The OF This Year

His home run was off Jordan Lyles, who was awful and has a 7+ ERA (career 5.28). The guys you name... he didn’t hit. He got a hit off Brett Martin Sunday.

Maybe he is totally fixed! But, as I wrote, feasting on some of the worst pitching the Sox have seen this year is not enough to convince me.

Well.... 4/27 he was 1-2 against the Mets. Didn’t play the second game against the Mets (dodging de Grom). And since he’s played the Rangers and Tigers who are 12th and last respectively in ERA in the AL. I am not getting too excited about a Renfroaissance.

Add: also of interest, TX and Detroit are at the bottom in hits-per-9. They are (oddly, with Oakland) the most hittable staffs in the AL.

Franchy, even before his 3 hit game yesterday, seemed to be striking out a lot less recently (seems like last 5 games or so).  I don’t have any numbers to get it back, but I was noticing it.  I was happy he was at least hitting the ball making his outs in the field rather than striking out. Lol Maybe he has been making progress with yesterday finally showing results of his progress.  Hopefully yesterday is his breakout game, and he can go on a little bit of a streak.

B-Ref Game Logs are your friend!

4/1-4/28: 49% k rate (25 in 51 PA)
4/30-5/6: 11% K rate (2 in 18 PA)

Does kind of feel like he hit the K brakes beginning with Texas. His only two PA against the Mets were Ks and he'd struck out in 5 of 7 PA the prior series with Seattle. Again, we'll see if it's real or not though.

Very interesting to see going forward, especially given that Detroit is last in staff Ks. Franchy needs a sample that isn’t heavy on baseball’s worst staff.

I believe you have stated earlier that you did not see the Red Sox rushing Duran to the mlb, and i must agree. He is 0 for his first three games in AAA as is Downs. IMO neither is likely to come up before the all-star break. The more logical choices are Santana, Munoz, Chavis, or bringing back Cordero or Renfroe if they even do get sent down which at this point no one has except Houck (place holder for E-Rod) and the 27th player for DHers....not a single DL/IL or demotion.

It could be. I wonder if Cora would sit down Kiké or even Renfroe if it came down to it. I'm wondering if he'd stop playing Marwin so often. I mean if Duran came up he'd at least be the strong half of a platoon, if not more. And if Santana hit well, that also has to cut into Renfroe's or Hernandez's time, too?

Sure Hernandez and Gonzalez can handle 2b, especially with it going to take some time for Arroyo to come back. I just wonder how Cora juggles this scenario or is he wedded to the idea that Kiké Hernandez must lead off and play every day and that Marwin Gonzalez has to play regularly.

The top 3 centerfield prospects are all having great starts to their seasons, to me that has been the story of the year. It will be interesting to watch what happens when they all advance a league when Duran gets the call. Jimenez and Rosario will be very young for those levels so it could be rough and might not happen right away but if they continue to get on base and adjust to the competition it will be a major plus for the system.

Is it possible they treat him like they fixed him (but haven’t) because they have no real choice? I think Renfroe is not great, but he is better than, well, anything else they have to replace him. His glove has been great, and he has shown he can hit in bunches — unlike options behind him.



I guess I say this having come around slightly on Renfroe. He is often hopeless at the plate, but he’s had some big hits. And he is so much better defensively than I realized that he helps the team win even when he is K’ing.

Renfroe is basically what he has been. The more he plays the more I expect him to be what he has historically been.

The Sox, as the year goes on, don't need to play him heavily against righties. And whether Franchy gets it together or not, they don't even need to rely on him either if Duran can come up and produce.

You figure that the outfield will likely be either Duran/Hernandez/Verdugo against righties or Duran/Santana/Verdugo if they opt to put Hernandez at 2b.

I have trouble believing that Kiké won't play most of the time, even against righties. He has played well thus far as he is now riding a hot streak, but if he regresses to career norms, Santana becomes more of an option in CF.

The point I'm trying to make is that sooner or later the Sox can stop doing things that aren't to their advantage once Duran is ready. And Santana is helping with this.

Santana's presence can put Marwin Gonzalez on the bench more often which would be a good thing as the Sox have leaned too heavily on him. They won't need to bat Renfroe against righties and can use him like the platoon outfielder/defensive specialist that he truly is. They can even sit down Kiké against tough righties should he start to struggle.

One platoon concern is at 1b. Dalbec has been brutally bad against righties but has ripped lefties. While I wish Casas could fast track to be ready by August to play 1b against righties that is unrealistic.

So the Sox kind of need to stick for the time being with Dalbec against righties. If he is to have a career and develop he needs to get the experience against righties and learn how to hit them enough so he isn't the short end of a platoon or just a bench player who can play the corners.

Besides right now the other option is either play Marwin Gonzalez who really isn't much of a hitter or put Santana at 1b, Kiké in CF with Arroyo at 2b.

At this point you have to stick with Dalbec but consider other options later in the season is they're very much in contention and he's still struggling to hit righties.

But either way once Duran comes up the Sox do have better options to mix and match. I don't think Franchy is somebody that Cora is completely sold on, not enough to be the front end of a platoon and take ABs away from Renfroe. It's nice that Franchy has some serious talent, but what matters more is how often you get the ball to go over the wall, rather than how hard it's hit or how far it goes. Frequency matters more and Franchy doesn't have that yet.

Nobody's going to say the RS have a great OF, but CB deserves credit for his efficient use of resources in constructing what we have so far.

We all love JBJ but he's rocking a 42 OPS-plus and has accounted for -.4 fWAR for his $12 million playing for the Milwaukee Beer Cans.

Current RS OFers Marwin Gonzalez, Hunter Renfroe, Danny Santana and Enrique Hernandez have accounted for a combined 1.2 WAR and are making a total of $13.9M in AAV. Throw in the versatility that the group provides and you'd have to say letting JBJ walk was an obvious and right decision.

Throwing Betts vs. Vedugo into the comparison, Betts is at 1.3 fWAR for an AAV of $25.6M while Verdugo is at 1 WAR for $650K. 

Given that it's clear the RS wanted to stay under the luxury tax threshold, at least to start the season, it's hard to argue with what CB did in building the OF.

If I have a beef, it would be the two years for KKH. I'm just not high on him and wonder whether CB could have gotten a comparable player without committing to a second year.

In regards to the OF looking around at who was available and what they've done so far this year. Who should the Red Sox have signed instead of what they did? The big prize who in my mind could have been the only difference maker was springer who has played 4 games this year. You can argue they should have signed a league average OF instead of throwing franchy in there for as long as they did but they did in Santana who unfortunately got hurt early.