drewski6

Most roster decisions are not made for a single reason. Theres usually a multiple of reasons/variables considered and who can be sent down does get taken into account.

Maybe for a little bit of time though. Anyone you can send down you can call back up. If you jettison Masa that cant be undone. EVery year guys get sent down because teams can send them down on every team. They had to change the rules and create prospect promotion incentives jsut becasue. Theres secondary reasons too....E.g. delaying KC service time counter to get his prime years cheap and not have to extend him for bigger money. This stuff plays in, but I agree its never the "only reason"

Well, looking at the bottom of the graphic, deathball can mean knuckle-curve or put-away pitch. If its the former, we do need a new name for the knuckle-curve, but deathball aint it. Or maybe we dont need to have all 15 curveball variations to have their own name. Maybe we just call a knuckle-curve a curveball. Maybe we can jsut call a slurve a curveball too.

I disagree with this. The more positions he can play, the more likely he is to find a spot on the team. I dont think they permanently ruined his ability to play 2b by playing him in the of 15 games or ruined his ability to play of by playing him at 2b 15 games. He'll find his level defensively.

I will accept this, I am satisfied with the help I received from you and moon on trying to figure it out.

I agree, but ty (sincerely) for the "more than anything else" - thats the level of nuance I appreciate. I can agree with this. But I would add that while I agree the 18m is the primary reason, a secondary reason that shouldnt be dismissed is that he cnat be sent down. A lot of times team send down the player who they can send down (i.e. has options remaining). Like if a prospect slightly outplayed a vet, but you cant send that vet down and you are not sure which one will be the guy come playoffs, you send down the kid to buy yourself time. Postpone decisions and hoard talent. Obviously, its case by case - so you dont always send down the player who you can, but you take into account who you can send down. If Anthony was out of options last year, he would have broke with the big club.

Well considering multiple people are telling me this, maybe he just had a couple good swings in the few games ive seen and its throwing off my opinion, which Im starting to thikn is probable and he hasnt been swinging it well this season, just maybe in like 3 of the 5 at-bats ive seen. Ive seen him get robbed of a base hit on 2 occasions this spring, and i may be putting too much into that.

Ive seen some good swings from him, and I dont like some of these obp and obp derivative stats.

But it may be for now

I wonder why it wasnt, and im glad you brought that up. Maybe hes honorable and was like listen guys, i havent lived up to my contract to date and im ashamed so the last thing im going to do is file a grievance against the team thats been overpaying me. But Im also not sure if its up to Yoshida or if grievances can be filed on his behalf. I wonder if the fact that hes minority made MLBPA slightly less likely to take his case. Hope not.

TY, this helps. Im not sure the bidding war would matter because of reasons I said. For exmpale, if a team offer him 8m and he accepts after released, I think that would save the red sox 8m but yoshida would still only get 18. Or im wrong, but you are correct that its not relevant. Because if a team is willing to pay him 8, it makes more sense to trade him. I went down the rabbit hole to try to gauge if we can park him in AAA which I would rather do than flip him at this point in time for 4m of salary relief. And Id rather keep him on the 26 at this point in time rather than flip him for salary relief. But if its entering May and we're healthy and mayer, Kc, eaton, Montaserio, ward are all proving to be better ballplayers, at that point in time, it may make sense to trade out masa to clear a spot on the 26. Regarding parking him in aaa at that point (may) if we can, sure. Put I feel like he put that clause in teh contract for a reason. And that reason was if this doesnt work out, i get to take my bag and go back to japan, so i think most likely if we wanted to kick him off 26 man roster in may, its either trade him or release him and in which case hes prob going back to japan (and still getting the 18m this year and next). I guess when I think about it, he put that in there for a reason (cant send me to AAA) and that reason is most likely because "Id rather be in japan than AAA"

Ive seen KC take some impressive swings this spring. The last time Casas impressed me was years ago. Recency matters. Right now KC > Casas

What if Cedanne couldnt throw but was good enough to hit? I understand that Yoshida is a bat first and Cedanne is a glove first, but the DH spot wasnt open. What about a .680 catcher who is healthy enough to hit not catch? Putting Yoshida on the IL was a stretch, but only because we perceive him as a DH - and Im not sure that screams foul to me. I think the optics of putting him on the IL are worse than the actual act. He wasnt signed to DH and DH wasnt open. Im sure there were plenty of players throughout history that were on the IL despite being healthy enough to hit. Just because Yoshida is a bad defender, Im not sure that makes the IL placement so much worse. I do believe that if Devers was 100% healthy to start season, and if they went with him at 3b and Bregman at 2b and the dh spot was open (in like an alternative world) I do think that they would have probably had Masa start on the team as DH. But do to things that had nothing to do with Masa (Devers/Bregman/Casas thing), the DH spot wasnt open, so Masas inability to throw did matter to some extent. So I would call the IL of him a stretch buy maybe stop short of calling it phantom/BS. Masa shouldnt get extra protections because hes a bad defensive outfielder, imo. And it feels like part of the reason ppl think it was unfair to him to IL him was because he wasnt providing much glove value anyways but Im not sure I want to give Yoshida extra protections for that. For contrast, if Abreu couldnt throw but could DH nad he went on the IL, I dont think it would be viewed quite the same. ANd theres a reason for that. Becasue you are losing Abreu glove/defense value. But now we're providing more protections for Yoshida than Abreu becasuse with Abreu , the ability to play the field makes it a deeper loss, and that gives me pause

What is having 9 capable starting pitchers? Depth?

Garbage! Up and down! The only one I feel here is accurate is Abreu (if he plays against some lefties but not all) and Mayer (if he plays against some lefties but not all). I would think / hope both can do better if facing exclusively righties. Cedanne might be accurate, and if so, thats a must start player and Ive been too hard on him. I expected the offense to regress and Im starting to think now that hes over .700 which makes him unbenchable. So thats another one that could be right. Casas and Yoshida should have DNQ - as in most likely is the sample size will be small so it can be anywhere between .100 OPS and 1.100 OPS because small sample sizes fluctuate like that. But Anthony, Contreras, Duran, Romy (do they think hes going to play against righties?) are too low. And Story prob too. Regarding KC, its either going to be a DNQ (too small a sample size (does not qualify)) or higher, they arent going to give him 300 PA if his OPS is .715. Because .715 from a bat first player isnt forcing your way in. Also KC (and even IKF btw) have had some good at bats this spring that ive seen. I even think IKF is too low here.

TY this helps and I was stuck! I understand that waiver claims go by inverse order and never a bidding war, but if claimed that team would be on the hook for the whole contract (next year too) so I figure thats a long shot. More likely, hed pass through waviers at which point the red sox can try to get him to agree to take a minor league assignment vs free agency. I realize now that if he selects free agency, its not going to make what he makes. So what happens if he becomes a free agent and 2 teams want him and they both try to sign him. Well the money offered would only become relevant if it exceeds 18m which wont happen. So if hes a free agent and SD padres offer him 3m to Cincinat offering him 1.5. If he choses the padres offer, then I think the redsox would be on the hook for 15m and padres 3 vs reds offer with redsox on hook for 16.5 and reds for 1.5. So the money to him, doesnt change and hes not going to prioritize who willhelp the red sox the most (the team that just cut him). And thats why because the money is irrelevant whom he picks will probably most likely be based on location (west coast preferences), playing time, and maybe even going back to Japan. But hes making 18m so the money wont really matter, TY moon.

How sure are you that he wasnt actually hurt?

I honestly see such a contrast between people being like we need 11 great starters, did you see how many starters we used last year!!! What , this guy isnt one of our projected 9 starting position players? Ship him out. Hitters get hurt too, not just pitchers.

Im with you here. I dont deal Masa to make the roster more neat. If I can park him in AAA, I dont jettison him at all. If I cant park him in AAA, we may need the spot on the 26man but not at this time and I pospone the decision if I can. So maybe I want Eaton on team, but i put him in minors just because I can (if he has options) because Im trying to hoard talent because depth is important. People like Eaton, KC, Ward may eventually push Masa off

Durbin , Casas, Monasterio, Romy, Campbell, , Masa, JD. Ranked in order of best hitter from best to worst 1. Duran (HUGE DROP OFF) 2. Romy 3. Campbell (impressing me this spring) 4. Durbin 5. Masa 6. Casas 7. Monasterio (TBD for me)

Ill give you casas and monasterio is a tbd. But no way on Romy, Campbell , JD. Dubin is close

And Im trying to figure out if/why Masa would accept a AAA assignment. So my question is if he is outright released. Now hes a FA, can he sign a 1 yr/3m deal. Im not asking if we can trade him in a hicks like deal. I have no interest in that. But if the answer is no, he cant sign anything more than a min contract if he is outright waived, then he is more likely to take a minor league assignment because a 1yr/3m deal is off the table.

Forget it, I dont care to rehvae the same conversations a fifteenth time. I see no reason for him to take a minor league deal. Doesnt mean he wouldnt. But if Im him, im like no, release me. Then I can sign even a 1 yr deal even at 2m. Or he cant my question is can he? And no way would we be on the hook for any amount of this new deal.....Obvs we are on the hook for the 18m minus the min portion. Im not trying to flip Masa for a positional player or include a prospect for salary relief. Im trying to park him in AAA so we Eaton can make the roster.

This isnt the problem Im trying to solve.

But what if hes outright released and 2 teams want him and one goes up to 2m....Why are we assuming he'd only get minimum?