Is breaking a rib on a seing even quasi normal? Is it indicative of a serious underlying disease?
Casas has a left rib fracture. Transferred to the 60 Day IL on 4/27.
- Thread starter soxhop411
- Start date
Dalbec's entire career is built on 6 very good weeks in 2021. Every week besides those 6 has been largely below average to downright awful. They have to stop giving him plate appearances ASAP.
ATM there's nearly no choice IF Devers is out of the lineup. And if Devers is in the lineup you then have to weigh the better defender at 1B vs the better bat. Hopefully Breslow finds another option, but at least for the short term this is what we're faced with.
I would suspect it's a stress fracture, with the bone weakening over time before breaking. Just reading that rowers are prone to rib stress fractures.
As @moondog80 says, I don't think we can just take the highest of the projections and expect that. Dalbec will almost certainly be better than one of the worst stretches in recent MLB history (I assume?), but as those stats show, his last two seasons he's had a wRC+ of 79 and 51. His high projection for ROS is 86, his low on there is 69. And most wildly, his K rate in the Majors in both 2023 and this season has been above 50% (which is still hard to believe).
Bobby D seems like a good guy, but unfortunately those stats and projections show me someone who shouldn't be getting regular ABs in the Majors.
Hopefully Garrett Cooper, Ji Man Choi, or another professional hitter will be on the roster soon and the Dalbec will be back on the bench or in AAA.
Just a quick Dalbec Recap, jumping off of the bolded.
Dalbec hit .269/.381/.557/.938 at AAA last year with 33 HRs. (Granted he's 28 and had a 35% K rate.) This spring training he OPS'd .719. The Sox are well aware of his flaws and platoon splits.
He got the opening day roster spot in part because Refsnyder and Grissom were injured. Then, he proceeded to hit poorly. (And when I type "hit" I mean. . .) So he was demoted to AAA for a utility guy (Romy Gonzalez) with a questionable bat who could play SS.
Then he was called back up when Romy was injured. And he continued to hit poorly.
Despite that, he's only gotten 32 ABs so far. That is the leastest fewerest at this point, excepting Story 31, Ref 16, Romy 4, Heineman 1. Above him, Hamilton has 33, and Reyes and Devers both have 48.
He's only been in 6 complete games - the rest of the time he was PH for, or was a defensive replacement. (The Sox are 4-2 in those complete games BTW, and 9-6 overall in Dalbec games.)
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I'm not saying any of this to suggest he's a long term 1B solution. I'm just saying their handling of him this year has been pretty rational. Give him a shot as a RHH bench bat with Grissom and Refsnyder down. Short leash. And even when injuries forced their hand, they didn't just blindly throw him in there and let him rack up the ABs.
I'm not inclined to think they'll just cross their fingers and go with Bobby here.
Yeah, we really don't have many details at this point. I'm sure there are several possibilities in play, some more likely than others. @radsoxfan - any more recent thoughts/guesses?
Also interested in this.
One of the best articles I could find unfortunately was a Pinstripe Alley post when Judge had a stress fractured rib in 2020 Spring Training (so obviously no clear timeline established there because of that whole global pandemic thing). Still, the article references a recovery timeline for Correa (who fractured his rib getting a "massage" in 2019, bizarrely):
https://www.pinstripealley.com/2020/3/8/21169813/yankees-aaron-judge-fractured-rib-injuries-carolos-correa-mlb
Yeah - I watched Dalbec play while I was at the games this weekend in Pittsburgh. Yes - he struck out too often. Yes his batting average dropped to .038. (Yes - our entire lineup looked like it in Worcester. - especially Sunday)
But he kept his head in the game. He played good defense. He made good contact on a line drive (99 MPH) that unfortunately went straight to K Hayes. He took a walk on Saturday. He even drove in a run on a ground ball! (It was too slow to turn into a double play.
I know we're all frustrated with him. I, too, hope for Donovan Solano or Garrett Cooper. But it really has been a short sample size with him so far this year. And the question becomes do we really want to move future assets for someone who can play right now? What assets do we want to burn on a season with injured 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, OF and 3 SP.
Seriously, I have no idea how we won the Sunday game with that lineup and a bullpen game even though I watched it firsthand.
But he kept his head in the game. He played good defense. He made good contact on a line drive (99 MPH) that unfortunately went straight to K Hayes. He took a walk on Saturday. He even drove in a run on a ground ball! (It was too slow to turn into a double play.
I know we're all frustrated with him. I, too, hope for Donovan Solano or Garrett Cooper. But it really has been a short sample size with him so far this year. And the question becomes do we really want to move future assets for someone who can play right now? What assets do we want to burn on a season with injured 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, OF and 3 SP.
Seriously, I have no idea how we won the Sunday game with that lineup and a bullpen game even though I watched it firsthand.
Glad you got to go in Pittsburgh! What a gorgeous stadium that is.
Anyway, I think there's a number of people on the Board who feel this way and I... just don't get it. The goal of a professional sports team is to win as many games as possible, right? Obviously this isn't possible, but every team starts 0-0 and hopes to win a World Series.
And maybe I'm crazy, but as I have since the offseason, I continue to think this Sox team has a chance to win 85-90 games and grab the 3rd Wild Card. And before hand waving that away as a useless exercise, I remind myself that just last season, an 84-win team made the World Series.
It's obviously silly to even look at the standings in April, but to be silly, the Red Sox right now are a game out of that 3rd Wild Card spot. They've been backed by some of the best pitching in MLB thus far. And they've done it in spite of, as you say, a comical run of bad injury luck.
And Garrett Cooper was DFA. He costs nothing in assets, he's available for just money, and not that much of it.
I know we'll be posting the Green Fields of the Mind at some point in October on the Main Board. I know this team is unlikely to win the World Series. I just don't understand why holding onto our top prospects for 2025 and beyond also requires us to spend 2024 self-flagellating, refusing to upgrade the roster in small ways that cost us basically nothing, and demanding that winter comes early. It's April, life is not guaranteed and all that. I want to watch as much meaningful baseball as possible.
DFA does not automatically mean he's available for "just money". DFA means that the team has to move him off the 40-man roster within 10 days, either via trade, waivers, or release (or outrighting him to the minors but a veteran like Cooper is sure to decline that). If the Sox want him and don't want to risk him not getting to them through waivers, they can propose a trade before he hits the wire.
It's actually 7 days now. And I'm aware. Yes, if they want him before that window it won't technically be "just money" but it also won't be Teel or Anthony we're shipping off.
Not really, over doing it in the batting cage I guess.
It’s almost all based on symptoms at this point. Unlikely to be less than a month if they’re sure it’s an acute fracture. Beyond that, I doubt anyone knows.
Casas has improved greatly on defense this season. On the one hand, I don't put much trust in defensive numbers this early due to sample size issues but going strictly by the eye test, Casas seems to have improved. He seems to have gotten better at scooping throws out of the dirt and his range is much better. Have you watched many games this season?
If it's just money - I'm all for it (after all, it's not my money).
And yes - Pittsburgh's ballpark is beautiful - the whole setup with the bridges is nice too. Definitely not what I had pictured Pittsburgh to be based off of old mill towns I grew up near in New England. We had a great time there for the two days.
I, too, think the Sox have a chance to make the playoffs this year but... oh wait, did I say we had 3 SP's on the DL - I mean 4 - (this is really getting comical)
It's not money. It's working out a trade or hoping he falls to you if you put in a claim. So yeah, you have to pay him, but first you have to get him in a process that does not involve money.
I'm sorry to have taken us off on a tangent about "just money." If the Sox don’t want to risk Cooper clearing the 7 days and electing to be a free agent (as I believe he can since he has more than 3 years service time, my G-d these rules are Byzantine), then yes, he could require a low-level prospect in addition to money.
My point remains that Dalbec is not sufficient and upgrading the roster for 2024 doesn’t mean mortgaging the future.
No, but there are several reasons why Cooper could not end up on the Sox, and it wouldn't be able to be boiled down to a fake narrative of the Sox being cheap. Which is what "it's just money" suggests.
It might also be really hard to sell these guys on the idea that they’re basically keeping a seat warm.
Teams like Houston would be much more desirable
Teams like Houston would be much more desirable
In Cooper's case there may not necessarily be any sell if there's a trade and if he preforms he likely sticks if/when Casas returns.
Well, that and ~700 PA of .900 OPS in AAA.
That’s the reason he’s still around, although Grissom’s return from his rehab will probably be the end of the line.
I don’t really believe in AAAA players, but Dalbec might actually be one. It’s deeply weird that he’s not just good, he’s *great* in AAA, but unplayably bad in MLB.
Will it? Grissom plays neither of the positions Dalbec does. I’d think Grissom means Valdez goes, and Dalbec hopefully goes if/when they get Cooper or someone else after May 1.
I think Valdez might benefit from playing more in WOOstah, but I believe Hamilton's still on the 26 man. This team's not deep enough to have 2 of it's 4 bench spots taken by the backup catcher and a pinch runner.
Just popped into my head.....Did Casas do any damage to his body on that failed attempt stealing 3rd?
Maybe its ridiculous, but I’m really hoping there’s something to this. Otherwise he just pulled his body apart, which is really hard to process. Like why would it not just keep happening?
Is there any reason to think that any other pull on any other player won't keep recurring? It might it might not.
I think we may have been talking past each other, then. "It's just money" (from me) was a response to a poster who wondered why the Red Sox would try to improve this roster with "assets" at the expense of the 2025/2026 Red Sox. At the risk of being a broken record, my point remains: the Red Sox can -- and should -- take steps to improve the 2024 roster. And doing so does not mean trading "assets" that are critical to the success of the 2025, 2026 or 2030 Red Sox.
Cooper, Ji Man Choi, CJ Cron, Brandon Belt, someone else. Take your pick. All of them would be an improvement over Dalbec. And they're available for either "just money" or "money and a fungible, low level prospect."
If I sound impatient... it's because I am. Last season the 3rd Wild Card was decided by 1 game.
Dunno, and I’m sure as shinola not a doc.
Spraining a muscle in the course of maybe an awkward swing would be unfortunate but barely noteworthy. An otherwise healthy as a horse young player cracking his own rib swinging a bat kind of happens never a season.
Pitchers break themselves (arms and ribs) throwing from time to time, and I’m pretty sure I even remember Pokey Reese jumping straight up for a ball so explosively that he broke a toe…. but not batters. Just weird is all, but that’s where this MASH unit is at this point.
I hope when Grissom returns, he becomes a permanent second baseman and one of the other infielders or outfielders becomes the new first baseman.
Bobby has been terrific defensively, but if someone else on the team can manage an acceptable first base, I'd sacrifice a little defense to remove what is currently a black hole from the lineup.
Bobby seems like a nice guy, but we are currently celebrating when her gets soft groundball infield single, hits a long fly ball that goes foul, or simply makes an out that is not a K. I think we can do better.
https://www.milb.com/player/vaughn-grissom-687093?stats=gamelogs-r-hitting-mlb&year=2024
Two stolen bases, so that argues the legs are good. And he's getting his hitting in.
So maybe very soon. Given that Valdez isn't hitting.
I posted before that as bad as Rafaela looks at the plate, there’s things about his approach and swing that makes me confident he’ll be fine and soon. Valdez on the other hand really looks lost and overpowered
...and he keeps ending up batting in the middle of the order. I guess someone has to given the terrible options at this point.
I wouldn't really know what is going on with his positional comfort at 2b, footwork etc., but hopefully he doesn't need too many more reps in AAA.
IIRC, providing he's healthy the target was right around the first of May because he had no spring training. Knock wood we're almost there.
If you have MLB.TV, you can stream the minor league games on demand.
Overall, I'm not worried about him at 2B. He was more or less thrown in cold there in '22 and did fine. Going into this year his focus was 2B - Story's camp, rookie development, etc.
Time to change the thread title again? Per Speier, it's "torn cartilage," timetable still unclear:
View: https://twitter.com/alexspeier/status/1783944074300387329?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
It's been 5 days since Pete Abraham took it on himself to speculate this was a fractured/broken rib in advance of Monday's MRI.
So no, not really. We don't even know when Casas got a good diagnosis from his actual doctor, but it certainly wasn't before Monday.
I do think it’s odd this inaccurate information stood, not conspiratorial just odd, and no of course it doesn’t matter.
This is more of the full quote, going into the doctor determined it was a wear & tear thing with his body type:
View: https://twitter.com/tylermilliken_/status/1783996298166673757
View: https://twitter.com/tylermilliken_/status/1783996298166673757
Dude's an absolute monster. Judge is a bit bigger, but always has a big body injury it seems. Hopefully Triston doesn't have the same problem.
Geez…. I can’t think that this a good long term thing. Advice being - swing easier so it doesn’t happen again, is basically- don’t be good at what you’re good at doing
