moonslav59

Ask yourself a few questions.

One encouraging quote from Bloom when asked about the club’s need to add a couple of up-the-middle players, he said it “doesn’t even need to be limited to two.”

They played him in May and early June. After Kike got hurt, he was "in the plans" as the back-up to Kike. Nobody ever heard of Refsnyder at that time. Like it or not, Duran was our 5th OF'er behind Cordero. Arroyo in the OF was an after thought. and a bad one at that. My guess is, most teams expect their 5th OF'er to play during any given season, so yes, he was "in the plans." It was one of your biggest beefs against Bloom was his lack of acquiring OF and 1B depth. Like it or not, Duran was "in the plans." Like you, I hope he is not in the plans, this year, but we no longer have JBJ, Pham or Cordero. Our OF depth, assuming Kike plays SS or 2B is: Yoshida LF Dugo RF (Better in LF) Duvall CF (better in LF) Refsnyder LF/RF (better in LF) Duran LF.CF/RF (better in LF) It's not Arroyo. On opening day, it's not Rafaela. I'm hoping we add a middle IF'er or two, so Kike moves back to OF (or we add another CF'er) and Duran is knocked down the charts, but until that happens, it's fair to mention his name.

He played because he hit pretty well in AAA, and we had no other options. The options are thin, this year, too. Yes, he sucked in 2021 and 2022. He actually hit better in '22 but was asked to play more often, so it only looked like he sucked more. The one area he seems to have some hope in, beyond his speed, is hitting vs RHPs. He has a career 114 OPS+ v R. It's 45 v L. In no way am I trying to argue this is enough for him to get a chance, again, but until we add someone else to the mix, he's on the short depth chart- like it or not. Duvall is not a FT'er. He started 80 games, last year and had a 76 OPS+ v R, last season. Refsnyder bats righty, so hopefully he is the choice every time before Duran, but never say never. BTW, players often suck in their first 300 PAs in MLB. Many never get better or get another chance. A few turn it around. I'm not predicting a turn-around, here, but I'm not si sure the Sox feel he never deserves another look-see.

I don't ever want to see Duran play another inning for the Sox. In no way am I advocating it happen. You may hear things on talk radio, and I read things on MLBTR like... Whether Duvall will play center on an everyday basis or be in more of a timeshare depends on the development of young Jarren Duran, whose meager .221/.283/.363 (78 wRC+) slash line in 2022 was held down by a massive platoon split; Duran slashed just .184/.238/.211 against lefties for Boston, translating to a virtually unplayable 22 wRC+. Against righties, however, he batted a more palatable .229/.293/.398 (91 wRC+). Duvall and Duran manning center would allow Enrique Hernandez to play the infield, helping to cover for the loss of Xander Bogaerts in free agency and Trevor Story to injury. I'm not pulling crap out of my ass. There is a difference between what I want to happen and what may or may not happen. You never seem to get the distinction. I'll spell it out for you. There is close to a zero percent chance Dugo is platooned, but I think it makes sense, in some cases, especially if we end up with Kike back in CF, which looks highly unlikely. There is way more than a zero percent chance Duran gets another chance to prove himself, whether you or me want it to happen or not. Teams don't give up on prospects so easily, at times. I'm not going to project how they feel about Duran, at this point, but as of now, with Kike looking like a sure bet to play SS or 2B, even the Duvall addition leave our OF depth looking very thin, and two of our starters having really bad L-R splits. It's not absurd to think Duran may, at some point, get a chance to play or at least earn a platoon role. It's not like Duvall is a proven FT'er, at this point in his career. We happen to agree on Duran, but somehow you still make it sound like I like the guy.

Well, Duvall sucks vs RHPs and Duran's only decent area is hitting vs righties, so I'd avoid saying "never" when talking about Duran. As for the platoon idea in RF, saying a RF platoon makes more sense than a CF one is just an opinion. It doesn't have to mean it has even a 0.0001% chance of happening. (I know Cora will not platoon Dugo. He never does it, despite the obvious need to do so.) Say it 10,000 times, if it make you feel better.

I hope they don't think a Duvall/Duran Platoon in CF is okay. At this time, I'm still hoping against hope we add a SS (Andrus, Iggy or by trade) AND a 2Bman (Harrison or by trade) and keep Kike in CF. A Duvall/Dugo platoon in RF would make more sense. I know, I know- NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!

Here is the list of OF'ers by innings played since 2020 (25+ innings): Red= Good enough to play CF or RF on D 2916 Verdugo 1385 Kike 1213 Renfroe 1167 JBJ 686 Duran 463 Cordero 419 Pham 351 JD 302 Refsnyder 228 Pillar 147 Santana 124 Schwarber 108 Arroyo 100 Beni 96 Chavis 90 Munoz 65 Almonte 58 Lin 51 Davis 39 Peraza 25 Puello

Yes, I neglected to mention him- another OF'er we have best suited for LF and maybe ONLY LF. Ref started 16 games in RF. That makes 52 starts by back-ups, worse defenders and someone not named Dugo.

B-R has Duvall listed as a LF'er/1Bman, so one can view this signing as yet another head-scratcher, but if he can do okay in CF, I guess things might work out. It seems strange that defense was such a big thing, last winter, that we thought swapping out Renfroe for JBJ was worthwhile, but now we seem to have no problem putting a guy we avoiding putting in RF, like the plague, last year out there FT in 2023. Then, move a GG caliber CF'er to SS and replace him with a LF'er, put a DH-type in LF and call it a winter. That being said, the line-up might look like this, and might not be so bad (on offense): 1. L Yoshida LF 2. R Kike SS 3. L Devers 3B 4. R Turner DH 5. L Casas 1B 6. R Duval CF 7. L Verdugo RF 8. R Arroyo 2B 9. L McGuire C Bench: R Wong C, R Refsnyder OF, R Dalbec 1B/3B, (L Valdez 2B or L Duran OF) My guess is we will add a middle IF'er and Duran & E Valdez will start the year in AAA.

It just further reinforces the idea that Bloom is a great farm builder!

Oh, I worried about them, too. I'm sorry, but defense matters to me. Maybe too much. Maybe too little to you. I know what I saw from Kike in CF, and all the metrics and stats support the idea that he is great on def4ense in CF. It seemed just as easy to add a SS over a sketchy CF'er. I'm trying my hardest to bash Bloom and Cora, but you Bloom brown-nosers are making it hard on me!

He could very easily be better than Renfroe in RF (on D.) Of course, he won't have Renroe's arm, but yes, he supposedly has trimmed down, this off season, so maybe that will help. I know I ranted a lot about the team having 8 left fielders and Kike, last year, but most of my issues about Dugo in RF were about the team being so reluctant about playing him in RF as JBJ was struggling mightily for months and months. I figured, how bad must Sox management feel about Dugo's D in RF to try Arroyo out there and not in LF? How bad must Sox management feel about Dugo's D in RF to try Cordero out there and not in LF? How bad must Sox management feel about Dugo's D in RF to try Duran out there and not in LF? Even Almonte played a game in RF over Dugo. It was only when we traded for Pham that We moved Dugo to RF. GS & Innings in RF 11- 124 Cordero 16- 108 Arroyo 5- 46 Duran 3-24 Ja Davis 1- 8 Almonte 36 starts by these chums! None would be better in LF with Dugo in RF?

I'm on record as being in total disagreement with this plan. It makes zero sense, to me. It's not like no SS are available on the market (FA and trade.) While I do think Kike is a great athlete and may end up doing fine at SS, it's not worth the gamble. I will add one point, before Kike pretty much became our FT CF'er he had only player CF for over 150 innings in a season one time, and that was just 373 innings in 2018.

Can he play it well is another question.

Kike has barely played a half season in innings at SS over his 9 year career. Here are his defensive metrics by position: DRS in innings/ UZR/150 SS: + 9 in 618/+12.3 2B: +18 in 1717/ -5.3 CF: +21 in 2494/+7.8 LF: +15 in 603/+18.0 RF: +3 in 343/+11.9 Maybe he'll do a great job at SS for us. I'm still questioning the idea, but it looks like the plan.

DH and Turner will be on the bench... LOL! (Don't tell notin, this!) Seriously, though, haven't you heard, Dugo will be traded. Book it.

Josh Harrison is being mentioned as a possible Sox addition. He's had some mixed defensive metrics over the last 2 years at 2B, but over his career is at +26 DRS in almost 5000 innings at 2B. He has a -0.7 UZR/150 (-4.4 from 20-21-2022). Gotta like the .343 OBP over his last 650 PAs (2021-2022.)

Rusney Castillo cost us over $70M and Moncada's fee and 100% tax cost us a ton, too, but they were both younger than Yoshida and Dice-K. I get why they consider them "prospects," and they did not play MLB, so that's why they call them that.

They listed Dice-K as a prospects, way back when, too.

I think we see Mayer, this year, too. I do think it's a bit too early to say he is a foundational player, but he sure has that promise.

I'm surprised we didn't add another LF'er.

No. I got the point. I thought we were okay at 1B with a returning Dalbec and his .800+ OPS and Casas near ML ready on the farm. I did not like our RF situation, and did feel like we needed depth there, but Arroyo was an after thought, and Refsnyder was a shocking surprise. We did not have the funds to fill all the open slots, especially depth slots, and I was happy we finally went for some quality over quantity with the Story signing, although I did "scratch my head" over the position choice, at the time. I've never claimed Bloom made all good choices, despite what a certain poster likes to believe. I hated the JBJ deal from day one- even before we got him back. You don't have to ask me how that worked out. It worked like I expected it to work.

Except Bogey.

I still think this team is significantly better than 2022's team, even with Story out, all year, but better than last place does not mean greatness. We need a lot to go right to be a fun year, but we have so many legitimate hopefuls than we don't need all of them to happen, to have a nice season. Nice being making the playoffs.