drewski6

Not sure why Eaton and Romy , who are good situational bench players are catching strays, but I largely agree with you. We've spoken about this before, but when sellers end up competing for playoff spots, making the playoffs becomes unimpressive to me, so Im not putting a ton of stock in the whole "starting from an advantageous spot" going into the offseason. To be clear, not saying that we were bad conclusion of last year, just that going into the offseason I thought "work to be done" and I didnt mean 3 SP....But....I didnt know Tolle was going to continue to not be ready. I thought it would be a Buchholz situation where he hs 10 starts down there and a 1.5 ERA and its like what are we doing here?

I bet we are a different team at home.

Sorry 5GG, I was wrong and you were right, the K's are killing us.

Didnt realize this was this early, today.

Noting to do with being cheap. Everything to do with not knowing how to communicate.

Made the playoffs in a hilariously weak AL on the strength of pitching and then were hopeless at the plate in the playoffs when anyone other than Story was at the plate.

Over Duran? Correct. Over Abreu? Correct. Do we get to a point where we start moving guys around, e.g. Cedanne to 2b, Durbin to bench. I dont think we are there yet. Now we know that Monasterio isnt going to be our savior nor is IKF, we'll see what happens going forward. But to me....No, Masa should never take at-bats away from Duran/Abreu, but he should take plenty of at-bats away from others.....

But Moon said the issue with our offense is that we should have traded an OF'er. If he had meant specifically Masa, he would have said that. He has screamed for Abreu for Paredes and a lefty pen pitcher. Thats a step back offensively and would have made our issues worse. He also proposed a lot of Duran out the door trades beause "Masa isnt much worse as a DH and the real value is Duran in the field, and Duran should go because he has more value to another team because he can be in the field" .... These are not moves to bring in offense. These are moves so everybody has a set position or for pen help. You may think well make these moves and everybody will have a clear role, and that has an effect, and maybe - but I remain skeptical that having a clear path to playing time for Duran/Abreu/Masa is going to make Durbin , Anthony, or Contreras wake up. I still think that this is a better team with Duran AND Abreu. And I would play Cedanne in the infield before I traded either one of them. Personally, I trust Cora, but I am not sure why he thinks its important to get Masa enough PT where he starts benching Duran vs righties. He could just, not do that. My hunch is that Duran got the day off because "he hasnt had one yet"....Didnt seem like the right time to do it, but maybe Cora is thinking do it now before he heats up. I understand making Durbin sit for a game but Duran made no sense to me. Maybe if Masa hadnt gotten into a game yet. Even Durbin , I have some issue because it looked like his at-bats were starting to get better. Im a Cora guy, but Im not loving what I see from him this year. And its not the roster. He didnt have to bench our best hitter vs righties against a righty based on a non-existent sample size. I get Masas presence is clunky but that doesnt mean we have to force him into 60% of games right now. My point is simply - if you want to win more games, we need more offense. That may come internally (as in bats waking up), it may come externally (but hard to trade this early in season). But I dont think that moving Duran or even waiving Masa is the catalyst for getting the offense we need. One thing I can see serving as a "wake us up" catalyst is some freaking home games. This team can win tonight because Crochet, salvage 2-4 road trip, and then sweep Padres at home and wind 5-4 through 9. Im not sweating it that much right now. But a big reason why Im not sweating it much right now is because of Duran, Anthony, Story, and Abreu. I understand that its a little clunky when 3 of your best 4 hitters are corner outfielders, when you have a fourth CO in Masa, but its the team we got and its not going to get better offensively by subtracting one of our better hitters for prospects and pen help (talking about Duran and Abreu), even if that gives a worse player (masa) a path to PT.

Im aware of the "lf" next to his name. Generally speaking; however, when posters have said trade an OF'er, they meant specifically dealing with the logjam of Duran/Cedanne/Abreu/Anthony. Anything centered around trading Masa was framed as a cost saving measure, not as a fix for the OF logjam - and we didnt even know until like 3 games ago that Masa was this much in the plans for OF. I heard its wasteful to have Anthony/Cedanne/Duran/Abreu all on the same roster with one at DH (because DHs were deemed unimportant by the "the only thing that matters here is optimizing the defensive alignment" folks), but imagine how different these teams would look if Yordan Alvarez played for us. Or Devers. Or Schwarber. But cant go there because "where would they play?! (Spoiler: DH). But some decided that we have too many DHs (positional issue) and forget getting a big bat for DH, we NEED to trade either Duran or Abreu (e.g. Duran for prospects and a reliever or Abreu for Paredes and a reliever, in both cases getting worse from a hitting talent standpoint but having a more clean roster+ getting a reliever). I see these would be moves as misguided and even more de-prioritization of hitting talent, so no, I dont agree that our issues stem from not going even more all-in on having a clean roster. The fact that Cora is choosing to juggle Cedanne/Duran/Yoshida is not magically making Durbin, Contreras, Anthony stink. Again, what we would up with wasnt the plan - we ultimately prioritized a) signing 3 pitchers, b) cleaning up the roster from a positional point of view (role for everyone), c) looking for defense-defense-defense from our positional players, d) being ultra efficient from a budget (we cant sign Schwarber, then the Masa contract goes to waste). This may be what you all want, but its not even what Breslow wanted.. What Breslow wanted was more offense because the playoffs made it obvious and Breslow even said it. But the stiff's inability to negotiate in a way that doesnt condescend botched any big bat acquisition and so he panic signed more starting pitching that we didnt need , overpaid for it, and tried to pretend like it was a choice. Its hard for me to even believe that theres lingering belief that our issues stem from any remaining murkiness regarding positional fit. The best moves we made this offseason were 1) not trading Duran, 2) not trading Abreu, 3) not trading Story. Had we traded any of them, the season would be on life support. And its not. Duran will turn it around and it will be a good season, I still believe. Sure we should have gotten an elite bat (I care 0 what position he plays), but I dont think we will be out of it by mid-may. But if Duran was traded for prospects and Story opted out out like you hoped for, then the season would very likely be a "skip".

So because of how our anemic our offense looks, we need to trade Duran? Or did you mean Masa? But thats not really "trading an OF'er".

Nice! Sounds like hes making the all star team.

Over 90 MPH exit?

Either the best hitter ever or a small sample size aberration. Also, hard hit balls is kind of subjective.

Maybe win that first game 2-0 instead of 3-0 but its kind of hard to go from 1-3 to 0-4 by subtracting anyone not named Crochet. Regardless, Duran isnt the guy right now, I would give away to get him off this team. Im not a big believer in addition by subtraction or that you turn all these would be L's into W's by cleaning up the roster. Even on the pitching side. Had we never gotten Gray, that prob just means Oviedo starts game 4 and Ranger starts game 3 (Early starts game 2). And we'd prob still be 1-3.

Had we traded Duran for prospects in spring training, I have a sneaky suspicion our record would be 1-3.

Im fine with high number of Ks if they come with extra base hits. Now if you are K'ing and not driving the ball, thats a problem, obviously.

LOBs arent from K'ing too much, they are from too many singles and walks and not enough driving gaps. You drive gaps by swinging through the baseball. You do that by meeting it out in front and attacking pitches. That will also lead to more K's. Some players are just good at picking up spin. They will K less without trying by being good hitters. But looking at players solely through their K% can be misleading. Just like looking at NBA players by their FG%. The guys with the highest fg% in NBA arent the best shooters. They are centers who never shoot and all their FGs are dunks or layups.

Do these guys stay back and slap? And why is 20% the magic threshold. Going up to the plate trying to not K is scared money and wimpy. That doesnt mean that everyone who isnt K'ing is a wimp. The how matters. I care about Xtra base hits. If someone is K'ing too much that will show in their xtra base hit totals.

Only baseball fans on a forum like everything to be set, consistent day to day, and its not a reality in 2026. Mix and match, critical thinking, everything is case by case. Its okay that not every decision is obvious. The problem with this team isnt player x doesnt play the same position or we have some depth....The problems are all the new people we've brought in have f'ing stunk. Ranger, Gray, Oviedo, Contreras, Durbin...Literally all of them. And its too early right now to start drawing conclusions or tinkering. But its not too early for each and every one of us to blame what we want to blame and confirm our biases. This is why MVP thinks the issue is not having a set player for each position, you think the issue is K's, and I think the issue is a lack of meeting the ball out in front/driving the ball. All 3 of us are just repeating what we thought the problems were going to be entering the year. Ive learned that people seeing what will confirm their biases will likely continue.

Sure, but Duran and Story can be counted on for more than just "swing and miss" and the fact that they are not elite hitters, but may need to be, is on Breslow not them. Duran and Story are 2 good hitters, and sure we need a great one. I was screaming that all offseason. Now we dont know what we are going to get from Contreras or really Anthony....So its early to get panicky. And Im not. But Duran and Story are more than just guys who strikeout at whatever rates they strike out. You act like K's are the reason for the offensive woes, and they are extremely telling towards hitting ability and I fundamentally disagree. Guys who dont K stay back too long and slap. They arent better hitters, they are wimps. Im not interested in avoiding K's and I dont think its productive. Im not interested in judging players by their K's. Im not interested in OBP or really OPS. Im interested in total extra base hits. If you are selective but without being selective to a fault, that will show in your total xtra base hits at end of season. But if you are too selective or stay back too long, youll have a good OBP, but you wont have enough extra base hits. NBA players who never take shots except when they are in close have misleadingly high fg%'s becasue they dont really shoot anything but bunnies. But if you only look at misses, you will think that guys that dont shoot are keys to offense but its just conservatism. Im not into that wimp-stuff. Take a chance , swing a bat. If you dont chase sliders you are not swinging enough.

If anything is concerning, its the lack of extra base hits. Thats why Im kind of over the OBP side of OPS. Singles and walks lead to LOB and when looking to drive the ball (important for extra base hits) , there will usually be an uptick in Ks. Im really not wanting our guys going to the plate trying to not strike out. Thats passive. Story has 2 extra base hits, Abreu 5 - the following guys have 0: Narvaez, Roman, Duran, Yoshida, Cedanne, Contreras, IKF, Durbin

When you said the only thing you are confident about them is that there would be swing and miss....I dont think thats fair. Im confident they will both have a lot of extra base hits, for example. Im confident that if healthy , they are both 3+ WAR players. Im confident that they are both very good starters. Agreed, not elite.

Story was a tick shy of 30-30 last year and was our hottest hitter in the playoffs.

Story was carrying this team on his back end of last year, and Duran has been our highest WAR guy multiple years in a row.

Thats just completely unfair to Story and Duran. Good hitters are going to trust their swing decisions, start the swing process earlier, and drive more balls. They will also have more swing and miss. Duran and Story are not the problem. They are likely, our 2 best players. This team is going nowhere without either (just like last year).