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But that’s baseball. The difference between hitting .250 and hitting .300 is a one measly hit for every 20 at bats…

I think they do, but I prefer Lowe to Casas. I’d offer arbitration to Lowe and trade/non-tender Casas. But Lowe will be $10-12mill more expensive and I expect that will be a bigger factor than I want it to be…

In my ideal world, the Sox bring back Lowe, trade for Marte and Bregman doesn’t opt out. There is an extremely good chance none of those things happen…

Alonso would be a monster at Fenway, especially since he would set the record for the number of Wall Ball Singles. They might call him the Polar Bear, but he runs like a penguin trying to sprint while wearing stilts…

I actually wonder if Bregman would really opt out. Granted, probably not fully healthy, but his OPS this half is .732. With him turning 32 in March and coming off the last part of this season, is there really a 5 year deal out there for him? And is it one that will not make him regret walking away from $40mill? I don’t think this is such as easy call for him and his agent, especially since he didn’t get the deal he wanted last time at one year younger. Free agency might not be his favorite thing and he might not be so eager to do it again. The difference is, this time he doesn’t have to…

Huh? That was the point of the post. RF is kind of useless unless you’re comparing two players that play the same position for the same team. Cora has each player used situationally. Ref does play RF against LHP, while Yoshida is primarily a DH. Those roles dictate Ref play the field more. But honestly, I don’t like this usage. Platoons have a glaring weakness in their overall strategy - namely one player is always a worse defender. It’s minimized when it’s the RHH, but it’s certainly not non-existent. And in the case of Abreu and Refsnyder, the gap is monstrous. So much so the Sox are probably better off just leaving Abreu out their full time. Sure he will make more outs at the plate, but he will make more in the field, too. But the one position where platoons do make sense is DH, as this defensive flaw is omitted. I’d rather the Sox leave Abreu in RF full time and platoon Yoshida and Refsnyder at DH…

Isn't that how most bench players get their starts? Do you have an actual point? Or are you just over actively refuting the minutiae in a post about the Red Sox being forced to start a significant amount of bench players recently, so maybe their biggest weakness isn’t their first baseman, who happens to be one of only 5 active first basemen with both a Gold Glove and a Silver Slugger, so maybe his recent transaction history is overblown as a concern?

And those OPSs were built by exceeding in his situational role. Good for Boston that they noticed he had this skill set. Previous organizations including New York, Toronto, Tampa, Minnesota, Cleveland and Arizona all either gave up on him quickly or failed to notice that his limited skillset did feature one specialty at which he excels. But really, thats all he has. Im not sure Hes much better defensively than Yoshida. Theyre both complete butchers out there and deciding which one is better is like debating whether or not syphilis is more fun than chlamydia…

And he is the only one I labeled as a situational role player. Eaton, for example, might be on a bit of a hot streak, relatively speaking. But overall he is an AAAA player, and his career to date supports that. Refsnyder does have 5 starts vs RHP this year. Probably 5 more than you’d normally want from him…

Refsnyder has 56 PA vs RHP this year with a .632 OPS. He has 128 PA vs LHP. Source: baseball-reference.com. So no on the half his PAs vs RHP. It’s actually less than a third. I called him a situational role player. Why is that wrong? The situation is an opposing LHP. Thats when he primarily plays and what he does best. That he started at all vs RHP means something went terribly wrong…

The bad place? Did you ever watch “The Good Place”?

I was the rarity that wanted to bring back Beltre and keep Youkilis at 1b…

Tomorrow is Rizzo Day at Wrigley. I will be in attendance…

Romero might not be an option if Mayer got injured in April. But he might be one in August. Hes less likely to be one ever if he battling Mayer for PT in Worcester…

Depth is a good thing, but that doesn’t necessarily mean burying Mayer in the minors where he starts blocking those coming up behind him. If Bregman doesn’t come back, Mayer is the best internal option for 3b. Trevor Story compared him to a Nolan Arenado, which is high praise. (Although Story might also have been motivated to keep Mayer at 3b for obvious reasons.) Mayer could certainly get injured again, although maybe surgery finally corrects this problem. But the Sox could backup him up internally (Romy?), from below (Romero?) or with a multipurpose free agent (Luis Rengifo?) that also fills other needs. Or, if they tender arbitration to Nate Lowe, trade Casas for a candidate. (Also an option in the unlikely event the Sox put a Polar Bear at 1b.)

Marte might be more available than you think. https://sports.yahoo.com/article/diamondbacks-rumors-arizona-open-trading-140557610.html The internet is littered with stories about his diva attitude, some of which might even be true. Certainly that makes a good argument against acquiring him, but he is also a legitimate superstar who is the best overall player at a position at which the Sox have had a void for well over half a decade now. BTV gives him a surplus value of $77mill. A deal sending Duran ($60mill) and LHP Brandon Clarke ($16mill) certainly seems fair. Another player (2b replacement David Hamilton? 1b Tristin Casas? Rule 5 eligible RHP Jedixson Paez) could make tjis deal more enticing. Does Arizona need Duran? Maybe. A couple years ago, their OF of the future appeared to be set with Carroll, Alek Thomas, and Jake McCarthy. But it turns out, there is a really good chance Thomas and McCarthy both suck. Still ridiculous?

No 2013 title. Keep Rizzo? No AGon. No AGon? No way to unload Crawford, Beckett, Punto. Sox keep Crawford and Beckett? They cannot afford Victorino, Uehara, Drew, Napoli, etc…

But he had a good fielding percentage in those 40 chances!!

Yes. Dodgers, Padres, Yankees, Blue Jays, Tigers, Astros And even if Volpe - a 3 bWAR player the 2 previous seasons - is a crappy hitter, you named Austin Wells as one. Wells has a career OPS+ of 99. If he’s a crappy hitter, so is 50% of MLB…

Still proliferating. I did not say any players were “crappy” hitters in the original comment. Bellhorn brought that in and I only used the phrase in quotes to refute it. And for good reason - MLB has always had crappy hitters who were still deserving starters. You clearly jumped into this in the middle. It’s a short thread. Re-read it. And more important -a player having a bad 2025 isnt necessarily a “crappy hitter.” You called Luis Arraez - a man whose career compares reasonably to Tony Gwynn’s - a crappy hitter based on 2025 alone. Volos hit well last year, right? When did Eaton or Sogard ever have a season comparable to that? Refsnyder is 8th in OPS vs LHP in MLB over the last 3 years - a stat I cited earlier. That still doesn’t make him an MLB starter. It does make him a situational role player - yes or no? You e been missing the point all along. I know your vision isnt great and don’t know if you use ZoomText or any equivalent. But if anyone else kept repeating as you have, I would justifiably question them. Re-read. This started when 5Gold questioned the Sox using Lowe as a cleanup hitter since he was released from a last place team. I replied the Sox have several career bench players in the lineup regularly who are far, far bigger concerns. And they do. Yes or no?

Now you’re just repeatedly proliferating Bellhorn’s weak interpretation. I called Refsnyder (and others) bench players. Specifically “last man on the bench.” Refsnyder spent 8 years bouncing from New York to Tampa to Toronto to Minnesota making MLB cameos along the way. The description is apt. I also said he his a situational role player. He is. He excels at hitting LHP (the situation) and really, noting else. Hes not a starter. But right now folks are worried about Lowe because he was released by Washington. Lowe is a Gold Glove winning first baseman with a Silver Slugger whose resume absolutely squashes that of Refsnyder, Eaton, Sogard, and numerous other starters on this team. The whole crappy hitter thing was from Bellhorn. Stop trying to refute the entire point with irrelevancy.

Some of these “bad” teams also have young talented pitching prospects to debut without accruing service time. Pittsburgh, for example, looks like a favorable matchup for many at. first glance. But it’s not so easy if they throw Skenes, Keller, and Bubba Chandler at you…

I have mixed emotions about Bregman. He was great to start the year, but has been rather meh since getting hurt. I know getting hurt can hamper a player’s performance. But we are talking about a long term deal here, and is more or less likely to keep getting hurt as he ages? Also at some point I did hate this guy for the way he whined about the fan treatment The Cheatin’ Astros received. I’m on the Ketel Marte Bandwagon now. Sure Hes pretty whiny, too. But he doesn’t cheat…

If we’re talking OPS, I agree…

Or the weird fact that David Hamilton had a .938 OPS in August but only has 9 PA in September. It’s like, why get hot?