A Realistic Look at the 2026 Red Sox: Part I

[moonslav59]

Sox making a move! LMAO.

No longer the worst AL team! Not even 2nd worst!

Their -4 Run differential is 5th best in the AL and just 1 run from 4th (CWS.) They are 8 runs from 3rd (SEA at +4.)

Bring out the brooms!

[JoeBrady]

5 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

That means nothing to me. It's not 1983 anymore. Nobody cares about Sports Illustrated. Using AI as a crutch is hilarious to me. 

If I might intercede for a moment-No one knows except Breslow, the AZ GM and maybe a few other people.  Just like my comment on Anthony the other day, none of us know anything.  And none of the press knows anything.

If I did want to add one thing, it is that teams that don't trade a player, were probably never inclined to trade that player.  Basically, AZ didn't like one offer from the other 28 teams, so it seems unlikely that the RS could've forced their hand.

[JoeBrady]

3 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

They probably did not expect a superstar by 2026, but they probably figured a .350 OBP was good enough to bat first and help the team.

They probably expected the same thing that FG expected.  There is a science to baseball.  Go to any prediction site, and all the predictions will be relatively close.

[JoeBrady]

3 hours ago, Old Red said:

There was NO backup plan for Anthony being little Anthony this year, or getting hurt doing a pinky swear with Mayer.🙈

Duran would be the LF if Roman got injured.  And that I'd bet on.

[JoeBrady]

3 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

Indeed, but it was a plan.

80% of us were screaming for a Duran trade and or Yoshida dump. We kept both.

There was not 100% confidence in Anthony, Rafaela & Abreu staying healthy and doing very well.

Early in the off-season, I was in favor of trading Duran.  After the Gray and Suarez acquisitions, keeping Duran's offense, even as a DH, seemed like a good idea.  I wasn't down on Yoshida, but there was a pretty good chance that Abreu would outplay him, as well as supplying some rotational rest in the OF, and being insurance for an injury.

The plan was good, but didn't anticipate Anthony getting hurt, and neither Yoshida nor Duran hitting anything.

[moonslav59]

55 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

Early in the off-season, I was in favor of trading Duran.  After the Gray and Suarez acquisitions, keeping Duran's offense, even as a DH, seemed like a good idea.  I wasn't down on Yoshida, but there was a pretty good chance that Abreu would outplay him, as well as supplying some rotational rest in the OF, and being insurance for an injury.

The plan was good, but didn't anticipate Anthony getting hurt, and neither Yoshida nor Duran hitting anything.

I've been suggesting Duran trades almost since his call-up, but the point many made about or offense being is such poor shape, and trading away one of our top offensive players didn't make sense was a valid one, at the time.

Nobody expected .624 in mid June.

[moonslav59]

MLB ERA Leaders (70+ IP) as of 7pm tongiht:

1.47 Misiorowski

1.58 Ohtani

1.62 Schlitter

2.00 Chase Burns

2.13 C Sanchez

2.14 Sale

2.27 ERod

2.57 K Harrison

2.62 Rasmussen

2.65 Yamamoto

2.66 N Martizez

2.67 Messick

2.71 Wrobleski

2.75 Cease

2.78 Tolle #15

2.83 R Suarez #16

2.95 Gray #17

3.00 Martin Perez

The Sox have 3 pitchers in the top 16!

Ex-Sox pitchers number 3 in the top 8 and 4 in the top 17.

 

[JoeBrady]

21 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

The Sox have 3 pitchers in the top 16!

Our rotation is 2nd in ERA over the past 28 days.  No Crochet, no Bello, no problem.

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, JoeBrady said:

Our rotation is 2nd in ERA over the past 28 days.  No Crochet, no Bello, no problem.

Indeed- no Houck, Crawford, sandoval or Oviedo, either!