Duran made the same mistake Benitendi made. He wanted to become a power hitter. And, to be fair, power hitters make the most money. But his strikeouts went way up and his average way down. He has taken his medicine. Lowered his leg kick and is concentrating on contact. If he can resist the temptation to play long ball, he looks like he will be a very good big league hitter.
Nothing wrong with being a 3+ tool player. Duran doesn't have to hit 40 dingers. Somewhere around 20, with 30+ steals will make him a lot of money. Although Fenway is not the ideal home park for a infield->outfield convert who might project as a sub-par fielder.
Doogie again !!!!!
Cora said he challenged him to become the guy they thought he could become when trading for him. He has the talent, and has been "good" but needed to take that next step.
He's been quite good. Fantastic defensive catcher too. The Betts trade is looking a little better.
I just read that Red Sox catchers (Connor Wong and Reese McGuire) lead the majors in batting average. Nice surprise to me anyway. Of course, you want power from catchers as well.
And Sale slinging the fastball again. I thought Chris was done earlier this year.
I thought they made some decent moves based on the new rules. Speed, contact, lefty batters that hit the ball hard (no shift). Verdugo seems to have finally matched his promise....so far. We've seen this before in spurts.
I agree. I would love for the Sox to win a WS every year but that is unrealistic. At a minimum I want to follow a competitive team throughout the entire season. And Paxton should be joining the team by next week as well. Things are not as gloomy as they seemed a month ago.
Completely agree with this assessment. The vision of hiring Bloom was always "Tampa with the ability to keep/sign some expensive players". So Mookie goes (as is the Tampa model). Bogaerts walks (huge mistake, Tampa would have traded him the year before) and Devers resigns. It won't be fully functional until the old big contracts like Sale are gone.
Lucky guy that gets 7 years and multiple last place finishes to implement his "vision". And as a reminder, Tampa has yet to win anything. Pretty much the entire 80's and 90's the Sox did what Tampa is doing now. Consistant winning years, several playoff appearances with one losing WS appeareance. That entire time the Sox were considered losers.
I wouldn't consider them losers then. I'm not sure Chaim is the guy, but this is about the first year I'd say we are playing with his team.
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