mvp 78

Waiting out the market to get him at a deep discount!

Refsnyder in RF: 163 INN, -4 DRS, -2 OAA, -13.3 UZR/150

Verdugo was bad there in '22. Overall, he was ok in '20 and '21. Maybe him being more trimmed down will help him field the position better? We'll see. I'll keep my mind open about it, but I'm not optimistic.

It's moving Kiké to a position he's never played fulltime and moving Duvall to a position he's never played fulltime. Where could it go wrong?

Yoshida is LF. Did they sign Turner and Yoshida to platoon DH?

Harrison is a UTIL guy to mix and match with Arroyo. Andrus is a SS only guy. Seems Bloom already found his SS and is valuing versatility?

There is a great little article on Jorge Alfaro at FanGraphs today. https://blogs.fangraphs.com/reflections-on-the-bear/ At his peak, Alfaro is faster than Cristian Pache and Cedric Mullins. His hardest-hit ball of 2022 came in (or, more accurately, went out) at 115.2 mph, harder than anything hit by Mike Trout, Kyle Schwarber, or Joey Gallo in 2022. And he can play the hardest defensive position in the sport. How is this guy not a starter, let alone a star? The more useful way to ask that question is: How does the hitter with the worst contact numbers and plate discipline in baseball turn out to be an above-replacement-level player? Now, “worst contact numbers and plate discipline in baseball” is a superlative, which usually indicates some kind of exaggeration. But if I’m exaggerating, it’s not by much. BB% 4, 334th K% 35.8, 8th OSwing% 49.2, 2nd Swing% 62.7, 1st OContact% 52.2, 322nd Contact% 65.2, 346th Alfaro was the only player to hit 200 or more times in 2022 and post a walk rate of 4% or lower and a strikeout rate of 35% or higher. Baseball Savant registers 531 hitters who saw at least 50 pitches in the chase zone in 2022; of those, Alfaro ranks 529th in run production and is one of just 11 not to break even. He lives outside the heuristic most of us have for “bad plate discipline.” No matter how many borderline pitches he sees, he will continue to swing and miss every time.

Not a chance.

He should have been good, but his development plateaued and his defense never became adequate. Sad considering the tools he has. I think he spends more time working on his physique than working on being a better ballplayer.

The first home game would be 6/6 vs Akron. Book tickets now! Pre-order your Mayer Sea Dogs shirseys! The weather probabaly isn't good enough to attend a game before then anyway.

I have a strong conviction that Mayer will be the next "franchise shortstop" and that once he makes it here, we won't have to worry about that position for a while.

He's a guy that I don't even think about because I don't believe he'll be in BOS this year unless in the visitor's dugout.

"Which play at first base from last year showed to you that Duran would get more hits this year due to the new bases?"

I think a Yalie could certainly come up with the McGuire jokes I've seen on here.

June 1.

Foundation was the word choice you used. That didn't come from me.

No.

@BeyondtheMnstr The Red Sox have FIVE of the 2023 Top 100 Prospects according to Baseball America. Marcel Mayer No. 10 Triston Casas No. 29 Ceddanne Rafaela No. 71 Masataka Yoshida No. 87 Miguel Bleis No. 88 Last year: Mayer 15 Casas 19 Yorke 31 Duran 91

You list a bunch of blizzards and don't mention one Reese's variation?!?!?

We talk about Duran's amazing sprint speed. He's top 7% in the league at 29.1 ft/s. Number 2 on the Sox? Connor Wong at 28.9! Top 12% and the fastest C in the league. Probably part of the reason he's been considered to be a super UTIL guy at times.

The bases are going from 15" to 18". I don't think the amount of bang bang plays this will help Duran on will be much more than many other players. 5 extra hits a year? Maybe? Is that enough to hold a roster spot? If he could reasonably field CF we wouldn't be having this conversation. The problem is that his defense has been so behind that there is no wiggle room for his undeveloped bat. Would a 3rd division team want him? Probably. Send him to PIT or OAK. It's probably what is best for his career anyway. He's not going to get the reps here.

I'm being reminded of the 2017 offseason where everyone laughed about me saying Devers would make it to BOS that year... I don't care if my belief isn't good enough for you. Saying "what at bat at A+ convinced you" is just f***ing stupid though. I've read the scouting reports and I trust what they say. He's a great clubhouse guy and has all the tools to be a franchise SS. I'm all in. I sure as s*** would trust those scouting reports over some naysayer on TalkSox.

I'm not sure his speed will matter all that much as he wasn't a significant base stealer in MiLB, unlike David Hamilton. Hamilton is on the 40 man because of the upside of his speed, propensity to steal bases and a glove that can fake it at a position. Duran is probably being passed by him in terms of utility. Hamilton was pushed to the OF for versatility as well.

I think they'd trade Dalbec or Duran for a guy not included on another team's 40 man roster.

This team will out HR last year's team, just because last year's team was kind of pitiful, not because this year's team will be very good. It'll be a bounce back year. 2022: 155 HR's, 20th 2021: 219 HR's, 10th My guess is they will be somewhere in between those two numbers. Barring changes to the ball: 175ish. More middle of the pack.