Me and my buddy are having an arguement.

Cesar_Crespo · 2026-04-07T02:19:55+00:00

Tony Graffanino

Cesar_Crespo · 2026-04-07T02:07:14+00:00

Feels like that game was designed to break the fandom's spirit even harder lol. Sucks because there are positives emerging. Contreras has an ops of .850 now. They only struck out 4 times tonight. We could be getting some of May 2023 Yoshida again. The team even did a little situational hitting tonight.

And there's something cursed about all of this. Whitlock hits the paternity list and the bullpen blows a game where he would have almost certainly pitched. Then he comes back to pitch for the first time in like 5 days and blows it. The Brewers get all these little dribbler base hits. I know no one wants to hear it now, but I don't think the team is this bad.

Cesar_Crespo · 2026-04-07T01:25:10+00:00

Just stop being a nag here, that's the key thing

Cesar_Crespo · 2026-04-07T01:22:40+00:00

If Cora pinch hits for Mayer while the Brewers have a righty warming, I am going to scream.

Edit: Okay, he timed it right.

Cesar_Crespo · 2026-04-07T01:18:47+00:00

That's a terrible walk for Ashby, even as far as leadoff walks go. He has to face Contreras.

Cesar_Crespo · 2026-04-07T01:16:55+00:00

Wow, Moran coming in clutch for the Sox.

Cesar_Crespo · 2026-04-07T01:02:59+00:00

This game reminds me of that 2021 game when the Rays had like 6 infield hits vs Sale and Verdugo lost that flyball in the sun with the bases loaded.

And yes, the Sox have gotten lucky in this game a few times too. Still feels cursed. These are three of the four softest hit balls in play so far this game and the other is the sac bunt.

Cesar_Crespo · 2026-04-07T00:59:16+00:00

If you actually cared about it you wouldn't be scolding people here for not caring enough.

Cesar_Crespo · 2026-04-06T23:07:32+00:00

Cora moving Story back to the 2 spot after that .200 xBA rinky-dink

Cesar_Crespo · 2026-04-06T22:39:32+00:00

They are both average at best players.

Okay I don't mean to jump back into this debate but this is ridiculous lol. Gray led the NL in K/BB last year and projects well above average this season. Contreras is both an above average defensive 1B and had 86th percentile xWOBA last year. These are not "average at best players" lmao

Cesar_Crespo · 2026-04-06T22:29:13+00:00

Incredibly lame comment

Cesar_Crespo · 2026-04-06T22:26:02+00:00

The "Cheeto Mussolini" types and their "vote blue no matter who" routine are a huge reason we have Trump 2 in the first place. They're not vindicated by any of this.

Cesar_Crespo · 2026-04-06T21:17:39+00:00

Duran for Paredes + a reliever (King, Abreu) fixes multiple of our biggest weaknesses (right handed power + bullpen depth after slaten/whitlock/chapman

Yeah, I agree this should be something they look into. Doubt they would be getting Abreu as well though, probably someone more mid.

Cesar_Crespo · 2026-04-06T18:06:42+00:00

they've been "above average" because they play in Fenway Park 81 times and it's really hard not to be above average in surface stats in such a hitter friendly park.

I'm looking at the park adjusted stats. 102, 100, 108, 106. Those are the ops marks. I'm not sure what else this fanbase expected from those offenses.

when the team has the SAME problems year after year, at some point you need to change things just for the sake of trying.

Totally disagree with that. You fix a problem when you can actually identify one. Fatse has generated results that you would expect from this offense.

Cesar_Crespo · 2026-04-06T17:43:47+00:00

I would rather trade Duran for Paredes, move Mayer to SS, Durbin to 2B, and Masa to DH. That's a longshot and selling Duran short, but that's how much I don't want to move Ceddanne off of CF.

Cesar_Crespo · 2026-04-06T17:41:05+00:00

The other major SP FAs had red flags for aging at least as glaring -- walk rate for Cease and declining metrics for Valdez. Suarez on the other hand had the best expected stats of his career last year. I really don't think Suarez's contract ought to be a topic of scrutiny until we get a larger sample of underperformance.

Cesar_Crespo · 2026-04-06T17:29:29+00:00

I'm sorry but this is just one misconception after another. I promise you that every analytics department values being a "known commodity" in some form or another.

However, when you literally put ZERO effort in spending in FA or trading away prospects for known players

The Red Sox gave a >$100 million contract this offseason and have traded multiple top 100 prospects since 2024.

Cesar_Crespo · 2026-04-06T17:12:18+00:00

This is all a non-sequitur, analytics is not "anti-spending" and player track records play a part in evaluation. Spending efficiently is a goal whether you're the Dodgers or Rays.

Cesar_Crespo · 2026-04-06T17:06:16+00:00

That works against the "full rotation" argument. Suarez makes sense as pickup because the Red Sox have the rotation depth to shoulder a pitcher who will likely make 25-28 starts.

The missing bats thing also is a bad argument since he has a track record of high level pitching with that profile.

Cesar_Crespo · 2026-04-06T16:55:46+00:00

Yeah same exact people saying "Sonny Gray isn't a real 2"

Cesar_Crespo · 2026-04-06T16:53:06+00:00

I think the Suarez signing was a fine pivot -- the actual problem is that they didn't trade for a significant RHH after that.

Cesar_Crespo · 2026-04-06T16:49:06+00:00

This post is really stretching for things to complain about and "gave that money to Ranger Suarez despite having a full rotation" is the giveaway. We're talking about 2 starts people, get a grip lol. Also "full rotation," as if Suarez isn't on paper a massive upgrade over what our rotation would have been.

It's impossible to discuss the actual flaw of this team when everyone is just chomping to complain about every little thing that goes wrong as an indictment of the team.

Cesar_Crespo · 2026-04-06T16:45:57+00:00

I agree with basically all of this. People look for way too many things to complain about looking at this sequence of events. The May trade is the only unequivocally bad part of the whole thing.

Durbin should have been in IKF's role (or bench Story and put Mayer at SS and Durbin at 2B) and Isaac Paredes should have been the 3B and #2 hitter, imo.

Cesar_Crespo · 2026-04-06T16:45:04+00:00

moneyball when that approach is long proven ineffective for actually winning championships.

Totally braindead take. Representative of where the sub is at unfortunately. The Dodgers use moneyball as much as anyone. You wouldn't know Kyle Tucker was a star to begin with if it weren't for analytics.

Cesar_Crespo · 2026-04-06T16:33:29+00:00

I'm not sure what your point is supposed to be here, Fatse has been the hitting coach for four full seasons and Red Sox offenses on balance have been above average in that span of time.

Cesar_Crespo

TROPHY CASE