Mods, obviously feel free to merge this with the other Devers thread, but it seems like this discussion here is a bit different. Anyhow.
I'm curious what you all think Devers future, both short term and long term look like. After his explosive first two weeks in 2017, starting pitching caught up to him and he fell back to earth but was also one of the few bright spots in the offense against the Astros last season's playoffs.
I was expecting a slow start and lots of people calling for his demotion to AAA but hoping Cora would have the kid tough through it and we'd see him catch up to the adjustments that ML pitchers did. After he bottomed out in early June 5th with a .675 OPS, he seemed to start to make some adjustments and had a .825 OPS from that day for the next month and looked to be making adjustments.
I recall him getting injured around that time and then making a short return in which he struggled then was injured again... and obviously his hitting improvements derailed through that time.
I know his defense- mostly his arm- could also use some improvement.
Short term, I think he's sitting versus lefties in the playoffs and will likely be replaced by Nunez in late innings with a lead or pinch hit for if he comes up against a lefty in the later innings.
Long term future I still think he's going to be a very good player but I think he's going to develop slowly and worry the Sox won't have the patience with him. Keep in mind JD Martinez came up with the Astos and had 3 pretty bad seasons with them before they lost their patience..... I think he should still be given the starting 3B job for next year and the Sox need to continue showing patience.
He may not be long term at 3B but I think he's going to be an offensive monster and a future middle of the lineup 40HR, .300 average hitter. OBP may drag his overall OPS down but I can foresee a .350/.600 type of hitter by 2020
I'm curious what you all think Devers future, both short term and long term look like. After his explosive first two weeks in 2017, starting pitching caught up to him and he fell back to earth but was also one of the few bright spots in the offense against the Astros last season's playoffs.
I was expecting a slow start and lots of people calling for his demotion to AAA but hoping Cora would have the kid tough through it and we'd see him catch up to the adjustments that ML pitchers did. After he bottomed out in early June 5th with a .675 OPS, he seemed to start to make some adjustments and had a .825 OPS from that day for the next month and looked to be making adjustments.
I recall him getting injured around that time and then making a short return in which he struggled then was injured again... and obviously his hitting improvements derailed through that time.
I know his defense- mostly his arm- could also use some improvement.
Short term, I think he's sitting versus lefties in the playoffs and will likely be replaced by Nunez in late innings with a lead or pinch hit for if he comes up against a lefty in the later innings.
Long term future I still think he's going to be a very good player but I think he's going to develop slowly and worry the Sox won't have the patience with him. Keep in mind JD Martinez came up with the Astos and had 3 pretty bad seasons with them before they lost their patience..... I think he should still be given the starting 3B job for next year and the Sox need to continue showing patience.
He may not be long term at 3B but I think he's going to be an offensive monster and a future middle of the lineup 40HR, .300 average hitter. OBP may drag his overall OPS down but I can foresee a .350/.600 type of hitter by 2020