moonslav59

This isn't some Fredesque Rafaela-like bashing of a 4+ WAR player. Duran is the 7th worst fWAR player out of 142 qualifiers. His speed and defense keep him from being 3rd worst in MLB, which is where fangraph's places him on offense (which includes baserunning.) He's 42nd worst out of 300 players with 200+ PAs, but we play the guy everyday, so we double the negative impact some of the others do. Can we at least demote him to 9th in the order? I'd bench him or demote him to AAA, but why bat him even 7th?

10+22 is still less than 30. Plus, we can still DH Yoshida when White or Jones are in LF, which would be 30% of the games (when a lefty starts. ) I was just using over a full season as a comp tool. LF: Yoshida v R & White vs R &L and Jones v L DH: Yoshida v some R and some L and ____________ (anyone but Duran) This is one reason I questioned why we traded for a RHB OF'er. I guess they wanted a better platoon with Duran, when they should have looked to keep Jones v L and replace the Duran side of the platoon.

Without a hissy fit?

Okay, but we are a deep team with actual secondary options.

There's a rule that every team has to start a suckee?

How many errors does Yoshida need to make to make up for the differential in hits from .270 to .200? It's 35 hits per 500 ABs. I doubt Yoshida makes even 10 errors or makes 15 less catches than Duran would have.

You know you got my deepest respect, Max, but Duran sucks, badly. Maybe he can snap out of it, but it's been almost 1300 PAs at .701. How much longer do we wait?

They are one win below Pyth.

Can we stop hoping Duran is going to get his head together? He was great in '24, pretty good in '25, but he sucks now. .701 since Sept 2024 is lower than IKF's OPS with the Sox and a lot of others. NUFF SAID!

No, I'm looking to bench or demote Duran. To platoon LF and DH, we needed White or Jones to be a LHB.

Post draft and trades?

We shoulda got a LHB OF'er not White, but White's career v RHP is better than Duran's 2026 v R. Both are better v L, as we could have guessed. Look-See... Career splits for Jones & White with 2026 for Duran V L .808 Jones .619 White .567 Duran (.611 career) v R .629 White .628 Duran (.799 career) .479 Jones Whitehas speed, too, so that's not a major factor in the decision.

How about Jones and Rogers and their tiny sample sizes adding up to 13 for 27 with 4 doubles and 2 HRs (12 runs and 7 rbi!) An OPS North of 1.400! We have a bunch of regulars- some "new" at being regular moving up in OPS: here are the leaders... .927 Contreras (Can he stay over .900?) .790 Abreu (Can he finish over .800?) .787 Rafaela (Can he end strong, for once?) .779 Monasterio (This guy is a doubles machine!) ,747 Yoshida (Kinda earning some respect.) .730 Durbin (What more can be said?) .713 Seigler (Nice glove work, too.) ,711 Sogard (blasted Romy to AAA.) IKF .705 (Was hot when he got hurt- may not see again.) .701 Wong (waiting on AR to see if demoted) .675 Anthony (almost out of hope for '26) ________________ .613 Duran (How is he still 3rd in PAs?) Why isn't he at least up 9th? (No, don't say RBIs, PLEASE!)

Randy was so upset, he wants him moved to the rotation.

I've been saying play Yoshida LF platoon with Jone for a month. DH anyone else but Duran and it's a big plus.

It has been the definition of working. (for Bello)

LOL. How is this for a sample size? AUG 29, 2024> today (300+ PAs) .929 Contreras .821 Bregman .808 Devers .804 Anthony .769 Abreu .764 Romy .730 Rafaela .728 Durbin .707 Story .706 Yoshida .701 Duran When guys like Story and Yoshida are ahead of you, it's time to think beyond the tiny sample size of 1288 PAs.

KC had 3 hits & BB, with NO Ks (at .728.) Olds let up 5 runs in the 9th for the loss. M White 3-4 w 2 dingers in POR's win. GRE lost 15-12 despite 14 hits and 10 BBs. Ro Hern 3-4, Schaffner 2-7

We've been talking about how much Brez has turned over the 26, 40 and full farm system in less than 3 years. I went back and looked and found these numbers and some names on pitching only: Pitchers added: 44 Draftees/Undrafted FAs: 16/22 in 2024, 15/24 in '25 & 13/22 in '26 (including Tolle, Eyanson, Witherspoon, Phillips, Futrell, LaFavor.) 65 IFA 3 fall of '23, 11 in '24, 33 in '25 & 18 in '26 (including Delzine, Zink, Mambel, D Reyes, B Ortiz, Ja. Gamboa, Pereira) Of course some of these guys never made the cut, but it's almost 100 pitchers taken in just these two categories! MiLFA/MiLRule 5: T Guerrero, S Newcomb, Burdi, Erik Rivera, H Harris, J Benitez, H Olivares, J Alexander, Luetge, Moore, Ottavino, O Berrios, Al Gamboa, Sweet & others Waivers: Maz Castillo FA: Suarez, Chapman, Sandoval, Ju Wilson, Giolito, Buehler, Criswell, Hendriks, Trade: Crochet, Gray, Bennett, Priester, Harrison, E Miller, Zeihl, Moran, Slaten, Fitts, Weissert, Oviedo, Samaniego, R Watson, Hicks, Sandlin, Matz, D May, Judice, Fajardo, Holobetz, Luis Garcia, Lucas Sims, J Paxton, I Campbell, B Horn, Alcala, Jose Bello, Uwasawa, Vogatsky. McShane Traded Away: Sale, Priester, Harrison, Drohan, Dobbins, Early, Perales, Bernardino, Luis Guerrero, Wikelman, Hicks, Schreiber, Sandlin, Fitts, Clarke, Galle, Dobbins, Travieso, Fajardo, Aita, Newcomb, Hoppe, Booser, Zeferjahn, O Portes, VSantos, N Robertson, Ammons, Van Belle, Penrod

Almost everyone goes to 14+14, and with Bennett & Tolle at career max's in IP, we likely will too. The White and Jones with no options is an issue, and since both ar RHB, I'm not sure we'd demote Duran, even if it was the right thing to do, because he's a lefty. We can manage the infield fine without needing one infield utility, as we can yo-yo the depth, since there are no option issues. I don't think Anthony will be ready by Sept 1st, and maybe won't be this year, so we can maybe start with 3 catchers. By the time Anthony is ready maybe someone is slumping, of they will be totally fed up with Duran and demote him.

We hardly ever did, unless you mean his batting order slot. We need to tinker with demoting him to AAA, or at least the bench, as a PH'er/PR'er.

Yes, assuming they are fully healthy and have found their grooves. Every team can say this or something close to it, but when you have your very best pitcher plus who many felt was going to be our best batter, soon, that hurts. The less talked about injuries are to Houck, who was our ace in 2024 and Mead, who looked to be our 2B solution and moderate bat help. I also remember hearing Merloni gushing over the impending return of Crawford. Then there is the big enigma- the .800 hitting china doll Casas. Trevor Story was our HR, RBI & SB leader in '25. Oviedo was supposed to be more than decent rotation depth. IKF is our $6 million dollar man! Rutschman should be joining the team soon, but I'm not sure we can count on anything from anyone else. Story is probably closest to returning, and nearly everyone is saying, "Please no- don't hand him the SS job FT or outright." Interesting times, but with a few of these guys healthy, we might have the best record in the AL and major MLB, right now.

They should have platooned him half way through 2025- not Abreu. Maybe it was the Cora loyalty thingy.

It might depend on AR's ability to catch a lot. Yes, it's a rarity before Sept 1st, but what of afterwards?

Whenever Brez says yes.