My Thoughts On Recent Tweets (7/9/25)
- Paul Semendinger

- Jul 9
- 3 min read
By Paul Semendinger
July 9, 2025
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Let's get to it.
Here are some recent tweets and my thoughts...
My Thoughts - Now there is a surprise. It seems a player is involved in gambling. I wonder why. Oh yeah, gambling is mentioned, I think at last count, 56,438 times during every game that is broadcast. There are ads for gambling sites on every sports site and plastered in every stadium. Baseball and gambling have bonded together. The fact that a player may have decided to get in on the action isn't a surprise, at all. I am sure this will not be the last instance.
Gambling is one of the factors that will ruin professional sports as we know it. Once the legitimacy of the games is questioned, even down to one single pitch, fans will not trust the outcome. Sports are only interesting because we trust (hope) that what we're seeing is real. If the games are questioned, the appeal of the sport goes away.
One day in the future people will look back on what happened to professional sports and note this. They'll see clearly that gambling led to the end of professional sports. It is too bad that the people in charge of the sports today cannot see this.
My Thoughts - Remember how I said that the Red Sox won the Devers trade? Remember how, almost to a person, everyone else said how wrong I was and that the Giants won the trade?
Well, ol' Rafael Devers refused to work out with Will Clark. THREE TIMES! That would be like a new Yankee first baseman refusing to work out with Don Mattingly.
By trading Devers, the Red Sox moved an albatross contract along with a player who was becoming a problem on the team. It was a great move for the Red Sox. The team that will regret this trade now and in the future is the Giants.
My Thoughts - Imagine that. Jazz Chisholm isn't a third baseman. Who would have known?
My Thoughts - The Yankees do not need another outfielder. They especially do not need one who has a -0.6 WAR and an 86 OPS+ in 2025. I don't see this as a problem at all. Let Bryan Reynolds play for another team or stay in Pittsburgh. I do not want to see him in Yankees pinstripes.
My Thoughts - This is not impressive company to be in. At all. If the Yankees' primary goal is winning, would this be acceptable? I can't see how it would be.
Of note, the only two teams from that list that have had the same manager over that period are the Yankees and the A's. (Again, that's not exactly impressive company to be in.)
My Thoughts - It is amazing, awe-inspiring, and simply so great to watch Aaron Judge. The man keeps getting better year-after-year.
My Thoughts - Cody Bellinger has been a terrific Yankee. He plays excellent defense. He has hit well. It seems he's a great teammate. He has been a terrific addition to the team.
I am thrilled that Aaron Boone is praising Bellinger here.
BUT... when every single interview with the manager is filled with false praise for players that don't deserve that praise, and every interview is filled with nonsense and platitudes and meaningless drivel, when the manager truthfully says great things about a player, those words ring hollow. This is one of the problems with Boone's leadership. No one takes what he says seriously. At all. Ever. As such, even when he's offering worthy and deserved credit, the words come across as empty.
















I guess Bryan Reynolds never wants to be in the post season based on the teams he has a no trade to. Weird.
Great work, Paul, as usual. Regarding Devers, for me it's addition by subtraction. From what I can see he is not a team player. Red Sox dump a gigantic contract, and reload. Giants take on an overgrown child who won't play nice. Imagine, the Giants ask him to work with Will Clark, an almost HOF player and Devers refuses? Like I said, not a team player. He's the Giants' headache now.
Loved reading this article Paul, it was uniquely structured and I found myself appreciating the content like never before! I'm not even sure I agree or disagree with some of your points but I love the insight. I'm not sure you can find very many articles like this anywhere on the web. Great job!
I'm not sure what to think about Devers. He's a really talented hitter who seems like he can touch up almost any pitcher at any given moment, he's also quite young still and he's kind of a one-dimensional player. He's very head strong, but I'm wondering if there's more to it than that. Maybe he's afraid thatbut I'm wondering if there's more to it than that.…
Trading for Devers to improve your team is like trading for cancer to help you lose weight. His antics and attitude are exactly why I did not want him on the Yankees.
LeMahieu DRS at 2B, +2 (324 innings); Chisholm at 2B, +4 (260 innings), 3B, -3 (238 innings); Peraza at 3B, +5 (237.2 innings). Runs batting above average player: Chisholm 11, LeMahieu -1, Peraza -12.
So does everyone get it now? Jazz & Oswald = +8 net runs. DJ & Jazz = +9 net runs. That's why they went with DJ & Jazz. Last year, Jazz was at -2 DRS at 3B in 400.1 innings. His 3B defense has deteriorated this year (I'm guessing because his shoulder is hurt…
Regarding Bellinger. Sign him to a 3-5 year extension. He is a keeper. Make a good move for a change.
Caleb Durbin is heating up in Milwaukee and great in the clutch. Yankees sure could use him now. I praised him all last year and was told, I was overestimating. He rarely strikes out. Plays good defense at 3b and 2b. His hitting gets better every month. They should have packaged someone else with Cortes in the Williams deal or gotten a good free agent reliever and kept Durbin.