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sk7326

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Everything posted by sk7326

  1. and honestly, that 2021 team was closer to a .500 team than a 90ish win one in a lot of ways. This season has been frustrating because the underlying stuff has actually not been bad. The defense is a lot better than it has been, Crochet has been everything you'd want, and Bregman when he was healthy was excellent. Part of me think this is nothing that a couple of hitting hot streaks can't fix - but it also feels like waiting for a bus that might not show up.
  2. John Farrell managed a nearly identical team in 2017 and won 93 games and went out in the first round (whatever weight you want to give the chaotic postseason). Alex Cora took that group (well that group plus JD Martinez) - won 108 games and went 11-3 against two fellow 100-win teams and the 2nd best team in the NL. 2018 was a good group on paper sans dout ... but the managerial change took it from a good team to a historically great single season wagon. In 2019 it faded away for the same reason most seasons go to pot - pitcher injuries.
  3. Counterpoint: Corey Seager is better than any player the Red Sox have. And the most critical pitching addition Texas had was a guy the Red Sox drove to the airport.
  4. This is genuinely nuts. 1. Cora was extremely qualified - or more to the point, about as qualified as you're going to get for a first time manager. He was a bench coach for a good team, a personnel guy in Puerto Rico - and yeah, the media stuff doesn't hurt given the media obligations here. 2. You can't REALLY sit here and say the rosters of the most recent teams were good enough to match up with the best in the league. This does not absolve Cora of some blame, but this is clearly a personnel thing. 3. Even if we wanted to buy this crazy diversity theory - it would not explain why the team rehired Cora after the suspension. 4. I guarantee you that Alex Cora is not the reason Trevor Story forgot how to hit a baseball. Seriously.
  5. Crochet so far in the running for unluckiest pitcher in the league
  6. It is amazing how Devers has turned it around from that epic (in a bad way) start.
  7. Anthony will slot in at a corner - I'd rather trade Duran than Abreu but the preference is fairly weak. Campbell I look at longer term as basically a Ben Zobrist type who can play enough positions at a non-embarassing level to let the bat and plate approach shine through. Heck, I'd just move Campbell to 1B if there is a real logjam.
  8. 100%. Rafaela has been sensational in CF defensively, and again - looking at the baseball savant data, he IS largely making good contact. He is going to be streaky at the plate and taking pitches ain't his jam ... but I see no reason he can't be productive enough to stay out there.
  9. The wild one so far has been Trevor Story. First of all, the defense has tailed off badly if you look at Statcast Outs Above Average. (-2 from +2 last year) And - this is the confounding thing - his launch angle numbers have dropped ... but a lot of the hard hit ball data, the stuff which was so concerning last year, has been really good. He seems to be running into a lot of hard outs. Normally, a .650 OPS with bad defense is unplayable (and nothing should stop them from putting in Mayer if they feel he is ready) but Story has seemed to unlucky as much as anything at the plate at least.
  10. It's what a good farm system is for. When the trade happened it looked like the rare trade that is good for everybody.
  11. Jhostnixon Garcia also off to a good start. Chase rate is down a little - which is one of the things holding him back. But another plus defensive CF/RF with legit power could be coming.
  12. Probably. Teel was easy Top 50. Montgomery not being Top 100 would be entirely medical.
  13. Good bounceback so far - he and Zanatello in particular were two guys really hurt by MLB contracting the short season leagues.
  14. nobody is untouchable - though Mayer is likely the most touchable of the 3 ... just with injury history and whatnot. But the trade has to be a big deal ... like if Sandy Alcantara is healthy, that sort of dude. But it is a very short list.
  15. This should be a pretty tradeable contract at minimum given yearly salary inflation. Even now, the pathway to him being a perfectly reasonable starter (which would more than justify this contract) is pretty reasonable. I mean, a .280 OBP won't cut it ... but a .300 OBP with the power and defense he has shown at CF does (at least for a number of teams).
  16. If Early has added a few mphs to the fastball, then he becomes very interesting - because he clearly knows how to pitch. The results matter ultimately. Of course we are in super high variability land, but Valera at Greenville already is as exciting a pitching development as this franchise has had in several minutes.
  17. 1. SSS - not saying the OP is wrong, but we are still in tiny sample land. 2. After a slow start, he is up to 4th in the AL in outs above average in CF - so at least the defense has lived up to the promise. So the "defend well enough to support a meager OBP" case is at least partially true. 3. But we need more - a sub .280 OBP ain't going to cut it.
  18. i admire him committing to come back last year. That is real leadership. That said, his batted ball rates last year collapsed, and at his age you have to worry that it might be a new normal. Put another way, I suspect Mayer takes this job by the All Star Break at the latest.
  19. The Athletic had a nice piece on the overhaul of the scouting staff ... paywalled, but figure I'd still put it up for those who have access ... there is a lot here, particularly about the scouting cuts and the extensive use of Driveline https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6222678/2025/03/22/red-sox-craig-breslow-front-office-changes/
  20. 1. Players tend to solve these problems. 2. Mayer starting in AAA is fine. 3. The case with Campbell has always been bat and athleticism. Blake Swihart is one name mentioned - but I think the more correct goal might be for Campbell to be a Ben Zobrist player ... who can be non awful in a few spots defensively, but whose bat remains plus. His rise in the system was so meteoric, that him slowing down for a few seconds is no tragedy. 4. Will all due respect to Hamilton and Story - neither of them should be blocking minor leaguers who are ready to contribute.
  21. What is interesting is that Turner did see that he needed to make some swing fixes to get more lift - clearly the changes he made didn't work. But yeah - the Sox have shown they have been able to get some of that out of these players.
  22. Arias has a prove-it year to a degree. But he also did not look out of place at Salem as a 19 year old. Him ending the season in Portland at that age means there is an "above average starter" sort of upside there.
  23. Ultimately this is a good problem. I kind of expect Devers to get a lot of starts at DH ultimately. But Campbell's progress, Cora's communication ability and Bregman's bat will sort this all out.
  24. Yoshida is an underwater contract ... hopefully the team has the flexibility to just cut him if it comes down to it ... as Don Draper put it "That's What the Money is For"
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