Red Sox (Sandoval) vs Blue Jays (Cease): 08/11/26, 7:07 PM

[notin]

21 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Don't worry, he's safely stored in WOO hitting singles and striking out. 

Tiant and Evan’s are playing in WOO?

[moonslav59]

17 minutes ago, notin said:

Tiant and Evan’s are playing in WOO?

How did you not know this?

[notin]

2 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

How did you not know this?

I guess I assumed both were no longer there when the Sox called up Burgos and traded for Eli White…

[FredLynn]

35 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

He's lacked plate discipline his whole career. He's looked bad, worse and okay for stretches on and off.

How is this different? For some reason we are supposed to think he'll continue being "lost" or something.

Does he look worse now than other times (5 games, 10 or 20 games at a time?)

I didn't claim to know whether he will continue to look worse for the rest of the year or for any specific length of time. I claimed (as did others) that over the past several games he has begun to regress and lose the plate discipline he had before the past several games. He was instrumental in our long winning streaks and he is also contributing for the recent losing streak.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

1 hour ago, FredLynn said:

I didn't claim to know whether he will continue to look worse for the rest of the year or for any specific length of time. I claimed (as did others) that over the past several games he has begun to regress and lose the plate discipline he had before the past several games. He was instrumental in our long winning streaks and he is also contributing for the recent losing streak.

Yup, his HR last night contributed to the loss.

Also, why do you continue to call a team that made the PO's last season and went from the worst team in the AL to a PO contender this season the 'Flops?'

If I didn't know better, I'd believe you were a Yankem plant on this forum. And your continuous criticism of Rafaela also seems suspect.

Oh well, whatever floats your boat.

[mvp 78]

13 minutes ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

Yup, his HR last night contributed to the loss.

Also, why do you continue to call a team that made the PO's last season and went from the worst team in the AL to a PO contender this season the 'Flops?'

If I didn't know better, I'd believe you were a Yankem plant on this forum. And your continuous criticism of Rafaela also seems suspect.

Oh well, whatever floats your boat.

Any team that doesn't win the WS is a flop! The 99 Sox when Pedro came out in relief? Flops!! The 21 Sox that went to the ALCS after being one of the worst teams in baseball the year before? Flops! 

Try not to put to much brain power towards thinking about it. It's not worth it. 

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

13 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

He's lacked plate discipline his whole career. He's looked bad, worse and okay for stretches on and off.

How is this different? For some reason we are supposed to think he'll continue being "lost" or something.

Does he look worse now than other times (5 games, 10 or 20 games at a time?)

We just live in modern times when MLB batters are all big whiffers. Half a century ago they weren't -- back then it was shameful to strike out.

And yet, Rafaela leads a current playoff team with 5.2 WAR. He'll most likely add to that total in the next month and a half.

Jim Rice had more than 5.2 WAR four times in his Hall of Fame career. Dwight Evans had more than 5.2 three times. Fred Lynn only did it twice...

[FredLynn]

1 hour ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

Yup, his HR last night contributed to the loss.

Also, why do you continue to call a team that made the PO's last season and went from the worst team in the AL to a PO contender this season the 'Flops?'

If I didn't know better, I'd believe you were a Yankem plant on this forum. And your continuous criticism of Rafaela also seems suspect.

Oh well, whatever floats your boat.

If you were paying attention(which you obviously are not) you would know that while last year I was content to make a brief guest appearance in the playoffs this year I’m not going to be content with that. If BresLOW had completed his job over the winter we wouldn’t be trying to squeak by as a third wild card team. Year after year we finished last because our owner is too CHEAP to pay for top rate talent. Mookie Betts. Schwarber. Alonso. Etc. 

This is a big market team. We should be competing for a ring nearly every year. Hence, we are the FLOPS. 
And yes, Rafaela has had a great year. Now he is in “swing at everything” mode as other posters here noted on last night’s game thread. Merloni mentioned it too, because it’s true. Only those who senselessly defend him disagree.

[moonslav59]

3 hours ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

We just live in modern times when MLB batters are all big whiffers. Half a century ago they weren't -- back then it was shameful to strike out.

And yet, Rafaela leads a current playoff team with 5.2 WAR. He'll most likely add to that total in the next month and a half.

Jim Rice had more than 5.2 WAR four times in his Hall of Fame career. Dwight Evans had more than 5.2 three times. Fred Lynn only did it twice...

The thing is, GG, it's not that these guys are creating a strawman then knocking the stuffing out of it, the strawman was real 2-3 years ago, but the three little pigs built a Ceddanne house out of twigs, last year and bricks, this year.

It's a solid house, now. The whole lack of discipline thing is still real, but it's scaled way back, and this guy can hit- even balls out of the K zone. Here's the thing, one poster got his panties in a bunch a couple years ago, and can't, for some reason, accept that things can and do change. Guess where this massive undisciplined batter ranks on the team in K%? First? Maybe 2nd, and Narvaez and Story are kings of the Ks?

NOPE!

He's 9th out of 15 Sox batters with 100+ PAs.

He's 8th out of 12 with 150+ PAs.

5th out of 8 with 200+ and 4th out of 5 with 400+. Only Durbin is better in the 400 club.

Indeed, he's still 15th out 15 in BB% (4.0,) but can we cut the BA leader on the team some slack for that? Something is working okay. He's 8th out of 15 in OBP. (3rd out of 5 in the 400 club.)

Rafaela was historically bad from 2023-2024 at BB/K, and I'm talking MLB history, not just Red Sox infamy. That was no strawman. He was for real- the worst BB:K non-pitcher batter in history. (.11 BB/K from '23-'24.) He's still bad at it, but he's proven he cans till do well, despite that issue, and he's greatly improved upon it to .24 in '25 and .20 in '26. That .20 places him 8th worst out of 207 batters with 300+ PAs this year. It's still an issue, but he lead the team in BA and is mid plus on OBP, so what's the problem?

The guy get more flack from Fred than Duran, Narvaez, and all the other sub .700 batters combined.

[mvp 78]

12 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

The thing is, GG, it's not that these guys are creating a strawman then knocking the stuffing out of it, the strawman was real 2-3 years ago, but the three little pigs built a Ceddanne house out of twigs, last year and bricks, this year.

Furthermore:

75.6% Contact Rate (career high and above the MLB average)

41.5% 1st Pitch Swing (career low)

19.8% K Rate (career low)

121 OPS+ (career high)

We saw signs of him getting better over the first half of 2025, but he as been outstanding all of 2026. For the second year in a row, he's been a doubles machine.