bkzwhitestrican

Just wait until Chapman has his annual 6-week slump where he can't throw strikes.

I always wondered why Boston wouldn't just load their roster with right handed hitters, considering that the Green Monster boosts righty production a ton (similar to how the Yanks refused to sign any good lefty bats the last few years). But Narvaez was a good get for you guys. He probably has more value in Fenway than he would've in YS, evidenced by his drastic home/away splits (.956 OPS at Home, .652 on the road).

Maybe not at this moment. But at the trade deadline when contending teams are desperate to add help, they might get a handsome offer.

You can argue that his value is as high as its going to be (given his large contract and questionable locker room presence). If the Sox fall further out of contention I think they should consider it. A $300M contract for a DH will start looking terrible as soon as Devers isn't a top 10 hitter.

Sox fans have probably had the most highs and lows of the 21st century in MLB. But at least you have the championships to go with all those miserable seasons. Fans of teams like the Rockies and Orioles have nothing but lows. As for Yankees fans, we do get to enjoy most regular seasons but then end up humiliated in October.

Us? I thought you were a Red Sox fan. Or maybe I'm confusing you with another poster that has Splinter in their name

I think the Yanks are more good than great this year, but the majority of the AL has been downright bad so it's making them look great by comparison. Looking around the league, you could argue that 8 of the 10 best teams in baseball are in the NL (Dodgers, Phillies, Mets, Padres, Cubs, Giants, Braves, Cardinals in the NL, Tigers and Yanks in the AL).

The format of those MSN rankings is bad, where you have to click between each slide for each team. I prefer Bleacher Report's: https://bleacherreport.com/articles/25197306-mlb-power-rankings-quarter-mark-2025-season

Judge barely hanging on at .401 right now. Going 3-12 this series dropped his average 13 points.

I know everyone here was expecting a lot of regression on offense for the Yanks with Soto and Torres leaving. It still might be coming, but with a quarter of the season in the books it hasn't really shown up so far. Here is how everyone is performing to date: Aaron Judge - 1.279 OPS (this is absurd and he likely won't hit at this peak level all season, BUT if there's any player who can it's Judge) Trent Grisham - .996 OPS (still waiting for the other shoe to drop with Grish, but we'll ride the hot streak while it lasts. On an optimistic note, his Baseball Savant page has him listed in the 92nd percentile or above in xWOBA, xSLG, Barrel%, and Chase Rate, so maybe there is some sustainability here) Paul Goldschmidt - .902 OPS (can a 37 year old former MVP really turn back the hands of time? So far the answer is yes. We'll see if he can keep playing at this level as the wear and tear of the season affects him. But for now he's been way better than expected) Ben Rice - .900 OPS (it's not unheard of for a second year player to make a leap on offense, and it appears that's where Ben Rice is at. His batted ball data is crazy and leads me to believe this is sustainable, though not to the tune of a .900+ OPS. He still has trouble with breaking/offspeed pitches [currently hitting .354 against fastballs, and .098 against everything else] so I'm sure pitchers will adjust accordingly) Anthony Volpe - .770 OPS (could this finally be the year Volpe doesn't suck at the plate? Maybe. He is extremely streaky so it's hard to tell what's real with him. But his approach in his at bats does seem better this year, as evidenced by his 11.7% walk rate [up from 6.1% last season]) Jasson Dominguez - .761 OPS (the Martian is finally getting consistent playing time and seems to be settling in nicely. He may have to abandon switch hitting if he doesn't improve from the right side [currently hitting .305 as a lefty, and .116 as a righty] but at only 22 years old he still has time to develop) Austin Wells - .748 OPS (weird offensive season for Wells. His batting average is weak and he isn't walking much, but the hits he does accumulate have been of the multi-base variety [16 of his 27 hits this season were XBH]. A sub .300 OBP isn't pretty but if he can offset it with homers then I guess we can't complain) Jazz Chisholm - .714 OPS (currently out with an oblique injury and won't be back until around mid-June. Jazz has been selling out for power this year and I can't say I'm a fan of this approach. Sure he's hit some dingers, but he's currently sporting a .181 BA along with a 31% K rate. Hopefully he finds a more balanced approach once he returns.) Cody Bellinger - .688 OPS (he's certainly been a disappointment on offense so far, but he has been playing a little better lately [raised his OPS from .521 to .688 over the past month]. Settling in as a slightly above average bat with good defense and speed would be a positive outcome.) Oswaldo Cabrera - .631 OPS (currently out with a fractured ankle and his return date is unknown. As a utility player Oswaldo is useful, but he'll never be someone you'd want to plug into your lineup everyday. A .243 BA is decent but it's mostly singles.) Oswald Peraza - .617 OPS (he was a top 100 prospect once upon a time, but his bat never developed enough to make him an everyday player. He needs a team that is willing to play him everyday so that he might have a chance to develop at the plate since he does have decent pop. Unfortunately he won't have that opportunity with the Yanks, and is currently a defense first bench player)

Fair enough. I can understand the sentiment,

True on Grisham and Goldschmidt, I think serious regression is in the cards for both. Rice is in his second year and he looks to have improved a lot, though probably not to the tune of .930 OPS. I think he can finish the year in the .800s though. Weaver and Fried are both all star caliber players. There will probably be some regression since their current ERAs are ridiculous, but it's not like them pitching really well is a shock. On the flip side the Yanks also have players seriously underperforming who could improve. Bellinger should snap out of his funk at some point. Jazz (when he returns) probably won't run a batting average of. 180 with a 37% K rate all year. Devin Williams will hopefully improve upon his 10 ERA. Schmidt has gotten a few starts under his belt since coming back from injury and appears to be rounding into form. So all in all I don't think the team as a whole is outperforming expectations.

Ha maybe. Or maybe I've seen enough seasons to know better. Separately, they had this stat on Judge during yesterday's game that was pretty absurd.

March/April are usually pretty unreliable indicators for the rest of the season, so I'm not buying into the team's offensive uptick just yet. But Judge doing what he's doing is just more of the same.

F*** tax day. Had to make a $15K payment to the IRS this morning. Maybe I should've held off in hopes that the IRS gets dismantled.

As someone mentioned above, men's mental health is very often overlooked and even downplayed. How many times have we heard "man up", "don't be a crybaby", "suck it up", etc. when dealing with an issue? If you can't talk about it then it can bottle up, and for some lead to an extreme scenario down the line, like the one Duran detailed. If that trigger didn't fail then the media would have been having a different conversation about Duran. There would be narratives about how he had mental issues, was weak, couldn't handle the pressure.

Sox are heading to Baltimore next. That's a hard series to win. 2-5 start seems like a possibility. Teams can't win the season in March/April, but they can certainly lose it if they dig a big enough hole. However it's still March so I don't think any team should be worried yet.

Not worried about his elbow. Sure maybe it will explode on the mound, but I won't worry until it happens. Are you worried about Crochet's durability? He's thrown less than 200 innings in the last 3 seasons combined but will be expected to throw 180-200 innings this season. Pre-worrying about injuries ain't my style and sure we could worry about these things, but I'd rather wait and see what happens. I like Bellinger and think he will fit YS really well. Goldy is meh, but he should be an upgrade over last year's version of Rizzo. Probably the biggest variable on offense will be full seasons of Dominguez/Wells/Rice and if they develop more this year. Losing Soto hurts but I think the Yanks can still have a top 10 offense if things go right (which they usually don't).

I am here don't worry. Stanton injury was predictable so I don't think it hurts as much as the pitching injuries. Losing Cole is a huge blow. The starting pitching was the strength of the team, and now it's pretty mediocre until Gil/Schmidt return. AL East is still winnable but it will probably be tightly contested all season. That said, the Sox are still an unknown quantity. They certainly have a lot of potential to win the division and even the AL. Their pitching is pretty beat up too so their depth will be tested. They are also relying on a lot of young players which could go great (if they progress as planned) or bad (if they don't develop as planned). But that's the story with a lot of teams.

Yep Yanks were relatively healthy last year but the odds of it happening two years in a row were doubtful. The AL should be interesting this year with no seemingly great team.

The Sox's roster looks pretty good this season. Crochet takes their rotation up a notch, and the high number of young promising hitters in your system is concerning to me.

I know this is a Red Sox site, but you're either trolling or didn't watch much of the Yanks if you think last year's version of Rizzo is better than anybody, and likewise Verdugo (both are currently jobless) . Even Jazz is an upgrade over last year's version of Gleyber. Losing Soto is of course the biggest loss and the other offensive upgrades won't make up for that loss.

I would say that I expect the Yankees to be worse this season. Offensively they will probably struggle many games. Judge can only do so much. Stanton is in limbo. Bellinger and Jazz will probably be above average hitters. Everyone else is a question mark. Who knows what to expect from a 36 year old Goldschmidt (at best average production, and at worst a repeat of 2024 Rizzo), Wells was carried by two good months last year so who knows what his output will be, we're still waiting for Volpe to turn into an at least average hitter, and then we're hoping some combination of the kids (Dominguez/Rice/Cabrera/Peraza/Periera) figures it out this season. The pitching should be better (assuming good health). On paper the rotation can go toe to toe with any other group in the league. And they better perform that way because they probably won't get a ton of run support. Not worried about the bullpen, they should be solid. Williams/Weaver at the end of the bullpen is elite, and then everyone else is at least average. One thing the Yankees do every year is produce a good bullpen, even with a bunch of nobodies. The defense automatically improves without Soto & Rizzo's corpse at least. Baserunning too. I would project the Yanks to finish with somewhere between 89-92 wins.

No clue, but just from looking at the stats you can see a clear dip in his production after the news came out in Nov 2019.