mvp 78

No.

He makes 6M a year (CBT). If you go by cash, he's making only 1M. Eiher way, that's platoon money. That's defensive replacement money.

Which guy? Sabol? Young athletic guy who has shown a lot of pop, but is probably better suited for LF/1B IMO. Maybe they thought they could figure something out by coaching him? IDK.

2024 Post ASB Bello: 13 GS, 3.47 ERA, 3.68 FIP, 629 OPS, 8.5 k/9, 2.2 k/bb, 1.23 WHIP He can do it. He has it in him.

Wouldn't it be great if we had a CFer that could hit and field like Duran did in '24. Too bad that guy isn't on the roster anymore!

Is he 5th in WAR because of his offense? With how bad the team's offense has been, is it a badge of honor to be 5th (aka tied with Romy)? Players ahead of him that play similar positions (OF, MIF): Abreu, Campbell, Story. If you are calling up Anthony, he's going to start ahead of Rafaela. He's just a better player. So who would you rather in your everyday lineup: Duran or Rafaela? That's what it comes down to. Duran! His barrel% is up. His hard hit % is up. His EV is up. His BABIP is down. He'll get locked in and he'll be better than even the best version of Rafaela we've seen.

Catching talk doesn't usually get a lot of traction on here, so I'm not going to make another thread. I don't want to see Sabol in BOS again. Send him to WOO to go hit dingers and impersonate Joe Kelly. With Wong out, Ice Cream Boy Chris Cotillo suggests that the Sox could look externally for someone to bridge the gap until Wong is healthy. The names listed are veteran guys sitting in AAA at various orgs. Nobody interesting is listed and it's a lot of guys with relatively questionable defense (the James McCanns of the world). Why trade for a guy that is going to give you a 600 OPS or below with bad defense? Internally, there are a few options. 1. Seby Zavala - good defensive profile, but horrible offense and has STRUGGLED this season (47% k rate) 2. Yasmani Grandal - good defensive profile for framing, but can't throw anyone out, may have clubhouse issues and had no Spring Training to get ready (was told he had 2 weeks to get ready or he was getting dumped, reportedly) 3. Mark Kolozsvary - great defensive profile, well below average offense, has MLB experience and calls a great game Is it Mark Kolzsvary time?

It's a unique ballpark for sure. Hard to say how it will play all season, but the wet season starts up in June and that could really make things interesting. Average high for May will be 87 and will not get any cooler until we reach October.

We may get that after this turn through the rotation if Bello is ready to go on Patriots Day.

Rafaela is the 9th hitter and really isn't lighting it up. I think you just move Roman to LF and Duran to CF. You can even platoon Rafaela and Duran if you really feel like it. I wouldn't move Anthony to 1B. I'd just have Devers get a 1B mitt this offseason and be ready to go next year. Having an open spot at DH gives the team much more flexibility, especially when you are trying to squeeze position players in.

Arias really struggled after being called up to A ball last year. Nice to see him get off to a hot start in '25. Last 4 games: 3 - 13, 0 XBH, 2 BB, 0 K He has reached base safely in every game so far. Not sure he'll get a quick call to GRE as they have Zanetello playing SS and I think they are going to give him a long leash there this year.

Also has a 64.3% hard hit rate.

Had a few thoughts about the starting rotation and didn't want to add it to the Realistic View megathread. 1. After a few down starts to open the season, Houck and Buehler looked much better that last time out. I don't really expect Houck to be ace-like this year, but if he can be a solid upper tier mid rotation guy, he can be very valuable. FanGraphs has a blog up about Buehler's last start and it's a really great read. https://blogs.fangraphs.com/walker-buehlers-day-on/ 2. With Fitts going down and Bello/Gio still being a start away from a call up, are we really comfortable with a Michael Fulmer start? We were concerned about having too many arms for the rotation, but it's the mid of April and Fulmer is already in line for a spot start! 3. Newcomb to the pen once Gio and Bello get called up? They probably will need a long reliever as Whitlock can't be used in back to back days or really even every other day. 4. This Crochet guy seems pretty good!

Yeah, it wasn't just 2019. There was clearly more to it than that. Internally, DD and Sam didn't get along. Sam is the go between for Henry. DD wanted to run a lot of things on his own and that's not really how Henry wants things done. Henry is much more comfortable with more inexperienced guys like Theo, Ben, Bloom and Breslow. DD wasn't a good fit even though the results on the field fit with our expectations as fans.

Yeah, there was a lot of crappy things going on in that org, but even adding Grandal to this team short term may not be a good idea. I don't know why they didn't bring Zavala up to begin with.

Why can't he just be a fan and yell at the players after every ball and strike? He should get tossed in the first inning of every game like I would! He doesn't NEED to have a relationship with the players, he's their BOSS!

And I do appreciate it saying "Twins Daily" on the top corner.

We've seen Tim Anderson's boxing skills, I think a few of the posters on here could get a few punches in. I'm not sure which ones though.

Wrong, especially when it impacts future years of control when you can just hold him down until July. He has less than 50 PAs in AAA. It makes no sense to rush him up if he's not busting down the door.

They aren't going to dump Cora because they just extended him. If they fire Fatse, who are they going to replace him with? What great hitting coach is sitting at home waiting for a call mid April? Sox are 7th highest in k%. The number is trending in the right direction, just slowly. Right now, they just aren't showing a lot of power and the defense is inconsistent. Duran and Casas at the top of the lineup just aren't getting it done. However, Duran is 88th percentile in exit velo and 74th percentile in hard hit %. His hits will start falling in. Casas is only 21st percentile in hard hit. Combining that with his bad defense is really weighing down the top of the lineup. However, he did only have a 533 OPS going into the same day on 2023 and ended up having a pretty solid year. There's still time. The defense isn't going to be helped if they keep moving Campbell between OF/2B. He will continue to struggle. Duran has also started off the year slow in LF (-3 DRS, -2 OAA). He can probably turn it around. Casas has always been horrible at 1B and that won't be fixed until there's a replacement.

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/preview?game_pk=778328&game_date=2025-4-14

Mayer has a 567 OPS in AAA. He needs a little more time before y'all promote him.

Sox offense is 2nd in hard hit and were even smoking the ball yesterday (contrary to what some people thought in the game thread yesterday). They are just not getting the right launch angle at the moment. I believe the offense will turn it around eventually.

I think we need to trade about half our fanbase and consider demoting some posters to https://talksox.com/forums/forum/42-red-sox-minor-league-talk/