A Realistic Look at the 2026 Red Sox: Part I

[drewski6]

you heard it from the horses mouth - theres no secret that we have built a team that is so heavily skewed towards pitching adn defense. yayyyyyyyy run prevention.

breslow is a clown.

[Old Red]

21 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

They were already planning on benching somebody since they had Anthony/Masa/Duran for 2 spots. Adding Alonso would have forced the issue for a real move. 

I don’t know if Brez would have known how to make a real move. Having Duran DH, and rotate on the bench, and have Masa in, and out of the lineup I believe hurt both players, which also hurt the team. Of course little Anthony wasn’t much help either before he got hurt with the bat, or in the field.

[notin]

35 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

you heard it from the horses mouth - theres no secret that we have built a team that is so heavily skewed towards pitching adn defense. yayyyyyyyy run prevention.

breslow is a clown.

Probably more of a clown for putting together a very inexperienced team.  If we assume his 9 starters were: Narvaez, Contreras, Mayer, Story, Durbin, Anthony, Rafaela, Abreu and Duran - that means 4 starters in their second season.  None of Durbin, Anthony, nor Mayer began the year with a full MLB season, and Narvaez had just one.  That’s 44% of their lineup!  Add to that Story letting another injury render him ineffective and the worst start of Duran’s career for whatever reason, and that means 67% of their starting lineup was ineffective, inexperienced or both.

[drewski6]

3 minutes ago, notin said:

Probably more of a clown for putting together a very inexperienced team.  If we assume his 9 starters were: Narvaez, Contreras, Mayer, Story, Durbin, Anthony, Rafaela, Abreu and Duran - that means 4 starters in their second season.  None of Durbin, Anthony, nor Mayer began the year with a full MLB season, and Narvaez had just one.  That’s 44% of their lineup!  Add to that Story letting another injury render him ineffective and the worst start of Duran’s career for whatever reason, and that means 67% of their starting lineup was ineffective, inexperienced or both.

but the pitching adn defense has been good, no?

[drewski6]

not that i dont disagree.

[vegasbob]

1 hour ago, notin said:

The Sox did get Contreras instead of Alonso.  Getting both would have meant benching either Anthony or Duran…

Anthony took care of that hypothetical decision with an ill-timed check swing

Duran isctaking carevifvit with wildky inconsistent hitting

[drewski6]

we relied on too much form our sophmores, and we should have gotten more hitting around them, take the pressure off them and also if they soph slump - we would have still been able to tread water in a playoff spot.  Now its looking like a lost year, which is tragic because weve been building for 2026 since 2020.  

But I do agree you cant tear it all down and start over.  Gotta keep Roman and Mayer in roles and just try to build around them and abreu and hope contreras ages like ortiz.

[notin]

1 minute ago, drewski6 said:

but the pitching adn defense has been good, no?

GThe starting pitching has mostly been good and better than expected given Crochet’s absence.

The bullpen is a two man show so questionable that it has turned Tyron Guerrero into a high leverage arm…

[notin]

2 minutes ago, vegasbob said:

Anthony took care of that hypothetical decision with an ill-timed check swing

Duran isctaking carevifvit with wildky inconsistent hitting

Was Breslow’s supposed to know about that stuff in February?  I’m all for depth but I’m fairly certain even without asking him Pete Alonso was expecting a full time starting gig…

[drewski6]

2 minutes ago, notin said:

GThe starting pitching has mostly been good and better than expected given Crochet’s absence.

The bullpen is a two man show so questionable that it has turned Tyron Guerrero into a high leverage arm…

The Red sox are third in the entire mlb in pitcher WAR

[UtahSox]

36 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

brslow made one good addition last year (Contreras).  It was a D- offeseason.

Agree…. Contreras was good. Offsets the abysmal effort for Schwarber and Alonso. I still think Alonso would have raked in Fenway. And Contreras in record season will probably not match Alonso productivity offensively. That deal aside. 

1. missed on Marte. Early/ Mayer most likely would have got deal done. F

2. missed on Bregman would still have Harrison too. 

[UtahSox]

1 hour ago, notin said:

The Sox did get Contreras instead of Alonso.  Getting both would have meant benching either Anthony or Duran…

Ok not sure I’m following. Red Sox have 34 year old Contreras having career year, and yet we are tied for dead last in home runs, 29th and RBIs 29th and runs scored. So WHO are the big bat dH’s we could get? 
 

Red Sox farm System is definitely not as highly rated as we all thought it was. The players we do have can’t hit so nobody wants them.
 

And there aren’t any free agent bats that fit this model. So I repeat WHO could Red Sox acquire that is a thumper? 
 

One of the worst things Breslow did was not understand the true value of this market last free agency. The reason all the bats got so much money is cause there was nothing coming in the pipeline 2027 free agents look awful. Red Sox fear of having a bad contract in 2032 sincerely, effed our lineup in 26-27. 
 

[drewski6]

1 minute ago, UtahSox said:

Ok not sure I’m following. Red Sox have 34 year old Contreras having career year, and yet we are tied for dead last in home runs, 29th and RBIs 29th and runs scored. So WHO are the big bat dH’s we could get? 
 

Red Sox farm System is definitely not as highly rated as we all thought it was. The players we do have can’t hit so nobody wants them.
 

And there aren’t any free agent bats that fit this model. So I repeat WHO could Red Sox acquire that is a thumper? 
 

One of the worst things Breslow did was not understand the true value of this market last free agency. The reason all the bats got so much money is cause there was nothing coming in the pipeline 2027 free agents look awful. Red Sox fear of having a bad contract in 2032 sincerely, effed our lineup in 26-27. 
 

as the gentleman from utah implies: scared money dont make money