

[moonslav59]

The lack of the second big bat has been beaten to death, and for good reason.

Here are just some of the lowlights of this offense by batting slots:

.315 OBP from the one slot. (Duran .290/Anthony .347)

.632 OPS from the all-important #2 slot, but what sticks out to me is that out of 265 PAs from the #2 slot, the leader is Contreras at 78 PAs (.856) The next 4 leaders in PAs? Rafaela .591, Story .333, Gasper .575 & Durbin .515!

The 3 slot is at .719 with Abreu getting about half the PAs (.672) Contreras has raked (1.369) from this slot but is 5th in PAs with just 22.

The 4 slot is about the same as #3 (.717) and Contreras has over half the PAs there (.834.) Story (.530) and Abreu (.614) are next and sucked.

The 5 slot is viewed as more important than the 3 slot by some studies, and this is the one slot we have done very well, but nobody has even 1/3. Abreu 1.061 w 74 PAs, Story .590 w 54 and Yoshida .726 w 39. Rafaela has done well in this slot at 1.385 in 30 PAs. Maybe we should flip Abreu vs R and Rafaela v L in the 5 slot, every game

.710 in 6 slot

.617 in 7

.659 in 8

.644 in 9

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

Does a person with a resolved ego issue even exist? Maybe someone who had his brains bashed in.

[notin]

16 minutes ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

Does a person with a resolved ego issue even exist? Maybe someone who had his brains bashed in.

While the world is full of folks that might benefit from a good brain-bashing, plenty of folks di learn in time about the concept of humility.

Some even go that extra mile to learn that there actually is a world of difference between humility and humiliation…

[moonslav59]

2 hours ago, Duran Is The Man said:

he does have a great glove, great hustle and good attitude. i'm rooting for him and his bat to improve.

Perhaps we were were wrong in thinking Durbin's rookie season might actually be improved upon. We knew the glove was a plus. The bat was in question, and when the slump went on and on for weeks and weeks, it seemed like maybe that was "the real" Durbin.

Teams adjust. Pitchers adjust. Batters adjust. Then, there are adjustments to adjustments.

I'm hopeful that Durbin can get back to near 2025 numbers the rest of the way, and while low to mid .700s might not seem like a big boost to a team, when you figure that's over 200 points higher, it's similar to a .750 player improving to .975 the rest of the way.

I don't seem to have the same feeling about Mayer, and hope might be all we have for him.

 

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

1 hour ago, notin said:

While the world is full of folks that might benefit from a good brain-bashing, plenty of folks di learn in time about the concept of humility.

Some even go that extra mile to learn that there actually is a world of difference between humility and humiliation…

Anyone that plays baseball -- where the best MLB hitters fail 70% of the time -- learns a lot about their id, and why it's short for idiot.

Even the stars at amateur levels who regularly hit .400 or even .500 fail at least half the time. Any ballplayer with Sheldon perfectionist tendencies picked the wrong sport... 

... and that's why it's futile for someone to tell baseball fans to calm down when things aren't going well most of the time -- which, by the very nature of the sport, is totally normal.