The upper echelon of players don't tend to spend a long time in AAA (see: Trout, Harper, Bryant, Stanton). It's very atypical for a player to become a top tier player, but not unusual.
So if the other players are "doing what they're doing," but the Sox have gained almost an extra run per game by adding a big bat to their lineup, maybe EE was needed earlier in the season when they couldn't score any runs?
I don't think he's going to OPS 1.000+ every year. He's great, but not infallible. Just enjoy the ride. No reason to fret over being patient when he's knocking the cover off the ball now.
I don't know of any fans that have ever gotten sand in their underpants about the value of wins or saves unless it impacted their fantasy baseball stats.
It seems to be going pretty good now, which shows to me that they really needed EE's bat from April - mid July. It seems to be the missing ingredient in the formula that cause the Sox to not play very well for long stretches in the first part of the season.
Ignoring the tax limit, they need a bat like EE. Including the tax limit, it's ok that they didn't grab him this offseason. They need to fill that hole eventually though.
Runs per game are up to 5.5 since Devers played his first game. For the year, the Nats are 2nd in runs per game at 5.4.
It would still be nice to go back in time and win a few extra games in April - June. The more cushion this team has, the more likely they'll make the postseason.
It doesn't matter who specifically said it. It was said often enough.
Now that he's crushing HR's off 103 mph FB's, maybe we should stop bickering about needing patience for Devers and just say that he's pretty f***ing good.
Our offense is what it is. Saying "well it should have been better because of reasons" doesn't feel like a very good argument. The offense hasn't performed well, because the offense might not be very good without a big bat anchoring it.
I know what batting order is. Doesn't the manager have a say in the batting order of the team that gets put on the field? Isn't that something that fans can have a say about for various reasons? She's definitely stretching logic by saying caring about saves is the same as caring about batting order.
Bogaerts is playing poorly now. I'm not sure that part is up for debate. His OPS since the AS Break is 475. He's also been dealing with an injured wrist. If Pedey wasn't dealing with the Machado injury, maybe Xander would be getting much needed rest.
I just don't understand handwringing over Xander not being a power hitter. Not every guy needs to hit 20 HR's a year.