moonslav59

Yes, I know Casas did not get hurt playing 1B. Do you think a DH is equally likely to get hurt as a player out on the field half the game? I just said the odds are better at staying healthy as a DH vs 1Bman. I did not even imply he'd have not gotten hurt in '24 or '25 had he been the DH. Going forward, I want Casas at DH and hope he beats out Masa. My position is the same, but now it's my wish that Contreras plays 1B not Devers. My position on Devers at 1B had merit, and SF showed they agreed. I'm fine with you (and Cora to a lesser extent) disagreeing, but I'm not sure why you act like my position is way off base.

Yes, I saw the interview. My statement was still correct. Do you think "word is" means its not true?

A lot depends on how healthy our projected starters and top subs stay, but here is a summary of 2025 vs 2026 by position: 2025 OPS .653 Catcher (Narvaez was way over this and Wong was way under. I think Wong does better and Narvaez probably regresses a little, but he could also improve.) I don't think near .700 and a 50 point game is unrealistic. +50 .691 1B: While Lowe ended up at .790, and Romy did well, the rest sucked. Expecting Contreras to his near .790 is about right. +100 .670 2B: I'm going with Romy/DHam here (Mayer at 3B) for now. So much is unknown, I'll call it a push. +0 .736 SS: Story was Buttah! I'll go with some regression due to age and health concerns. .711 seems okay. -25 ,777 3B: Mayer vs Bregman. I'll go conservative on Mayer and say .677 and -100. .781 LF: Anthony over Duran, who I'm putting at DH. .806 and +25 seems more than fair. .774 CF: I'm expecting regression from Rafaela. .749 and -25 .822 RF: I like Abreu's bat. Maybe Anthony plays some RF, when Duran plays LF. I'll go high here and say a push. +0 .823 DH: With Devers, Ref and other sharing time here, I have Duran as our 2026 DH. I think he hits better than 2025 but worse than 2026. That's about .798 and -25. This comes out exactly even, but the positions who should get more PAs are LF (Anthony) 1B (Contreras) and maybe DH (Duran). That might get us to plus. I don't think I'm being a homer on that. SP: Crochet=Crochet Gray > Gio 26 GS/ Houck 9 GS Bello = Bello 28 GS Oviedo > Buehler 22 GS Sandoval/Crawford/Harrison/Tolle/Early =???= Dobbins 11 GS, Fitts 10 GS, DMay+Newcomb 10 GS combined Chapman <= Chapman (likely some regression) Whitlock & Slaten= Whitlock & Slaten 2026 Pen depth< 2025 pen depth

Some context is needed on Vegas. They don't set the odds by actual projections. They set them on striving for half the people betting over and half betting under.

There were serious doubt that even if Story was healthy, could he hit over .700? Could he hit over 20 HRs outside of COL? Could he ever steal 20+ bases again? That part of the concern has improved. The injury part, maybe not. I do feel safe now than last winter on that front, too.

I made a few myself, over the the previous few weeks. I think BTV undervalues Paredes. They have Campbell worth more. Would you swap the two?

When you look at 2004, 2007, 2013 and 2018 vs surrounding seasons, the correlation is stunningly accurate.

One game sample size. Wow!

That type of reasoning could also be used with the idea of DHing Duran over a Masa/Casas/Campbell/Romy mix. Trading Duran for a Lodolo type SP'er would give us a much bigger gain in the rotation than we lose at DH.

I have no idea what they will do. I am on one side: add a big bat and maybe a #2 SP'er. I won't be "okay" with not doing that. If they don't, I'm not right or wrong. If they go half way and add enough to make us slightly better than we are now and than we were in 2025, I'll be happier than I am now, but will still be upset they didn't take advantage of this window, fully. If I knew JH would spend more in the future, I'd be more upset with out lack of spending, but I happen to think he won't, so I'm not going get all torn up over not grossly overpaying for Bregman- knowing our hands would be tied for 5 years- about the length of our window, BTW. I'd be happy with Suarez and a trade like Duran for Lodolo. I think that gets us to top 6.

That is the big block. Also, once we see him healthy, we may decide we want to keep him.

I'm fine with anyone disagreeing. IMO, Casas is one of the worst defensive 1Bman I have ever seen. IMO, the main issue with Devers D at 3B was his arm- not his glove or quickness. His footwork was not great and that is needed at 1B, so I coulda been wrong. We don't know why Cora chose Casas over Devers at 1B. It might not have been about who he thought was better on D. We saw him chose Bogey at SS over Story. His loyalty to his players seems to rule his choices, a lot. IMO, Casas is a china doll. DH'ing him might lessen the chances for injury, and I think (not know) Devers would be better on D at 1B than Casas. Those are my reasons for disagreeing with the choice made. We don't know if Devers would still be here had they done that and not asked for a second position change, later. Maybe- maybe not. It turns out he was okay playing 1B for SF but not BOS. That's not Devers bashing. It's fact, and gets to the root of the issue. You should be happy as there was no "Devers Forevers."

Wrong? Word is does mean not said.

Exactly, word is... Cora's word. Did I say he did ask him? Strawman once again.

Couldn't we start Gray game 1 and Crochet game 2 and win both, then? BTW, Career head to head splits favor the Sox... Career splits: Crochet 2.90 Bello 2.35 (1.89 in '25) Crawford 3.35 Sandoval 3.70 Gray v NYY 4.15 vs BOS Fried 2.37 Cole 5.23 Rodon 4.28

Yes, we'd end up having to trade him anyway. Maybe having to pay more than the Hicks contract costs us. If anything could be undone, I'd undo this: I'd have moved Devers to 1B and Casas to DH after the Bregman signing.

In a vacuum, yes, but in reality, no. I think Devers burned the bridge, and I'm not saying it was all his fault. We needed him at 1B. We might have won it all if he played 1B. He refused to do what the team needed to get way better. I don't fault Brez for trading him. I'd prefer we spent his money to replace him than to have him back. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem like the choice.

You keep fixating on this, and to me those match-ups are very close. I keep wondering why you assume Cole rebounds from injury to pitch like he die 3 years ago (2023) and why Rodon who starts the year on the IL should be viewed in such a glowing light? Gray and Bello both pitched well, last year. I do like Schlitter better than our #4, but we are talking 1-3 starters for the playoffs. Crochet >> Fried Gray = Cole (slight edge to Cole, if he proves he's back) Bello= Rodon (slight edge to Rodon, if we know he'll be back) If we are assuming pitcher return to form, then let's count Sandoval's 3.7 fWAR year in 2022 as in play for our #3 slot over Bello. 3.7 beats any Cole or Rodon fWAR from 2024 to 2025. I'm seeing different criteria being used for Yankee pitchers vs Boston's. Rodon had a 4.53 FIP over his last 20 starts of 2025, but we discount Bello for a "bad second half." Can we go apples to apples, here?

Fangraphs projected: BOS: 3. Crochet 5.6 9. Gray 3.8 75. Bello 2.0 (105 Sandoval 1.6/ 142 Oviedo 1.2) If you add Tolle & Early combined, they project to 1.7 in 142 IP combined. NYY 12. Fried 3.6 62. Rodon 2.2 82. Cole 1.9 (88 Schlitter 1.8/ 122 Warren 1.5) TOR 10. Cease 3.8 38. Gausman 2.8 48. Bieber 2.5 (52 Ponce 2.3/ 69. Yesavage) I'm not saying I agree with these projections, but they do show our 1-3 slots look fine. Our 4-9 look fine, too.

He is known as THE "player's manager" for good reason. Word is, he did not even personally ask Devers to play 1B.

I'd like a better #2 SP'er and have been suggesting it, even after getting Gray, but I like Crochet & Gray more than Cole & Rodon. I like Bello as the #3 more than 20 other team's #3. We may not be great at 4-5, but they are not key for the playoffs. I like our 6-9 (Crawford. Harrison, Tolle & Early) maybe more than 29 other teams. We do have some things to be optimistic about.

Word is the Sox refusal to give a no trade clause was also a factor, but I'm not sure he's have taken $10M less to get that. Thee Cubs gave him the no trade clause. It was also said the Sox deferrals were spread over "decades".

I was more upset losing the bidding on Alonso, but we added a decent 1Bman in Contreras. If we can add Suarez or maybe Paredes, without giving up the world, we should be fine. Adding a good RP helps. Adding a #2 SP'er too, would be buttah.

They will probably still end up getting Bellinger. I heard talk they are shopping Chisolm. I think the Yanks are overrated, but I said the same, last year. BTW, they were in 3rd place for most of AUG. It took a slump by the Sox for them to pass us, but they topped us by 5 games, so it was legit. Pyth had them up 97 wins to 92.

We dropped the ball replacing Devers at the deadline. The ball is still on the ground. The Bregman loss only highlights the need to add some serious O.