moonslav59

Indeed, and he seems to be carrying over those same qualities you mentioned as a GM, too.

The "Me" and the "Meat" (of the lineup)

Agreed. I think it was the plan, all along- to ease him into FT play. Anthony started off slowly, but it was also the result of some bad luck on hard hit balls. He needs to play FT, NOW! I'm fine with Yoshida being benched, but Cora and maybe Brez are not. I'm not a Masa hater. I think he can hit .800. I just think all the others can, too.

Yes, indeed. Rafaela in CF is a no brainer, The data shows he is farsuperior. Abreu is a fantastic defender in an extremely difficult Fenway RF. He barely gets a chance to hit lefties, unless as RP'ers. He still needs to prove he can hit them to become a FT'er, but it's not like Duran has done well vs lefties in a far larger sample size. He's looked better than Abreu v L, but got worse, this year as Abreu seems to be improving. Since we have Ref, Abreu's weak area is covered, and it's not like we'd cut or bench Ref, if Anthony caused Abreu to be traded away. To me, vs RHPs: Abreu is our best OF'er (O+D) Duran is second and Rafaela looks 3rd, right now, but Anthony needs to be playing FT. I have no idea who to sit to get Anthony playing v R, but it's not Abreu. vs LHPs, assuming Ref DHs vs lefties... Rafaela is probably our best, followed by Anthony, then Duran slightly over the better defender in Abreu. When you consider we face RHPs about 70%, this looks like a very close call, all around, with Anthony's ceiling carrying a lot of weight. Tough call, but someone needs to go, if Yoshida-Ref DH.

Here are some numbers to ponder: DSL (small sample sizes) 1.154 Josue Brito .875 Dorian Soto .871 Franklin Primera 0.00 Wascar Berroa (9IP) FCL .963 Alexander Mambel .837 Anderson Fermin 1.20 ERA Jose Bello (8IP), Jackson Gamboa 1.26 (14 IP), 1.57 Cordero (23 IP)

Agree 100%, but I'll add, it's more ludicous to have Mayer on the 26 and riding the Bench, probably close to the same level if just vs LHPs (30% missed starts.)

I'm as guilty as anybody on that. "One game at a time!"

Seriously? I bet Albert Belle and Reggie Jackson teammates said the same thing. My point is about not hearing many quotes, not one quote from a guy like Duran.

Where is the "repeatedly" coming from? As far as I know, Bloom promised him once- maybe more. Cora rarely says things like, "That was the last guy" who said that, so I assume Cora and Brez never promised Devers 3B. Those are his two major bosses. No promises. No promises broken. You keep saying this over and over. It's not a lie or broken promise.

It's not clear with me. My point all along, in general is that I and nobody know jack about almost everything. I have no idea what the players feel and many other points argued, here. I do feel like when a big star is traded from a competitive team, I'm used to hearing more. I may be thinking it shows something not very supportive of Devers, but I will readily admit, I have no idea how many or some feel. I bet they miss his bat.

Masa and Ref are okay in LF and not net (O+D) negatives as a platoon. Buehler is proven to suck. Fitts is proven to be unproven, too. Are we sure Gio is going to stay like this? We can roll the dice on Sandoval, Houck and Fitts or roll the dice that after we trade an OF'er, another does not get hurt. Again, I'm not for trading any OF'er for even the best rental SP'er. I want to improve our rotation for 2025 and beyond, which would also add depth to the rotation. We have spent years building up our everyday player roster and farm. We lack depth at Catcher and corner IF, unless you count on Casas & Toro. Gonzales is too far away. Jordan is too unknown. We now look okay at MI, even if KC never plays another MLB game at 2B, again. We look extra strong at OF AND extra deep. for years, we've been saying, "keep drafting better odds everyday players, so we can trade some, when we need pitching." I still feel this way.

Throwing "IT ALL" away? LOL. BTW, you do know that adding a Joe Ryan type would add depth to the rotation, as a Fitts or Crawford would move down a notch into the 6th or 7th rotation slot. We have depth 3-4 deep at some slots, and if some don't pan out or some vets get hurt, we'll still 1-2 deep. It's nice to have 2-3 deep, but when you have a guy like Buehler pitching every 5 days, and a back to earth Toro playing a bunch, we could use some more quality, at the expense of a fraction of the quantity or depth. OF: Duran, Rafaela, Abreu Campbell, Garcia, Anthony Yoshida & Refsnyder (emergency) That's 8 guys with one DH'ing every game. If you count Arias as depth, so is Garcia, if not more MLB ready so. I love depth. I love a legit 4/5 SP'er more. We could also use a solid pen arm. Talk about lack of depth. We have depth there, but most are sub mediocre or borderline.

I'm fully aware of all this. (My offer was Cespedes, Jordan & Mullins, and I did not say for Gallen. My point was we could make better offers than the ones we made for Luis Garcia, Lucas Sims and Schwarber-Nate, without losing a top 10-12 prospect. I'm okay with going large on these kind of deals, even if for a rental. I'm not for making all 3 of my suggested groupings for 3 rentals. We don't even have roster room for 3, unless one if fo the unlikely back-up catcher.

We won't be winning 20 straight.

Yes, either "This is what should be expected when you play weak teams" and the ugly sister, "Wait til we play good teams."

Sounds kinda flattering, but also kind of a read between the lines kinda thing to say. Duran's quotes can't be taken at face value, IMO. Are there several quotes of players saying they were shocked? Why is the team selling? Bitching at the GM for trading a star? These things happen in many cases like this. I didn't hear much, this time.

There is not need for rewriting history to support the idea that trading Devers was or may have been the right move. Devers was a top 15 hitter in MLB, IMO- last 2-3-4-5 years, whatever you pick and almost any stat of choice. He's a career .855 batter. His .747 split v L if a very respectable for a L v L and .906 vs the bigger split is awesome. His Home v Away splits are just 45 points apart. His AUG (.759) and SEP (.798) OPS were concerning, but the guy played injured, when we needed him to play. I'm not a believer in "clutch" as a skill but consider his career OPS is .855, and... 893 RISP (.881 2 outs and RISP) .872 Men On Base .851 High Leverage (.820 Low Leverage) .880 v NYY

Any trade is a big risk. Keeping players is risky, too. We shoulda traded Dalbec after '21. Some say, we shoulda traded Duran after '24. We might have gotten something for DHam after '24. We coulda traded Houck and Crawford. I'm not against great depth. I love it! To me, it's simple: the step down from Duran or Abreu to Anthony is was less than the step up some other team gets by acquiring one. They have much higher value to another team. They have something we value more: a pitcher with more than 2-3 months of control. Maybe, I'm too high on Campbell, Jh Garcia and Masa-Ref as the new OF depth, but to me, it's a risk worth taking. I'd much prefer this to trading Arias or Garcia plus Clarke or Valera for a top rental SP'er. (That might not even be enough to get it done. We might have to trade 3 or add Early/Sandlin/Romero types)

That's not all that goes into making someone a better hitter. Power and BB% matter, too. Yes, I agree Masa is a better contact hitter. You did not qualify your statement, at first. As an offensive weapon, I'll take Duran & his speed and more power over Masas. I'll take the Abreu-Ref platoon easily over Masa FT or even a Masa-Ref platoon. They are better overall hitters and offer other offensive skills beyond just pure batting skills.

How is keeping Duran or Abreu helping 3B depth issues? I get the line-up issues, but we need pitching. That's a known. Injuries are unknown, and we still have decent OF depth and line up depth, if we lose an OF'er. We can't play 6 guys in 4 slots. It's more like 5, if you count Abreu & Ref as one, but we also have Campbell & Jh Garcia as OF depth. If it gets real bad, we can put Yoshida-Ref in LF and DH an IF'er- maybe the "hobbling" Bregman, so his bat stays fresh and healthy. We still have plus depth, even after trading an OF'er.

We have a massive gap, right now. It's known and ugly. If we do lose a key player to injury, we'd get back down to even. Plus, assume we trade Abreu and play Anthony FT in RF and platoon Yoshida & Ref at DH. Now, another OF'er gets hurt for the season: lets say Duran. Our OF would be: LF KC or Garcia/Refsnyder (Romy platoons at DH with Yoshida or Masa goes FT DH) CF Rafaela RF Anthony We still have a decent OF AND a Joe Ryan type. Now, assume no trade, and Duran gets hurt: We'd have a better OF with Abreu instead of KC or Garcia, but we'd still have Buehler as our #5 and an iffy Fitts as our #4. I'll take Joe Ryan and hope we extend him like we did with Crochet.

So does Duran, since 2023.

A bigger NOPE on Merrill Kelly, if we have to trade a top prospect for the soon to be 37 year old rental. I'm not for trusting it on 3 rehab guys, either. I'm for going bigger and bolder for someone as good or better than Kelly, but with more control years. Duran or Abreu plus maybe Arias or Romero and 1-2 prospects below #10 or 11 in our rankings. Maybe involve a thirst team, but get it done!

I think we do just that. No big prospects traded, unless it's for a Joe Ryan type non rental. I think we should trade an OF'er, but I'm not sure that's even a 50-50 bet. It's probably not likely.

Yup. It's a brutal stretch. We did hear this about the TBR series, prior to game one, too.