moonslav59

Fitts had a nice 3 inning outing. 4 Hits 0 ER 0 BB and 2 Ks (31 strikes in 38 pitches) Jordan stayed hot in the POR win (2-4) and is at .823.

Sox traded cash for Ryan Noda and placed Yoshida on the 60 Day IL. He can play 1B and OF. He has 17 career HRs in about 600 PAs. .713 career OPS but off to a really bad start in 2025. He's 29 and had an .855 AAA OPS with 53 HRs in about 1200 PAs. In 475 AA PAs, he hit 29 HRs (.904 OPS.)

I don't either, but they did move Rafaela off CF, when Story got hurt, last year, and now we have another injury and Campbell learning how to play 1B. (We could call up Mayer to play 2B and keep the inferior defender at SS, like we did with Bogey/Story.) I'm just giving alternative options, not saying we should or would, just we "could."

I've not given up, just yet, on Story's O or D, but I agree, he has not looked good, so far this year. I know the guy got hurt, but this is radical: 2022-2023: +8 DRS/ +8 OAA in 314 innings at SS 2024: +2 DRS/ +2 OAA at SS in 227 innings 2025: -3 DRS/ -3 OAA at SS in 418 innings

His issue at 3B was mostly errant throws (to 1B and 2B.) He was actually pretty quick with the reflexes and glove. It's hard to know how well any non 1Bman will learn the footwork and stretch plays a 1BMan needs to know. Scooping bad throws should not be a major issue, if you've been catching scorching line drives hit your way for 10 years plus. It's hard to know, but I think if he wanted to play 1B, he could be okay in a few short months, maybe average after a few months, and possibly on the plus side in about a year, but maybe not. Maybe he'd never reach even average.

Moving Devers to 1B might make it easier to find a slot for Anthony, but moving Campbell to 1B would open a slot for Mayer. I'd rather we move Campbell, at this point, but I still think there is a chance Devers could be okay or even better at 1B. (I would rather see him try 1B than Yoshida in LF, again.) I know you just love my big shuffle options presented, but... CF Duran LF Anthony 2B: Story SS: Mayer 1B: Campbell DH: Devers We could play bot prospects, without moving Devers off DH.

Quite a few people have been for years. The weird thing is, we finally don't have the two worst corner infielders in MLB playing, Story is healthy, Rafaela is back in CF, and we found a great defensive catcher, yet we still suck on D and are second in unearned runs allowed.

I think the idea is to trade an OF'er for a pitcher.

Last year, we let up 93, so we are not far from the same pace. Improving the team on paper does not always work well on the field.

Abreu is the only guy we can trade? What makes you think I'm happy with the staff? I doubt we get a top pitcher via trade in mid May, but sure, let's try. If I had to trade an OF'er, it would be Rafaela, then Duran, then Abreu. I'm not against trading a top prospect and a few second tier ones for another ace, but not a rental.

Going by OF importance order.... 1. Keep the Abreu-Refsnyder platoon in RF. 2. Keep Duran playing (LF or CF). Maybe rest him a few more times than the norm vs LHPs, but that's not enough to get Anthony playing at or near FT. 3. Rafaela's defense in CF. If Anthony does not DH (Devers at 1B), the best option is to have Anthony replace Rafaela (Duran to CF.) Rafaela could play half the games vs LHPs in CF (as Duran sits.) He could also play back-up SS and 2B, but his playing time would be severely reduced, unless we decide to play him at middle IF, a lot. I would not trade Duran or Abreu. I doubt we trade Refsnyder to get Rafaela a little more playing time.

I'd like to see him try 1B, especially if it fast-tracks him to the bigs. I'm not sure he's ML ready, now. I am a big fan of his, but I admit, I mostly just look at box scores and read the hype or criticism to get my opinions on prospects. I like his bro, too.

Yes, I just explained, I thought I was responding to your other post.

OPS Against last 4 weeks: (team .721) .154 Guerrero (13 PAs Against) .452 Chapman .480 Wilson .562 Hendriks .564 Slaten (.000 last 14 days) .565 Weissert .574 Bernardino .656 Crochet .720 Buehler (.364 last 14 days) .777 Newcomb .798 Bello & Dobbins .841 Whitlock .941 Houck .944 Burdi (9) .

OPS over last 4 weeks (team .760) 1.180 Devers 1.002 Narvaez .961 Bregman .904 Refsnyder (22 PAs) .802 DHam .783 Abreu .774 Duran .684 Rom (25) .666 Rafaela .626 Sogard (33) .538 Toro (26) .519 Wong (24) .496 Campbell .368 Story

I thought I was replying to your post about getting an ace (Crochet.) We finally got an ace.

It seems unlikely, but something like .740 and plus D is okay.

Finally, after like 5 years.

Nor I.

For sure. You don't finish near .500, every year, without having multiple weak areas or areas with little depth. You have to pick and choose, when you cut your budget or refuse to spend on quality talent while looking for bargain basement players to fill too many weak positions. 2B has been worse than 1B, since at least casas had some hopes. Ace was another neglected area.

They haven't had a decent plan for back-up 1B for years. It is one of the easier slots to fill, in an emergency, so if a team is going to skimp somewhere, this is a common area to do it. Not making excuses. We have neglected it for a long time, and have gone with the idea that the worst defensive 1Bman in MLB, Casas will be "the guy." It is an example of poor roster construction- agreed.

That idea was thoroughly debunked, line by line. 🤪

And it matters, whether we like it or not, yes!

It's pretty subjective, IMO. Judging how good a team is on paper vs what the manger got out of them is a multi-layered and complex undertaking, and even if a team underperforms or overperforms, we still never know how much the manager had to do with it. IMO, Cora was gifted some good to excellent teams, early on and did well with them. The 2020 team was a joke. The 2021 team overperformed, and the 2022-2024 teams did about as expected. On the surface, I'd say Cora has done okay with what he had with 2021 being the one year we can maybe say he did very well. 2019 could be blamed on him for the same reasons. To me, JH was more to blame starting w 2019's not replacing Kimbrell and Kelly with a budget that allowed for it, then it only got worse. Bloom is way more to blame than Cora, but that's not letting Cora off the hook, totally. I once though Cora was the best manager we ever had, or at least tied or close to Tito. I no longer think that, but I like him and think he is a plus manager. Sometimes, however, a manger loses his team and needs to go. I thought that happened to Tito. I'm not sure about Cora and this team. It's an almost whole new team.

Fringe views are welcome, as are all non-troll posters. Gotta expect push back with positions like that and saying things like "I already debunked that, before," like maybe there is no need to debate it anymore.