moonslav59

The Bregman signing was absolutely the right thing to do. We needed a big RH'd bat for years. We needed to make a major step at improving our defense, and our corner IF slots have been the very worst on D for several years running. No doubt, we should have handled the situation better. We had our manager saying Bregman would be a great 2Bman. We had our 3Bman clinging to the idea he was a plus defender at 3B and was promised by the old regime he "was the 3Bman." While I don't blame management for thinking and expecting a player to do what is best for the team, they have to anticipate that all players may not agree with your view on what is best, and once the saw pushback, they should have handled it better. Maybe Devers was so set in his ways, that nothing would have worked, but the reports are that Cora never even asked him to play 1B. That exposes some serious dysfunction at best or insubordination by Cora and or Devers at worst. I've aways felt Devers could become a better defender at 1B than Casas, who sucks at D. Getting Bregman should have made his move to 1B or a DH/1B share with Casas the plan. At worst, they should have told Devers we want him to be the DH, but that 1B is on the table, and he should start practicing 1B, even before Casas got hurt. This is not hindsight babbling on my part. I've been saying this for years. Brez, Cora and the FO dropped the ball, no doubt, but that does not take Devers off the hook. It was clear he was being belligerent and was not willing to do what was best for the team. Those Oakland and Yankee players involved in feuds were the opposite, IMO. They would give anything to win and do anything to make their team better, even with their massive egos.

Those Yankee dugouts and clubhouses had some serious issues, at times, too. The Reggie Jackson-Billy Martin feud was on public display, It's not all about just clubhouse feuds. Reggie was pissed, because Billy yanked him in the middle of an inning. Reggie was not complaining about being forced to play where he did not want to play. He was bitching because he was being told not to play (for part of a game.) Big difference. Yes, Reggie dogged it, at times, and that was not a "good example" to set. Oh, and by the way, the Yanks let Reggie walk just 2 years removed from two .900+ OPS seasons and right before he hit .907 and led the league in HRs for his new team, the following season (1982.) I hate that we traded Devers. I hoped he was a Red Sox forevers not a Giant forevers. I'm not upset we traded him. I will be, if we sit back and do nothing to even try to replace what we just lost.

You never said this until he was traded. Had Devers gladly moved to DH and asked to play 1B, when Casas went down injured, I think he'd still be here. Maybe, he'd eventually be traded, as they viewed $31M AAV as too much for a DH/1Bman, but I seriously doubt the plan was to trade Devers. They'd have done that, last winter, before all the drama brought down his return value.

Houck does not have the clout fo cause a shitstorm. He may not like it. If he goes public with his dislike, maybe he'll be traded, too. If he can regain his form, he will earn back the rotation slot. The lowest bar, currently, is Buehler. it's not hard to do better than him. By the time Houck gets ramped back up, and assuming he is doing well in rehab, a few weeks from now, maybe a slot opens up. If not, he will get a shot at the pen- likely in long relief, where he can still work his way back to the rotation, by showing he deserves it. I have zero concern over any Houck drama. I think Sandoval will have a better claim to a rotation slot than Houck, assuming all goes well with him.

Max, I do not think Devers was gone the minute we signed Devers. It happened after Devers failed to do what is expected of every player. I do not want Yoshida as our DH or platoon with Refsnyder or Romy DH. It may end up being the best plan, but this is a long way away. We need a bat, now. For now, I'd like to see Duran at DH v R and LF v L and Ref or Romy at DH v L. Anthony can DH some, v R, too. When Bregman returns, maybe an infielder gets cycled into the DH, as well.

Our rotation has missed a lot of starts: 16 Crawford & Sandoval (Murphy was deep end depth) 9-10 Fitts (not due to injury) 7-8 Houck 5-6 Dobbins (not due to injury) 3-4 Bello & Buehler This pales to what the Astros can say, but it's still a lot.

It wasn't really even a full half season in '24. It was about 2 months. (4/25>6/64) .844 for 42 games. (132 PAs) .553 in the 36 PAs beforehand. .602 in 149 PAs afterwards - a larger sample size than his "good stretch."

None of these guys have even the hope Jeter Downs had, but I hope we get something out of the prospects or Harrison can give us what Verdugo did.

He not only failed to step up as a good teammate would do, but he stepped downwards.

This is not an easy injury to come back from. We may be more than a month or even 6 weeks away from joining the Sox.

The Braves lost the WC series 2-0 to SDP, without Sale.

I can't disagree, and if the plan was to spend and trade for pitching, Bloom failed at that, too, mostly. He did get Whitlock via Rule 5, traded scraps for Pivetta and did sing Wacha, Strahm, Jansen and Martin, but the list of failures was 3-4 times longer. I will add that we heard the same thing about DD's farm building, while he was trading away many of the higher ranked everyday players, but we ended up getting some value from the Houck's, Crawford's and Bello's of his underrated farm pitching staffs. I kinda feel like guys like Dobbins may end up redeeming some of Bloom's legacy on pitching. Key word: "some." Others, like Early, Valera, Paez, Monegro, Guerrero, Mullins, Uberstine, Reyes and others will do what some of DD's hidden gems ended up doing. Brez may end up getting more of the credit for "developing them." IMO< we turned the corner on farm pitching. We've spent more on signing bonuses on drafted and IFA pitchers, since Brez took over. We drafted more pitching, and Brez has been trading for young pitchers, too. I'm not just talking about Crochet, either: he traded for Sandlin, Fitts, Weissert, Fajardo, Holobetz, Judice and J Bello. (I'm probably forgetting some, and he's just been here 2 years!_

I'm not hearing many glowing accounts of how he impacted other teammates play. Not hearing many "We will miss him," either. After Manny was shown the door, we did hear some grumblings, but I'm not sure how long it took for them to come out. It does nobody any good to talk badly about Devers, now. I get how hearing nothing is not evidence he was a bad influence on our younger players, but I sure hear a lot about what great influences guys like Bregman are from players' mouths. How can watching your star player dogging it not be a bad influence in the clubhouse? How can reading how your star player is upset being "asked to play e very position," when everyone knows he was only asked to play 1B- something very common for ex-3Bmen NOT be a negative influence on the clubhouse- spoken or unspoken?

I'm fine with people being optimistic or throwing more blame on Devers than Brez and the FO, but trying to minimize his influence on our offense or overhyping his "slump" since Bregman got hurt is unnecessary at best and revisionist history at worst. Besides, that so-called slump saw him hit .739 (still above the league OPS) over just a small 21 game sample size. We don't need to knock down what Devers did for our offense to have hope we can still compete. We need tor recognize it and do something about it. Pretending it is not a factor and criticizing the very thing Devers was great at is just what Brez & Co wants fans to feel and do. We lost our best bat over the last 7-8 years. There is no sugarcoating that fact. I'm fine with thinking maybe the kids and some vets can and will step it up: just don't downsize what Devers meant to our offense.

It's only been 12 games, but he's hit .912 over the past 2 weeks, so I think he's got some slack on his leash. .794 last 84 PAs and 21 games. I'm not sure he can even hit .700 the rest of the way, but to me, with the league OPS at .714, I'm thinking .650 to .675 is sustainable, as long as his D stays plus.

I can see this point, and I do feel like the rest of 2025, for sure. He is getting older, and showed some regression on D, earlier this season. Maybe it was just shaking off the cobwebs, and he'll continue doing a fabulous job on D at SS for the remainder of his time, here, but he could decline by enough to warrant a swap with Mayer, who should get better, over time. The thing about Story is, I doubt he bitches and moans about it, if it ends up happening. I also think Cora is not the guy to want to move a vet off position, as we have seen, recently- up close and personal.

Very well said, as always. I'm wondering how he will enact those feelings, once he becomes our GM.

Yes. He's been better than Campbell, at the major league level is all we were saying. 2025 and career. Better bat, better glove and better running. Nobody said he should be our FT 2Bman forever- just that he looks like a better option than Campbell, for now. The added point about Campbell needing to play FT just solidifies the point. I'd rather have Romy at 2B, but he's needed at 1B. Also, Romy's numbers vs RHPs are no better than DHam's, so he'd just platoon, there if we could. Oue 2B situation sucks, once again. We are talking about choosing who sucks the least, and not who has the better looking extended future.

As a fan, what's wrong with showing some love to a player who had a nice game? Nobody was using that one game as an argument that DHam was a good or even decent everyday player. The fact is, he's done better than Campbell over the last two months- better OPS, better defense- better baserunning. Campbell did great for the two weeks before that. I'll still bet on Campbell to end up being the better player. I've not heard a single person say otherwise or even hint at it. We made our point, and the next game DHam helped us win. We brought it up in joyous fashion with may a little too much "'in your face" pizazz, but one has to be able to see that as doing exactly what TYPM does with nearly every post.

I fully understand that the $12M paid to Hicks over 2026 and 2017 was to lessen the cost of Devers by a slight amount. I can understand people thinking he is a total salary dump-type player, barely worth mim wage. When looking at his recent tow year numbers, there is nothing that gives evidence otherwise. That being said, I have so little faith in Kelly and to a lesser extent Guerrero and others used in our 7-8 pen slots, that I do have some hope he could do well in those slots. I'm not sure it's "more faith," but having another option gives me some hope. I have more faith in Harrison.

I have a question for you, Max, and you know I like and respect you: If you think Devers did worse, because Bregman got hurt, why wouldn't you also think Devers' loss will bring down Bregman's numbers, too? (When he returns and no longer had Devers in front of him, and the decent hitter protecting him behind him is now batting second.)

The Deversless lineup still has talent and hope. My position is it got worse and wasn't great before. I like our pitching and D, but don't want to put undo pressure on them to be at their very best, a;most nightly. I think we have some secondary prospects that are blocked and good enough to get us help with the line-up and maybe another decent SP'er, if one has not stepped up in the next 5 weeks.

It's not "hating" on a player to say he "sucks SO FAR." Far tamer than words I've heard about KC's teammate and Red Sox player DHam.

D-E-V-O Like the band.

I don't equate the 80 point drop to no Bregman. Devers hit fine without Bregman for years. It could just have been a mini-slump, and again, it wasn't like he hit even .700 in that time. Bregman's return will help, but our O was not great, even when we had Breg & Devers.