TedYazPapiMookie

Let's see what happens in the playoffs. My belief is you need some stars to lean on in the playoffs. Some do great and some don't but guys like Mookie, Bogey, JD or Manny, Papi and Pedro help ensure the playoffs end better than the no name teams. Detroit lines up to be a one and gone team but Skubal will make it tough to sweep them. If you go back and count the teams with rings and no superstars, it's not a big total. They are exceptions that need things to fall exactly their way. Just like all the huge contracts from NYY and LAD over the years gets them to the playoffs but their roster design lacks critical components. The NYY typically don't have consistently good pitching and until LAD got Mookie the 32-year drought was primarily a problem with having lots of above average stars but a limited number of clutch performers.

So true. I watch a lot of baseball for the Red Sox and Rangers. I watch the behavior of Boche and Cora as they make decisions. I see Boche and Maddux discussing things a great deal more than Cora and Bailey. Maybe it's happening in the area behind the bench, and they are doing things in a comparable way but that would be speculation on my part. I've seen the performance of the young pitching staff greatly improve since 2023 in Texas. I can't say the same about the Red Sox young pitching staff Bailey arrived. Wasn't he a Breslow guy not a Cora guy?

You could be right. I just look at where Breslow started and where he is now. He got Devers to DH by using Cora, he went out and traded and free agented SPs to significantly upgrade the pitching. He added an all-star 3B to improve the offense and defense. And now with all the excellent upgrades, the team is failing and there is nowhere to point to except Cora. Coincidence? Or a well-planned strategy by Breslow? For me, it sure looks like a well-planned strategy. The extension of Cora at $7Million a year was a public endorsement of Cora so NOBODY will blame Breslow if Cora gets canned. Politically brilliant. Maybe he actually likes Cora, but wouldn't you want to pick your manager if you were a GM? Did anyone blame Breslow for moving Devers to DH? Nope. Who was the first to suggest Devers at 1B? Breslow! He knew Cora was completely against it. That was the only time we've seen the manager and GM disagree. Cora won the discussion because Breslow in the end supported him. Breslow seems like a very patient and strategic thinker playing the long-game. It's been rumored he's pretty intelligent. I could be wrong and the path from hiring until now could be all coincidental on Breslow's part but what if it isn't? I say brilliant because he's literally fixing all that things that have broken is Cora and Bloom arrived.

I'm not baseball reference providing a documented fact, I am suggesting from where I sit that Breslow deserves more credit than I gave him. As the story of the Red Sox unfolds, it appears to me that Breslow is a far more politically savvy GM than I gave him credit for since he's a rookie GM. I'm looking at the net results of his actions: 1 - Devers moved to DH - Check 2 - Boston gets its first ACE since Sale in 2017 - Check 3 - Boston gets a second top of the rotation SP2 - Check 4 - Boston fails to capitalize on the additions casting questions on the untouchable manager - Check 5 - The BIG 3 in the minors are promoted in the same year lowering chances of losing control years to great achievements - Check All Breslow has to do now is get Cora replaced and see if it changes the Buehler situation. If so, I believe Buehler will resign with us but not if Cora is here. By adding his own manager, so many things should improve across the organization. Relationships among the coaching staff will improve if Breslow completely picks his own guys. Coaching philosophies should complement each other and provide pitchers with more input into how they approach games (I observed this when Boche came to Texas with Maddux). These are observations I've made. Cora may not get fired but Breslow sure has had A LOT of things work out with patience and a political savvy I did not expect. These observations shouldn't aggravate any fans, they are one plausible explanation to what's going on behind the scenes in Boston. There are no guarantees, take it for what it's worth. It's a theory that might work out to be true soon. If you don't believe it, I'm cool with that. Just don't hurl a bunch of insults because my opinion of what is to happen isn't mainstream publicized. Ask yourself, if you were Breslow, and you wanted to pick your own manager and current guy is tight with Henry what would you do to achieve your end goal because I can't imagine being a GM who doesn't want to hire their staff. Has Breslow nearly achieved his objective without stirring the pot, insulting the existing manager or aggressively blaming anyone? Media and Fans are calling for Cora's head not Breslow. He's 100% behind Cora publicly. Just like he had Cora do the dirty work of moving Devers, I think the Media and Fans are doing the dirty work to remove Cora.

Excellent point!!!

Wow. Blind to the bias? Not surprised. Lots of snarky comments usually means a surface observer. If Breslow stomps his feet related to the Cora contract, is he the CBO? I don't think so. He created evidence of a failing manager. The Cora money is irrelevant if the owners really want to win. Cora's $14Million being eaten is far less than Yoshida, Story and Devers. I think it was nicely finessed by Breslow. He did NOT charge the bull head on; he did all the right moves to bring the bull to his knees while pretending to root for him. Brilliant!! Sophisticated politics. FYI... you might want to double check the meaning of trolling. Your behavior towards me is actually trolling. Me voicing my opinion about baseball topics, is not trolling because you disagree with them. They are simply another person's opinion about some aspect of baseball, in this case, the state of the clubhouse with Cora as manager. Much different than the state of the clubhouse under Farrell because he was a hardnosed old school type player and gravitated to players who behaved that way. Trolling – (verb), as it relates to internet, is the deliberate act, of making random unsolicited and/or controversial comments with the intent to provoke an emotional knee jerk reaction from unsuspecting readers to engage in a fight or argument. In essence, what Trolling is NOT - is speaking your mind about baseball issues - like I do. What it is - harassing other readers with controversial comments with the intent to provoke. Example - saying Breslow was the CBO when Cora signed a hefty new extension, that's a baseball comment in response to what I wrote. "That was part of this brilliant long game?" is a sentence intended to provoke. The comment is sarcastic and condescending toward the writer in hopes of yielding a negative reaction. So, tell me, is it your intent to troll every comment I make? It's hard to remember one that wasn't meant to provoke any time you disagree. In fact, that seems to be the modus operandi of many of the more frequent commenters on the site.

We have to continue to do the math. 13 players on offense. 1 Catcher - Narvaez, 1 1B - TORO, 1 2B - Campbell, 1 SS -Mayer, 1 - 3B Story (Bregman in a month) 3 OF - Duran, Rafaela and Anthony (should be there now) 1 Reserve Catcher - Wong, 1 Reserve Corner InfielderTBD with Toro there when Casas returns in 2026, 1 Reserve Middle Infielder - TBD (upon Bregman's return it will be Story), 1 - Reserve OF - Abreu Here is the problem. Cora has got a bunch of AAA players on the roster and there is no room. Today, Mayer should be getting time at SS so he proves he can play there, otherwise, send him to AAA. Story is untradeable so put him in Bregman's position and then when Bregman returns make him the reserve Middle Infielder. Assume Toro is the 1B since nobody is going out and getting Carlos Santana (a real mlb 1B available) Casas comes back next year and needs to beat out Toro and if he does Toro can be the Reserve Corner Infielder if he can beat out Blaze Jordan for that spot. So, if Abreu and Refsnyder need to be a platoon since Abreu can't hit lefties, which of the 13 spots does Refsnyder get? It's impractical to have a platoon 4th outfielder so I believe Abreu is the odd man out and needs to be traded. He's a streaky hitter and simply can't hit lefties. He's got a great arm and above average defense albeit not GG level despite his win. Now answer where should Hamilton be? AAA? No room on the MLB roster if Anthony is up. What about Romy Gonzalez another player starting instead of Mayer? Where should he be? AAA Cora needs both Mayer and Anthony developing their hitting and defense in 2025 in the MLB. By all the young players being up the same year, it's not likely any will win a free year of eligibility according to the latest CBA. So, let's get the 2026 team playing daily, even if they lose like the Pirates. By September the team will know if Mayer can cut it, Campbell can cut it and Anthony can cut it. Duran, Rafaela, Casas have all proven that and Narvaez is winning over many already. Devers and Bregman are givens so by the time Bregman comes back from injury both Mayer and Anthony could have a full month of experience. It's time to part ways with Cora, bring up the 2026 team and work with Breslow to determine if the big three are good enough to be everyday starters at their respective positions. Send the rest back to AAA in case of injuries. None of them are legitimate league average or better MLB players.

Breslow played Cora a bit. Breslow recognized the two most important things to add wins in a season when he arrived in Boston were: 1 - Devers losing his glove and being the DH the rest of the 10 years 2 - Firing Cora I was angry when he didn't immediately fire Cora but now, I see the bigger picture. If he tried to move Devers off 3B he was in for a huge fight but if he talked Cora into Bregman who Cora loves, then he'll have Cora smooth the transition to ownership. It was a brilliant move!! Now it's time for step 2 by showing Breslow added two great talents and the team is worse. It's time to fire Cora and hire his guy. While Varitek was a great catcher and leader, this roster is very different from the previous generation of players like Varitek. Remember, the Latin players complained Farrell was too rigid for their tastes, so Cora was picked over better alternatives. Now Boston needs to go through a healing process because the roster was literally torn down by Bloom and the hometown stars were dismissed as if they were insignificant to the team's success. The team needs a guy LIKE Dusty Baker and what he did in Houston but they need the guy to be tight with Breslow. I can only imagine that Breslow while playing the long game went to his next manager when he got the job and told him it might take a year or two before he could bring him along with all his coaches. That time has come and it's NOW. Before the All-star break. Release Cora and thank him up and down for all his hard work and don't mention his complete lack of success. Bring in Breslow's guy and turn the culture around. Bring back a merit system for playing time and location in the batting order. Bring back positive feedback for young player learning the adjustment process that is unique to the MLB. Make the clubhouse truly diverse not Latin biased. All of these things coupled with the influx of young talent should make for a surprising 2026 club if Breslow can add pitching and dump some wasted salary by Bloom. Breslow seems to be playing the long game brilliantly. Let's hope he finally gets control of the club and picks his staff.

OPS+ double accounts for batting average then gets normalized against all other hitters. SLG (BA+ISO) + OBP (BA+Walk Rate) = 2XBA + (ISO + SLG) thus the stat is BA biased. So when you normalize the OPS to get the OPS+ all you've done is compared a BA biased stat across all players. Does that really tell you anything of value? The irony is many fans say what you said "Batting Average is not a great stat in isolation" so does it make much sense to double it and create a stat like OPS or OPS+? Ironic isn't it!!! Personally, I like BA+ISO+WalkRate and the ONLY three components of hitting that should be added together to evaluate a player. But that's just me. I argued for the stat back when OPS first was invented as being biased but guys like Bill James approved of it.

Just an FYI. BA + Isolated Power and Batting Average + Walk Rate comprise the stat known as OPS. 20 points in batting average ALWAYS translates to 40 points in OPS. I'm guessing you mean OBP.

While Chapman has done an adequate job this year, he's not what you would call the CLOSER OF THE FUTURE. For that matter, not one relief pitcher is all-star quality other than Chapman and he's not a spring chicken. Breslow needs to go get a set of specialists that are set up men. Two lefties and two righties and a legitimate young closer. There are 13 spots on the roster for pitchers and if you have 6 SPs for depth and a closer that leaves you 6 other slots for the 4 set-up men and 2 others with very specific roles like long relief, the stress inning pitcher to get starters out of jams without allowing runs to score or a volume eater for the days things go badly for the starter much like a long reliever but more for multiple inning relief in bad situations while the long reliever is used in positive situations to stretch the pen to the set-up men. I believe the bullpen needs a complete make-over much like the bottom of the rotation. The offense has all the parts and just needs experience, so Breslow needs to bring the pitching up to the level of the hitting. Crochet is great but he is just one guy who can give us a big edge if he can be surrounded with above league average pitchers not the retreads that make up the bottom half of the rotation and most of the bullpen.

Cora is more of a clown car than Bobby Valentine. He cheats. He doesn't understand the game based on his in-game moves, he doesn't treat players based on performance and he has no transparency. I'd go get a reputable manager who is retired and beg him to comeback for a year or two while the owners hire a firm to search for an ideal manager with experience and knowledge of the game. Maybe a Dusty Baker would fix Boston like he fixed Houston after Cora cheated there. The sooner Cora is gone the better off the team will be. It wouldn't shock me if Buehler returns to his old form if Cora is gone. I know it worked for Sale in ATL.

If you think back to both Price and Sale, the coaching staff under Cora not Farrell, started changing their normal approach to a game. This is after Price won a Cy Young and Sale was outstanding for over a half decade. Sale was specifically told that he should start the game with a lower velocity and then work up to top speed later in the game. Sale's approach was to start at 98 and stay at 98 until he was tired and needed to come out. There have not been elite pitchers who have gotten along with the coaching approaches under Cora. Whether the bad suggestions came from coaches or Cora himself doesn't matter as much as the damage it's done to some of Boston's elite pitchers since 2018. When you can't bring great pitchers into the program and have them comfortable with the approach being used, it's hard for a GM to find the talent the team needs. I'm just glad Crochet doesn't have any issues so far. It may be that he's not stumbled yet, so they didn't feel the need to help him like Price and Sale. This front office and manager have been a clown car since Dombrowski left. The franchise needs to give Breslow a chance to make it or fail with his own staff. Clean house and let Breslow own the results. Right now, things are really muddled. I watch each game and ask myself what is being accomplished right now? We have a bunch of league average players starting so the future will be the greatest bench ever assembled. If Mayer is up, he needs to be playing SS to see if he can handle it defensively. He's a good enough hitter that he simply needs to learn how to make on the fly adjustments just like the other rookies. Story needs to be a placeholder at 3B until Bregman returns. Campbell needs to be full time at 2B so he can work through his issues without worrying about 1B or OF. Duran, Rafaela and Anthony need to play the outfield if we are looking out for the best long-term interest of the ball club. The rest of Cora's bench guys that are starting need to go back to AAA except for 4 bench players: 1 - Wong at catcher until we can find a better one (FYI Teel got called up the other Day) 2 - ONE middle infielder (Story when Bregman returns) 3 - ONE corner infielder to back up Bregman and Casas in 2026 4 - ONE outfield back-up (Abreu he played all three positions in the minors nearly equally) The roster only holds 13 hitters. That's what Cora should be developing right now because this team DOES NOT have the talent to make the play-offs in 2025. Breslow, on the other hand, should be finding money from the owners to start plugging the big holes we have for 2026. The good news is Casas will be back and can get back on track hitting and fielding. The bad news is, Buehler is gone in 2026 and needs to be replaced. Houck is broken right now and for all we know it might be similar to issues that Buehler is having. Bello looks like a long reliever at best. Crawford needs to return to form in 2026 to be at the bottom of the rotation. Bloom left multiple albatross contracts. The move to DH has dramatically improved Devers' hitting making him less of an overpay than he was originally. Now we just need for him to exceed both Cabrera's and Pujol's longevity. Yoshida continues to be a complete waste of money. He needs to be moved with other farm system talent that is blocked by players like Mayer and Campbell. Paydowns hurt the available payroll, but futureless farm system players don't. So, keep the integrity of the payroll whole and use replaceable farm system parts to entice the other teams to eat Yoshida's $18Million a year through 2027. Story is making a lot of money and is quality depth. Not many other contending teams have a middle infield back-up as good as Story so keeping him makes sense, especially since Mayer has been injury prone in the past. As of today, we don't have a great corner infielder back-up for 2026. Maybe one of the many bench guys that Cora is using to fill 1B and 3B right now could be the 2026 corner infielder back-up. When Casas is back, the offense will have a nice upgrade when he gets back in the groove because he is a talented hitter. If, however, Breslow was to go out and upgrade 1B with a better player than Casas we could keep Casas as the Corner Infielder back-up in 2026. Abreu like Story is better than most teams have as their fourth outfielder. That makes the Red Sox's roster highly competitive in 2026 with Narvaez and back-up Wong New 1B and Bregman 3B with Casas the Corner Infielder reserve Campbell at 2B and Mayer at SS with Story as Middle infieler reserve Duran, Rafaela, Anthony with Abreu the outfield reserve Devers at DH 2025 is not the year but 2026 could be if EVERYTHING we do right now is to improve the starting roster for 2026. Selling at the deadline, trading players like Yoshida as soon as he is cleared health-wise, find Farm System deals that can land better starting pitchers or relievers. Breslow has lots to do before the trading deadline to set up 2026. I really hope he gets to finally hire his own team of manager and coaches. He needs to be accountable if 2026 isn't a significant upgrade from the last 5 years.

Just about everything in baseball can be second guessed. It should still all come back to the simple concept of what percentage of the time did the fielder get the out. By hitting the runner, there was no out. When Bregman or Devers in the old days didn't get an out on a ball hit to them and the score keeper gave the batter a hit, they created a floor fielding percentage. There are three possible results on a play: 1 - An out 2 - An Error 3 - A misplay that is considered a hit Fielding percentage is the accepted stat calculated by dividing OUTS over Total Chances. That number represents the BEST success rate of the player at his position. If you subtract misplays from OUTS and divide it by Total Chances you have the player's worst fielding percentage because you assume EVERY ball hit to him should have been an out. Until someone starts reviewing every play where no out is made all we can do is assume a range that represents the fielding percentage of a player. This can easily be corrected with today's technology and the error review process would render more accurate fielding percentages. As of today, the best case is you can conclude that the fielding percentage in the books is over estimated. To what degree, we won't know until the MLB defines standards for errors and assesses all historical and future plays determining errors against a standard set of rules. That's why when you see a guy like Devers make 38 misplays and 14 errors in 2022 you laugh at the fact that he got 38 favorable calls by the score keepers and still didn't finish as a league average defender. If 50% of the misplays were measured against a standard and found to be errors his fielding percentage in 2022 would drop from .964 to .920. Most players don't have as many misplays as Devers did so the ceiling fielding percentage and the floor fielding percentage does not have as great of a span as it did with Devers. You are 100% correct that fielding percentage is not recorded as accurately as possible and I hope someday that the inefficiency in recording it is corrected by the MLB. On the other side of the coin, you have metrics which fabricate components of the estimates, and they are sold to the public as if they are stats not just guesses. Normalization techniques are used throughout society to estimate lots of things. As long as people understand that the estimates have no certainty, they are simply one person's (company's) guess at trying to create data that might represent what a player did but not necessarily. If the public understand that these are guesses then metrics are kept in perspective. The second someone thinks the estimates stand for a certainty, metrics become a myth. They are estimates. Fans can believe them or not. With Fielding Percentage there is a range of accuracy based on the out/no out criteria. In metrics, there is complete uncertainty since a major portion of the calculation is based on averages that may or may not fairly represent actual game situations. Therefore, there is far LESS certainty in metrics than the range of the stat Fielding Percentage. Nothing is perfect and fans can support either, but they should at least know that all metrics are guesses, predictions not certainties.

Firecracker? Here is some free advice. Stop with all the insults and start writing about baseball. It will be sign of maturity. If you disagree, just say so without an insult. That's how adults discuss baseball. FYI... I do what I need to do to slow the cyber bullying that goes on here. This site is only as good as the participants who write about baseball here. Clearly, the anonymity makes many very brave and aids in the ignorance with which they respond. Thanks for being a prime example.

Boston shouldn't give up their young core players unless they don't have a spot going forward like Abreu the platoon hitter. Yoshida has no value. Chapman needs to go to a rich franchise needing depth for the late innings but that won't bring back much in return. But something is better than nothing. Remember, the talent on this team is Bregman, Duran, Devers, Crochet and their prospects. Do we want to part with any of them? I don't think so. There won't be a fire sale. Lets just hope someone wants Chapman and/or Abreu. The biggest problem with projecting what Boston will do is whether Cora will still be the manager. If he is then Houck could be traded and several other pitchers who have provided lots of innings over the last few years but are SP4s and SP5s and would probably love to not have Cora running the pitching staff.

The Red Sox have Yoshida to couple with Abreu to get a starting pitcher. Even if Boston pays 1/2 of the remaining money on Yoshida it would be worth it to get it off the books while we are under the cap. Abreu as a platoon hitter who Boston can sell as a normal outfielder with some good marketing points that may not be completely true but are believed by many fans. This season is unrecoverable so to start 2026 we'll have Narvaez, Casas, Campbell, Mayer, Bregman and/or Story, Duran, Rafaela, Anthony and Devers. There is your 2026 line-up. The pitching staff needs a big upgrade. 1 - Crochet is great, 2 - Buehler is not, 3 - Giolito is a maybe, 4 - Houck would need a comeback, 5 - Bello doesn't have the talent to be anything more than a long relief guy. That is a lot of holes for Breslow to fill but the good news is the hitters are pretty much set. Taking Yoshida and Abreu and shipping them out for a quality SP makes sense. Rafaela's defense is too valuable to trade. Duran is an all-star so he must be kept. Then the youngsters Anthony, Mayer, Campbell are the future of the Red Sox along with Casas and Narvaez. There is also YOUNG talent in the farm system like Cespedes and Romero to sweeten up the deal or avoid doing a payout of money for Yoshida. Breslow has many options and his ace in the hole is Abreu because his value is above his skill level. The big problem is Cora loves the guy so he needs to go first.

If I had called it Cronyism what percentage of the readers would have been familiar with the word? Nepotism is a familiar word that is adjacent to Cronyism, so I used. Technically, you are correct. I'm pretty sure most people understood the point was about favoritism. So great irrelevant point. Why would what he did at one level of the minors be so significant? In the minors he played 186, 148 and 135 games at RF, CF and LF respectively. That says to me the organization saw him as a 4th outfielder when he got to the MLB because they knew Duran, Rafaela and Anthony were going to be the outfielders of the future. He was groomed to be a utility outfielder because he couldn't hit left-handed batters. Much like the front office learned to respect Mookie after they put Swihart as their top prospect, Duran has earned Cora's respect, but it wasn't given to him when got called up. He got quickly pigeon-holed in the 9th hole like Rafaela. After his demotion, he had to be exceptional to finally get the chance he deserved from his original call-up. I also believe the Netflix thing brought out the respect in Cora after he found out all the things he triggered by not respecting Duran. I think he felt guilty, if he has that emotion. I will spend some time trying to find the interview where he said he first met Hamilton during an Astro visit to the UT campus. The .881 OPS batting 2nd in the order doesn't include the failures he had at the 1 and 3 spots! Rafaela didn't get those opportunities after outperforming Abreu in 2023 at the top of order. FYI... Abreu went 9 for 49 in the 1st and 3rd spots in the order in 2024 significantly reducing that .881. Considering how bad the team was at hitting last year, Abreu's numbers were sufficient on a bad hitting team despite his inability to hit LH pitchers. I would have liked to see what the historically better hitter (Rafaela) could have done in the top three spots in the order. Let's hope Rafaela is better prepared to deal with the disappointment handed out by Cora and rebounds like Duran did.

I'm criticizing Cora for not being open minded about Rafaela. In 2023 Rafaela hit .264 when batting in the #1, #2 and #3 spots in the order and in 2024 he got just 9 at bats in the top 2 spots (0 at #3). That suggests to me he got pigeon-holed by Cora. In 2023, Abreu hit .200 when batting in the #1, #2 and #3 spots yet he got 202 at bats in the first 3 spots in 2024 while Rafaela got 9!! Abreu in 2024 hit .252 in the top three spots so the opportunity he got paid off but why didn't Rafaela at least get a shot at proving himself? 9 at bats after 70 the year before hitting 64 points higher than Abreu? Rafaela got robbed of his chance to prove himself. Equality in opportunities should be the Red Sox policy but that's never been the case under Cora. Just one more reason I have issues with Cora. Handing Abreu a job without a competition among the two players is my issue. Rafaela had a better minor league career and a better 2023 at the MLB level while hitting in the 1-3 spots in the order. We don't know how good Rafaela could have been in the #2 spot in the line-up behind Duran. I feel he should have gotten a chance and if he failed, I would have no issue with moving him down in the order. I find it hard to believe fans don't want a fair selection process where a player EARNS his position. Clearly, Abreu hit well enough to bat in the top of the order on such a weak offensive team but who is to say Rafaela might not have produced more considering how many RBIs and Runs he had out of the 9 hole.

First, I don't give a damn if you don't like hearing about Cora. I'm free to voice my viewpoint. Also, ROY is Rookie of the Year. Your spelling alone told me EVERYTHING I need to know about your baseball knowledge. Next, the decision to move Campbell all over the field is ULTIMATELY Cora's and trends are not forced on Cora, it's his choice. How dare you call someone else's comment childish. Grow-up and act like an adult. The correct or proper comment in response to mine is "I disagree" not a childish insult like you made. Next, if Cora had learned anything from his time managing the best team in Red Sox history in 2018, he would have stopped making the same mistakes over and over. That didn't happen so he has not improved when he really needed to since Bloom dissolved the Championship roster. The ONLY reason Anthony was suggested for a temporary assignment at 1B was to get his bat in the MLB. He's a long-term outfielder but Cora can't figure out the right move which is to put the worst OF at 1B which is Abreu/Refsnyder. The sooner the team starts playing its outfield of the future (Duran, Rafaela and Anthony) the better off the team will be. Anthony has mastered AAA pitching and needs to be in the MLB. Also, it wasn't in the same breath. It was two different topics. One was related to several players who have been treated by Cora like utility players and the other topic related to starting the development of Anthony as a hitter sooner. He needs to stop wasting his time in AAA. There was no contradiction in my comments. Both points related to different topics.

Sorry, did you not read what I wrote. DRS was used so metrics guys like you could relate to it. You dismiss the superior stat fielding percentage for the DRS estimate. Rafaela at 22 had 0 errors at CF (1.000/24 TC) and 1 at SS and JBJ did play until 23 Rafaela at 23 had 3 errors at CF (.984/186 TC) and 9 at SS and JBJ had one in LF (.997/42 TC) Rafaela at 24 (2025 partial season) has 3 at CF (.980/147 TC) and JBJ had one in CF (307) So we are comparing a guy who Cora has made a utility player to a guy dedicated to CF at age 24 If you are admitting FPCT is the correct stat, then I agree JBJ has performed better through his 24-year-old season. I you use DRS then Rafaela has better performance numbers based on the DRS estimate. Bottomline, if DRS is estimate of choice what I said is correct. So are you admitting fielding percentage is more accurate and therefore JBJ was better 2 years into his career?

That is my opinion based on the productivity of Rafaela in 2024 and 2025 compared to the favored Abreu how bats in meat of the order. I don't believe a REAL manager would have shown the bias.

JBJ started his career with an OPS of .617 and .531 then at age 25 he jumped it to .832 and for 6 consecutive seasons he was in the .700s or .800s (3 each) then for 5 seasons he never exceeded .578. Rafaela had .666 in 28 games and then last year was at .664 so he's starting above JBJ's initial level. This year Rafaela is 24 and is at .707 right now. This suggests he's likely to exceed JBJ in hitting and they both are stellar defensive players. JBJ and Rafaela both had small negative defensive runs saved in their partial year then in year 2 JBJ's DRS was 16 to Rafaela's 12 and in year 3 JBJs fell to 8 and Rafaela's is currently at 11 about halfway through the season. JJB finished his 11 year career at 77 and Rafaela has 23 DRS in a partial season, full season and half season so less than two full seasons. JBJ averaged 7 DRS and right now Rafaela is averaging over 10. Since JBJ was one of the best defensive centerfielders of all time, for Rafaela to be producing even better defensive metrics by year 2 is a real positive. Not everyone can hit like Trout as a CF but Rafaela has produced a LOT of runs and rbis out of the 9 hole. Who knows what he could do if Cora liked him as much as Abreu and batted him in the part of the order that is supposed to be the most productive.

This is why it's hard to discuss things with you. No facts. I've pointed out a .953 fielding percentage for Mayer which is not terribly higher than Devers who is the worst fielding 3B of all time. You simply say Mayer is better and you expect that to be enough because facts mess with your opinion. That's my bad. We should all just follow your opinion. I still prefer actual performance to opinion.

You sincerely don't get the point. He's being treated like a utility player not a superstar 2B that earned the Minor League Player of the Year award LAST YEAR. Why should he have to play 4 positions and Mayer and Anthony only have to play 3B like Bogaerts did and Anthony is SO special he gets to play OF only. Rafaela is the best defensive player we've seen in the outfield since JBJ, yet he didn't get the respect of his manager to be the permanent solution in CF the minute he made several phenomenal diving catches BUT Abreu a weaker defender doesn't get passed around to other positions as a platoon outfielder who has fewer defensive skills that Rafaela, Duran and Anthony. He batted second i 2024 and produced less than the 9th hitter. Nothing has been earned by him, he's just the right nationality for Cora just like Robles was when he got all the relief chances over better relievers and he cost us so many games. That's nepotism. The team is made up of players who have Cora's respect for being Latin and for being drafted early in the first-round half a decade ago yet struggled in the minors. There are players who get no respect despite their accomplishments like Campbell and then there are players that simply get no respect despite being ELITE at a skill like defense like Rafaela and Duran. My post was about nepotism by Cora. Hamilton isn't even a MLB skilled player but he is on the roster from when he built a relationship with Cora while cheating in Houston and Hamilton was at Texas in college. Now take the haves and have nots and see who gets treated like a utility player and who gets treated with more respect than they have earned. I know Mayer isn't an outfielder but even if he was, he wouldn't have been asked as the 4th pick in the draft guy. He sucked on defense in the minors but he's still the SS of the future. That's privilege unearned. It's unfair to the players not in Cora's good graces for whatever reason. That's why the batting order doesn't produce as many runs as it should. That's why the defense has been at the bottom for years. That's why the pitching staff hasn't excelled like it should have. Nepotism.