moonslav59

Too many grounders to 2B- maybe too many DPs. Masa at leadoff?

Exactly, and that's why when posters say Neto was not realistic, I'm thinking we coulda and maybe shoulda overpaid for him. Same with KMarte or Hoerner. Other suggested trade options don't look great, right now.

I'm fine with Suarez as the major FA signing. I agree, the FA class was kinda bare, at least for our high need areas. We made a ton of trades. I think with the Suarez signing, maybe we could have not traded for Gray and or Oviedo, but look how we are already calling up Rivera from the bottom of the rotation depth chart, and it's just April. I guess we had more major needs than I thought. We can argue specifics all day, but in general, we should have concentrated our trade focus on bigger bats, and the infield was the only area to make infusions/replacements. Paredes seems like the easiest guy to mention, but we could have overpaid for some others. I'm not sure how realistic Neto or Marte were, but we saw what BLowe and Donovan went for. Okamoto, U Suarez & Polanco all had big question marks as FA additions, but the IKF addition dis nothing for the offense, except make it worse.

It does seem that misinformation keeps getting repeated, despite corrections being given. As bad as Duran has looked, I'd give 5 years for 2 of Paredes, right now.

I was deadset against Bichette and did not want Bregman at even what we offered. My FA choices mostly have sucked, so far, too, so I can't brag about that. Trades were our best options. Hindsight: B Lowe (Donovan just went on the IL.)

Yes, and similar budget costs.

I guess you just needed some prodding.

Talk about unrealistic.

If you think Mayer + Tolle was unrealistic, then yes.

They have fewer promising choices at SS, 3B and 2B than OF/DH.

Beating the Spankees has added importance. Just get it done!

The asking was probably starting with Mayer and Tolle. Maybe add the prospects we could have gotten for Duran? (Or the ones we gave for Durbin or Oviedo?)

So, let it ride? since there are no listed changes by you.

That was another downside to trading Mayer, but had we gotten KMarte, I'd feel a lot better about the offense. Mayer plus for Neto might have been the best target.

The thing about trading Mayer for someone like KMarte was that we'd still need another trade for an infielder- in theory. I'd have traded Mayer + Phillips + more for KMarte.

There has long been talk of promoting him to upper management. Managing on the field is a different job than being in upper management, I'm not saying I want him promoted- just that he might be.

I'd start by moving Mayer to SS and Story to 2B. I'd move Anthony to 5th or 6th and try someone else at the 1 slot (not Duran.) I'd play Wong more than Narvaez, which might already be happening. Forget making a major trade, now. Those are too rare to even think about. I doubt Gasper, Cheng or Delay, 3 guys off to nice starts with Woo, would add any spark to the line-up, but maybe try one? I guess we need to let it ride. I'm the closest I've ever been on the idea of replacing Cora as the manager. (Note: I did not say fire him, as I think they might promote him and add yet one more higher up to the already over-loaded mix of talking heads.) I'd try shaking the line-up up. Call Morgan Magic for some ideas.

Ideally, we keep em all and add a power bat to the infield via free agency, but we all know that was a pipe dream. It made more sense to trade Duran, perhaps for prospects, and trade for a bigger infield bat than Durbin. Yes, easier said than done. I get it. Everyone wanted Abreu not Duran. I get it. I suggested trading Rafaela a few times, too. Maybe trading Mayer was the better idea.

It's 5 into 4, counting DH, but it doesn't help, yes. I'd love nothing more than to give Duran every chance to battle back and come close to what he did in 2024 or even 2025, but the whole team is struggling and we have more options replacing a struggling OF bat than the infield ones. IKF is not a better bat than any infielder struggling. Monasterio might be, but that's a reach. Romy is on the 60. We've also been playing Wong more than planned, so Narvaez joins Duran as a guy sitting more than expected. Yes, the sample sizes are very small, but I can't blame Cora for trying different players and line-up combos. If he didn't we'd be roasting him for not benching slumping players. While I'm usually for playing the "hot hands," we don't have many of those. I often post stats, but never have suggested that recent stats predict near future results and should be the only factor in selecting who plays and where they bat. That being said, here are even smaller sample sizes, as these are the splits vs R & Ls: .832 Yoshida vs RHPs: (under 20 PAs noted) 1.108 Wong (Has had reverse splits over career) .837 Contreras (FT) .832 Yoshida (should start vs all RHPs) .830 Abreu (FT) .790 Monasterio (17 PAs) .666 Anthony (FT) .661 IKF (16 PAs) .633 Rafaela (FT) .563 Mayer (The next 3 infielders have all sucked about equally v R) ,552 Durbin ,537 Story .515 Duran .414 Narvaez (lost the FT job) v LHPs (under 15 PAs noted) 1.167 Rafaela 1.100 Narvaez (10 PAs) 1.000 Mayer (5 PAs) .901 Willson .730 Anthony .724 Yoshida (FT?) .697 Abreu .514 Story .393 Duran (platoon) .298 Monasterio (14 PAs) .182 IKF (11)

He was playing everyday, until he sucked.

I still think Duran has a better chance or having a good rest of season than others on the team, but we have to look at positions. Right now, Yoshida, Abreu and Rafaela all deserve to play over Duran. Anthony is struggling but ir hovering around .700. His upside seems near limitless. To those who say play Duran FT, and let him work his way out of it, please justify the benching of Abreu, Rafaela, Yoshida or Anthony, instead. Again, we come back to the roster construction issue. Those who claimed we should not have traded an OF'er can point and say, see, we need 4, in case someone got hurt or sucked. Right now, Duran=suck. Those who claimed we should have traded an OF'er almost all chose Duran as the one to trade. It seems both sides can claim they were right.

Rivera was promoted to BOS to take Gray's slot. Anderson demoted to AAA and Samaniego brought back up. Yesterday, Bastardo was added to the Woo roster, along with Sansone Johanfran Garcia promoted from GRE to POR. Allmer went from POR to GRE, and Galvan from GRE to SAL. Waiting for word on who gets DFA'd (Watson?) or placed on the 60 Day IL (Casas, Crawford or Sandoval?) to make room on the 40 for Rivera.

Current IL 60 Day: Houck, Romy & Oviedo 15 Day: Crawford & Sandoval (to 60?) Gray, Uberstine & Slaten 10 Day: Casas (to 60?)

Man, what are you doin' here!

I didn't say Duran doesn't deserve to play. Aren't you the one who says what are you doing now is all that matters?