moonslav59

Most 1Bman scoop way more than Casas does, and they save errors by their infielders.

Maybe Grandal will give us a boost, but I agree.

Man, I went away to do a little gardening, came back and fast forwarded through the meltdown. Geesh!

He actually started to look okay, but this is a weak team, so we can't know if he's begun to turn things around. The pen has been pretty good, until recently. On paper, they did not look good to me on day one. There is a lot of mediocre depth, but we needed top quality.

I think the farm became the major focus, and for good reason. The highest prospect we traded was Aldo Ramirez, until Brez came to town, and that goes back to 2018 (maybe Beeks for Nate at the deadline was slightly higher ranked. Mid 2018 to winter 2024-2025 is over 6 years. Not only did we hardly trade any top prospects, we traded vets for prospects and accumulated comp picks by letting some stars go (Campbell for Bogey & Anthony for ERod.) Even when we traded for vets, we often got a prospect or two added on. DHam & Binelas with JBJ for Renfroe. Seabold with Pivetta for a couple of RP'ers. Wink and 2 other prospects with Franchy for Beni. Wong & Downs with Verdugo for Betts. Fitts and others with Weissert for Verdugo Straight up vets for prospects included Abreu & EValdez for Vaz and Sandlin for Schreiber, to name just a couple of many. I do think the upper brass felt we had a good enough roster to barely compete, along the way, but the #1 priority was building up the farm and younger depth on the 40 man roster.

I don't think players lose a ton of value over a 22 game sample size, where they hit the ball hard for outs, too often.

I never said "only." I went out of my way to say how Rafaela would still play a lot and get a further chance to prove he should play more. BTW, today is Rafaela's 200th game. Anthony has zero. Duran has 375 and deserves a FT role (at worst a platoon.) Abreu has earned a platoon role and has played 182 games. I still think Refsnyder has earned a platoon role, but I'm okay with going with the Rafaela defense vs LHPs. This is not about some tiny sample size by Rafaela or Abreu's bad split sample size. I think Anthony has earned a shot. I do not think Rafaela has done enough to keep Anthony from getting his chance. The DHam-Romy platoon at 2B, last year was about as good as Rafaela has been, and we handed the job to Campbell. There is no guarantee Anthony will do as well, but I'd like see him get a long look. We can still find a way for Rafaela to play 35-45% of the innings.

I think this is about JH being a miser.

I would not have been against that idea, but now that he is DH'ing, only, we might as well wait it out. Is the number still 171 days or less (out of a 187 day season?) If so, he's already got the extra year, right?

Good to see Casas going oppo, when they pitch to him like that.

This could be a 16-12 game.

Abreu is buttah!

The low expectations were real. Most Sox fans are not dumb. We looked at the rosters and knew we were not a winning team. I don't think that stopped any of us from expecting management from getting off their asses and address the holes in the roster- from top to bottom. The glacial pace of improving the roster, starting with the farm and 40 man roster depth did not satisfy the masses. We lacked top quality for too long, while simultaneously watching some of our top talent walk out the door, many times for comp picks, only. It was hard to see the long game, and JH's record breaking spending hiatus wore our patience thin. The Betts walk was a staggering choice that set us ack for long time, but we also watched so many other stars sign with other teams. Many were already in decline, but losing stars and heroes is never easy. The few bigger signings we made did not amount tom much, at all. The Devers extension was viewed as desperate way for JH to save face (or his life.) Now, when we look back, things still bad, but somethings look much more understandable. Beni never became the promising player many felt he'd become. JD was over the hill. Price, ERod, Porcello and other SP'ers lost did not do well after leaving Boston. True, replacing them with Martin Perez, Garrett Richards and Kluber were horrific attempts at staying relevant, granted, but re-signing them would have been pretty bad. The loss of Bogaerts was the final straw for many, but was it really such a big loss? Sure, we'd be a better team with him, over the past 2+ years, but with the fixed budget, maybe we do worse. He's got a .742 OPS w SDP. He has yet to homer, this year. His defense is no better. As it turned out we got Campbell for Bogey and Anthony for ERod. What looked like horrible chocies, at the time, may now become pure genius. I'm very optimistic about the future of this team, but I also think this roster on paper, looks top 3-4 in the AL, and with minimal injuries and expected age related growth, we could be top 1-2. When you look where we were before Brez took over, that is a remarkable improvement. While Bloom's highest prospect traded was Aldo Ramirez for Schwarber, Brez has taken risks and dealt away from our strong and deep farm. He took a big gamble trading away catcher depth, our weakest area, right now, but we got our man: Garrett Freakin' Crochet!

I'm a big Cora supporter, but I do have issues with him giving hot players a day off. We just had a day off on Thursday, and Story has a .984 April OPS. Now, watch DHam come to life.

Sometimes the "right move" doesn't work out. I will always believe that. Some of the hits off Weissert were not scorched. Hey, we got the win. Later in the season, we may look back and be happy we eased Crochet into a full season of starting pitching.

Anthony is no Rafaela on D, but he's pretty good. He's no Refsnyder, Yoshida or Manny. Rafaela could still play CF vs LHPs. That's over 25% or games. He can play back-up infield and late inning defense/PR duties, too. I really like Rafaela, but Anthony deserves a chance to prove he's the best OF'er we have- right now. If he ends up 2nd or 3rd best, which is a strong possibility, especially year one, so be it. Right now, he is DH'ing through an injury, so I'd wait for the day he gains that extra year of control, but I'd wait no longer.

It doesn't help a young player's growth and improvement riding the bench. That being said, there is an argument for having the best possible 26 players on the ML roster. Sort out who plays when and where on the go.

Crochet is not just any pitcher. He blew away his IP high, last year by like 90 IP, and it was only 146 IP. You expect 180 and then playoff innings?

I saw the highlights! YES!!!!

I'm not against babying Crochet and limiting his innings. If we make the playoffs, we may look back and be thankful. I think 96 pitches in mid April was fine.

It's a better defensive OF than the one w Refsnyder in RF. It's not adding a platoon, as I'm just replacing Ref with Raf in the current platoon.

The Rays scored 4 in the bottom of the 9th off D Williams, then 2 in the 10th to beat the Yanks. Updated standings: 13-8 NYY 12-9 TOR -1.0 12-10 BOS -1.5 9-11 BAL -3.5 9-12 TBR -4.0 ________________ WC 12-9 TOR 11-9 CLE 12-10 BOS__________ 10-9 LAA -0.5 11-10 SEA -0.5

Great to see Casas get his juices flowing. Devers with the big boom-boom. Crochet left the WS in stitches.

I would really like the flexibility having Rafaela as the uber utility man. He can play CF as well as anyone in MLB, so by moving others to LF and RF, he can essentially back up LF, CF & RF. He can also be the first in line to back up SS, 2B and 3B (or Campbell to 3B and Rafaela to 2B.) That's 6 positions he'd be the next in line. He could also PR, unless DHam stays on the 26 when Anthony is called up (not likely, though.) Cora would be in heaven. Call up Grissom & demote DHam. When Anthony is okay to play OF and gets the extra year of control, call him up and demote Romy. vs RHPs: 1. L Duran CF 2. L Devers 3. R Bregman 4. L Abreu 5. R Story 6. L Anthony LF 7, R Campbell 2B 8. L Casas 1B 9. R Narvaez/Grandal/Wong C vs LHPs: 1. L Duran CF 2, R Campbell 3. L Devers 4. R Bregman 5. R Story 6. R Refsnyder LF 7. L Anthony RF 8. R Grissom 1B (or Romy) 9. R Narvaez/Grandal/Wong C

I agree that Wink looks like the most likely to be demoted, whenever Bello is needed to start a game. When Gio & Fitts are ready to return, some tough choices might need to be made, but it's nice to have choices like this, instead of choosing between guys like Bailey Horn, Llovera, Brasier, Ort and Danish.