Duran

[notin]

17 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

.897  OPS vs LHP. Fried today.  Rodon tomorrow, if necessary.  Why not?

Don’t go down with bullets in your gun…

[mvp 78]

13 minutes ago, notin said:

.897  OPS vs LHP. Fried today.  Rodon tomorrow, if necessary.  Why not?

Don’t go down with bullets in your gun…

He hasn't had a competitive AB in over 2 months. I think I'd take Jahmai Jones at DH over him. Sogard at 2B has an 1834 OPS vs Fried.

Have him pinch hit? Maybe? Start? No. 

[JimEd]

3 hours ago, drewski6 said:

Dont assume hes your superstar until he proves you otherwise.  Hes lost that.

should have never given him that extension. f***ing stupid on Breslow's part.

[notin]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

He hasn't had a competitive AB in over 2 months. I think I'd take Jahmai Jones at DH over him. Sogard at 2B has an 1834 OPS vs Fried.

Have him pinch hit? Maybe? Start? No. 

Jones in LF over Duran.  Mead at DH.

We’ve seen longer layofffs activated for the postseason successfully.

[mvp 78]

1 minute ago, notin said:

Jones in LF over Duran.  Mead at DH.

We’ve seen longer layofffs activated for the postseason successfully.

Jones is a pretty bad LFer. If they are sitting Duran, I'd play Eaton who has also hit Fried really well.

[mvp 78]

8 minutes ago, JimEd said:

should have never given him that extension. f***ing stupid on Breslow's part.

Here are the extensions handed out: 

Whitlock

Bello

Rafaela

Campbell

Crochet

Anthony

Rafaela has been fine, but ultimately all of these could have been ignored and the Sox may be in a better place right now. Not sure what an injured Crochet gets on the FA market this year. 

 

[JimEd]

5 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Here are the extensions handed out: 

Whitlock

Bello

Rafaela

Campbell

Crochet

Anthony

Rafaela has been fine, but ultimately all of these could have been ignored and the Sox may be in a better place right now. Not sure what an injured Crochet gets on the FA market this year. 

 

exactly.

those extensions were nothing more than Henry trying to show other teams (that are also doing this) that he's the smartest guy in the room and that he knows which players are going to be big stars. and then he can brag about how much he "saved" on all those signings.

 

[notin]

12 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Jones is a pretty bad LFer. If they are sitting Duran, I'd play Eaton who has also hit Fried really well.

That’s fine, too.

But if Anthony is done, someone is going to replace him on the roster..

[mvp 78]

3 minutes ago, JimEd said:

exactly.

those extensions were nothing more than Henry trying to show other teams (that are also doing this) that he's the smartest guy in the room and that he knows which players are going to be big stars. and then he can brag about how much he "saved" on all those signings.

 

I mean, no other current owner is featured in Moneyball! 

[mvp 78]

Just now, notin said:

That’s fine, too.

But if Anthony is done, someone is going to replace him on the roster..

The final decision was apparently between Ward and and Crochet. Maybe it's Ward? Maybe Roman being injured changes it? Romy is out with an elbow injury so it won't be him.

[mvp 78]

If they think Roman just needs a few days, they may just not take him off the roster as it would remove him from the next round too. 

[notin]

8 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Here are the extensions handed out: 

Whitlock

Bello

Rafaela

Campbell

Crochet

Anthony

Rafaela has been fine, but ultimately all of these could have been ignored and the Sox may be in a better place right now. Not sure what an injured Crochet gets on the FA market this year. 

 

What better place?  Henry gets to go back to imported caviar over than domestic slop?

They can afford those options, many of which are early on in younger player.  And do you really think the money they could have saved would have gone to splurging on an expensive veteran?  They can still afford one now and haven’t gone all in on a deal bigger than Suarez.

No one liked Rafaela’s extension at first either. I believe you were among the critics…

[notin]

22 minutes ago, JimEd said:

exactly.

those extensions were nothing more than Henry trying to show other teams (that are also doing this) that he's the smartest guy in the room and that he knows which players are going to be big stars. and then he can brag about how much he "saved" on all those signings.

 

Right.  It’s always about the ego.  So egomaniacal the way he saw that future in Crochet after a season in which he was a mere Cy Young runner-up.

Most teams are doing this now.  Milwaukee has taken it a step further and signing players to extensions and then actually not promoting them to MLB right away (Pratt, Lara for example).

This is how teams are operating.  Even missing on a few can still payoff if you just hit on one.  If Anthony really reaches his ceiling, his contract could have exceeded his current one plus Campbell’s plus Bello’s. Easily, since he could have been a free agent by 27 and that total is only about $240mill.  If you doubt this, ask yourself how much Tampa is kicking themselves for not extending Junior Caminero.  I can promise you that’s not happening now.

I know fans prefer to wait until a player has proven something (and exactly what was Crochet supposed to still prove?), but if you wait too long, players (and their agents) can drastically revise their own worth.  (See Caminero, Junior above.) Or worse, other teams with warped valuation methods can really screw you over, like the “Well we couldn’t sign Trea Turner so let’s just drive that same truckload of money over to the Bogaerts household instead” method…

 

 

[mvp 78]

25 minutes ago, notin said:

What better place?  Henry gets to go back to imported caviar over than domestic slop?

They can afford those options, many of which are early on in younger player.  And do you really think the money they could have saved would have gone to splurging on an expensive veteran?  They can still afford one now and haven’t gone all in on a deal bigger than Suarez.

No one liked Rafaela’s extension at first either. I believe you were among the critics…

They can "afford these options" but they get in the way of the Sox bringing in other players. 

[mvp 78]

I still believe they didn't need to do the Rafaela extension. Even with his fWAR numbers, he wouldn't be killing them in ARB. 

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

2 hours ago, notin said:

.897  OPS vs LHP. Fried today.  Rodon tomorrow, if necessary.  Why not?

Don’t go down with bullets in your gun…

Notin, the Sox have been w/o ammo for the whole month of September.

" Load up, load up, load up with rubber bullets."

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

1 hour ago, notin said:

Jones in LF over Duran.  Mead at DH.

We’ve seen longer layofffs activated for the postseason successfully.

At least with Mead we'd see a new face walking back towards the dugout.

[notin]

41 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

They can "afford these options" but they get in the way of the Sox bringing in other players. 

Again, the Sox can afford most of those players.  And i don’t think Whitlock, Campbell and Bello were why they didn’t sign Ohtani.  Or even Alonso.  They swung a $40mill AAV with those extensions on the roster and Henry didn’t hav to cut the employee dental plan…

[notin]

22 minutes ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

At least with Mead we'd see a new face walking back towards the dugout.

So.. status quo?

Good thing you weren’t running the Cubs in 2016 when Kyle Schwarber went down in the second game of the year and didn’t play again until the World Series.  His .971 OPS that series was key in it not being 118 years and counting…

[notin]

1 hour ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

Notin, the Sox have been w/o ammo for the whole month of September.

" Load up, load up, load up with rubber bullets."

So… status quo again?

”The Sox players haven’t been hitting.  We need different hitters.”

”How about Curtis Mead? Hasn’t batted for a while, so he wasn’t part of that team wide slump.”

”Ummm.  No?  Not sure why.”

[drewski6]

45 minutes ago, notin said:

Again, the Sox can afford most of those players.  And i don’t think Whitlock, Campbell and Bello were why they didn’t sign Ohtani.  Or even Alonso.  They swung a $40mill AAV with those extensions on the roster and Henry didn’t hav to cut the employee dental plan…

I agree. I dont think the budget is set in stone like that. I think every FA signing is case by case.  I agree that Roman and Alonso have little to do with each other.  The mistakes were Bregman and Alonso.  Then we would have been able to weather some injuries or downturns in production.

But the ships have sailed, and I think we are in a bit of a bind going forward - because I dont think the FA class this year is as good of a fit.  And they probably think they are fine with a couple of mediocre players who would get squeezed out if we really wanted to win....Like Durbin.

We'll see if they hit tonight.  The funny thing is that the people who told us we didnt need hitters last offseason are already working on their excuses why we wont need hitters this offseason , and its not because they expect us to hit.  They are saying, playoff hitting is a crapshoot, and I dont think we will hit this series, but also  - heres why we dont need hitters.

If we score less than 4 runs tonight. we will have noodlebatted our way out of the playoffs 2 years running.  Everyone knew these offenses would struggle, and with our best hitter aging, and people talking about getting rid of Story (our best playoff hitter last 4 years) - Im not sure that we are even going to stay 23rd in hitting.  Could fall to 28.

[drewski6]

5 minutes ago, notin said:

So… status quo again?

”The Sox players haven’t been hitting.  We need different hitters.”

”How about Curtis Mead? Hasn’t batted for a while, so he wasn’t part of that team wide slump.”

”Ummm.  No?  Not sure why.”

I think he was just making a joke that Mead will strike out like everyone else, but at least in Meads case - its a new person striking out.  He wasnt suggesting dont play Mead.

The problem with Mead is his weird hippity hoppity batting stance.  But if hes good to go , yeah, absolutely play him.  

[drewski6]

3 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

He hasn't had a competitive AB in over 2 months. I think I'd take Jahmai Jones at DH over him. Sogard at 2B has an 1834 OPS vs Fried.

Have him pinch hit? Maybe? Start? No. 

Id start him at 3b.

[drewski6]

And Id pack Durbin up

[drewski6]

You just cant have Cedanne and Durbin.

[notin]

12 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

And Id pack Durbin up

Why not move him to 2b?  

[drewski6]

6 minutes ago, notin said:

Why not move him to 2b?  

You mean tonight or next year?

[drewski6]

Sogard is like over .800 against lefties this year and Durbin is under. 700.  I feel like Mead has more comfort at 3b, and if he needs to be in there, I think Id rather sub him in for Durbin than Sogard.

Plus for a 3b, Durbins lack of thump is hurting us.  Gotta improve somewhere.  Unless you like getting blown out by the yankees, even when they have their first ballot hall of famer hurt.

[notin]

38 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

I agree. I dont think the budget is set in stone like that. I think every FA signing is case by case.  I agree that Roman and Alonso have little to do with each other.  The mistakes were Bregman and Alonso.  Then we would have been able to weather some injuries or downturns in production.

But the ships have sailed, and I think we are in a bit of a bind going forward - because I dont think the FA class this year is as good of a fit.  And they probably think they are fine with a couple of mediocre players who would get squeezed out if we really wanted to win....Like Durbin.

We'll see if they hit tonight.  The funny thing is that the people who told us we didnt need hitters last offseason are already working on their excuses why we wont need hitters this offseason , and its not because they expect us to hit.  They are saying, playoff hitting is a crapshoot, and I dont think we will hit this series, but also  - heres why we dont need hitters.

If we score less than 4 runs tonight. we will have noodlebatted our way out of the playoffs 2 years running.  Everyone knew these offenses would struggle, and with our best hitter aging, and people talking about getting rid of Story (our best playoff hitter last 4 years) - Im not sure that we are even going to stay 23rd in hitting.  Could fall to 28.

Agreed. Not getting the Story Hate.  If you’re complaining about the weak hitting in the postseason that has only produced 5 XBH in the last two postseasons combined (to date), why do so many prioritize getting rid of the guy with 2 of them, including the only home run?

[notin]

17 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

You mean tonight or next year?

I think next year.  If you move him tonight, who plays3b?  Sogard? Monasterio?