moonslav59

I'm fine with your opinion, and it has merit. My position as merit, too, and it does not matter if Cora agrees with it or not. I mean, it matters, because that's who counts, but in the realm of ideas, it matters not. It doesn't change the fact that thinking Devers would be better at 1B than the worst defensive 1Bman in my memory is not unreasonable. For all we know, Cora might agree Devers would likely be better on D, just as he might agree Story is better at SS than Bogey, but he has and had his own reasons for choosing not to. That does not invalidate my opinion or make it meritless. I wasn't predicting Cora would do it. I was suggesting it be done.

That must be painful for you to say... LOL! 🤣

Maybe we'd have had him with the no trade clause. I'm glad we didn't give it to him and he's with the Cubs. I pretty sure JH woulda just limited the budget for 5 years had we signed him.

Yes, probably or certainly so. Not maybe so. This all has nothing to do with my opinion having merit, just as yours does. I'm not sure why you obsess with trying to say I'm wrong on everything, even when I say word is Cora did not ask Devers to play 1B. I'm just giving my opinion on Devers probably being a better 1Bman than Casas. It's not some earth-shattering or absurd position.

We don't need to have a plus or minus opinion on something as small of a sample size as this.

But I told you I did.

I just mentioned SFG thought playing 1B made sense and he agreed to for them, not BOS.

At this point, if we added a bat like Suarez, I'd trade Duran straight up for Lodolo. Maybe force them to take Hicks at half price or Masa at 1/3rd price. CIN is not a big spender.

I said i saw the interview. I need to spell it out for you? Talk about overanalyzing.

Huh? Devers was our DH not 3Bman.

I'm not ever holding one bad game against anyone. I just remain indifferent on Bello in big games.

The weird thing about 2025 was that Bello & Gio were not our original 2 & 3. Houck and Buehler were.

I only mention Lodolo or the like, because I know CIN ha surplus SP'ers and a great need to improve their offense, plus an OF need. BTV agrees that Duran for Lodolo is an overpay. Maybe we can get a prospect or RP'er added in- maybe not. Maybe BTV overrates Duran. I'd do the trade straight up. We might need a third team, but I'd give Duran and Crawford for Ryan. BTV calls that a Sox overpay, too. There are other trade matches we may not even know about. Brez might like some pitcher I don't care for or don't even know about or think is available. I'm not high on Alcantara or Gore, and I would not give Duran for either one. Maybe we trade Campbell for Keller (3 yrs and not real cheap but not expensive either) or Singer (one year). I doubt he gets us even the one year Bubic. Pablo Lopez ahs health concerns. Luis Castillo is costly and aging. Would SEA take Campbell and Hicks for him? How about Duran and Masa? We could maybe afford Suarez by doing that one. I'm sure there are double these opportunities out there. That doesn't mean I'm confident we do one.

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."