New Red Sox Acquisition Curtis Mead Goes On Injured List With Fractured Wrist

[Old Red]

Just now, moonslav59 said:

Agreed, and to me, keeping Duran was insurance for an OF injury or a sophomore slump from Anthony.

 

I don’t think they kept Duran as a insurance policy, but more likely Bres was asking to much in return, and couldn’t deal him IMO.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

3 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Agreed, and to me, keeping Duran was insurance for an OF injury or a sophomore slump from Anthony.

But one expected a graduate school slump from Duran, who must have met Maggie May since he skipped all his classes.

[notin]

41 minutes ago, Old Red said:

What was the fault of #12 bresLOW was that another productive bat was needed from game 1 of the season, and they might not of dug themselves such a hole of 14 games under 500 to begin with. What bresLOW did outside of that was better than good. 

But how much of a bat did he really need?  It’s easy to look at the list of the best free agents, claim the ones you like are needs, and then anssume everything works out better and there’s no ancillary fallout.  

They were a top ten offense last year even after trading Devers. They lost Bregman and Toro/Lowe.  They added Contreras and Durbin.  Is that a step forward, backward or status quo?The Sox were slow starters not due to not adding Alonso, but to the individual performances of Duran, Durbin, Story, and Narvaez along with the injury to Anthony.  Getting a different DH doesn’t change any of that…

[FredLynn]

1 hour ago, Hugh2 said:

Again you fail to address the fact that Breslow had great offseason.  Gray/Saurez/Bennet/Contreras/Durbin now.....even the lesser roster pieces have done really well for their roles E.G. Moran/Watson/Guerrero/Monasterio.

When has a GM ever added that many quality players in one offseason?  

If he did such a great job why are we in the last wild card spot rather than competing for first in the East? Everyone knew what we needed. He didn’t fill that need. I admit he bright in some good players but he didn’t finish the job. 

[notin]

36 minutes ago, Old Red said:

I don’t think they kept Duran as an insurance policy, but more likely Bres was asking too much in return, and couldn’t deal him IMO.

At a minimum, Duran was expected to be and has been a full time starter…

[FredLynn]

55 minutes ago, Hugh2 said:

Everything ticked up. 

Since June 25th they're.

15th in HR

7th in Runs

9th in BB%

16th in SLG%

Those numbers aren't eye popping, but they're average to slightly above across the board.  Which is good enough when you have elite pitching and defense. 

It’s good enough if we can sustain it. It would have been even better had Breslow signed another RHH with power to protect Contreras. 

[Old Red]

3 minutes ago, notin said:

But how much of a bat did he really need?  It’s easy to look at the list of the best free agents, claim the ones you like are needs, and then anssume everything works out better and there’s no ancillary fallout.  

They were a top ten offense last year even after trading Devers. They lost Bregman and Toro/Lowe.  They added Contreras and Durbin.  Is that a step forward, backward or status quo?The Sox were slow starters not due to not adding Alonso, but to the individual performances of Duran, Durbin, Story, and Narvaez along with the injury to Anthony.  Getting a different DH doesn’t change any of that…

The first plan was resigning Bregman, and adding Alonso whom they made an offer to first. That didn’t work out, so they went with the Con Man. When Bregman went to the Cubs the Red Sox pivoted to Ranger, and then went cheap with DUBin. None of this was the plan at all. Getting another productive bat doesn’t change the performances you mentioned, but it would of helped offset it, and maybe the Red Sox wouldn’t have gotten to a low point of 14 under.

[Old Red]

11 minutes ago, notin said:

At a minimum, Duran was expected to be and has been a full time starter…

But he got infrequent bats to start the season trying to get everyone in the lineup.

[Hugh2]

25 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

It’s good enough if we can sustain it. It would have been even better had Breslow signed another RHH with power to protect Contreras. 

Because not having another RH bat to protect Contreras has hurt him by allowing him to suffer by having a career year? lol.  He's literally having a career year.  I think you just want to complain about this team. 

[mvp 78]

7 minutes ago, Hugh2 said:

Because not having another RH bat to protect Contreras has hurt him by allowing him to suffer by having a career year? lol.  He's literally having a career year.  I think you just want to complain about this team. 

Getting to 14 under .500 was a bad idea, right? It would have been better if they won a few extra games early on by having a better offense? 

[moonslav59]

19 minutes ago, Hugh2 said:

Because not having another RH bat to protect Contreras has hurt him by allowing him to suffer by having a career year? lol.  He's literally having a career year.  I think you just want to complain about this team. 

LOL.

And why would a RHB be better protection than a LH'd one?

Ideally, he'd have a good LHB before and after him.

[notin]

34 minutes ago, Old Red said:

But he got infrequent bats to start the season trying to get everyone in the lineup.

Not that infrequent.  Hes only missed 5 games this year and started all but 8 or 9.  And almost all of it in the field since April 1.

There was no real struggle to get “everyone” into the lineup.  Cora had no issue benching Yoshida…

[FredLynn]

21 minutes ago, Hugh2 said:

Because not having another RH bat to protect Contreras has hurt him by allowing him to suffer by having a career year? lol.  He's literally having a career year.  I think you just want to complain about this team. 

I want to complain that we are not competing for a ring this year despite having most of the pieces to do it. Instead of signing a Schwarber or Alonso we signed bums like Gaspar and IKF. We obviously have the pitching. We needed another bat or two and Breslow failed to get one. That’s his job. He didn’t do it. 

[notin]

53 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

It’s good enough if we can sustain it. It would have been even better had Breslow signed another RHH with power to protect Contreras. 

Or if the players he did have didn’t collectively struggle. 
 

Again - 7th in runs scored last year.  Out with Bregman plus the 1b scrap heap.  In with Durbin and Contreras.  Did you at a minimum expect that to be better or worse than last year?  
 

And remember, after trading Devers, their offense went from 4.86 RPG to 4.84 RPG.  They had the ability to score without him last year…

[FredLynn]

3 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

LOL.

And why would a RHB be better protection than a LH'd one?

Ideally, he'd have a good LHB before and after him.

You were posting all winter about the need for extra offense. So were most people here.

[mvp 78]

1 minute ago, FredLynn said:

I want to complain that we are not competing for a ring this year despite having most of the pieces to do it. Instead of signing a Schwarber or Alonso we signed bums like Gaspar and IKF. We obviously have the pitching. We needed another bat or two and Breslow failed to get one. That’s his job. He didn’t do it. 

Like Gasper? They have to sign AAA guys. Those guys end up playing on the MLB roster here and there. Not everyone they sign will be an All Star. 

IKF had his best offensive season and played his normal good defense before getting hurt. I don't see where the problem is?

[Hugh2]

4 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

LOL.

And why would a RHB be better protection than a LH'd one?

Ideally, he'd have a good LHB before and after him.

The guy is literally having a career year. He's 2 HR's away from his career high after only playing about 2/3 of the season.  OBVIOUSLY not having "protection" has been zero issues for him.....when people get it into their heads they don't like a guy it will forever stick. 

Randy Quads character in Major League is a paradoy of what we see amongst fans in real life.  There's literally people watching this team play right now thinking "pfffff they'll come down to earth soon enough" and when they make the playoffs they'll say "pfffff they'll blow it in the playoffs"

Ok maybe....but like this team is playing historically good just so just enjoy it, and if you have critism make sure it makes sense and isn't saying a guy who is offensively having a career year needed protection. 

[FredLynn]

1 minute ago, notin said:

Or if the players he did have didn’t collectively struggle. 
 

Again - 7th in runs scored last year.  Out with Bregman plus the 1b scrap heap.  In with Durbin and Contreras.  Did you at a minimum expect that to be better or worse than last year?

I expected our record to be a couple of games better than last year. I think we are still on target for that. 

The problem I have is that we were in a position to contend this year IF we made the right moves. But Henry was too cheap and Breslow too incompetent to get the job completed. 

[notin]

2 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

You were posting all winter about the need for extra offense. So were most people here.

I think a lot of people used the word “need” a bit freely last off-season. Just because you want Pete Alonso - and no shame in that - doesn’t make him a need…

[FredLynn]

1 minute ago, mvp 78 said:

Like Gasper? They have to sign AAA guys. Those guys end up playing on the MLB roster here and there. Not everyone they sign will be an All Star. 

IKF had his best offensive season and played his normal good defense before getting hurt. I don't see where the problem is?

There’s a reason IkF has moved from team to team. He’s not very good with a bat. 
Gaspar is a bum. We can do better. 

[FredLynn]

Just now, notin said:

I think a lot of people used the word “need” a bit freely last off-season. Just because you want Pete Alonso - and no shame in that - doesn’t make him a need…

If you’re trying to build a team that contends for a ring you NEED the right players. If you’re content with a one and done in the playoffs you need just the basics 

[Hugh2]

4 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

I want to complain that we are not competing for a ring this year despite having most of the pieces to do it. Instead of signing a Schwarber or Alonso we signed bums like Gaspar and IKF. We obviously have the pitching. We needed another bat or two and Breslow failed to get one. That’s his job. He didn’t do it. 

That's your argument? to ignore the 5 signings I laid out and to compare Schwarber and Alonso to bench/aaa depth players? Like is any team on earth signing Schwarber to sit on the bench.  Come on man you're comparing apples to oranges. 

No one wanted the Sox to trade for Contreras who is having a better season than guess which two players????? 

[mvp 78]

3 minutes ago, notin said:

Or if the players he did have didn’t collectively struggle. 
 

Again - 7th in runs scored last year.  Out with Bregman plus the 1b scrap heap.  In with Durbin and Contreras.  Did you at a minimum expect that to be better or worse than last year?

Top 6 wRC+ guys from last season:

1. Devers

2. Anthony - injured

3. Refsnyder

4. Bregman

5. Romy - injured

6. Lowe

4 of the top 6 were not on the 2026 team. The remaining 2 got injured. The 7th is Duran. 🤮

That's actually bigger shoes to fill than just "Bregman and scrap heap" TBH.

 

[Hugh2]

3 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

I expected our record to be a couple of games better than last year. I think we are still on target for that. 

The problem I have is that we were in a position to contend this year IF we made the right moves. But Henry was too cheap and Breslow too incompetent to get the job completed. 

Too Cheap? he spent past the 2nd luxury tax threshold and have the 6th highest payroll in mlb.  But they're cheap OK

[FredLynn]

4 minutes ago, Hugh2 said:

The guy is literally having a career year. He's 2 HR's away from his career high after only playing about 2/3 of the season.  OBVIOUSLY not having "protection" has been zero issues for him.....when people get it into their heads they don't like a guy it will forever stick. 

Randy Quads character in Major League is a paradoy of what we see amongst fans in real life.  There's literally people watching this team play right now thinking "pfffff they'll come down to earth soon enough" and when they make the playoffs they'll say "pfffff they'll blow it in the playoffs"

Ok maybe....but like this team is playing historically good just so just enjoy it, and if you have critism make sure it makes sense and isn't saying a guy who is offensively having a career year needed protection. 

He does seem to be doing just fine. But over the winter it looked like he could use help behind him. Did you know he would have a career year?

[FredLynn]

Just now, Hugh2 said:

Too Cheap? he spent past the 2nd luxury tax threshold and have the 6th highest payroll in mlb.  But they're cheap OK

I’ll come back to the teams spending as a percentage of revenue on salaries.

23rd

[FredLynn]

3 minutes ago, Hugh2 said:

That's your argument? to ignore the 5 signings I laid out and to compare Schwarber and Alonso to bench/aaa depth players? Like is any team on earth signing Schwarber to sit on the bench.  Come on man you're comparing apples to oranges. 

No one wanted the Sox to trade for Contreras who is having a better season than guess which two players????? 

It was never a matter of Contreras OR Alonso (or Schwarber). We could have had both (Contreras and Alonso or Schwarber). 

[mvp 78]

10 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

I expected our record to be a couple of games better than last year. I think we are still on target for that. 

The problem I have is that we were in a position to contend this year IF we made the right moves. But Henry was too cheap and Breslow too incompetent to get the job completed. 

So what's the problem? Starting today, this team is going to go 35-21 down the stretch but aren't contenders? That's a 101 win pace from here on out!

[SoxPhan]

54 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

If he did such a great job why are we in the last wild card spot rather than competing for first in the East? Everyone knew what we needed. He didn’t fill that need. I admit he bright in some good players but he didn’t finish the job. 

We are in a playoff position(*second WC spot by 1.5) despite missing our Cy Young calibre ace, our projected best hitter(or one of) coming into the season, and our starting SS and 2B for most of the year. Not sure what bat you think we should have signed that would have made so huge of a difference. Breslow's offseason was just fine. Do you think we'd be in any better position rn with Bregman/alonso over Con/Durbin, minus Suarez?

[Hugh2]

8 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

He does seem to be doing just fine. But over the winter it looked like he could use help behind him. Did you know he would have a career year?

If he made all the wrong moves according to all of us but they won the world series what does it matter? what does any of it matter.  

It's his job to take those risks, to know if player abc is going to grow into something more.  He takes the risk of betting Durbin and Mead for example will grow into being elite players.  He took the risk that Bennett would be better than Perales and/or help us this year.  He is the one with the scouting reports, and the player personnel and executives all telling him what the value of what is.  He gets the blame and the credit. 

If those bets don't pay off you look bad, if they pay off you look great.  You want the luxury of criticizing this team when they don't work out but still being critical when it does.  It doesn't work that way.