Hitch

Because we've sent down Hamilton and Eaton in this scenario. Our infield bench option is Romy. How does he platoon for both Toro and Mayer?

Appreciate it. I can get as petty as the next person, unless the next person is the self proclaimed superior baseball mind. But Hugh is good people. 👍

I'm sorry, respectfully you haven't. Let me try and make the point in another way. Bregman and Yoshida come up. Eaton and Hamilton go down. There's no other options. You're adding 1 infielder while subtracting 2. Your outfield - Refsnyder, Rafaela, Duran, Abreu, Anthony and Yoshida. DH - rotation between Yoshida and Refsnyder Your infield - Bregman, Story, Mayer, Romy and Toro. You're playing a lety. Cora sits Mayer like he does every time, how does Romy platoon with Toro? You yourself recognised that Toro has to be platooned. Even with a trade of an outfield piece for pitching, you cannot platoon both DH and 1B with this roster. Toro is a nothing player having a decent spell. For me, if you're going for it you free up that platoon and have Romy as your bench guy against lefties. Suarez is valued at 6m on BTV. You're really not using much in the way of bullets to get him.

He was asked the question on Devers and how the players view him post trade. It's not weird to answer these questions. As much as you and I might like this conversation to die down, it isn't, and people will continue asking questions around it. People will give answers. Such is the way of the world, It would be weird if he kept producing blogs out of nowhere about it. But that isn't happening.

Again, I'm only discussing this in the case of a buy now scenario. I actually think we will be better off selling (as I don't think this run lasts past today), but in this scenario, if we are going for it, we have plenty of bullets, and should be looking at multiple avenues. Not least (and none of your replies have addressed this point) because the roster needs adjusting. We can not have Gonzalez as an utility man if he is platooning with Toro and Toro is no good to us playing full time. Hamilton and Eaton are disappearing soon with Yoshi and Bregman coming. This needs to be addressed (unless we're selling). Pitching is a necessity for sure. Altering the make up of the roster and bringing some RH pop should be another. Suarez has a career OPS of .793 and an OPS+ of 112. He's pull heavy and would suit Fenway perfectly. And he'd play every day. You take Suarez all day long, obviously, especially the way our roster is currently aligned.

People are complaining daily about Devers being traded. I'd love for people to move on. There's little chance of it.

As I mentioned, this is only in a 'buy' scenario, as there's no point otherwise, but you don't think Suarez does that? While freeing up one of the clog points in our roster? I don't think we can continue to compete with rotating platoons at DH and 1st Base.

I think the only thing Fred is focused in on is being in a state of almost constant fury/annoyance. I've never seen a man enjoy his sport less ha!

Yes, I'm never sure how much credence to give him. As you say, he really should be in the loop, but he has talked some ungodly amounts of s*** at times these past few years. I look forward to visiting this board on the day (if) we trade Bregman.

It's Jim Bowden, so take this with a huge pinch of salt, but I wonder how accurate his information is in regards to Bregman. This was in response to a question in The Athletic. 19. Will the Red Sox extend Alex Bregman before the trade deadline? … If the Sox go on a winning streak, establishing themselves as buyers at the deadline, what relief pitchers should they target? — Rich K. The Red Sox would like to extend Bregman before the trade deadline, but it won’t be easy with Scott Boras as his agent. And, I’m hearing, in my conversations throughout the league, if he’s not extended, they could end up trading him to Seattle, Detroit or Milwaukee. But if I’m Boston and your scenario plays out, I would look to add Emmanuel Clase or Ryan Helsley.

I think we do it for a few reasons. I don't believe a player that has a career batting average of .228 and OPS+ of 85 has suddenly transformed into a player we can rely on, even if he is only platooned. Which leads me onto issue number 2. Yoshi is on his way. It looks clear he is mostly going to be platooned at DH with Refsnyder. We can't afford to carry two empty spaces by carrying a platoon at 1st Base as well. Not to mention, we will need to send down Eaton and Hamilton when Bregman and Yoshi are reinstated. Gonzalez is going to be needed as the utility guy/platooner. If he's having to cover Toro already, how does he play for Mayer? Toro would have to play more, which is not a good thing. Toro has 0.3 WAR of the total between him and Romy so far. Suarez is a name I've seen bandied about a lot. He's a 3rd baseman, so shouldn't be too hard to make the transition. He has 28 HRs already. Is project for 50. Has 2.7 WAR so far. And the Diamondbacks are likely going to have to sell, and he's a free agent at the end of the year. I'd only make this happen if we are definitely buyers, but it seems obvious to me the roster is all over the place and needs adjustment. I'm grateful for what Toro has given us so far, but is easily improved upon, and we do need to adjust.

As with most discussions in baseball, I think we're too early into knowing what we have. I don't know why people get so sure of their opinions on this stuff. Nobody knows, just chill out a bit. He's improved, he's doing great, let's see if he can carry it on or if this is more of an outlier. Way too early to know either way.

Next 5 games are going to be huge. If we can round off the sweep and then take 3-1 against the Rays, we've vaulted yourself into a position where we pretty much have to go for it (short of a disastrous post All Star run). Lose the last against the Rockies and then go 2-2 or 1-3 against the Rays however, and that stretch after the All Star game looks ominous. If the season has shown us anything, it's that we're about to get slapped in the face again. But maybe this time there's real momentum. Hard to gage when you're beating up on these past two teams. One huge factor going the Sox's way - the timing of the Yankees squaring off against the Mariners. Exactly what you want when you're beating up on a bad team.

1B. Toro has done a job there, but that wave can only be ridden so long. We've got Bregman and Yoshida coming back which means Gonzalez can go back to roving cover and we demote Hamilton and Eaton. We don't want Toro playing every day. If we can get good power there, you go for it.

Don't worry, I got your back. I'll defend your promise while Fred spits fury at his keyboard every night over your 150 OPS.

Hopefully, in AAA, Kristian Campbell is taking note.

Yeah, I posted the video on the last page. Not a good look at all The whole video is worth a watch.

Without recent context - sure, probably. But off the back of showing he is a lousy teammate, or at least has become one, and seems to be skipping practises already - probably not.

He wasn't the only one going all in on the culture thing. A lot of reporters did, and ones that you could not call homers in any way. And that was the most obvious thing about it all. Devers attitude sucked and he threw his teammates under the bus. Regardless of everything else that went on, when the team needed him he turned his back, then gleefully opened his arms to the same requests at the Giants. Do you have the quotes that Raffy's 1B practise was rescheduled? I googled but can't find any. You have a history of ragging on any reporter/journo that disagrees with your assessment of how things lie. You have attacked Cotillo's reputation a few times when I've brought him up, and then used him to agree with one of your arguments when it suited. So I have a tough time trusting your read on these people (not that you might be wrong here - I don't particularly know).

I'm on the side of thinking trading Devers was the right thing to do. I was really annoyed with his attitude and disrespect to his teammates (you don't have to claim this was a smear job - it was there for everyone to see out of the horses mouth), and have no issues with the decision taken (even if I am annoyed how it got to that point) but come on, saying we got this right because he isn't tearing the cover off the ball in a 2 week spell, and claiming the Sox are off and running while only being 2 games above .500 after beating up on two awful teams is as premature as it gets.

There were some interesting comments from play-by-play broadcaster Will Flemming last night. Mentioned that the players were over the Devers trade, that the move was governed almost entirely by the need to reset the culture and showing the younger players that there is accountability as a teammate, and most shockingly of all, he said he was there with Will Clark (Giants FO) to see Raffy take grounders at 1st base on his 2nd day with the Giants, and Raffy didn't turn up. Mentioned that there are those in the Giants org that aren't sure what they have with yet, as in they know he'll hit homers, but wondering if this is this who he is. He also mentioned that there are huge moves coming. Seemed to lean into the speculation Duran is the one that could be going. Hinted that Chaman wouldn't be among the moves, which I found interesting. Well worth a listen.

It's ridiculously early (and pointless) to ask this question now.

If we're buyers, I think I'd reverse this in terms of order, while trying to add a power bat (unlikely).

I agree with this, but the very best on the market? I don't see your Diamondbacks, Marlins, Rangers, etc pushing in the prospects for a Chapman. Chances are, much like us, there is a few places that need fixing before emptying the farm on a rental at closer.

They're also 6-17 against the Jays, Tigers, Mariners and Brewers. This idea we beat the best teams and lose to the worst is a fallacy.