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redsox04071318champs
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Post by redsox04071318champs on May 22, 2024 23:45:18 GMT -5
The Sox played a great series. Strong starting pitching. Solid offense. Duran was an ignitor.
When they play like that one can envision a team with 4 or even 5 starters one can be comfortable seeing get a post season start.
The lineup if Casas comes back healthy would greatly enhance the lineup. Hope that Grissom puts it together and perhaps get another RH power bat if Yoshida's thumb remains an issue.
Maybe Liam Hendriks comes back healthy and gives the Sox another reliable late inning reliever.
A competitive postseason team can be envisioned but so can a team that doesnt score enough runs and gives runs away on defense. .500 teams can tend to do this, give two distinctly different impressions and wind up in the middle of both.
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redsox04071318champs
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Post by redsox04071318champs on May 22, 2024 11:47:22 GMT -5
It’s really disappointing how little production Shohei Ohtani has provided to the Blue Jays offense since signing with Toronto Juan Soto hasn't provided any offense for the Jays either. (For about 5 minutes the Blue Jays became "favorites" to deal for Soto)
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redsox04071318champs
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Post by redsox04071318champs on May 22, 2024 7:28:40 GMT -5
What's depressing? Yoshida was great for 4 months and bad for two and wound up putting up decent overall numbers but nothing spectacular, especially considering that he makes 18 million per year and is pretty much a DH. He's not good defensively. Manny could get away with crappy defense because he hit like Manny. Yoshida is no Manny. Yoshida's defense relegates him to DH which puts more pressure on his bat, which is certainly better than the Dom Smith's of the world, but he's injured and who the hell knows when he returns at this point. Do you really think that if Breslow could dump that contract he wouldn't? Think about it. The Red Sox of the near future slant very lefthanded. I'm sure they would prefer a RH DH masher if all things were equal. I wouldnt be surprised if when Mayer comes up he pushes either Grissom or more likely Story to 3b with the other at 2b and pushing Devers to DH where he really belongs. Yoshida doesn't ideally fit the team's best roster construction of the near future, especially when you figure their lineup could soon feature Devers, Casas, Anthony, Mayer, Teel, and possibly both Duran and/or Abreu. Very left handed. Yoshida is kind of extraneous in all this. And they're certainly not pushing any of Duran, Abreu, or Anthony out of LF to make room for Yoshida, that's for sure. Ok ill play your game. No disrespect. When's the last time all 3 of our top 3 prospects made the ML roster? Now lets factor in Roman is 20. Mayer 21 and Teel 22. Now let's pretend that Wong hasn't been AMAZING. Why in the world would we so quick to move on from him. I know its been only 7 weeks but hes the best 2 strike hitter in all of baseball. Either way Are you expecting these kids to take over the AL east? Let's be honest here. The smartest move would be to trade Roman and more for someone like Tatis. Hes a top 50 prospect. We're so overloaded with LHH outfielders are you ready to move on from Duran or Abreu who seem like long term options? Get your RHH outfield stud and then you got Yoshi as DH and 4th OF. You also open up a spot for Nazan who imo will be our future 3rd baseman. By the time Yoshis contract is up Devers moves to DH Nazan or someone to 3rd maybe Grissom who knows. They are all still KIDs. Devers and Tatis would be the new Ortiz/Manny 😆. Hey maybe we even package Roman And Yoshida so a team gets a ML player with someone like Blaze. Idk it's all hypothetical just saying we paid Yoshi. Hes been above AVG player. You also have to understand there's a lot of talent coming from Japan and Yoshi gives us an in. Maybe he helps us get Munetaka Murakami 😆 To answer your original question....it wasnt that long ago. Xander, Mookie, and JBJ, and Vazquez debuted within a year of each other. Not much later, Benintendi and Devers graduated, the core of the last great Red Sox team. Before then top prospects Youkilis, Papelbon, Lester, Pedroia, Ellsbury, and Buchholz graduated. That list could have included Hanley Ramirez and Anabal Sanchez as well but they were dealt during Theo's sabbatical. Years before them I remember Greenwell, Burks, Benzinger, and Sam Horn all being rookies together in 87 and you know the Sox had young farm generated cores in 75 and 67 so it's not outlandish for the Sox to graduate young talent together in waves. The Sox have been trying to bridge from the Mookie/X core to the Casas/Anthony/Mayer core for what seems like a long time now. They're looking to have a stable group of young regulars at each position within the next 2 to 3 years. That group now includes Grissom and in some capacity Rafaela. Guys like Zanatello, Cespedes, and Bleis are too far away at the moment. Mayer, Teel, and Anthony are much closer and will be mixed in by 2026 if not sooner. It's not that rare. In fact it's kind of overdue.
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redsox04071318champs
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Post by redsox04071318champs on May 22, 2024 6:09:11 GMT -5
What's depressing? Yoshida was great for 4 months and bad for two and wound up putting up decent overall numbers but nothing spectacular, especially considering that he makes 18 million per year and is pretty much a DH. He's not good defensively. Manny could get away with crappy defense because he hit like Manny. Yoshida is no Manny. Yoshida's defense relegates him to DH which puts more pressure on his bat, which is certainly better than the Dom Smith's of the world, but he's injured and who the hell knows when he returns at this point. Do you really think that if Breslow could dump that contract he wouldn't? Think about it. The Red Sox of the near future slant very lefthanded. I'm sure they would prefer a RH DH masher if all things were equal. I wouldnt be surprised if when Mayer comes up he pushes either Grissom or more likely Story to 3b with the other at 2b and pushing Devers to DH where he really belongs. Yoshida doesn't ideally fit the team's best roster construction of the near future, especially when you figure their lineup could soon feature Devers, Casas, Anthony, Mayer, Teel, and possibly both Duran and/or Abreu. Very left handed. Yoshida is kind of extraneous in all this. And they're certainly not pushing any of Duran, Abreu, or Anthony out of LF to make room for Yoshida, that's for sure. Ok ill play your game. No disrespect. When's the last time all 3 of our top 3 prospects made the ML roster? Now lets factor in Roman is 20. Mayer 21 and Teel 22. Now let's pretend that Wong hasn't been AMAZING. Why in the world would we so quick to move on from him. I know its been only 7 weeks but hes the best 2 strike hitter in all of baseball. Either way Are you expecting these kids to take over the AL east? Let's be honest here. The smartest move would be to trade Roman and more for someone like Tatis. Hes a top 50 prospect. We're so overloaded with LHH outfielders are you ready to move on from Duran or Abreu who seem like long term options? Get your RHH outfield stud and then you got Yoshi as DH and 4th OF. You also open up a spot for Nazan who imo will be our future 3rd baseman. By the time Yoshis contract is up Devers moves to DH Nazan or someone to 3rd maybe Grissom who knows. They are all still KIDs. Devers and Tatis would be the new Ortiz/Manny 😆. Hey maybe we even package Roman And Yoshida so a team gets a ML player with someone like Blaze. Idk it's all hypothetical just saying we paid Yoshi. Hes been above AVG player. You also have to understand there's a lot of talent coming from Japan and Yoshi gives us an in. Maybe he helps us get Munetaka Murakami 😆 Yoshida is pals with Yamamato. How much did that influence him to come to Boston? Not at all. The "he'll get us other Japanese players" thing is overblown. The Red Sox have been trying to get to their next young core forever. Sure the Sox could trade Anthony but we have no real indication that a locked up Tatis is being dealt, nor have I said the Sox are dumping Wong and others right now. We wont see Teel, Anthony, and even Mayer really impacting the Sox until 2026. I think theyll be up before then. As far as Wong goes, he's off to a great start. Excellent. How much of that will he maintain going forward? I'm certainly not advocating dumping him, but I also dont think he will be their catcher the next five to seven years either. I think his presence will allow the Sox to break Teel in gently. Short of getting Tatis which o doubt happens, I think the Sox are pretty damn excited about Anthony. They wont rush him. They dont need to. These kids are very much in their plans going forward however. This includes Grissom as well. This doesnt necessarily include Yoshida but given his contract and status it's hard to see him elsewhere.
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redsox04071318champs
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Post by redsox04071318champs on May 21, 2024 22:06:53 GMT -5
Story is constantly injured so I have a hard time penciling him in for anything, but I certainly wouldnt dump Grissom to accommodate an often injured player in his 30s. Maybe it works out that Story and Grissom coexist in the same infield with Mayer with one at 2b and the other at 3b, with Devers DHing and Yoshida somehow gets traded although I certainly cant see much demand for his services at this point. WOW. Writing off Yoshida is seriously depressing to read. Was he not good last year I'm confused. I was upset with casas last year after 1 month because he wasn't taking walks like he did at the end of 2022 and i am still reminded to this day. Yoshi can play LF. Manny did and we won correct? His one of our best hitters. What's depressing? Yoshida was great for 4 months and bad for two and wound up putting up decent overall numbers but nothing spectacular, especially considering that he makes 18 million per year and is pretty much a DH. He's not good defensively. Manny could get away with crappy defense because he hit like Manny. Yoshida is no Manny. Yoshida's defense relegates him to DH which puts more pressure on his bat, which is certainly better than the Dom Smith's of the world, but he's injured and who the hell knows when he returns at this point. Do you really think that if Breslow could dump that contract he wouldn't? Think about it. The Red Sox of the near future slant very lefthanded. I'm sure they would prefer a RH DH masher if all things were equal. I wouldnt be surprised if when Mayer comes up he pushes either Grissom or more likely Story to 3b with the other at 2b and pushing Devers to DH where he really belongs. Yoshida doesn't ideally fit the team's best roster construction of the near future, especially when you figure their lineup could soon feature Devers, Casas, Anthony, Mayer, Teel, and possibly both Duran and/or Abreu. Very left handed. Yoshida is kind of extraneous in all this. And they're certainly not pushing any of Duran, Abreu, or Anthony out of LF to make room for Yoshida, that's for sure.
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redsox04071318champs
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Post by redsox04071318champs on May 21, 2024 15:32:55 GMT -5
I wonder what the odds would be on Grissom being the 2025 2B. There’s Hamilton and Valdez as MLB ready guys at similar points in their career, there’s Yorke, Paulino and Meidroth as near MLB ready 2B prospects, there’s Mayer possibly forcing his way up which could slide Story over, a crowded outfield picture which makes Rafaela in the infield a consideration, and external options. Grissom probably still has the lead, but I’m not sure it’s above 30% chance that he is the guy next year (and beyond). It's going to be interesting. The middle infield belongs to Story and Myer as soon as each is ready. The rest of that list is playing for IL fill ins or maybe a bench role. Personally, I think they should trade 1-2 to fill other needs. Not sure if Grissom should be traded or not, kind of depends on how the rest of the year goes. Story is constantly injured so I have a hard time penciling him in for anything, but I certainly wouldnt dump Grissom to accommodate an often injured player in his 30s. Maybe it works out that Story and Grissom coexist in the same infield with Mayer with one at 2b and the other at 3b, with Devers DHing and Yoshida somehow gets traded although I certainly cant see much demand for his services at this point.
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redsox04071318champs
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Post by redsox04071318champs on May 21, 2024 11:17:57 GMT -5
I'm a Chris Sale fan and always knew he had this in him. I always understood why Dombrowski signed him. Probably figured they would get little out of him for a season, but would still recoup value a d probably be amenable to a reasonable extension if he was healthy and his usual self after coming back from surgery.
Instead after surgery Sale has a series of freak things happen and the Sox never really see the real Chris Sale again.
After 5 years you still couldnt rely on Chris Sale
So it makes a ton of sense to deal him for a potential asset, which Grissom's pedigree clearly shows. The list of young prospects with a career minor league batting average of .320 is very short.
I'm happy for Sale. He deserves the health he has right now and the results he's getting.
Grissom inherited the freaky stuff from Sale getting injured and then having the flu to the extent he had it.
I think he'd be best served playing daily in AAA until he's himself again. Once he is, I still am confident he'll rake in Boston.
Nothing that has happened has done much to change my opinion of what he will be. The only question I have is when. I suspect its after the all star break so let Hamilton get some run at 2b and then when Grissom forces the issue, bring him up and I suspect if he stays healthy he will prove to be an excellent long term solution and everybody will feel better about the trade. This one requires some patience, that's all.
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redsox04071318champs
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Post by redsox04071318champs on May 20, 2024 21:44:30 GMT -5
Haven't had s chance to watch the last two games but apparently Pivetta and Houck pitched excellently.
Dont know if the Sox can figure out their other issues, but if they could a d could make it to the postseason in going to say something I never imagined myself saying before the season, which is they have 4 starters I'd be comfortable with get post season starts.
It looks like Pivetta, Houck, and Crawford have taken big steps up while Bello hasn't really made the big step forward yet but is certainly presentable as a 4th starter.
That's really the headline of the year and it gives them a chance if they can get to the postseason.
They need Casas back badly. If Yoshida is out for a long time and they're truly in it at the deadline they could use a RH DH bat for the middle of the order to pair with O'Neill.
For the time being they can play Hamilton at 2b where he's better defensively and send down Grissom to let him get his legs back underneath him and then revisit in a month or so if/when Grissom forces the issue, which I suspect he will.
They can try out Valdez again at DH and dump Smith if he doesnt do much.
Other than that, play better defense like tonight, make productive outs - the constant strikeouts with men in scoring position is hurting them. Run the bases better, and if they're in it come the deadline a high leverage righty reliever could be quite useful, too.
Getting a righty reliever and a RH hitting DH shouldn't bankrupt the system if they're in go for it mode.
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redsox04071318champs
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Post by redsox04071318champs on May 19, 2024 6:50:57 GMT -5
What a boring mediocre team. They surprisingly get great starting pitching, but they offset it with bad defense, a mediocre bullpen, horrendous situational hitting with too many strikeouts in key situations and bad baserunning as well. This will be their fifth meh season in 6 years and they'll miss the postseason yet again in an era where almost half the league makes the postseason. They're a dull team to watch, too, unfortunately. Smith is horrible. Grissom has been terrible. Smith should not be playing every day. Grissom might be better served going to AAA and getting his legs underneath him. Not having a spring training and then dropping all that weight in a short time has wreaked havoc with him. Ultimately I still believe this dude will rake, but it won't be now. I dont hate the Rafaela signing. Its ultimately utility man money and he'll at the very least serve in that capacity. I think he coukd be JBJ like in CF, but I'm not convinced at this point that he will make it as an every day CF, but he's RH and has major defensive skills so he'll be useful, particularly if the OF winds up all lefty as in Anthony, Duran, and Abreu, although Anthony is still a bit away. Making this season even more frustrating is the success of the Gerit Cole-less Yankees who are not letting the excuse of not having their Cy Young award winner around prevent them from playing well. I also dont like seeing Schmidt succeed because the Sox could have had him for Verdugo last year had Bloom pulled the trigger and I particularly dislike seeing him and Gil succeed while the guys they sent San Diego have done little as they pilfered Soto, a big bat I wish the Sox had. So yeah, that makes me all the more irritable. The good news is that normally it would piss me off that they wont be on accessible TV for me, but they're so dull to watch it's less bothersome not to see them play. Fwiw the bullpen is 2nd in baseball in ERA, and by a decent margin. If they’re mediocre then quite literally the entire league save for the Yankees has a mediocre bullpen I stand corrected. I see a number of late inning losses and blown saves, but ok the pen has been better than I think it is. Unfortunately it hasn't changed the bottom line.
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redsox04071318champs
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Post by redsox04071318champs on May 18, 2024 21:54:53 GMT -5
What a boring mediocre team.
They surprisingly get great starting pitching, but they offset it with bad defense, a mediocre bullpen, horrendous situational hitting with too many strikeouts in key situations and bad baserunning as well.
This will be their fifth meh season in 6 years and they'll miss the postseason yet again in an era where almost half the league makes the postseason.
They're a dull team to watch, too, unfortunately.
Smith is horrible. Grissom has been terrible. Smith should not be playing every day. Grissom might be better served going to AAA and getting his legs underneath him. Not having a spring training and then dropping all that weight in a short time has wreaked havoc with him. Ultimately I still believe this dude will rake, but it won't be now.
I dont hate the Rafaela signing. Its ultimately utility man money and he'll at the very least serve in that capacity. I think he coukd be JBJ like in CF, but I'm not convinced at this point that he will make it as an every day CF, but he's RH and has major defensive skills so he'll be useful, particularly if the OF winds up all lefty as in Anthony, Duran, and Abreu, although Anthony is still a bit away.
Making this season even more frustrating is the success of the Gerit Cole-less Yankees who are not letting the excuse of not having their Cy Young award winner around prevent them from playing well. I also dont like seeing Schmidt succeed because the Sox could have had him for Verdugo last year had Bloom pulled the trigger and I particularly dislike seeing him and Gil succeed while the guys they sent San Diego have done little as they pilfered Soto, a big bat I wish the Sox had. So yeah, that makes me all the more irritable.
The good news is that normally it would piss me off that they wont be on accessible TV for me, but they're so dull to watch it's less bothersome not to see them play.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on May 18, 2024 12:29:50 GMT -5
I'd think Niko might be Joey Gallo (the Yankee version) lite without defense. I think he'd struggle to bat .200, let alone manage .220. But despite that I'm not against him getting a shot and proving me wrong. Feel like its choosing between less than ideal options. It's like trying to choose between extremely bad and possibly even worse. Yeah, I think it's also very possible Niko hits .175/.270/.350 with a K% of like 40% too. I was just pointing out the bar isn't exactly a high one to clear. Offense is way down this year. Yeah, but that's pretty damn bad for a DH/1b even this year. I'd say that he would (briefly) make the team more interesting, so there's that. with Dom Smith and Bobby Dalbec you know what you get and it's not good. You get bad with Smith. Worse with Dalbec. Such choices, lol.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on May 18, 2024 12:25:38 GMT -5
Frontier League hero. Dont remember him doing too badly during his Red Sox cup of coffee.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on May 18, 2024 12:05:39 GMT -5
It seems like it really can't hurt to give him a chance at this point - obviously it's not a perfect comp and the league has changed a lot since he was around, but Kavadas' profile kindof reminds me of Jack Cust. Bounced up and down for a few years then caught on with the A's, had a couple of productive seasons, and was out of the league a few years later. Admittedly, Kavadas seems to have basically 0 shot at ever hitting even .250 in the big leagues, but he doesn't need to if he walks a bunch and hits bombs at a ~25/600 PA pace when he's on the field. I also accept that that is an unlikely outcome, but it seems a hell of a lot more plausible than Dom Smith suddenly becoming anything more than a replacement level player after 2000 MLB PAs. Last point I'd make is that his trajectory is a little reminiscent of Travis Shaw - really struggled when he first got to the high minors after being age advanced previously, repeated a level, and in the end he figured it out and put together the better part of 4 years as a productive big leaguer. Give him a shot for a couple of weeks and see if you can catch lightning in a bottle at least The league hasn't hit .250 as a whole since 2019. The average MLB line right now is .240/.312/.386. At 1b, it's .239/.319/.396. If he could hit close to .250 in the MLB, he'd be one of the better hitting 1b in the league. As you said, he probably has no shot of doing that. If he were to hit .220 with a 10% BB% with a .220 ISO, his line would be right around league average, just less OBP and more slugging. His minor league average is .252, his BB% is 20.3% and his ISO is .257. I think it's very possible he could put up those numbers, if not slightly better. A lot of it would depend on how his walk rate translates to the MLB level. I have no clue about his defense, but he'd have to hit considerably better than that if he's a butcher. On another note, someone mentioned Jack Cust. Jack Cust was in the MLB at age 22. While somewhat similar, Cust was doing it at a much younger age and was hitting for average. He hit .281 in the minors. He had a similar BB% at 19.7% with an ISO of .228. His K% was 26.0%. He was also a top 40 prospect 2 years in a row. On top of that, he didn't actually do anything of note until he was 28 years old. With that said, I could see Niko being a late bloomer like Jack Cust or Brandon Moss. Then we'll ask why we can't get guys like that. Though, maybe he can catch fire like 2020 Dalbec. I'd think Niko might be Joey Gallo (the Yankee version) lite without defense. I think he'd struggle to bat .200, let alone manage .220. But despite that I'm not against him getting a shot and proving me wrong. Feel like its choosing between less than ideal options. It's like trying to choose between extremely bad and possibly even worse.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on May 18, 2024 9:04:51 GMT -5
Big fan of half measures here: if they're on the fringe of contention (like 40% playoff odds) then I think it makes sense to take a mixed approach - be opportunistic about adding to make the team better but also be opportunistic about selling off assets if someone is willing to overpay for them. This approach worked out incredibly well in 2022 (except for the part where the team stunk down the stretch). No thanks. Have seen that movie too many times. Pick a direction and go with it, even if it's down so they can get better in the future. This being in the middle of the pack approach has gotten them absolutely nowhere over an extended time. Breslow has to not play the odds game but rather make a real decisive judgment on his team and act accordingly.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on May 18, 2024 8:53:32 GMT -5
The 2024 season may be coming to a cross road. Now under .500 and not playing very good ball recently. Pitching is coming down to earth a little bit which had to be expected. They need at least a couple of their underperforming position players to step up or things may get away from them very quickly over the next month month in a half. The next stretch will determine if they are buyers or sellers come deadline time. I just hope they pick a direction one way or another. Like between their bad injury luck and issues getting basic competency from the bottom half of their position players, even if they actually ARE in it by end of July if you hedge and don’t make a move to get better it feels like this is going to end the same way as the last two years. Try to win or sell - please no half-measures I dont think Breslow will do half measures. I think he will be decisive. He kind of has to be. That's a part of what cost Bloom his job, the deadline half measures. The way this looks to me right now is that this will end up being a sell deadline, which will probably be the right way to go, but a bummer because it'll mark 3 straight seasons of a summer without meaningful baseball and 5 out of 6 seasons of also ran status, which is a long time for a team that is supposed to have the cache the Sox franchise should have.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on May 18, 2024 8:45:48 GMT -5
At some point absolutely best in class walk rates and a lot of power gets a shot right? His BABIP is high… but he can hit .240 and still be productive. I wouldn’t mind if we had a DH that hit .238 with. .380 OBP and 30 home runs I know that way easier to predict than do but that really doesn’t seem like some wild take right now If he really struggles to handle fastballs with velocity and struggles badly with breaking pitches it's tough to see him putting numbers up like .238 with walks and 30 homers. Not that I wouldn't give him a shot over Smith but I dont have much in the way of expectations.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on May 18, 2024 8:22:22 GMT -5
The 2024 season may be coming to a cross road. Now under .500 and not playing very good ball recently. Pitching is coming down to earth a little bit which had to be expected. They need at least a couple of their underperforming position players to step up or things may get away from them very quickly over the next month month in a half. The next stretch will determine if they are buyers or sellers come deadline time. They've barely played the east and so far the early returns arent encouraging. I dont see them beating up the Yankees like they did last year and even with Toronto's issues I'm not sure they knock them around like they did last year. I figured they're a 75 win team. I might wind up being right for the wrong reasons. I still think the hitting will get better at some point but not enough as the pitching returns to earth. Honestly I don't find this team a y more compelling than the last couple of teams they've put on the field. It appears that it's going to be another summer of being irrelevant. It's tough seeing them be so relentlessly mediocre after having seen them really matter for the better part of the two previous decades.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on May 17, 2024 22:21:18 GMT -5
Great sports night. Bruins found a way to lose in last 2 minutes to end their season and the Sox score 11 runs over 2 games and their pitching fails them and now they're under .500 where theyll probably wind up this season. Just lovely.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on May 17, 2024 21:18:55 GMT -5
I still think Grissom will ultimately rake, but I dont think it would hurt him to get back into baseball shape in the minors and have his spring training and get those 15 pounds back.
And when he really starts tearing up AAA, like OPS over .900, then call him up and let him play 2b every day. Just need to get him back completely healthy.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on May 15, 2024 11:53:28 GMT -5
My 8-year-old is starting to really get into baseball. This is his first year of machine-pitch and he's asking to go play catch or have me pitch to him every spare moment we have. However, he hadn't actually expressed interest in watching it (which is fine)... until last night when I turned on the game in the top of the 10th. He was SO excited when the Sox escaped the jam. He went to bed after the bottom of the 10th, but I think I may have a buddy for games now. (Don't worry, we're Central Time Zone, so it wasn't THAT late for a school night.) Treasure it. I have an 11 year old. He's playing and enjoying little league but I cannot get him to watch a game with me. He likes the Red Sox but other than him catching the ending of the 2021 ALDS against Tampa (Kiké series winning sac fly), he has not watched any baseball. He was too young to remember 2018, although he does remember Brandon Phillip's, number zero's only Red Sox HR which dramatically helped the Sox to beat the Braves one day in Sep 2018. But with the Red Sox stuck in mediocrity for most of his memory the Sox arent compelling enough for him to choose to watch the games rather than play on the computer or watch YouTube videos. I'm worried he'll never really get into the Sox. It would be nice to have my son to watch games with but I'm afraid it's not going to happen. I wanted to wake him up on a Sunday night at 11pm when he was 6 so that he could witness the Red Sox winning the World Series but his mom put the kibosh on that idea and it never happened. I keep thinking if it did maybe the Red Sox would resonate with him more. Ultimately you can't force it. They enjoy what they enjoy. Treasure your game watching with your son time.
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redsox04071318champs
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Post by redsox04071318champs on May 13, 2024 13:23:59 GMT -5
Stanton is an awful hitter. He's around .200 these days. But no, when he's walking often enough and smashing HRs he can be an effective offensive player. To some its semantics but to me there's a difference between a good hitter and a good offensive player. One can one but not the other. When I'm talking hitter, I'm talking hit tool or as Wee Willie Keeler would say, "hit 'em where they ain't." Ah I see you were referring to specifically contact/hit tool got it that makes more sense. I'd still push back on "one of the worst hitters in the game" for him, his BA is only 4% below league average, which actually is pretty impressive given how hard he swings. Understood, but even though he's at a respectable. 230 - geez .230 is respectable- are we back in 1968, lol, Stanton is coming off 2 seasons of .211 and .191 which is Joey Gallo like, and quite putrid no matter what era we're in.
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redsox04071318champs
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Post by redsox04071318champs on May 13, 2024 12:11:31 GMT -5
Great, so one of the best hitters on the game, Arraez has one of the slowest bats in the game while one of the worst hitters in the game has the fastest bat speed in the game; at least Giancarlo has great bat speed when he swings and misses, lol. With Arraez and Kwan, the slow bat speed for high square-up rate is clearly a choice. They're sacrificing power to spray liners everywhere and it works well. If they could maintain their high square-up rate while swinging the bat much faster they'd be Juan Soto. I think similarly for Stanton, he swings as hard as he can, and thus when he makes contact the ball goes really far. He is also definitely not one of the worst hitters in the game. Stanton is an awful hitter. He's around .200 these days. But no, when he's walking often enough and smashing HRs he can be an effective offensive player. To some its semantics but to me there's a difference between a good hitter and a good offensive player. One can be one but not the other. When I'm talking hitter, I'm talking hit tool or as Wee Willie Keeler would say, "hit 'em where they ain't."
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redsox04071318champs
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Post by redsox04071318champs on May 13, 2024 11:49:51 GMT -5
Some items from Mike Petriello’s MLB.com overview of bat speed metrics: * MLB average bat speed is 72 MPH * two thirds of all swings taken are between 68-77 MPH * MLB leader: Giancarlo Stanton (81 MPH) * MLB least fast average bat speed: Luis Arreaz (62 MPH - Steven Kwan as second slowest, in conjunction with both players’ high contact rate and low exit velocity numbers, jumps out. Interestingly, Justin Turner is fourth slowest!) * average bat speed on all home runs: 75 MPH - the two slowest were 63 MPH There are also five other metrics introduced: fast-swing rate, squared-up rate, blasts, swing length, swords. Great, so one of the best hitters on the game, Arraez has one of the slowest bats in the game while one of the worst hitters in the game has the fastest bat speed in the game; at least Giancarlo has great bat speed when he swings and misses, lol.
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redsox04071318champs
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Post by redsox04071318champs on May 12, 2024 22:34:01 GMT -5
I picked them at 75 wins and will stick with that figure for the time being.
I figure the offense will get better because it probably should.
I figure the pitching will decline because it has to with the question being by how much?
My guess is they continue to deal with injuries, offensive underperformance in close games and remain hovering around .500, say a few games below when the end of July rolls around.
The Sox have barely played the AL East and after getting a steady dose it's kind of hard to imagine them making hay, and that's with the acknowledgment that Tampa and Toronto arent juggernauts.
If they're about 5 games or more out of the wild card spot I think Breslow acts decisively, unlike his predecessor and trades O'Neill, Jansen, Martin, and Pivetta, and that would point the team towards 75 wins.
If Casas and Yoshida got healthy and the pitching survives their AL East competition then yeah, they can stay above .500 and stay within a game or 2 of the playoffs, perhaps Breslow keeps the team intact and adds, trading from minor league surplus. Anything's possible but I haven't seen yet enough overall to shift my initial prediction.
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redsox04071318champs
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Post by redsox04071318champs on May 12, 2024 13:17:00 GMT -5
That was a little league inning like Youks said.
Bad play in CF. Another runner on 3rd less than 2 outs unscored.
At least Rafaela's bloop fell in.
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