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And even then, you’re using lifetime numbers. Safe bet Yaz hit LHP a bit worse those last 7 or 8 years of post-greatness…

Plus they’re behind Puerto Rico, Washington DC, Northern California, Timothy Chalomet, Greenland, and Vermont on the Statehood Waiting List…

At a minimum, give back the oil tankers we seized. Not the oil. Just the tankers…

His .513 OPS in CF disagrees with you..

Unless the line of thought was “we haven’t had a decent 2b since Pedroia, and not even ‘most recent Pedroia’, so if this guy can hit and find 2b on the diamond, that puts him ahead of Vaughn Grissom at the top of the depth chart”…

Campbell’s OPS as a LF is 2.100! Why are the Sox wasting time with Roman Anthony out there?!?

227 PA at 2b 29 PA as OF

The reason he has been benched is very likely simply because he isn’t the best first baseman on a Venezuelan All Star team. And that’s ok with me…

Or on the “maybe he’s like Bogaerts and Devers in that he has a spot where he is comfortable and likes to play and when that all happens he has been known to crush baseballs wuth authority.” Whether anyone likes the reason or not, it has to be considered as a possibly for issuing that statement. No one said every statement has to be a pearl of wisdom…

A 6 game stretch on a National All Star team. Think the Cubs are concerned that Pete Crow-Armstrong got benched?

Several possible reasons. 1. Optimism. They believe in his athleticism and think he will be good eventually. 2. Experience. 2b is where he spent the bulk of his college and minor league career as well. Doubtful Georgia Tech was so stocked with talent in the corner INF and OF slots that they couldn’t move him elsewhere.. 3. Open options. While unlikely, some folks might keep that “you never know” mindset just in case, at least with regards to public statements they prefer not to backtrack on.

If you’re talking about great hitting, does handedness matter? Truly great hitters are rarely shut down by like-sided pitching…

Wacha lead that 2022 pitching staff in bWAR. Hill was certainly worth the money the Sox paid him. Eovaldi was as injury-prone as they get before he came to Boston. He certainly had one outstanding season in 2021. Sometimes signing injured or injury-prone pitchers doesn’t work out. That is true. But then, the same thing can be said about healthy pitchers. The difference with these contracts is the level of commitment. How many Liam Hendriks and Wade Millers does it take to equate to one David Price?

Maybe once they get revenue sharing and a mandatory drug testing program in place…

No one said it was a major issue. But if I’m going to worry about one of the Sox catchers, the I think the bigger worry is the one who got 446 plate appearances as opposed to the one who only got 188. It’s not like Narvaez has any kind of track record where I can tell if last year was the real deal or just some lucky fluke year…

But combined with his short track record, if Wong is able to fall into “offensive black hole”, how immune is Narvaez? And right now, it’s more detrimental if Narvaez does so than if Wong does…

I worry more about Narvaez. He is going to actually play, has a short track record for MLB success and his MiLB numbers were far worse than Wong’s…

And Raleigh over Smith. No question. Smith’s Series-wing home run doesn’t happen without Miguel Rojas’ game-tying home run, a blast that put Rojas ahead of Francisco Lindor on the “Most Career Game-Tying Home Runs in the Ninth Inning of Game 7 of the World Series” list, but I wouldn’t start Rojas over Lindor if it was a choice between the two…

I think teams expect the Sox to have benches like WBC teams. Yes the Sox backup catcher cannot hit. Know who else has that issue?? Every team in MLB! The Mets, with a payroll north of $300 gazillion dollars, have Luis Torrens as the backup. Their little sisters the Yankees (payroll wise) use career minor league JC Escarria behind Austin Wells. The Phillies, lead by free-spender Dave Dombrowski, have Rafael Marchan, who I believe did not play major or minor league baseball last year. (Source: Roster Resource. Final rosters might vary.) Some teams like the Dodgers (Dalton Rushing) and Orioles (Sam Basallo) have backup catchers who were top prospects that will likely move to other positions in the near future. Just like the Athletics did with Tyler Soderstrom. But for the most part, backup catchers are the punters of MLB - they go from team to team silently and only have one skill useful to their sport. Expecting a backup catcher who can catch and hit is like expecting the punter that can catch passes and block…

So you want a backup catcher that can hit and field? Any reason that player settles for a backup job? If Narvaez goes down, the Sox have Wong, Jason Delay, and Matt Thaiss. None are really hitters. But then someone like Ivan Herrera or Will Smith isn’t signing on to be a backup catcher…

Michael Wacha Rich Hill Nathan Eovaldi

The job of a backup catcher these days is to work well wuth one dedicated starter. Wong was pretty bad last year, but he did at least work well with Bello. Im not worried about Wong, and I say that without having particularly high hopes for him…

You're so Florida…

Not sure why this is a problem…

And Campbell was a BA top 3 prospect only 12 months ago, and the AL Rookie of the Month 11 months ago. That doesn’t all disappear in 100 PA. And even if he is never a superstar, and even if we only look at his remaining contract, he is still paid utility infielder money. He might not be the next Jose Altuve, but then again, he’s being paid like Brandon Drury…