moonslav59

Exactly, and that is why most platoon guys stay in the game, even if they flip pitchers. Abreu started 6 games vs LHPs, last year, and I think 4 of those were in one week, when Ref was out. He started 104 games vs RHPs. That's about a straight of a platoon as you see. He still ended up getting 67 PAs vs lefties, so they must have left him in often. 6 out of 110 starts ve LH'd SP'ers is 5.5%. 67 PAs out of 447 PAs is 15%. I could see Ref giving Rafaela or Duran a breather vs LHPs, here and there, but for the most part, Abreu will and should sit vs LH'd starters, until he starts showing better numbers. 1 BB in 1 PA is not some sign or a turn around.

OK. My bad, however it does make sense that if we lose Bregman or Story for more than 10 days, Mayer should and would get the call. 2B is maybe a little more iffy, as DHam and Romy could platoon, there and save the roster spot.

Agreed. I still like notin's trade idea of Story for Murphy. Maybe throw in some cash and or a blocked prospect. I think DHam, Romy & Rafaela can be enough middle IF depth to hold us to Arias & Romero.

Agreed. Mayer is the longtime back-up at 3B.

He may end up PH'ing in many games he starts on the bench.

Yup. The choices from an offense perspective were... DH: .775 Yoshida career (.810 v R and .669 v L) Devers at 3B and Bregman at 2B 2B platoon (Bregman at 3B and Devers at DH) .697 DHam in '24 (.729 v R and .532 v R) .723 Romy in '24 (.879 v L and .498 v R) I like Campbell over both of these options, but I'd prefer DHam-Romy over Yoshida. The O could be about the same, and the defensive alignment is much better. Yoshida is the odd man out in my book. He has options, so we can stash him in AAA, in case of a DH or 3B injury. He's not really a LF option, unless 2 get hurt.

When a player platoons, he often gets several chances to bat vs the oppo hand RP'er. He will need to do well in those few and far between ABs to work his way into playing FT. You can't hit .525 and demand anything. I'm not against giving anyone a chance, but we need to win as much as we can. BTW, why can't Ref demand to play vs lefties or be traded? Now, he would have a strong case.

Agreed, and all he did vs a lefty was draw a walk.

How about a larger sample size? 2023-2025 .886 Refsnyder .879 Romy .788 Casas .749 Devers .721 Wong (.704 Bregman w HOU) .680 Duran .610 Rafaela .563 Story .539 DHam .524 Abreu

We face 4 RH's SP'ers, this series.

Who should he replace? He still has value, but for a team like the Sox, who already has a FT DH plus Refsnyder, Yoshida needs a long term injury to win a slot on the 26, and even then, it has to be to only Devers, Bregman or maybe refsnyder or an OF'er. If it's an OF'er, I think Ref vs LHPs and Anthony are ahead of Yoshida.

Didn't Cora say Mayer gets the first call, if someone gets hurt (assuming more than for a few days)? I agree on the catcher issue. IMO, when the roster squeeze gets tighter, we'll trade from a bottleneck position for a catcher.

It was '17-'20, and if you count 8 PAs in 2016 (40 in 2014), then Yoshida will likely get that in some of the next 3 years.

Nice line from the pen: 3 IP 0 ER 2 H 0 BB 3 Ks

Somewhere in Texas or Venezuela. Does Abreu have a tattoo? If yes, I hope he doesn't get deported.

Mayer would start SS, if Story is out longer term. We might go with Romy, Wong or Ref at 1B, shorter term, but maybe we'd need to trade for someone, if Casas goes out longer term. Too bad Devers can't play 1B, and then Ref, Yoshida and others could DH.

I'm still not sure he gets the start, when a LHP starts. Drawing the walk was nice, but Rey is the 13th best batter vs LHPs over the past 3 seasons, combined. Abreu has been sub .575.

Per season, but not overall. Abreu-Rafaela platoon in RF. Rafaela can be the super utility guy when not playing RF. He can fill in at CF, SS and 2B.

This is one area I have been harping on for years, and it seems like we finally did something about it. While Casas remains a weak defender, maybe someday Devers can show he can play 1B better. The OF defense is solid and then some. Our catcher D needs work, but Narvaez is supposed to be pretty good on D.

I can't see us carrying 2 DHs or playing Devers at 3B enough & Yoshida in LF enough to have enough PAs for Yoshida to build back up helpfulness and trade value. Even if an OF gets hurt, we have Anthony. We also have a better LHB in Refsnyder. There was a reason I spent too much of my winter scrounging team rosters to find a trading partner for Yoshida. Most of what I came up with looked lame, and the Arenado choice went poof, when we signed Bregman. I think we will need to just trade him for the most we can get, and that assumes paying $12-14M a year of his $18M x 3 remaining. It sucks, but it is what it is. The guy can still hit well enough to be someone's DH, but who is starting the season dying for a moderate DH without much power? Trade him for a non 40 man roster prospect and throw in whatever is needed for cash. Refsnyder is already squeezed and should be playing, every time a lefty starts. Anthony and Mayer are almost certainly going to get a long look, sooner rather than later. Both are better than Romy and DHam, but we are not squeezing 3 of those 4 guys, just to have two full time DHs on the 26.

It was an enjoyable game, even before the Abreu laser shot. It was good to see Crochet manage to not let up a bunch of runs, without having his best stuff, today. We K'd a lot, but we also hit for some hard outs. The infield defense is night and day better than 2024. Stunning reversal of a big weakness. I can't contain my enthusiasm for this team, even with Bello, Crawford, Gio, Sandoval and Hendriks on the IL and Mayer & Anthony not even on the 40, yet.

I only whip Casas on D, but hey, maybe it worked!

Very nice and useful feature. Thanks.

What a difference between Brez and Bloom. Once can point to getting a better budget, but it goes way beyond that. So much of the roster from top to bottom and into the farm has been turned over in such a very short time. We still saw the short term pitcher signings and rolling the dice with pitchers coming off injuries, but the upgrade looks pretty damn good, on paper. While we need to see the results on the field, there is no doubt, he has made a great effort to improve this club- the offense, the defense, the pitching, the depth and the farm. It will take a while to see if the changes in player and prospect development are for the good, but everything from this guy screams competence. Sure, I'm looking through pink glasses, right now, and I know we could end up being disappointed again, but I'm buying and chugging the Kool Aid. Brez hasn't even been here for 18 months, yet, and here are the plus guys and a few pending possible plus guys he has added: Crochet, Bregman & Buehler Slaten, Fitts, Newcomb, Criswell, Priester, Giolito, Sandoval Chapman, Hendriks, Weissert, Wilson, Fulmer, I Campbell, Sandlin Narvaez, Romy, Thompson, Eaton, Toro, Sabol, Zavala, Fajardo, Ju Gonzales, Tolle, S Soto, Cason, Reyes, Wehunt, Neely, Tygart, S Delzine, H Rivas, H Ramos, Ehrhard, Clarke Departed helpfuls: O'Neall, Danny Jansen and Dom Smith I probably forgot someone.

For sure, and 2024's team was better than 2023. The farm improved, especially pitchers.