moonslav59

I don't think the seriously considered playing Devers at 1B, except in private meetings and discussions. The "assurance" Bloom gave to Devers about playing 3B may have been a big part of never asking him. (I am assuming they never did.) The Bregman signing and a new GM changed the dynamic, and that was not very long ago on the Bregman addition. The shoulder injury to devers and failure to trade Casas probably made asking him a low priority. Maybe it was brought up when Devers was talking about not wanting to DH. Probably not. If I was the GM, I'd have at least asked about the idea, and if he didn't like it, I would not push it. I think Casas will start hitting, soon, but I have no faith in his defense ever improving. The bar is set so low for Devers to match or exceed, I find it hard imagining him being worse than Casas at 1B. Hie quickness and range at 3B were not really the main issue: it was his erratic arm.

The kid just can't conform.

How bad is BAL? They are being no hit and outscored 9-0 by the Yanks.

Are you remembering the old Duran from years ago? Someone may argue 810 innings in CF is not a large enough sample size, but consider these numbers ... 2024: 810 innings in CF Duran: 17 DRS & 6 OAA 630 innings in CF Rafaela: 12 DRS & 5 OAA If you widen the sample size to 23-25, he's still at +11 DRS and +6 OAA in CF. My "eye test" says Rafaela is better, but Duran looks pretty good in CF, to me. We could see this, if we want to take some CF innings away from Duran: LF: Anthony v R/Duran v L CF: Duran v R/ Rafaela v L RF: Abreu v R/Anthony v L ...but some hate shuffles, especially musical chairs like this.

He has started, this year with WOO, and his numbers look good, but who knows if that would work in MLB. You are likely right: he'd have a better chance at making it in a role like Whitlock's or a lower leverage type role.

Arias isa tremendous defensive SS. I think he plays there 100%. Zanetello may share time at 3B with Andy Lugo and 2B w Alcantara or play OF/DH. I wonder if he can play 1B. Alcanara and Lugo are both over .800, while Zanetello is around .650. "Zane" is not good on D, either.

He also passed the guy everyone has been raving about his start to the season: Story. For whatever that is worth. To me, that is evidence that shows how silly it is to judge people over a 3-4 week sample size, when 1-2 games can show drastic changes. Had Devers had his 2-3 biggest games in the first week of the season, nobody would notice a .600 OPS and be complaining (as much.)

I hope he does not retire and comes back for another year, especially if we have Devers at 1B by then and the DH slot is open to Yoshida and Refsnyder to share. (I'm assuming Anthony has crowded Ref and maybe others out of their OF roles.)

Yes, I totally get this point you have made repeatedly. I don't disagree with your position. There was not a strong possibility he'd bust out on offense and make an extension harder to do. My point is that he still has plenty of time to end up earning every cent of the deal. That will not change the point that the extension was premature and excessive. (There is also a chance Rafaela is not even in MLB for his last season under the contract, or a bench player. I get that.)

Agreed, although they could find time for him to work out at first base, especially if he really wants to play on the field over DH'ing. I wonder if they even talked to him about it. If he's okay with the idea, why not have him take some practice at 1B. He used to spend time practicing 3B during the year. Maybe he never is ready by the end of the season, but he could be closer to it happening, and if the idea is to trade Casas, next winter, we might have an idea on Dever's skill level at 1B. (It would also open an avenue for Yoshida and Ref to DH in '26... or even Casas.)

Yes. We haven't even finished a month in the season. He can easily get up to .790 or .800+ by season's end.

Yes, true, but on any given off season, they could have asked him to workout at 1B. This season, despite recovering from injury, they could have had him pick up a 1Bman's mitt in ST'ing, and at least get the process going. I would avoid playing him at 1B, until he feels comfortable and ready. (if it ever happens.)

I've been on the Ref bandwagon for years. This is no fluke or small sample size. The guy kills LHPs! Only 12 batters have more PAs vs LHPs and a higher OPS than Refsnyder since 2022. (He has the 5th best OBP!)

I'm a long way from benching Casas, but the leash ends somewhere.

Agreed. Casas is not bringing anything major back, so it's best to keep him and hope he comes around, even if just to rebuild his trade value for a winter deal. I'm a big Abreu fan, myself, but he does seem like the most logical OF'er to be traded to make room for Anthony. Rafaela might be second, and we should not view his batting RH'd as being a plus.

I totally get your point. I think they felt his offense would improve to a point where he earned the money. That may be just be a .700 to .725 OPS over his last few higher paying seasons. He could reach those marks.

A grissom-Romy 1B platoon is a possibility, so why not ask Devers to try 1B?

Our worst positions, offensively, are C, 1B and CF. Our top prospects play OF and middle IF. None are catchers or 1Bmen, so that puts the squeeze on Rafaela and Refsnyder. We are 28th in catcher OPS at a really bad .513 clip. The defense is much better, so to me we can handle one black hole, if it's at catcher. .513 is 81 points below #15. We are 23rd in 1B OPS at .595, which is mayb e worse than .513 at catcher, especially since Casas is an awful defender. .595 is 97 behind the #15 team. We are 19th in CF OPS at .638, which is just 46 behind #15. That's one big game away from being right in the missle. The great D makes it acceptable, on paper, but when you have 3 players significantly under their positional norm or mean, I can't help but think we should try to upgrade one of the three slots. This is not the time of the year major trades are made, so we look at options within the system, and Anthony jumps out at us, both out of a positional upgrade need and the fact that he's the top prospect in the nation and widely regarded as ML ready. I have been a fierce defender of keeping Refsnyder starting vs every lefty we face, but even I am willing to allow Rafaela playing as Abreu's platoon, starting some games as Duran and Anthony need rest, and also becoming the number one back-up at SS, 2B and maybe even 3B. If someone could move to 1B, we coudl find even more time for Rafaela, but I don't see Bregman, Campbell, Story, Duran or Abreu playing there. (Maybe Ref coudl replace Romy as the 1B platoon, but Cora has yet to play him at 1B, so that is not likely an option.) With injuries bound to happen. I think things might work themselves out on their own.

I really like Rafaela and am far from giving up on his offense. I love great D, especially up the middle. That being said, I'm not sure how bad an offense is supported by his reat D, decent base running and position flexibility. I used to think .700, but maybe .650 or .675 is enough, these days. I'm also a big fan of Anthony and think he should/will be a big success in MLB. He's not bad on D, and I like Duran's CF D, as well, so I'm torn.

I agree, and think of it this way: if we hadn't extended him, I think many would be saying his offense still has upside promise and that his defense looks A1. I'm not sure how long a leash he gets on his offense, but he doesn't start making more than $2.3M until 2027. For all we know, he may not be around, then (gone or traded,) but he has a lot of time to bring up his offense to match his pay.

Our current wRC+ leaders: 167 Refsnyder- still want Abreu playing vs LHPs? 165 Bregman- the notorious "slow starter" 154 Campbell- living up to the hype 148 Abreu- has yet to start vs a lefty 116 Romy- looks like a full blown 1B platoon 111 Devers- creeping up the rankings 108 Duran- didn't take long to get plus side 107 Story- trending downwards, but streaky 80 Rafela- we got nobody between 81-106 77 Narvaez- his defense has been worth the blackhole on O 60 Casas- needs to show he belongs -12 Sabol, -19 Wong and -27 DHam ___________________ Does Campbell's .412 OBP warrant a look at the 2 slot? ___________________ How about the two platoon guys? .967 Refsnyder and .902 Abreu ____________________ Whodathunk our two lowest ERA- guys would be: 184 Houck 104 Buehler ______________ Whodathunk our deep depth would be doing better: 60 Dobbins, 77 Fitts and Newcomb at 103.

There is no real urgent need to dump Yoshida, until we reach a 40 man roster crunch, since he has options remaining and can be parked in AAA playing DH & LF. We may also be able to put Crawford on the retro 60 day IL, if we really need a roster slot. We also have a couple pretty easy DFA guys before needing to find a taker for Yoshida, if there is one. Trust me, I'm all for the idea of finding a taker for Yoshida and am willing to pay a big chunk of his deal to do so, with little or nothing expected in return. I can't see us ever really needing Yoshida, even if Devers gets hurt. I don't see a big drop off from Yoshida to a Grissom-Refsnyder platoon or by promoting Anthony and or Mayer and having some sort of timeshare at DH. To me, Casas should be a DH, too, but who plays 1B? (I've suggested Devers, but I don't see us moving some current IF'er or OF'er to 1B.)

LOL. Want stats, well I'll choose one of MVP's faves: fWAR: 1.3 Crochet (6 GS) 0.7 Newcomb (5 GS & 1 RP) 0.3 Buehler (6 GS) & Dobbins (2 GS) 0.2 Fitts (3 GS) -0.1 Houck (6GS) & Bello (2 GS) Another stat he likes is FIP: 2.24 Crochet, 2.58 Newcomb, 3.05 Dobbins, 3.93 Fitts, 4.24 Buehler, 5.48 Houck, 6.21 Bello. Gio isn't the only SP'er that may find it hard to match or improve on our #9 slot to #11 slot SP'ers.

Agreed. I was thinking more about the combined efforts of our fill-in starters.

I can't say I'm not concerned about the past 80 or so games played by Devers, but of all the Sox batters, he is not even close to the top of my concern list. The guy was hurt, last year and tried to play through it. I admire the effort, but his stats suffered, as did the team around him. I have my doubts that the slow start to 2025 is part of the same issue(s.) Maybe the injury is lingering, even if just in his head. Maybe the move to DH affected his attitude or approach, but that is not connected to his end of 2025 reasons for struggling. Maybe it's just a little extended slow start, which we've seen in many of his recent 5-6 years. Maybe some combination of reasons is the answer, or maybe it's none of these things and there is no discernable reason to be found. He's still leading the team in hard hit balls and is walking way more than ever. Maybe it's just bad luck and pitchers pitching around him. Sox leaders in hard hit% 48% Devers 38 Abreu 35 Story 34 Bregman It's not really close. His highest hard hit% in his career is 41% in '23. It's 48%, now, and some seem to be insisting there is a problem and wanting to demote him in the line-up, which implies they think his, so called struggle are and will be continuing.