Phillies (Wheeler) vs Red Sox (TBD): 5/12/26, 6:45pm

[Tedballgame]

I will not believe anything the front office says about improving the offense until I actually see some results.

[Tedballgame]

Start scouting the top players for next year's draft. The Sox will have a top 5 pick.

[vegasbob]

Simply cannot hit.

Breslow has a real problem besides himself.

Lack of scoring at home is unreal.

[FredLynn]

42 minutes ago, alsoason said:

Teams use to fear coming into Fenway

We declared the game over after the second batter for the Phils

Wait….only I can declare the game over. It’s in my job description.

[Tedballgame]

They have the lowest OPS at Fenway Park since 1968!!!!

[vegasbob]

3-17 when other team scores first

A symptom of no evolved hitting skills

[vegasbob]

Schwarber doesn't win it by himself, but he helped a lot.

Why don't we have one of those?

[iortiz]

It's beyond me why Breslow is still here. This offense is unwatchable. 

[Duran Is The Man]

the Sox are now on pace to finish 67-95 and score 620 runs, which is not far off the post-war all time low of 599 in 1992. so yeah, great job Breslow, you f***ing stiff.

[Duran Is The Man]

4 minutes ago, iortiz said:

It's beyond me why Breslow is still here. This offense is unwatchable. 

too bad they don't have a proven GM, in house, that could just take over. a GM that had won a couple of World Series maybe. 

[JoeBrady]

7 hours ago, Nick said:

Cheer up. We're only 2 games out in the Wild Card race.

There's been a few times in the past several years where I thought 'if they just stopped playing, everyone else will pass them in reverse.

[alsoason]

Well I JUST saw this headline here, dude was 0 for MAY last hit April 27th, thats hard to do.

Mariners' Raleigh snaps 0-for-38 skid with single vs. Astros

[alsoason]

1 hour ago, iortiz said:

It's beyond me why Breslow is still here. This offense is unwatchable. 

I have already explained why Breslow is still there, he does good work on his knees for JH

[mvp 78]

10 hours ago, vegasbob said:

Simply cannot hit.

Breslow has a real problem besides himself.

Lack of scoring at home is unreal.

18 runs in the last 10 home games. WOW. Really pathetic even for this team. 

[mvp 78]

9 hours ago, Duran Is The Man said:

too bad they don't have a proven GM, in house, that could just take over. a GM that had won a couple of World Series maybe. 

Theo has no interest in being a GM/CBO ever again. He's getting paid to be a consultant and never get blamed for anything going wrong ever again. Sweet gig. 

[mvp 78]

Whatever they were holding out for on the Duran trades, was too much. Prospects would have been fine. 🙃

[drewski6]

10 hours ago, JoeBrady said:

There's been a few times in the past several years where I thought 'if they just stopped playing, everyone else will pass them in reverse.

Im like 78% sure this is the coolest thing youve ever said in your life, congratulations.

I was talking about Notin about this, where he challenged me to name examples of this kind of thing occurring.  And thats my boy, dont think it was contentious, but just like teams not buying or even selling at the deadline and remaining competitive because thats just the state of the league.  Theres like 3-4 truly good teams, but 12 teams make the postseason, and its gotten to the point where you can be really bad and still stay in it.  I dont think its good for the sport personally.

I think Notin did eventually win the debate when he pointed out that my examples of teams back-dooring accidentally into the postseason were mostly from the AL Central and the AL Central is going to AL Central.

But theres a downstream effect in there.  If you know, for example, that the AL Central is a joke, well now only 2 divisions are competing for 3 wildcard spots, and third place teams can get in, and that rewards teams for not being aggressive and urgent roster builders, and again, bad for the sport.

[JoeBrady]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

Whatever they were holding out for on the Duran trades, was too much. Prospects would have been fine. 🙃

I mentioned early and often, but don't remember anyone agreeing with me.  If you can get a good trade for prospects, and a mediocre trade for current players, always go for the prospects.

[JoeBrady]

12 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

Im like 78% sure this is the coolest thing youve ever said in your life, congratulations.

I was talking about Notin about this, where he challenged me to name examples of this kind of thing occurring.  And thats my boy, dont think it was contentious, but just like teams not buying or even selling at the deadline and remaining competitive because thats just the state of the league.  Theres like 3-4 truly good teams, but 12 teams make the postseason, and its gotten to the point where you can be really bad and still stay in it.  I dont think its good for the sport personally.

I think Notin did eventually win the debate when he pointed out that my examples of teams back-dooring accidentally into the postseason were mostly from the AL Central and the AL Central is going to AL Central.

But theres a downstream effect in there.  If you know, for example, that the AL Central is a joke, well now only 2 divisions are competing for 3 wildcard spots, and third place teams can get in, and that rewards teams for not being aggressive and urgent roster builders, and again, bad for the sport.

There are a lot of variables in there.  In no particular order:

• In the ALC, I think there is actually greater incentives for teams to improve.  Finishing 1st is esier and gives you the HFA for the first round.  If you have a guy like Skubal, you are likely the favorite.
• Settling for a WC could be good or bad.  From 2022-24, we had so many fans worried about who we were going to add at the TDL.  Why?  With little pitching, and most importantly, with no ace, our chances of success were slim.  I'd have traded out of our possible playoff slot every year.
• IRT teams 'settling', many teams have to.  If you have a small revenue stream, I think you have to play a 3-year on/3-year off strategy.  If you are a $150M payroll cap team, you should spend three years at $100M, and 3 years at $200M.

[notin]

24 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

I mentioned early and often, but don't remember anyone agreeing with me.  If you can get a good trade for prospects, and a mediocre trade for current players, always go for the prospects.

Not always.

Fangraphs now lists top 30, top 40, top 50 prospects for some teams.  Let’s be clear - no team now and no team ever has had 30 future major leaguers in their minors at once.

Sometimes accepting prospects is like having a yard sale and taking lotto tickets as payment.  Sure you’re more likely to score big than if you accepted modest cash totals instead.  But the most likely outcome is you got nothing.

Except the PR, I guess.  Some fans do get excited by prospects…

[mvp 78]

1 hour ago, JoeBrady said:

I mentioned early and often, but don't remember anyone agreeing with me.  If you can get a good trade for prospects, and a mediocre trade for current players, always go for the prospects.

I was saying trade Duran for prospects all offseason. 🫠

[mvp 78]

1 hour ago, notin said:

Not always.

Fangraphs now lists top 30, top 40, top 50 prospects for some teams.  Let’s be clear - no team now and no team ever has had 30 future major leaguers in their minors at once.

Sometimes accepting prospects is like having a yard sale and taking lotto tickets as payment.  Sure you’re more likely to score big than if you accepted modest cash totals instead.  But the most likely outcome is you got nothing.

Except the PR, I guess.  Some fans do get excited by prospects…

The outcome is that the Sox freed up their payroll from 8M and now have a roster where one of their best hitters doesn't have to sit out because underperforming Jarren Duran needs to play every day. Duran can't be successful in a bench role. They needed to commit to either Duran fulltime or Masa fulltime. And it's not "why do they have such great players," it's "why do they have a roster that doesn't make sense." You want a bench that has versatility and can come in for specific reasons. Duran doesn't have the mentality to be a bench player. Masa doesn't have the appropriate skillset for a bench bat (LHB, slap hitter, no speed). The amount of times that you are chomping at the bit to put Masa in for a pinch hitting situation is few and far between. He's a guy that gets more value when he's playing all game and putting more balls into play.

[JoeBrady]

1 hour ago, notin said:

Not always.

Fangraphs now lists top 30, top 40, top 50 prospects for some teams.  Let’s be clear - no team now and no team ever has had 30 future major leaguers in their minors at once.

Sometimes accepting prospects is like having a yard sale and taking lotto tickets as payment.  Sure you’re more likely to score big than if you accepted modest cash totals instead.  But the most likely outcome is you got nothing.

Except the PR, I guess.  Some fans do get excited by prospects…

I'm talking about Duran, and real prospects.  They wouldn't have done so, but if Pitt had offered Chandler, while Houston had offered Paredes, I'd take Chandler every time.

[moonslav59]

16 hours ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

Remember the old cliche. When your team is a lemon, squeeze the juice out of 'em.

I fixed it for you.

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

I was saying trade Duran for prospects all offseason. 🫠

True nuff.

[iortiz]

If I have to choose between Masa and Duran, It's Duran and is not even close. We were told Masa was a Machoman LOL. In my 70s-80s book he's nothing but a crawling baby. He has zero power and most of the times a groundout machine.