EVERYONE Is Talking About This... Red Sox News

The Boston Red Sox have a major problem. The Tristan Kassus struggles continue and it's taking a toll on this offense as a collective. I'm here to break down how Kassus has really started this year and how the fuse is really running shorter and shorter. Welcome back to Red Sox Digest, I'm Houston and we're going to be breaking down all of that on this episode of Red Sox Digest. But before we get to the news and information, please do remember if you're a part of the to scroll down and click that subscribe button if you want to stay up to date on everything Boston Red Sox. We do appreciate all the love and support, so again thank you guys tremendously for everything. But now let's get to it and break down the early season struggles with Tristan Kassus and really what to do with a struggling Tristan Kassus. Now going into this regular season, during the offseason, there was massive conversations around Tristan Kassus like there has been for the last 2-3 seasons in the sense of potential upside and the optimism surrounding the young, what seemed to be very talented player in Tristan Kassus. Someone who was projected and expected to hit 40, 40 plus home runs this season, battling, excuse me, batting in the 4 or 5 hole for this Red Sox offense that everyone expected to be very potent with him being really in the middle of all of it, hitting for a lot of power and a decent average. But up to this point in the year, Tristan Kassus has simply been horrible and I, again, I don't want to make this video slamming Kassus because I really would love to see him become a substantial piece in this offense for the Boston Red Sox where, again, the Red Sox offense is just flat out dominant and Kassus is one of the substantial pieces of that offense. But again, up to this point, he has been, there's, I can't sugar coat it, there's no way to sugar coat it, he's been horrible and it's not just like he's 1 for 5 and he's not hitting the ball hard, but he's hitting it in the gaps, he's not hitting any home runs, but he's hitting for a decent average. He's not making contact, when he does, it's not great, there's no good results. Yes, he did have a walk-off, we'll call it a single because with his speed, even off the wall, it probably wasn't 2 bases for him and again, we'll get into that in just a second But again, 3 games ago against the Chicago White Sox, it went to the 10th inning and Tristan Kassus did hit a ball off the wall, scoring Alex Bregman, which I'll play for you guys here now so you can see Kassus' swings and the mechanics into it and really how he showed the ability to use his power to hit to opposite field and go off the green monster. But again, it's just been so little and just a lack thereof of what we're about to see that it is a substantial problem, so here's that video, again, the one and only highlight from Tristan Kassus and what it feels like to beat the entirety of this season and we'll break down the rest of the statistical numbers that he has posted up to this point. So here's that walk-off win against the White Sox, just a few games ago. So Kassus hits a double, we'll call it I guess, we'll call it a double off the green monster, the bases were loaded, he got an 86 mile per hour pitch, about belt high. If Kassus would have missed that pitch and he failed to even put it in play, he'd probably be traded by now and again, I'm exaggerating just a bit, but the point is the same. Tristan Kassus is failing to do little of anything up to this point in the year. We look at his baseball savant page, it's horrific and again, there's not even a lot you can even take from this to try to stretch it into the idea that Kassus is simply just in a little bit of a dip, in a spell of struggle to say the least. But outside of the bat speed, which is again in the 85th or higher percentile for the entirety of the MLB, Kassus has not posted anything worthwhile, expected well, but batting average is all very, very below league average and again, that is, we're talking about average here, the league average, not in the top percentiles or even ranking in the top 60th or 70th percentile. This is not even coming close to league average, the 50th percentile. Things like expected slugging, something again that we mentioned earlier, we expected to see great numbers from Kassus for him hitting for pop, whether it be to left center or right center field. Things like barrel percentage, just above league average, which again, we need to see more from Kassus. The hard hit rate is just below league average, again, we mentioned the bat speed is the only thing above league average here that is worth acknowledging and then we look at the square up rate from Tristan Kassus, way below. The chase rate, just above league average, so that's good, he's not chasing a lot of pitches outside the strike zone, he's being a bit more content and really looking for something he can do damage on, but again, when he gets those pitches, he's failing to do so and again, it doesn't end there. The whip rate is way down, the square up rate, way down, the K percentage, way down and the base on balls percentage, again, way down for Tristan Kassus and again, that is just the offensive side of it. If we look at the fielding and the base running, it's even worse and again, he does play first base, so the overall arm strength doesn't really particularly matter in this situation, but again, 4th percentile in the entirety of the MLB and then the range, the 7th percentile in the entirety of the MLB. A very, very bad defender in itself and again, he is only playing first base, so again, weight it the way you wish, but again, not great. Then we look at the running and the base running ability of Tristan Kassus and the overall sprint speed is in the bottom 2 percentile for Tristan Kassus and this is something that we started to mention earlier and I stopped myself because I didn't want to go off on a tangent, but if you watch the Red Sox game and you watch Tristan Kassus take his A-B, when you see him hit a ball to shortstop, to 2nd base, to 3rd base or into the outfield and he's able to, again, a ground ball and he's able to get to first base, he is so slow, it doesn't even look like he's making an effort to get down the first baseline. It's horrific. Jaron Duran with both legs tied together, literally ankles tied together, I would take in a footrace over Tristan Kassus and I'm not exaggerating. He is so slow, it literally looks like he's not even attempting to, like any form of effort to get down the line. Now, we're not going to solely focus on his inability to run or his inability when it comes to base running in entirety, but again, it's something that has to be acknowledged. Not only is the offensive production at a bare minimum, if not even that, the base running and the overall effort it seems like we're getting when he does run the bases, whether it is on a routine ground out or, again, a routine fly ball. Kassus, it doesn't even look like he's attempting to run the first base and I know I'm slandering a professional athlete for his inability to move quickly down the first baseline. In my opinion, it's almost unexcusable. David Ortiz was slow, he wasn't this slow, and again, Prince Fielder, he was slow, he wasn't this slow, and again, these are bigger people, these are bigger athletes, these are larger human beings, I understand. Let me know down below if I'm the only one with this opinion. I would love to know because right now, I know the offensive production is down, but I see Kassus walking down the first baseline, my skin falls, I want to pull my hair out of my head, it's infuriating. Now Kassus, that's not the only thing we're going to acknowledge in Tristan Kassus. Now, here we go. So Tristan Kassus, and this is, again, MLB.com, you go to the stats, they have every statistical category, number that you're looking for, it doesn't matter. They have, Tristan Kassus, if you go to the MLB, you filter by players, so it's individual players rather than the team statistics, and you filter by average, and you click on average, so you go from the top batting average, down from number one in average, which I believe right now is Aaron Judge, and then you work your way down, it'd be the top average hitters in the MLB. If you click average again, it filters from worst to the best, so you flip the averages, and you flip, really, the entirety of the graph, or the entirety of the chart. Kassus ranks in the bottom 15 of the league when it comes to average, he's batting 158 on the year. He's been horrible, and outside of that double that I showed you, and again, it hurts me to say double, because I don't even believe he would have gotten the second base, with the amount of traffic on the bases, as well as his inability, his lack of speed overall. It's mind-numbing to think how just drastically bad Tristan Kassus has been up to this point. Now, we've seen him move all around the lineup. Now, this was, wait, let me double-check here, this was Kassus hitting in the seventh hole, so this is the most recent lineup, if you will, for the Boston Red Sox, this was obviously against, or today against, no, excuse me, this is the game he did walk off, this is the game he did get the walk off, he went one for four, the one hit was in the bottom of the tent that went off the wall that we just watched, again, close to another offer from Tristan Kassus, but again, batting in the seventh hole, you guys don't remember the first opening series against the Texas Rangers for this Red Sox team, Kassus was in the four hole, he was batting cleanup for the Boston Red Sox, from the opening series, he has moved from the four hole down to the five, to the six, and now to the seventh hitter in this Boston Red Sox lineup. Now granted, players like Wilier Abreu, players like Alex Bregman, players like Raphael Devers, who did not start the greatest, specifically speaking about Devers, have found a group, and they were either hot to start the season, have kind of mediated off and have maintained a good average up to this point, Wilier Abreu, and then players like Alex Bregman have overall just been pretty consistent, again, from start to finish, and it finished being today against the White Sox, have been pretty consistent. Kassus has been pretty consistent at just having an inability to put bat on the ball and do anything productive at the plate. Now baseball, it's a hard sport, and if you claim it's not, you're crazy. Hitting a baseball and hitting 300, going three for 10, you are one of the best players in the sport, and I understand that. But when you are Tristan Kassus, and you have the level of optimism surrounding you, this is not the numbers that you should be putting up, and again, it's hard to watch, it's hard to really witness, because of someone in myself who supported Kassus and was really optimistic going into this season, because the last two years, yes, he's been riddled with injury, and when he was on the diamond, he was pretty damn good in the moments he got, but again, it was very, very minimized because of the lack of appearances due to injury. This year, we expected him to be healthy. He started the season, it was like, hey, he's gonna get a clean start, he's gonna be on a good Red Sox team with a whole lot of offensive potential, and he's laid an egg up to this point. Now, the last thing I'm going to wrap up this video with was back in the post, or back in the off-season, not the post-season, when Tristan Kassus was being interviewed about the Rafael Devers speculation and drama surrounding Alex Bregman, or involving Alex Bregman, surrounding the third base position, who will be playing third, and who will be playing second. Tristan Kassus had a very interesting answer, because he said Devers should be the third baseman for the Boston Red Sox, Bregman can go play second, because that is Devers' position. That is his position, that's who's been the Red Sox third baseman, he should continue to be the Red Sox third baseman, because he's Rafael Devers. And he claims that they have enough, and again, I'm paraphrasing, I apologize, I thought I was going to be able to find the truth with the exact quote surrounding Tristan Campbell from Tristan Kassus, I couldn't, but it was this same exact interview, and really, press competent, if you will. But Kassus said that they have enough grown guys, enough grown men, on the MLB stage already, that the young guys could stay down in AAA, and really develop, and be able to come up if they absolutely exceed expectations. But as of right now, and again, I'm paraphrasing, we got it up here, in the sense of the grown men, the guys who have already been on the big stage, referencing Tristan Campbell, and how, if they did bring him up and put him at second, or Devers going to be eighth, and Bregman going to be third, yeah, he wasn't a fan of that. And now look at this. Now just look at it in hindsight. Tristan Campbell is arguably one of the best players on the Red Sox in totality. Whatever filters you want to put on this conversation, Tristan Campbell has been phenomenal, like, excellent, and he's going to win the Rookie of the Year at this rate. And again, knock on wood, I want to continue to watch Campbell succeed at this rate. But Tristan Kassus, man, please, and please, let me know down below what your honest opinions are on Tristan Kassus and his play up to this point, and what you guys would like to see happen, whether it is trade, or whether it's send him down to the minors, allow him to find a group down there before calling him back up. Again, there's a lot of different moving parts going on with a lot of different scenarios going forward for the Red Sox, including Tristan Kassus, but right now it is just really, really hard to watch Tristan Kassus go up there and continue to just have an inability at the plate offensively, while also being closely liable defensively. Thank you guys for watching, and we'll see you guys on the next episode of Red Sox Live.