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Truth. Even lesser players are extremely good. The worst MLB ball player is still better at baseball than any of us are at anything

Not a batting order… Duran 1b Campbell 2b Mayer 3b Story SS Anthony LF Rafaela CF Abreu RF

Have it by Friday. Like all accountants, your self-imposed deadlines need to be brought it regardless of realistic timelines…

You make that sound like a threat. The offense is definitely scuffling right now. It’s easy to point to their 19 run outburst vs Baltimore as the product of facing a non-pitcher, but bear in mind they did have to beat up an actual pitcher to get to that point. Id like Anthony to come up. It’s free and reversible if it doesn’t work, unlike a trade. But moving Rafaela out of CF seems like the bad option. His glove isn’t a game-changing option anywhere else, and his offense is never a solution to anything, except maybe opposing pitchers…

True. Rafaela has one purpose. That’s why he bats ninth. That’s why I advocate for moving Duran to 1b. Anthony to LF. It does appear the Sox will take a different path with Campbell going to 1b. Does this mean Rafaela to 2b? I think the Sox might need a better option there. Preferably not named Hamilton.

Your calculator broken?

Through the first 57 games, the Red Sox have scored more than 10 runs in a game 4 times this year. The Yankees have done it 8 times through 54 games. The Sox offense does appear to have stepped back without Bregman, he says, with a grasp for the mind-numbingly obvious…

Normally I expect Brenton Doyle to be higher on the list, but I can give his 2025 a pass, all things considered…

Small point, but you liked Bradley more. Not kidding, but between Bradley, Kike and Rafaela, Sox have gotten some really good CF defense in recent years…

Manage?

Yeah, retrofitting stats has been around the game longer than chewing tobacco and hot feet. You can get save stats from the 1910s and 1920s despite the save not bring a stat until 1969. If you think about it, this wasn’t easy to do. I mean, you needed to review every game for what the score and base runners were when the pitcher entered the game, make sure he didn’t lose the lead, etc. For every pitcher/every team. As for WAR, there are no defensive metrics on Fangraphs before 2003 (I think?), but there are WAR numbers. The offense is based on Runs Created, which is a calculated stat with many formulas. The most common is RC = (H+BB+HBP)*TB/PA or something like that. No idea how they got defensive runs or base running runs, possibly just simple formulae using TC, A, PO, E, etc for defense. No idea on baserunning.

I know it’s been a while, but another way to look at it is in 7 years he really hasn’t made much progress as an outfielder. Last year, he did look good, but this year Hes making 2024 look like some sort of outlier. Moving from anywhere to 1b seems to be done quite often in MLB. Why not try Duran? It does open up LF for Anthony. (I fully expect Cora forego this solution.)

Well it made a difference when referring to the “small rough patch” he was going thru at the time. I didn’t know back then it was going to last at least an additional 4 more weeks…

Small point, but I’d call Rafaela the second base defensive CF in MLB. Pete Crow-Armstrong has managed to supersede his defensive hype in my eyes…

Get that man a 1b mitt!!

So he was the third best prospect on the Astros back then, back when Boston’s third ranked prospect was Bobby Dalbec. Hes never made anyone’s Top 100 list, which is not the end-all of prospect rankings (Paul Goldschmidt never made a top 100 list either, for example), but it does still mean he was less regarded than, say, Victor Victor Mesa and Cotton Welker…

Duran is their best option for a leadoff hitter, and he can use his speed to change the course of an inning. It seems like any time an outfielder needs to take just a couple lateral steps to field his single, he turns it into an easy double. But he’s really not a good defensive outfielder…

Cora was hired by Houston because of his serious in-depth knowledge of analytics, to the point where he basically told the team everything they had been doing was outdated and incomplete. (Source: Cheated by Andy Martino) Would it really be surprising if Boston hired him for this same reason?

Never ranked anywhere, which gives him fewer credentials than Jeter Downs. He clearly has MLB talent; he’s made multiple MLB rosters. But he’s not someone any team wants as a starter getting meaningful at bats every day, despite his recent hot streak…

It’s not even June. Plenty of teams with worse starts have made the postseason…

Carried by his .611 slugging. But if he reverts towards his career SLG of .382 vs RHP, it’s going to be ugly. His OBP already aligns with his sub-.300 career mark…

The fact that Henry had to get involved at all - despite no one actually knowing what they talked about - speaks volumes about how difficult Devers was. It was never about whether or not he COULD play 1b but rather his outright refusal. And it would be one thing if Devers or Cora said there were questions about his ability. That’s never come up. The whole issue was Devers pouting and basically saying in more words “if they’re not going to let me play where I want, I’m not going to play where they want.” I can’t condone that attitude like you can. And just because he is mashing didn’t make it acceptable. I might be more sympathetic if the request was done on a whim, but it was made necessary by an injury to another player. I’d even understand if Devers was in the midst of contract negotiations, as 1b money is less than 3b money. But he’s already signed a mammoth deal that won’t change if he changes roles. And the attitude that Breslow should just do his job and go get a 1b is just unrealistic blame shifting. And Devers knows this; he’s been in MLB long enough to know no one is selling this time of year. He’s aware the only players Breslow would be able to get are borderline MLB players like Noda who may or may not represent an upgrade, or players flat out struggling to maintain an MLB job and subsequently have hit the waiver wire. Sure, Breslow passed in Seth Brown this week. But was that really a bad move? And Cora has been reluctant all along. He didn’t want Bregman for 3b at all and wanted him at 2nd. To me, this looks like him being well aware Devers would be difficult. Well, Devers got his wish. Hopefully he can keep producing enough to cover for Abraham Toro…

Maybe tomorrow he’ll respond to my post that the Buckner error “won’t be a big deal when the Sox take game seven.”…

Then it’s a damn good thing for him his life doesn’t depend on it!

Sure, wait a full month to reply and then question my point. I think I’m getting the Coco Crisp Treatment. There must be some hotter, younger, wittier forum poster folks are trying to make room for…