moonslav59

I disagree.

Why? He got worse as he aged. What does 5 have to do with a possible 6, 7 ot 8? He helped them win with his bat. Hee was not a negative player. He just sucked on D.

I always knew Jeter was overrated on D, and the GGs were one of the biggest jokes in awards history. It was only later that I became aware the metrics supported my opinion. From 1995 to 204, Jeter had the worst DRS in MLB, out of all positions! Granted, he played a lot, and DRS accumulates the more you play- to the good or bad, but still, a negative 109 DRS! Among SSs: -162 Jeter (15027 innings) -74 HRam (9237) -66 Betancourt (8239) -37 J Reyes (12250) Even if you rate these numbers per inning player, he's still the worst. ARod was +8 in 2768 innings, mostly at a younger age. Since they started doing DRS, maybe Michael Young was worse, but he played about 40% of the innings by Jeter, and Jeter doubled his negative DRS. -162 Jeter -81 Young Amazingly, out of 107 players that had over 1,000 innings at SS, Jeter placed 4th in Error Rate. He was last in Range and 4th to last in DPs. He was last in UZR/150, which is scaled to per games: -66 Jeter -56 Young -54 HRam -51 Betancourt Was Jeter the reason they won fewer rings than before? Who knows, but his D at a very key position in baseball made the team worse.

Jeter was the worst defensive SS ever to play so long at the position, in my memory. The metrics supported my opinion, before I even knew metrics existed. He made a few highlight reel plays that they never failed to show on Sports Center. He was awful on D. ARod was okay, by the time he joined NY- certainly significantly better on D than Jeter. Jeter did have a nice arm from the long cut off slot. That's about it.

Yes. A sign of our times.

Yup. If the RF is shorter than LF, flip it. REF and Yosh DH, if no Devers DH'ing.

On one move, it was not about winning. It does not mean everything they did was not geared towards winning. They could have been a better team with Jeter off SS. They chose not to do so. That was my point: not that the Yanks tried to lose.

Abreu sits vs LHPs and we don't want Ref in RF, who plays RF? Duran RF and Rafaela in CF, because Cora said so, or... Rafaela in RF and a damn good Duran in CF. My point was NO DURAN in RF. NO REF or Yoshida in RF, unless it's the shorter corner OF.

Indeed, the only one that fits and can play D is Rafaela. It's not like Duran in CF is some huge loss on D.

That's what I was driving at. Maybe they can play RF at Yankee Stadium, but they should not play the larger corner OFs. That leads to the big Q: who then platoons with Abreu in RF? Not Duran- arm too weak. That leaves the guy many feel should be entrenched in CF and CF only- Rafaela. My suggestion, at least for some games vs LHPs, is to have Rafaela in RF, Duran in CF and Ref in LF...not REF in RF, as he played too often in 2024. This does not answer how to get Yoshi OF ABs vs RHPs.

I'm not sure anyone can know that with 100% certainty. Did any of the rabid media think to ask him about that?

I think they would have been better with ARod at SS: better season records and better chance of winning a second ring. A better team. They chose to be worse.

I agree, but I think yoshida might play more than 1 out of 6 games, not counting PH'ing. If Bregman is at 3B and Story stays healthy, our D will be much better. Rafaela could play more CF in 2025 than 2024, while Yoshida still plays 2-4 games a week. I don't see Yoshida in LF at Fenway as a major down bump in our overall defensive gains. We'd still have Duran in CF and Abreu/Rafaela in RF, which is better than 2024's RF of O'Neall, Abreu & Ref. Our offense is suspect, and Yoshida's .810 OPS vs RHPs will be hard to bench. I'm fine with choosing D over O, but that has not always been Cora's M. O. I have my doubts.

Agreed, Humiliation is not an effective or defensible teaching technique. My point was that I have learned from being humiliated, sometime all by myself.

Many of us were aware Jeter was overrated on D, at that time, but it was not easily supported by data and metrics, true.

I actually pointed out they won a lot, so I'm not sure my point was all about rings. They could have been better with Jeter at 2B or 3B and ARod at SS.... ring or no ring.

While humiliating someone is not a good teaching practice, I have learned from being humiliated, at times.

Yes, sorry. I thought I was responding to red. My bad. Thank you for giving actual reasons why you feel Rafaela will play almost exclusively in CF. I will ask this, what OF defense is better, and by how much? Duran in LF v R, Ref vs L, Rafaela v R/Duran v L in CF and Abreu v R-Rafaela v L in RF. Duran and Rafaela play near FT. Ref platoons with Abreu but not in fenway's RF. or Duran in LF FT, Rafaela in CF FT and Abreu-Ref in RF on a platoon, regardless of it being Fenway or Yankee Stadium. Now, if Yoshida does play OF, tell me how it happens, and who plays where vs R and v L, or do you think Cora saying Yoshi will play OF was a total smoke screen, perhaps to boost his trade value. (Could be true. I'm not arguing Yoshia will clearly play a significant amount of time in the OF (assuming no injuries.) Anthony entering the discussion changes the whole situation, whereby I don't see Yoshida having any role, unless devers is at 3B.

I can see the advantages of playing Rafaela in CF as much as possible, even if it means Yoshida has no designed role in the line-up. It could very well happen. Maybe they rest Rafaela more than Duran and others, just to get Yoshida some time, but maybe not. I could also see playing Yoshida in the shorter corner OF position vs half or more of the RH'd SP'ers we face. He would not take Duran's or Abreu's PAs, IMO. He might take some of Rafaela's PAs, since he out hits him by about 120 pts, but maybe not. It's not impossible for Cora to be right about both statements: Rafaela will be the primary CF'er. and Yoshida will get some time in the OF. Of course, where Devers plays is crucial to the answer. If he DH's, Yoshida gets squeezed- not Ref. Maybe Yoshida squeezes Rafaela, but IMO, not Duran or Abreu or Ref, unless it's their normal day off, and Yoshida fills in to get a scattering of PAs, that way (even if vs a LHP.) I don't have a big stake in the choice. I love great D, but I also have worries about our offense declining from 2024. Both choices have a clear plus and a clear minus.

Agreed. They cared more about keeping their primadonna stars happy. The Yanks won quite a bit with Jeter at 3B, after ARod joined the team, but it was just one ring in 11 seasons with ARod and Jeter on the same team (2004-2014.)

I know. That's my point. It's not me arguing Yoshi will not take away significant ABs fro Rafaela.

I think everyone would prefer 9 all around players that do not need a platoon, but 4 guys are always on the bench, so sometimes it works out better that you shuffle them around to get the best match-ups. If you agree that Abreu should be platooned, then the question is by whom, and what positions does that guy play or are other shuffled to make the D better? It looks like Ref matches the platoon with Abreu much better than Yoshida. This situation does not help Yoshida get OF ABs. Agreed. To find room for Yoshi, it gets complicated. That's why I feel like it's hard to know hw Cora will do it, and what he meant when he said he will play some OF. For who? Both Abreu and Duran bat LH'd, so he won't bump them. That leaves Rafaela who has had reverse splits, so far and bats RH'd. he is als a great defender, who seems to have made too many unforced errors, so far. I can see why Cora said he wants him as the primary CF'er. I do, too. Yoshida is a pretty good hitter vs RHPs (.810 career.) Rafaela is at .684 career v RHPs. It's reasonable to expect Yoshi's OF ABs will come at Rafaela's expense. That does not mean a full platoon, but maybe a sizeable number of ABs. We could see Yoshida strt vs most RHPs and Rafaela sub on D, later in games. Maybe not.

I only see one platoon: Abreu and Refsnyder. I had mentioned maybe DHam-Romy at 2B, but Campbell or Bregman at 2B ends that idea. I don't think Abreu was platooned because of injury or Rafaela playing SS. He was platooned because he sucked vs LHPs, and we used O'Neal and Ref in RF vs almost all LH's SP'ers. I'm suggesting Rafaela might take some of those RF PAs vs LHPs, because O'Neall is not here, and Rafaela will not likely be used at SS in 2025. Maybe we use Ref there, more. Who knows, maybe Cora gives Abreu a chance to play FT, but then where does ref play. Only 12 batters in all of MLB have a better OPS vs LHPs over the last 3 year sample size. Tell me why Ref will be benched, because you don't like platoons. Tell me why you think Cora will suddenly not like them, either. Okay, Cora said 3 times that Rafaela will be the primary CF'er. He also said, at least twice that Yoshida will play some OF. You thought Yoshi would not play OF at all, at first. How does he play OF? not by benching Duran. Not by benching Abreu vs RHPs. What's left? IMO, Yoshida will play some OF vs RHPs and maybe a little vs LHPs. How much, I don't know. I'm asking why you think he will not play much, despite quotes from Cora? You use quotes to support your Rafaela position, so why do quotes not support the idea that Yoshida WILL play some OF?

Fine to give your opinion but nothing about why you think Masa will not play much. Abreu is horrific vs LHPs, so you hate platoons all you want, but Ref is a top 12 batter vs LHPs and will be playing somewhere: OF or DH vs LHPs. Where and when Yoshida plays is an open book. Nobody knows. I said what I think they should do, but I am not saying Cora will do it. IMO, he will do a little of what I think and a little of what others think. Maybe, one works better than the other, and he goes that way more often. I'm not hoping Yoshida plays the OF, a lot. I think Cora will try to play all his players, as he has in the past. How he does it is in question.

I'm curious why you sure of this alignment. I'm thinking he mixes and matches, like he did, last year. While there should not be a need for Rafaela at SS, this year, O'Neall is gone, so about the same amount of PAs are available for Duran, Rafaela, Abreu and the RH platoon bat for Abreu. While it does seem there is little room for another LHB outfielder, my "guess" is Yoshida sees more time that you think. I'd say probably less than I think, but I have no number. If I had to project, I'd say 175-250 PAs in the OF and 50-150 at DH, depending on Devers at DH. (It could be 400-550 at DH and 0-50 in the OF, if Devers plays FT 3B.) Last year, we saw this... 735 Duran 428 Abreu 392 O'Neall 273 Rafaela 235 Refsnyder 17 Romy, Dalbec, Yoshida & Wong. I could see about half of O'neals OF PAs going to Rafaela and half to Yoshida.