drewski6

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).

Its easier to go from stretched out to pen then it is to go the other way. Im not making this move *yet*. But I do realize that after him struggling in AAA with 6 SP already with the big club, that they are going to give Ranger all the chances and Gray a lot of chances...And with 2 potential SP candidates on the horizon....The path to helping this tea in 2026 may be a bp arm and thats significant help. But I see both sides as well. If it 1.5 months from now and the SP has settled and bp is blowing games , then i consider it for sure.

YOURE BLUFFING!!!!!

You graded the offseason A-

Oh no, quinn priester part deux.

The reasons why lefty-lefty matchup is far worse than righty-righty is due 1) the type of pitchers lefties usually are (lower arm slot on average, more junk on average) and 2) because you jsut see way more righties growing up. Im not one to accept conventional wisdom and I hate cliches. I think we have too much pitching. Thats never where I am coming from (repeating "wisdoms"). Outside of the MLB, everyone sucks against lefties (even righties). If you go Anthony-Duran, then late in games , they will face mostly lefties. There are true (not just because conventional wisdoms, cliches and all that lame stuff)....there are true reasons why a lefty is disadvantaged vs a lefty. And against a lefty ROman is a league average hitter (which is super impressive for lefty-lefty) and Duran is bad....And why do that to your 2 best hitters? There simply must be a better option, e.g. putting the hottest right handed hitter of the moment in between them.

It depends a lot on that lefty. Arm slot. Pitch mix. If he has multiple speeds, throwing from a lower arm slot, and has effective west-to-east pitches (sweepers, sliders) .... even Anthony is f'd. Any lefty is a .200 hitter there (at best).

Id be taking into account who they have available in the BP that day, for example is there a freshy lefty who is good? Im not sure Cora is going that deep into the mixing and match bag, but he does go pretty deep. But I cant get behind Anthony-Duran because they are both simply too good and too important to be put in a situation that is so counterable. And its a huge disadvantage to Anthony too. Maybe not as much because he stays back more than Duran who will chase every slider a lefty throws at him. But lefties dont hit lefties. The Ball is coming out from behind you. I dont want games getting decided by hoping for a lefty (any one) against a lefty on the mound. Righty - righty is wayyy different.

2 lefties in a row is a bigger deal than 2 righties. I have my doubts that Anthony would be as good vs a lefty as an average righty. Lefty - lefty is a killer matchup for all lefty batters. 2 righties i have no issue with. I really dont have an issue with 2 lefties in many cases. IN this case, you are putting our 2 best hitters together in a situation that is too counterable IMO. This is going to drive up % of lefties that both face. Its possible that people overrate the importance of L-R-L-R and also that its a bad idea here. End of games they are going to be facing nothing but lefties and they are too good of hitters to do that to. Lefties stinking against lefties is universal.

Because theyll sub a lefty in at the top of the order every time after the first or second time through.

I also try to do 30 pushups every other day.

I have a rowing machine, a peloton , and a kettlebell. Im open to kettlebell exercises if you know any good ones :)

When I am in the weight room, I am usually using my rowing machine. I have one of the expensive ones with a screen that keeps track of your score nad you race real people. Its like a peloton but a rowing machine. I love it.

Im not great at the search function. I am confident that there was some exaggerating for affect going on and I have my answer. TY for responding. I gave it a half effort to find your post, but Im giving up because I want to go watch my Bentley Falcons upset one of the best hockey teams in NCAA. Cheers.

We called it weight room even if it wasnt bodybuilding. We were actually kind of ruthless about it. You hit a deep fly to the warning track and you are getting yelled at , especially if you arent coming with us to team workouts. It was half about the bonding. But I do believe that its super important to be a professional athlete, to keep your body right. I dont mean be a bodybuilder. We really just meant come when we go for runs. When we go to the gym. When we have sleepovers. When we go on trips.....When we all do like some stupid eat healthy challenge.....When we do all those bonding stuff.....Be a part of it or you just arent part of the team. I mean you are but you arent. Like in the way Barry Bonds was not part of the team. Maybe Devers too. Thats what I half-meant. The other half was specific to Mayer and like MVP said, specific to the offseason. They pushed Mayer to bulk up. They pushed Mayer to weight room. In this case, it was literally about adding muscle. And sometimes it is. When we had dudes that were flying out to the warning track we would bark at them just the same. Push them. I also wasnt being 100% literal. Pat Riley was though. Sometihng like if you were over x% body fat he'd trade your ass every time. And while Im not all the way there, I do respect it. And I dont like when baseball players dont act like a professional. ANd keeping your body in the best possible shape is part of that.

Lifting weights is not about bulk. We use to make fun of "beach muscles". YOu dont think Michael Phelps is strong? You dont think he lifted. Bulk is max and short reps. Lean wirey strength comes from lower weight but more reps.

You aint on the team if you aint in the weight room. If you were good enough to actually be on the team, and you were one of the 3-4 guys with better things to do, then you are just Barry Bonds but you aint one of us. The dudes who didnt come to the weight room were weirdo loners and even if they were good, we didnt like em. And we didnt invite em to our parties either.

Yes, very impressive for Boston. But like all of your Boston accomplishments, us Providence folk did it first. The sinking of the Gaspee, which we here in Pawtuxet Village, RI get fall down drunk and light boats on fire EVERY YEAR to celebrate was what gave the Union the confidence to fight in the first place. I am fully convinced that Henry Knox would not have been granted that contract , as there would have been no Union, if John Brown (for whom Brown U is named) and a bunch of fellow fed up Rhode Islanders didnt stand up for Colonial rights and sink a British ship just off the coast of Warwick, RI. Walking distance from where I sit right now. The sinking of the Gaspee in 1772 was over a year before the Tea Party, drew the Union closer together, and is one of the very first acts of violence committed against the crown by the colonies.

The best feeling in baseball is when you see that CF turn around. My buddy tells me its when he makes a bad throw at 2b because hes rushed and the 1b bails him out. Ive never been there. I dont "infield".

Up until a few months a go, Mayer was a string bean who didnt have the muscular padding to stay healthy. They needed him to correct that. He corrected that. I dont know if hes going to stay healhty now, but I know the odds of it have increased. And Im sure he'll notice the extra strength at the plate too. Best thing about increasing your raw strength (besides staying healthy) is that you dont have to swing as hard as you can at everything. I think I had more homeruns on 0-2 counts than any other. "Okay Drew, take something off, youre hacking and not making contact. Boom fastball at my knees, drop the bat head, focus on sweet-spot contact vs bat-speed".....And now Im looking at the CF'ers back which is always a great sign.

Sure, but not in this case. You never got frustrated with teammates who didnt weight room? If I was a coach it would be 0 tolerance. Pat Riley. Run a mile every day, lift weight for 2 hours every day. Or you arent on my team. No exceptions.

Mayer had to earn it (past tense). Mayer had to improve his work ethic (past tense). The results are of course TBD until they aren't but even if he struggles to stay healthy again or hit consistently again - the effort thing is already behind him. You put in that kind of work in the offseason. Once you hit the regular season, its kind of routine. And he did everything asked of him this offseason. I was skeptical when he reacted well when they challenged him to work out more. I was even skeptical when early reports were that he bought in on it. Gyms are always crowded in January, empty in September. Its the follow through that many dont have. And then he came into camp , for the first time, as strong as a 6'3 person should be. Could regress, sure.

You said had they signed either of the Japanese third baseman, it would have been a top offseason of all time , and then they didnt get either of those 3b but instead signed IKF and traded for Durbin after you made that statement. Normally I try not to keep tabs on poster's record for a few reasons. One, its petty. Two, people are allowed to change their mind, 3rd 2 ppl arguing over what someone said is not good reading for third parties, 4th I really dont want people digging up stuff Ive said long ago because like everyone sometimes Im coming from a place of emotion/exuberance. But honest question here , is the decrease from among the best off seasons all time to strong B+ because you were that high on the Japanese third basemen coming over (unseen ny your own eyes, I assume) or were you a little exuberant when you said all time great offseason?