Hitch

I would guess Yoshida is far away from any thoughts Breslow has around the roster construction at MLB level.

I was vehemently against Campbell playing 1st. I thought that if you've got a young kid looking like a very good player, you let him play his position and stay there. If he's as good as you hope defensively you've got the position (a problem position for us) sorted. But I hadn't realised he'd been as poor at 2nd base as the stats had shown. I'm definitely more on board with it now. And it does open up 2nd for Mayer. I also thought Devers should play there and eventually would. but if he keeps hitting like he has been at DH that's fine by me. My main worry was that he wasn't adapting to the role. That seems to be in the past.

No 'could' about it. They've been gearing up for a fight since about 5 minutes after the last one closed. It's going to be a bloodbath and I'm fairly confident we will lose significant baseball in '27.

Whatever decision ends up wrong, people in these threads knew the right moves beforehand. That's the constant. Such is the life of a sports fan.

I posted this on the previous page. These were his comments 6 days ago. "When I stretch out to 120 feet, that’s when I kind of feel the pain,” Yoshida said. “I’m going to have to let it sit and see how I feel...That’s something that I kind of have to be dealing with throughout the year. At least this year I will have to deal with the pain... "As far as the hitting, no problem...“But I’m not recovering or making the progress at the pace that I wanted to. Let’s put it that way.”

I'm not sure that's strictly true. This was Masa's comments 6 days ago - I think there is genuine issue there. "When I stretch out to 120 feet, that’s when I kind of feel the pain,” Yoshida said. “I’m going to have to let it sit and see how I feel...That’s something that I kind of have to be dealing with throughout the year. At least this year I will have to deal with the pain... "As far as the hitting, no problem...“But I’m not recovering or making the progress at the pace that I wanted to. Let’s put it that way.”

Yeah, that article wasn't written by Bob Nightengale. This explains a lot.

Agreed on all counts. When Raf has his next mini slump, I think the call may be made for Anthony. Duran will be back in center.

Why have you always felt he's had a diva attitude? What has he done outside of this season? I can't think of one thing. I can remember all the times he's played hurt however.

So what's your argument? That because posters in this thread are not always making up new suppositions that you're well within your rights to post articles that are put together by AI that offer exactly nothing? I mean, sure, knock yourself out. I can think of better ways to waste time.

In my experience, the ultra smart analytical men from your Yale's, Oxford's, and the like, all have lower emotional intelligence. You can tell when you're in a room with a Bloom/Breslow quite quickly. Not that they're bad people or anything, just a little detached. Everyone has blind spots.

Something to potentially keep an eye on - Sean McAdams has stated: “There’s some growing frustration within the Red Sox organization about outfielder Ceddanne Rafaela. More than once, Rafaela has been advised in the dugout to take the first pitch in his next at-bat, only to swing freely minutes later.” To which Red Sox Assistant Hitting Coach Dillon Lawson replied: "This is news to me." Seems odd that McAdams would just make something up like this. And it fits. But, seems unlikely a coach would jump into a public discussion without feeling sure-footed.

Well I'm talking about the continued links you post - some so obviously AI generated, I'm asking what's the point? If you don't know how to spot them, fair enough, but if you do, again, what's the point? As for this particular post - it literally added absolutely nothing that hasn't been said in here, and offered zero substance. Each to their own, but I don't know exactly what we're supposed to be getting from it? Other than tired. As for if he'll ask for a trade - I seriously doubt it. But it's always a possibility.

Of all the things to hit Duran with - pedestrian would not be one I'd ever think to pick.

Sure, but you must be able to tell when some of it is worthless? What's the point of brining something in that is obviously fake nonsense? You may as well just make the argument yourself.

It'll be interesting to see how things continue to play out, especially with Devers having a bit of a statement weekend. I'm a little surprised to see how quickly certain parts of the fanbase has turned on him. He did himself no favours with his latest interview, but it's like we've learned nothing from the Duran situation. These guys are not robots and Devers was handled spectacularly bad by the FO and Cora in the leadup to and after the Bregman signing. He was lied to, when all this could have been handled far far better. Yes, he's also not handled it well himself, despite the fair grievances he's got with how it all played out, but this is a guy that has turned up every year, played hurt, got his head down and done what he could for the team, never complained outside of the the way this saga played out. He's not come out of this great, but some of the stuff being aimed at him is pretty unsavory. I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't end up playing the position now. Though we really could do with it as we ain't getting anything worth a damn in a trade at this point, he's definitely not getting traded, and Grissom doesn't appear to be the answer as yet.

You love a clickbait link. Why do you waste your time on this crap?

They did lie to him - they kept parroting the nonsense that Bregman was destined for 2nd base. Even after he signed. Which of course, doesn't change that Devers is coming out of this looking terribly now.

The best thing the Sox could have done this off season was say to Devers - look, we hear you, we want to make the team better, but the only impact bats left to us are 3rd basemen, and gold glovers at that. Would you be up for us bringing them in, and you taking reps at 1st base and playing some DH every now and then. We can really improve the team this way. Instead they lied through their teeth at him. Which doesn't excuse his ******** yesterday. And really doesn't excuse the - 'do your job and get a 1st baseman' in spiel.

Unless you then flip those prospects for another big player than can help now? Again though, I think there is more chance of me getting a date with Scarlett Johansson.

Several times this week I've gone to write a post (and then stopped) to say we need to ease off on Cora in his remarks about this issue and that the Red Sox really F'ed it up with Devers. They told him over and over that he was their 3rd baseman, that Bregman was a gold glove 2nd baseman in waiting, knowing they were full of s***. Then they tell Devers that he is DH'ing and nothing else. Now they need him at 1st. I can see why Cora was trying to downplay it. The players are human, not robots, he has to manage egos, smooth things over, nudge people down certain paths. He has to manage 26 players (and more) into a coherent well melded group that believes in him. They couldn't have played it any worse in the way they've handled Devers, In saying that, if the translation matches up (we've ben through this once), Devers is really coming off bad here. He knows full well they don't want him to play anywhere else, and that 3rd base to 1st base transitions are relatively normal. He's not coming off great at all, and yet a part of me understands why he is so pissed off. I'm of the opinion and have been since it was signed that his contract is going to be horrible for us in the second half of it. I'm also of the opinion that we have very little to no chance of trading him. And think it hugely unlikely either way. So it'll be interesting to see how it plays out from here, because they need to sort this out somehow.

Devers comments today on playing 3rd... “I know I’m a ballplayer, but at the same time, they can’t expect me to play every single position out there,” Devers said through team translator Daveson Perez after a 5-0 win over the Rangers. “In spring training, they talked to me and basically told me to put away my glove, that I wasn’t going to play any other position but DH, so right now, I just feel like it’s not an appropriate decision by them to ask me to play another position.” The 28-year-old said chief baseball officer Craig Breslow spoke with him following Casas’ injury and asked him to consider a move to first. “I’m not certain what he has with me,” Devers said of Breslow. “He played ball (Breslow pitched in the majors for 12 seasons), and I would like to think that he knows that changing positions like that isn’t easy. “They put me in this situation, and they told me that they didn’t want to allow me to play any other position,” Devers said. “Now, I think they should do their jobs, essentially, and hit the market and look for another player. I’m not sure why they want me to be in-between the way they have been.” Asked if he was upset about the inquiry into change positions, Devers didn’t hold back. “Yes, of course,” he said. “I don’t feel that they stayed true to their word. They told me that I was going to be playing this position, DH, and now they’re going back on that. So I just don’t think they stayed true to their word.” Though Devers eventually changed his mind about being the DH, he doesn’t think he’ll have a similar change of heart about first base. “I don’t think so,” he said. “They’ve told me I’m a little hard-headed. And they already asked me to change once, and this time, I don’t think I can be as flexible.” While Devers’ refusal to play first may seem like he’s putting himself above the team and potentially threatening the team culture, he thinks, at least, he is on good terms with his teammates. “Here in the clubhouse, thankfully, the relationship that I have with my teammates is great,” Devers said. “I don’t understand some of the decisions that the GM makes. Next thing you know someone in the outfield gets hurt and they want me to play in the outfield. I think I know the kind of player that I am, and that’s just where I stand.”

Sorry to hear about this Moon, that's terrible. I hope you and the family are doing okay, all things considered.

I feel really sorry for Casas - looks like a bad one, and he was already scuffling. I recall him making comments on betting on himself, and knowing his value when extension talks were thrown around early last year. Man, did he miss out there if there was anything near a Rafaela/Campbell offer in the making. The Red Sox dodged a bullet by not extending him. The kid has some terrible luck. Campbell should be nowhere near 1B (or CF for that matter). Leave the kid play his position. 1B is going to be an interesting one to see what they do. My feeling is they will ride Romy for a while with it. Might well be the opening Grissom has been waiting for, however.

He's got a lot of walks, but it doesn't feel like they have been pitching around him too much weirdly. There's been a steady diet of fastballs he couldn't catch up to. I only caught a game and half of the Guardians series, so not sure there, but while he may lead the Sox in hard hits, I would guess he also leads the Sox in whifs on fastballs.