moonslav59

Sometimes, a shake-up is all it takes to jump start a team.

If the staff suddenly starts pitching well, one will wonder, but to me, the sample sizes were way to small for anyone (including myself) to say, "I told you so."

I was advocating keeping Leon all winter. I thought we should have traded Swihart. That being said, if we demoted Leon to give Swihart a chance, I don't think we gave him a long enough time to prove himself. My guess is, they saw not improvement on "staff-handling, : and his poor hitting was just too much for them to continue the experiment. I hope Swihart does not get claimed, and he accepts a minor league assignment with us, but I won't be crushed, if he's claimed.

Price does much better with Leon, too, but he has done well without him, so far this year.

A big hefty clean-up hitter.

Will Swihart be claimed?

I'm a big Leon supporter, but I am surprised they made this move this quickly.

Red Sox To Designate Blake Swihart By Jeff Todd | April 16, 2019 at 11:34am CDT The Red Sox are set to designate catcher Blake Swihart for assignment, according to Evan Drellich of WEEI.com (Twitter link). The team’s plans beyond that are not known, but the struggling defending champs have obviously decided upon a change behind the dish. Swihart wasn’t off to an inspirational start at the plate, with a .231/.310/.385 slash, but it seems likely that the move was driven primarily by the club’s broader pitching issues. The Boston staff has been among the worst in all of baseball thus far. While that reflects quite a bit more than Swihart’s performance behind the dish, it seems that the organization feels it has something to gain by switching things up. It stands to reason that Sandy Leon will be brought back onto the MLB roster, though that’s not yet clear. He was stashed down at Triple-A after clearing waivers late in camp. Leon lacks Swihart’s abilities on offense but is lauded for his glovework and game management skills. He had teamed with Christian Vazquez to form a defensive-oriented backstop combination in recent years, but the club opted to give Swihart a run at the position to open the season after utilizing him in a utility role last year.

Yankee 1B OPS: .606. Before the season started, I suggested this might be a weak area on the Yanks. Had you signed Machado and moved Andujar to 1B...

Has Mookie said he prefers leading off?

Not just him.

I like Betts up 2nd.

Greg Bird to IL.

No, you are right, it sucks, but none of your injured players have been lost for the whole season (yet).

I think teams are getting better at identifying the strategies other teams are using against them and adjusting accordingly. That's where having a guy like Leon who can "counter adjust" makes sense.

I agree, but he has done things differently this year, particularly the spring training innings reduction.

I guess I value the Yanks more than you and other Yankee fans do.

So, pitcher-catcher match-ups is a much higher priority than some seem to want to believe.

I'm glad we're playing some top contenders, now. What better time is there to turn things around?

Makes you wonder: if Vaz is the better catcher, and Swihart the better 2Bman, then why flip 'em?

What is this?

Just give up. I'm surprised some defended the guy.

He's certainly been part of the solution, instead of the hoped for comeback. It's early, yet, so let's not give up altogether. He's barely played for a long time. Hopefully, he just needs to shake off the cobwebs.

I've always thought Devers would end up at 1B, but I was willing to give him every opportunity to improve enough at 3B to stay there. It looked like he was getting better as 2018 rolled on, but this is unacceptable. With Pearce & Moreland's contract up after this year, I'd look to try Devers & Chavis at 1B and maybe hope Dalbec can win the 3B job. Otherwise, we'll have to llok for a FA 3Bman next winter.

He's at -2 DRS, now. Pedey is, too.