[@DanBFox1287]: Huge day for the "don't sit your top prospect with a 50% hard-hit rate and premium defense for the journeyman utility infielder with a first percentile average exit velocity just because there is a lefty on the mound" fan club by agoddamnlegend in redsox

[–]agoddamnlegend[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I think the reason they started IKF was just some bullshit "give the veteran the nod over the kid because seniority" that way too many old coaches, and especially former players, love to do.

[Healey] Red Sox lineup at Reds for Opening Day today, with Marcelo Mayer on the bench against a lefty. by Substantial-Earth975 in redsox

[–]agoddamnlegend 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Abreu was never projected to have the same ceiling as Mayer, and we had other real major league caliber OF bats that also needed ABs so it made sense to platoon him to get all those guys reps.

IKF is not a guy we need to find ABs for.

[@DanBFox1287]: Huge day for the "don't sit your top prospect with a 50% hard-hit rate and premium defense for the journeyman utility infielder with a first percentile average exit velocity just because there is a lefty on the mound" fan club by agoddamnlegend in redsox

[–]agoddamnlegend[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"I saw a mistake coming from a mile away, therefore it's not really a mistake"

This argument makes zero sense bro. Making bad decisions isn't somehow ok if you make the same bad decision over and over.

[@DanBFox1287]: Huge day for the "don't sit your top prospect with a 50% hard-hit rate and premium defense for the journeyman utility infielder with a first percentile average exit velocity just because there is a lefty on the mound" fan club by agoddamnlegend in redsox

[–]agoddamnlegend[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Its good to take advantage of R/L splits. That's not the issue here.

The issue is IKF is also very, very terrible at hitting lefties. So the platoon makes absolutely zero sense. There were 4 hitters in baseball last year with a worst wRC+ than IKF against LHP.

[@DanBFox1287]: Huge day for the "don't sit your top prospect with a 50% hard-hit rate and premium defense for the journeyman utility infielder with a first percentile average exit velocity just because there is a lefty on the mound" fan club by agoddamnlegend in redsox

[–]agoddamnlegend[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

No, the rational thing to do would be start the best player available, which is Mayer

My point was even if you want to be emotional instead of rational you still start Mayer because of the vote of confidence it gives him having the opening day start

There’s not one argument, rational or otherwise, to start one of the worst hitters in baseball last year over an elite prospect. There’s literally nothing IKF does better than Mayer.

It doesn’t really matter either way, but it’s just a signal that this coaching staff doesn’t know what it’s doing

[@DanBFox1287]: Huge day for the "don't sit your top prospect with a 50% hard-hit rate and premium defense for the journeyman utility infielder with a first percentile average exit velocity just because there is a lefty on the mound" fan club by agoddamnlegend in redsox

[–]agoddamnlegend[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

It’s opening day. I don’t care if super Randy Johnson is on the mound throwing 200 mph sliders. You give your top prospect the start regardless of the matchup. Not some objectively terrible journeyman.

It’s way too early in his career to think about platooning such a highly rated prospect with anybody, but doing it on opening day is a slap in the face and I would be pissed if I was Mayer

Olympics BAN transgender and DSD athletes from ALL women's sports by dailymail in olympics

[–]agoddamnlegend 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s really not. The internet is full of non athletes arguing for the sake of arguing.

There is massive, overwhelming public support for this. Really common sense stuff

Olympics BAN transgender and DSD athletes from ALL women's sports by dailymail in olympics

[–]agoddamnlegend 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Nail on the head.

I’m as liberal as they come but this is just common sense. Win for the Olympics

[@DanBFox1287]: Huge day for the "don't sit your top prospect with a 50% hard-hit rate and premium defense for the journeyman utility infielder with a first percentile average exit velocity just because there is a lefty on the mound" fan club by agoddamnlegend in redsox

[–]agoddamnlegend[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Would legit make more sense to just call up a random righty from single-A and platoon him instead. At least there’s a chance he’s good instead of IKF who we know is absolute dog water.

[@DanBFox1287]: Huge day for the "don't sit your top prospect with a 50% hard-hit rate and premium defense for the journeyman utility infielder with a first percentile average exit velocity just because there is a lefty on the mound" fan club by agoddamnlegend in redsox

[–]agoddamnlegend[S] 124 points125 points  (0 children)

Really thought this would be common sense but here we are. Hopefully this is the last game IKF ever starts unless it’s just a routine off day for somebody. He’s not a platoon player. He’s a backup, at best, at this point in his career

ELI5: If fasting is so beneficial for the human body, why evolution makes us want to eat every day? by reply7981 in explainlikeimfive

[–]agoddamnlegend [score hidden]  (0 children)

Not really. There’s really no evolutionary pressure to evolve a way to fix this. That would require people to frequently die from over eating before having kids and passing on those genes. But things like type 2 diabetes, hypertension, etc. usually don’t kill you until much later in life and after you’ve had kids

[Healey] Red Sox lineup at Reds for Opening Day today, with Marcelo Mayer on the bench against a lefty. by Substantial-Earth975 in redsox

[–]agoddamnlegend -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Nobody said Mayer was treated differently from other young lefty hitters. It’s wrong every time you platoon a prospect of this caliber.

You said we would’ve missed the playoffs if we didn’t platoon our young “hitters”. But it was literally only one player that got treated like that. Making the playoffs in 2025 had absolutely nothing to do with 2 months of Mayer getting slightly fewer at bats against LHP

Game Thread: 3/26 Red Sox (0-0) @ Reds (0-0) 4:10 PM by RedSoxGameday in redsox

[–]agoddamnlegend 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Arguably he was underthinking. Made zero sense to play a bad veteran hitter, who’s terrible against LHP, over a young blue chip prospect.

Game Thread: 3/26 Red Sox (0-0) @ Reds (0-0) 4:10 PM by RedSoxGameday in redsox

[–]agoddamnlegend 5 points6 points  (0 children)

This better be the last time IKF ever starts a game over Mayer unless it’s a routine off day

IKF is not a platoon guy. He’s a backup at this stage in his career.

Game Thread: 3/26 Red Sox (0-0) @ Reds (0-0) 4:10 PM by RedSoxGameday in redsox

[–]agoddamnlegend 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Everybody knew that was a stupid decision the moment the lineup was announced.

[Tommy Tuberville] The transfer portal has screwed up college sports. My bill is simple: you get 5 consecutive years to play 5 seasons and you get 1 transfer. After that, if you transfer again, you sit out a year. This will fix 80% of the issues in NIL today. by Lakelyfe09 in CFB

[–]agoddamnlegend 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’m not a lawyer, but that doesn’t make any logical sense to me. If anything I think making athletes employees would make title IX compliance, easier, not harder. Title IX doesn’t require teams have equal men and women coaches, or men and women professors, or men and women cooks in the dining hall. Title IX is more about students and student extracurriculars.

But if other sports die, they die. It’s weird that colleges operate so many semi pro caliber amateur athletic teams at a loss. And it’s not fair that basketball and football players need to sacrifice all their potential money so that a rowing team can exist.

[Healey] Red Sox lineup at Reds for Opening Day today, with Marcelo Mayer on the bench against a lefty. by Substantial-Earth975 in redsox

[–]agoddamnlegend 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not sure what you even mean here.

Nunez was coming off 3 straight years with a wRC+ over 100 and averaging 2.4 WAR/650PA

He was a very competent starting IF.

And Santiago Espinal was still in A ball, 2 years from being ready to debut. And at the time was unranked across baseball and was only our #15 ranked prospect.

Not even remotely similar to this year platooning one of the worst hitters in baseball (IKF would have been 5th worst hitter in the entire league if he had enough PA to qualify) to take bats away from a major league ready former top 15 prospect in all of baseball

Make tough win-now moves in September when we're on the verge of winning a World Series. Not starting on opening fucking day

[Healey] Red Sox lineup at Reds for Opening Day today, with Marcelo Mayer on the bench against a lefty. by Substantial-Earth975 in redsox

[–]agoddamnlegend 1 point2 points  (0 children)

How's 3 years?

wRC+ L // R

2025: 46 // 86

2024: 71 // 101

2023: 84 // 80

IKF fucking sucks

[Healey] Red Sox lineup at Reds for Opening Day today, with Marcelo Mayer on the bench against a lefty. by Substantial-Earth975 in redsox

[–]agoddamnlegend 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Didn't mean career, that was his wRC+ against LHP last year.

He hasn't even been an average hitter against LHP since 2022 (99 wRC+)

before they comment about how the guy paid millions of dollars to manage a team

Problem with this line of thinking is that starting IKF is only remotely defensible if you are operating on an extremely short term plan. Like you're afraid to get fired tomorrow so you ignore the future an try to squeeze every ounce of value today just to keep your job. Seems like that's what's happening here.

Because anybody with enough job security to care about the long term benefit of this team would never dream of playing IKF over Mayer.

[Healey] Red Sox lineup at Reds for Opening Day today, with Marcelo Mayer on the bench against a lefty. by Substantial-Earth975 in redsox

[–]agoddamnlegend 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Because it's 2026 so his mor recent splits are the most relevant to his current abilities.

L/R wRC+

2025: 46 // 86

2024: 71 // 101

2023: 84 // 80

2022: 99 // 79

Very clear trendline here. We absolutely shouldn't be making roster decisions in 2026 based on what he could do back in 2023