Hugh2
-
Posts
3,897 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
7
Content Type
Profiles
Boston Red Sox Videos
2026 Boston Red Sox Top Prospects Ranking
Boston Red Sox Free Agent & Trade Rumors, Notes, & Tidbits
Guides & Resources
2025 Boston Red Sox Draft Pick Tracker
News
2026 Boston Red Sox Draft Pick Tracker
Forums
Blogs
Events
Store
Downloads
Gallery
Everything posted by Hugh2
-
Finally, only took them a whole week to do the sensible thing.
-
I'll say it again again....again. I think it should be Rafaela, temporarily. If this team wants to compete this year then Rafaela should be your starting SS until a better option presents itself or a move can be made in the trade market that sends Rafaela back to CF. The pitching actually looks good, how long can that hold with subpar play at SS? Guys getting on base and double plays not being turned will take it's toll. It also uncrowds the outfield when Ref comes back. This team can't afford to have Pablo Reyes, David Hamilton, and Rafaela all in the lineup at the same time.
-
Up until now he had been playing SS, he played short stop before he played CF, and even as he came up in the minor leagues he still played SS once a week. They're not messing with his development by having him play SS 3-4 times a week instead of 1-2. Which odddly enough NOW seems to a be a very effing stupid time to STOP playing Rafaela at SS. They were willing to play him at 2B this year, this literally makes zero sense. They can still view him as their long term CF and play him as a starting SS temporarily. It's really the only option they have. Unless you want to watch David Hamilton bounce balls to 1B all year. This team is built on ground ball pitching, things will be ugly if they keep that hole up the middle, I promise.
-
You can't practice fast twitch muscle fibers, you can't practice arm length, you can't practise height. This team doesn't have a practice problem, they have a roster problem.
-
Everything is a teachable skill, but teaching will only make you so much better. You can't just teach someone to have better tools. E.G. Hamilton has the worse arm strength for any short stop I've ever seen. I think guys like Casas can be coached up to be a better defender at 1B but the black hole you have a SS has a blatantly obvious in house solution that the team is ignoring and it's going to start hurting them quick. A lot more ball are hit to SS than to CF. The drop off from Rafaela to Duran is no where near as bad as Rafaela to Hamilton. I'm sorry, but Hamilton does not belong at SS.
-
Well it was a nice opening week. The boo birds needed something, and now they have been fed.
-
I know he's better in CF, but I don't know how someone can be "much much better" than a position they're already plus at.
-
Me too, but if Story is out for the year I'm fine with Rafaela on a 75/25 CF/SS split until Mayer is ready. It's not really any different than what he did in the minors except he'd predominately be playing SS over CF opposed to CF over SS. Soxprospects talked about this being their best option and Romey Gonzalez being the better bench choice. Seems like they've already done the later, I don't know when we see Rafaela at SS, they might only have him play there 1-2 times a week and roll with Pablo but I suspect in some capacity we see him there more. If Story is out for the year, I rental may be looked at.
-
Ok, I will also go listen to their last podcast in which they advocate Rafaela at SS as their best option. http://news.soxprospects.com/2024/04/podcast-ep-311-neverending-scary-story.html I would prefer Rafaela in CF, but right now, the team might be best with him at SS. EDIT. I don't advocate the move permanent, and I still think he should start 1-2 games a week in CF and have Pablo/Hamilton play SS.
-
There's no SS in the minors who is close to MLB ready, and is this team really worth investing big time assets in? especially at SS when Mayer is on the way. Finding another outfielder on the 40 man is 100X easier than finding another SS right now. The Sox planned on using Rafaela about once a week at SS anways, why not just stick to the plan but play him a few extra games there.
-
The drop off in CF to Duran is not as bad as the drop off at SS to Hamilton/others. Also I think it's a mischaraterization to say "not great" he's defense has been characterized many times as plus at SS. He grew up playing SS, and continued playing it 1-2 times week while he's been in the minors in the Sox system. Sox may very well roll the dice with Hamilton at SS, but Rafaela is their best option there right now and IMO it's not even close.
-
Valdez looks better this year, I think Casas is going to be fine, and Devers has had seasons were he's rounded out to being average. Having a good SS changes a lot, which is why I'm a big proponent of moving Rafaela there. Rafaela playing SS was already part of their plan, now they're only increasing by a few games a week.
-
I think Rafaela is going to be your home opener SS, or at least probably should be.
-
It seems to me that they're going to weigh expectations, rosters construction etc much heavier at this point. Would a reasonable person still agree that Baltimore is probably a better team overall and should finish ahead of the Red Sox? As time goes on, what your record is will hold a lot more weight, by mid-season that will be 99%of it.
-
That's an insanely large number to ignore, that has to be somewhere around 250-300 less outs being made in todays game simply because the batter is less likely to put the ball in play.
-
Sox have the 5th best run differntial in baseball.
-
I’m not sure what these people expect from the boo birds when the Sox get off to a nice start.
-
Even a team that loses 110 games is winning almost 1 out of every 3 games. A sweep is good even against a bad team, it’s also encouraging to see the Sox beat up on a bad team. Yes, you should beat up on bad teams but oddly enough bad teams were the Sox Achilles heel last year
-
If this was true then any mlb team could just rule 5 a better team.
-
He’s also just 26 in only his 3rd season, in his second season he finished 8th in CY young voting last year, and in the year prior he was 6th in ROY and came into the season ranked by BA as the 12th prospect on the game. He’s the exact type of player most teams would covet right now.
-
I've listened to every Soxprospects podcasts, and a lot of Baseball America podcasts. It's a repeated theme, and also one echoed by many of their guests they've had whether it be the head of scouting or of other departments and Red Sox personal that they've interviewed in the past. There's a lot of guys in the front office whose names we don't hear, from amateur to international scouting that are looking at these kids, building relationships with them etc etc etc. A guy like DD probably went out to watch Tanner Houck pitch because the Sox were likely (well obviously) thinking about taking him with their first pick. But after that, the picks are beneath their paygrade I suppose for lack of a better term.
-
Back in 2022 in 134 innings Stripling had a 3.01 ERA and a 1.02 WHIP in 134 innings. Never been great but the interesting thing about him is it seems the more innings he throws the better his numbers are. If he's healthy this year he could provide some stability to the A's team. Maybe they can break 55 wins this year.
-
I can almost gurantee you DD never heard of any of those guys before they signed, other than Tanner Houck and as mentioned afterwards Tristan Casas. Giving him credit for those two is pretty good, but outside of your first pick, or the IFA guy you're giving 2 million to all those picks are left up to the scouting department.
-
The thing with Casas is, he strikes me as the kind of guy who is going to bet on himself, in otherwords it might be really hard to keep him away from going to free agency. Obviously we want to see the Sox resign more of their homegrown talent, and they really need to do that. But even when you operate under that mentality you're still going to lose some guys to free agency, you can't resign everyone. Casas would likely sign a deal buying out free agent years under the perceived value that he thinks he can grow into over the next 6 years, he'd easily be worth it if he is that player, but it also means more risk up front for the Red Sox. This is pure conjecture, it will be interesting to see if he's extended at some point.
-
Wrong. The Mariners were 12th in runs scored last year. They certainly weren’t an elite hitting team but calling them a “bad hitting team” is just false.