Hypothetical scenario - 100 identical groundballs are hit to two different shortstops.
Shortstop A gets to 80 of them but makes every play he gets to.
Shortstop B gets to all 100 but makes 10 errors.
Who is the better defender?
True, and that might be the case with my possession suggestion of Chapman.
But one Glove-First or Glove-Only player batting ninth rarely derails a team…
Dalbec was just bad defensively. He couldn’t catch a cold if he was naked in Norway. (Alternate punchline: I heard he caught COVID, but he booted it.)
Yoshida to DH is more likely, since they have the outfielders already even if they don’t bring back Duvall. Duran (Refsnyder)-Rafaela-Verdugo is a step up.
But fixing those corner infield spots could, should and even would have a bigger impact.
I have heard the “Sox won’t re-arrange” arguments, but they’re really not valid. When the Sox signed Kike the first time, how many people thought it was to play CF? I’m not even sure it was, even though it certainly looked like it would make sense (which it certainly did)…
Abreu is in MLB. Ditto Valdez.
Drohan, Gambrell, German, Van Belle, Hamilton and Kavadas are in AAA.
AA has plenty of them, including Denlinger, Dobbins, Yorke, Guerrero, Binelas, Rosier, Meidroth, Jordan and a few others…
I do like a Garrett-Duran framework. I think it makes sense for both teams, especially given Duran having another year of low money and Miami having a weak OF, deep rotation, and shallow pockets…
I do hope he can do that. And do it quickly.
I know he was a 3b in high school, but scoring to B-R.com, he’s only played at 3b eight times in his entire minor league career, and not st all since A ball. Which makes me wonder where exactly was this work ethic to improve defensively before?
Probably Josh Hader, but he’sa free agent after this season.
Tanner Scott is another good one this year statistically, but I would not trade Verdugo for him. (Miami makes that deal so fast that they would go back in time to before that deal was made, and then make it again.)
Also what was that old fashioned Earl Weaver recipe for success. Three parts
1. Pitching
2. Something. I forget what
3. Three run homers.
Can you help me recall what Mr. Weaver had in the second spot…
So the argument is the Sox always ignore defense and look for hitters?
While on another thread, there is intense scrutiny going on as to why the Sox can’t develop pitchers internally.
Hey, maybe the problem isn’t that the Sox can’t develop pitchers; maybe the problem is expecting any young pitchers to be productive while standing in front of a lackluster (to be kind) defense…