moonslav59

The range of a fielder is very significant and varies greatly from the best to the worst. Of course, the pitcher matters and how many balls are hit towards the player or near enough to him, where it could be fielded. The difficulty of the play matters, both in how hard it was hit and how far away from the defender it was hit. Bad hops matter, too. We all try to measure that when watching some defenders make far -ranged plays, while others never seem to make any. I guess you assume every fielder gets to the exact same type of plays, or the difference is so minimal, it hardly counts. To me, that is so wrong, it blows my mind someone can watch baseball and not see the variances in every game. Yes, metrics are not perfect in measuring the variances or plays made and not made, and neither is the eye test, but I've never met a single baseball fan that use the eye test and say, the variances in range is so minimal, it should not be considered, let alone that a .995 Fldg % vs a .985 Flg%, which is the range of almost every defender in MLB is somehow more important. We are talking about a handful (maybe 2) of plays made out of a thousand, which is maybe 2-5 years worth of plays, is what you use to say player A is better than player B.

Batting second is often after the 8 or 9 slot batters made an out and did not get on base. The 4 slot hitter almost always gets more RBI chances. That is not some wild position to hold. I've also said I'd be fine with Devers staying 2nd and move Bregman to 4th. My main beef is with using the 3 slot for one of our best 2 hitters, and even that beef is over something very minimal. It hardly matters. I'm trying to think of ways to improve our 4 slot, and the point was made while assuming Anthony would be joining the line-up. I guess batting him 4th is okay with Abreu/Ref up 5th, but I'd prefer Devers, and if not him, Bregman. You can doubt all you want about RBI totals, but I'm thinking he'd have more with Bregman in front of him. (Anthony, too.)

Early was a bit wild, today, but he still one hit the opps over 5 IP. Zero ERs, 4BB & 7 K. He now has a 1.55 ERA.

I expect Jordan to follow the Binelas foot steps in a year or two.

Maybe Bello just needs some of ERod's luck (and run support.) Too many pitches to just get through 4 IP.

700 plays in not an outlier. 909 might be. Plus, my point wasn't about 700; it was about 100-150 more plays than other SSs. Make it 600 vs 450-500. Also, I mentioned the serious flaws with RF/9 and wht that went to the curb after Fldg% did. It's about how many playable balls are hit at someone, and how many player A makes vs player B, and the difficulty factor involved. It's about statues vs real defensive players.

It's not a demotion to bat 4th. It's not about punishing him. It's about giving him more RBI chances. I've also said, this is not a major issue, and line-up changes have minimal impact, but thanks for the angel hair comments.

Top MLB OPS (50+ PAs) 1.253 I Herrera 1.229 Judge 1.087 Freeman 1.053 Ohtani 1.005 C Kelly .985 Refsnyder .972 Devers (4th among qualified played) .963 Schwarber (Ole Matthew Lugo is at .961 in 33 PAs) 14. Bregman .938 (10th Qualified) 56. Abreu .847 (33rd)

You brought up the extra AB thing, not me. Just following your logic to the end. (I don't want Devers 1st.)

I've said my choice 5 times. You talk telling me about the extra year rule 5 times. Here's 6: L Duran R Bregman L Anthony L Devers R/L Refsnyder/Abreu Who knows, after the top 5.

LOL. Maybe we should not "tinker" by adding a solid 4 slot batter, or else we'll mess up Bregs.

Scrub-like 1bmen are sometimes the first to be traded, but I doubt we find anyone much better than Campbell, Ryan Noda, Grandal or Romy-Toro-Sogard-Wong. Maybe, we should have kept Gasper or tried to sub someone else for Meidroth in the Crochet trade.

The only guys out there will be like 2024's Cooper and Smith. We got kinda lucky with Smith, so maye we can't count on that to continue. Hey, we already traded for a 1Bman,

Then make him leadoff, where at the very least he gets 1 less PA.

Wow, you don't care about what happens over the next 100+ games. Like many, here, you seem to assume what happened in the last 50 games will repeat itself going forward. If that is true, then you are fine with ending the season .500, since no changes should be made.

The 4 slot has had 5 or 6 batters, so I'm not sure how many PAs it has gotten with Men on base. Maybe it's more, since Bregman gets on base, a lot and does not homer as much as Devers.

I don't have the slot numbers for 2025, but a 50 game sample size does not represent the truth, nor what will happen over the next 100+ games. Yes, bregman has come up 117 times with men on base and has less RBIs (26) than Devers with 104 PAs (32), so thanks once again for giving evidence to support my suggestion. I see 23 RBI from our 4 slot, and I know, they have had a lot of RBI chances, but hey, let's not even try to fix it, because 2 & 3 are doing well. Got it. Brilliant. I fully realize trying to fix #4 would lessen the effectiveness or #3, but I'm going with the studies that show #4 gets more RBI chances than #3, over the long run. Again, this is not a major issue, normally, but when our #4 slot ha ssucked, so badly, and guys like these have sucked, who else can we use? Abreu .476 OPS in 69 PAs Casas .551 OPS in 53 PAs (out for season) Story .687 in 43 (in an awful slump) Campbell .304 in 40 (YUCK!) Refsnyder .599 (short-sided platoon) What's your suggestion? It might be nice to give some, instead of just criticizing others for theirs.

You may not like it, but Cora's replacement might be more about sabermetrics than Cora is. To quote you, "Like I've said before..." BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR!" 🤪

People think Cora is all about sabermetrics, yet he stuck with the worst defensive corner IF'ers for years, and does not follow a lot of modern philosophies. I don't think OBP has gone out of style with "saber," yet it seems like many "modern" GMs no longer value it as much.

Good point. #4 won't get as many RBIs, if #1 is not getting on base. Duran's paltry .313 OBP is a major issue, and way more impactful than Devers or Bregman not batting 4th. It's been .354 over his last 11 games, so maybe that will change. Devers has the team's best OBP, but I don't see him as the best #1.

It's "robotic" to trust science and data? I see it as the opposite. Not trusting data is robotically following stale ideas. You still can't understand the position that someone can disagree with someone on a few things and still like them. How "robotic" to see things only in black and white. I know that Cora has access to way more information than I do, including what players might be hurt or having issues. He might have reasons for doing something I was against, that had I known, I'd think differently, so I don't automatically assume, that if he doesn't do what I suggest, he's wrong. I know that "wrong" choices sometimes, work out, too, so judging afterwards is complicated, as well. Some of the ideas I put out there are just possible solutions. At times, I give multiple options that may contradict each other. At times, I'm not even for some of the suggested solutions I state, and I try to say so, at the time. I also realize I am not right all the time. So, if someone disagrees, I don't always think they are have to be "wrong." If it's a minor issue that I know has little impact, it won't be enough to sway my overall position. It's not a complex concept to grasp, but you seem to have trouble understanding it. I'm okay with Devers 2nd. He's a top 2 batter. I can see the benefit of batting them back-to-back, although Bregman getting up after a Devers HR is not ideal. The 3 slot is still very important, so batting Bregman 3 is not a choice I am willing to die on the hill over, and say I dislike Cora over it.

Why do you see moving them as thinking they are the "problem?" Moving them to fix a problem with the all important (or #2 all important) 4 slot is a possible solution. All-in-all, it will not likely matter.

We do think about it, and I used to think the 3 slot was the most important. If your two higher OBP guys are up 1-2, more often than not, a guy will get on base in the first inning. After that, it's all about even, except for the more PA thing, I trust the studies done on line-up, and they all say, the slot differentials are minimal or extremely minimal, so it's not something that is a big impact choice, but the studies do show the 4 slot gets more RBI opportunities than the 3 slot. (I think even 5 gets more than 3, but it might be tied.) Of course the 1 & 2 slots are vital. I see 1 as being maybe more important than 4, but only for OBP. The numbers show 2 & 4 are the top 2 slots. I'll defer to science, until science shows something changed.

I'm fine with that and can still like Cora, a lot. Our offense is not scoring the runs it should with their OPS and wRC+. I look for reasons why and suggest some possible solutions to the issue. This is just one of many possible solutions I suggest, and some I'm not even sure I'd do or even try. IMO, Bregman and Devers are clearly our best 2 hitters and Devers as more power. I start by line-up slotting Devers 4 and Bregman 2. Duran is my lead off guy for obvious reasons, and he does seem to be heating up to maybe being our 3rd or 4th best batter. Abreu and Ref are slotted 5th, as a platoon- another big RBI slot. That leaves 3rd for the 5th best batter. We have no clear good hitter after the 5 I listed (6 w a platoon.) I'm surprised you didn't cry "Why tinker?" when Raffy got off to such a bad start to 2025, after he did so well batting 4th, last year. See, sometimes "tinkering" works. Thanks for proving my point. 😜