It was also a big story when Judge set the AL home run record. Not sure what your point is.
If you want to know something about a hitter, which stat tells you the least? BA? OBP? SLG? OPS?
We didn’t?
Last year the Sox most frequently used SP were Pivetta, Hill, Wacha, Eovaldi and Winckowski
Right now the rotation is Paxton, Whitlock, Houck, Bello and Crawford.
Is it upgraded over last year?
No one needs them all. But each one is more informative.
BA has the advantage of being familiar to even the most casual baseball fan, and so it will never go away. But popularity doesn’t equate to informative…
Probably more guaranteed money. The Texas contract has options and incentives that reportedly can reach up to $63mill over 3 years.
Maybe Eovaldi chose to bet on himself…
But if you want a measure of how good a hitter is, OPS, OBP, wOBA, wRC, OPS+, RC and probably a few others all give more information than batting average…
The number of walks Devers has this year is absolutely not the least informative stat. It tells you exactly how many walks he has. Right down to the very last walk.
That you can or cannot determine any root causes or hypotheticals from this doesn’t change that. That kind of logic can be applied to lots of stats, if not all of them.
Remember - stats on their are a record of a players history, not his ability. We use this history to quantify ability in most cases. But it’s not a perfect method and never will be…
You’re moving the goal posts.
I said no stat gives you less information about a hitter than batting average. If you disagree, tell me what stat is less informative?
Baez was also a rental. The Sox rented Kyle Schwarber that same deadline for nothing comparatively.
Kike will have appeal as a trade target. No one is going all in and unloading a top prospect for him. But certainly the Sox can get a player with a future for him…
You do occasionally see a team do quite well when selling, even without obvious overpays for rentals, like the Mets sending Pete Crow-Armstrong in order to rent Javier Baez. For example, giving up Scott Effross got Hayden Weneski into the Cubs’ rotation. The Orioles acquired stud reliever Yennier Cano in the Jorge Lopez trade. The Pirates got Oneil Cruz for Tony Watson…
The eye test is subjective and biased and often incomplete. If I asked you for an assessment of Arraez as a hitter, you’d probably have to look up stats due to a complete dearth of eye test data this year…
I liked Lopez, too. But if you go by BTV’s model, Duran was only worth a surplus value of $5.9mill when that deal was made. His new (and possibly already outdated) surplus value of $30.8mill is significantly better. Whether or not Miami cares is another matter. But that they got a reigning batting champion for Lopez does place the bat for him much higher.
But this is a case where each team has a surplus in one area and a clear need in another. If Miami insist on Arraez-level players, the Sox (and most teams) are out…
Paxton and Turner likely have the biggest appeal. Kike might as well due to his versatility and CF defense. I could see Duvall.
But it’s hard to say. There might not be too many sellers since most of MLB, Sox included, aren’t that far of the place for the third wild card…
The Sox match up with the Marlins on BTV.
The Sox have depth IN CF with Duran (30.4) and Rafaela (25.3). These do match up with a few the Marlins’ SP, including Rogers (33.4), Luzardo (27.6), Garrett (22), and Cabrera (21.7).
The Marlins desperately need a controllable CF. But no idea how they feel about Duran or Rafaela…