Sox Sign Raimel Tapia

JM3

often quoted
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Dec 14, 2019
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Raimel Tapia intrigues me. Hits the ball on the ground alot, maybe with the new shift changes this year Tapia might benefit?
Last year Tapia had 151 ABs with no shift & 172 ABs with a shift where he put the ball in play.

On those at bats...

No Shift: .318 BA, 101 wRC+
Shift: .314 BA, 101 wRC+

For his career, he has 851 ABs with no shift & 544 ABs with a shift where he put the ball in play.

On those at bats...

No shift: .324 BA, 86 wRC+
Shift: .346 BA, 97 wRC+

So identical last season, & better with a shift in his career, so I don't see him as a player who will be much impacted by the shift rules.
 

EvilEmpire

paying for his sins
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Until we sign a SS, Duvall is going to play center because Kiké will be forced to play SS...
Yeah. I know.

I expect the Red Sox to sign or trade for a SS because Hernandez is better in CF than SS and Duvall is better in RF than CF. I think Cora will want to put the best possible defense they can on the field and that Bloom will support him in that.

But hey, if the Red Sox go with Yoshida/Duvall/Verdugo as their regular OF, I won't complain at all.
 

SouthernBoSox

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Jul 23, 2005
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Yeah. I know.

I expect the Red Sox to sign or trade for a SS because Hernandez is better in CF than SS and Duvall is better in RF than CF. I think Cora will want to put the best possible defense they can on the field and that Bloom will support him in that.

But hey, if the Red Sox go with Yoshida/Duvall/Verdugo as their regular OF, I won't complain at all.
I think this is absolutely correct. I think Verdugo, Pivetta, and Houck are all out there in an effort to grab a SS +.
 

Blizzard of 1978

@drballs
Sep 12, 2022
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New Hampshire
Last year Tapia had 151 ABs with no shift & 172 ABs with a shift where he put the ball in play.

On those at bats...

No Shift: .318 BA, 101 wRC+
Shift: .314 BA, 101 wRC+

For his career, he has 851 ABs with no shift & 544 ABs with a shift where he put the ball in play.

On those at bats...

No shift: .324 BA, 86 wRC+
Shift: .346 BA, 97 wRC+

So identical last season, & better with a shift in his career, so I don't see him as a player who will be much impacted by the shift rules.
Good points.
 

Sandy Leon Trotsky

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Mar 11, 2007
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Pivetta, Houck and Verdugo. The thing they all have in common is that while none of them are likely to be great... they're all likely to be very solid and consistently healthy (within standard MLB player health variability). I personally would prefer them all on the roster in '23 and just get Iglesias or Andrus. I like Kim... .but he looks to me like a good defensive guy with an outlier offensive season and likely to regress into basically what Iglesias is (and stats be damned.... the guy is still as slick fielding as anyone else out there) without costing anything other than cash.
If Adames can be pried away from Milwaukee... then I'd be more interested.
 

E5 Yaz

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... likely to regress into basically what Iglesias is (and stats be damned.... the guy is still as slick fielding as anyone else out there) ...
What are you basing this claim on? How many games did you see Iglesias play last season?
 

Shaky Walton

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Nov 20, 2019
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Is there something wrong with finding diamonds in the rough? Bloom has done a pretty good job of it, and I'm not sure why you're griping about a minor league deal in the first place.

The bar to clear here is "more valuable to Boston than Duran," and Tapia does that.
Has he really? Who are they? Michael Wacha? Maybe, I guess. Who else?

Fair point about this being a minor league deal so it doesn't much matter what his mindset is.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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Has he really? Who are they? Michael Wacha? Maybe, I guess. Who else?

Fair point about this being a minor league deal so it doesn't much matter what his mindset is.
Schreiber? Whitlock? Arroyo? Unless we're taking diamond literally and only counting all stars, the bar really shouldn't be that high. Frankly, I would count any solid contributor from outside the farm system that cost the team nothing (or nearly so) to acquire as a diamond in the rough scenario. While Wacha significantly outperformed expectations, he did cost $7M. Not sure that's a diamond in the rough so much as a (relatively) small bet that paid off well.

You can't build a consistent playoff team with only diamonds in the rough, but finding a few is certainly helpful.
 

Minneapolis Millers

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Another one of these threads. Why anyone would complain about a mL signing like this is baffling. I half expected some people here to argue that signing to play in Worcester shows that players don’t want to play in Boston!

If you don’t have high minors depth at a position (like OF) then signing AAAA guys with some ML experience to mL deals is what a team that’s paying any attention would do - whether or not they expect those guys to be “diamonds in the rough” (whatever that means). And these moves don’t have to say anything about an intention to trade from the ML roster.
 

LogansDad

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Another one of these threads. Why anyone would complain about a mL signing like this is baffling. I half expected some people here to argue that signing to play in Worcester shows that players don’t want to play in Boston!

If you don’t have high minors depth at a position (like OF) then signing AAAA guys with some ML experience to mL deals is what a team that’s paying any attention would do - whether or not they expect those guys to be “diamonds in the rough” (whatever that means). And these moves don’t have to say anything about an intention to trade from the ML roster.
What? You like having a guy who isn't blocking anyone in the organization and isn't getting paid much, but who can fill in in a pinch when one of our outfielders inevitably gets hurt and perform in a way that can actually almost resembles an MLB outfielder?

Weird.
 

Max Power

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Jul 20, 2005
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What? You like having a guy who isn't blocking anyone in the organization and isn't getting paid much, but who can fill in in a pinch when one of our outfielders inevitably gets hurt and perform in a way that can actually almost resembles an MLB outfielder?

Weird.
There are a lot of Abraham Almonte fans out there.
 

TheYellowDart5

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Tapia got a minor league deal with a camp invite and would make $2 million with performance bonuses if on the MLB roster, per Chris Cotillo, so not much and suggests the team doesn't see him as anything other than affordable Triple A depth. I doubt he makes the cut unless someone gets hurt.