A Realistic View at the 2026 Red Sox Part II

[moonslav59]

3 hours ago, drewski6 said:

Rank these 2b options: Siegler, Monasterio, Story, Arias, Sogard, Meade, Hamilton, Durbin

Assume all our healthy and no other position is available to play....meaning no cop outs like well i play this one at 3b and i like this one better as a ss, and this one can be my DH.

Hamilton is last, no?

Agreed, and behind Romy, too. 

[JoeBrady]

6 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

It's funny that we just kinda stopped hearing about how trading David Hamilton was a mistake for some reason...

 

It feels like fans and writers all make the same mistake.  It's like players are either stars, or they are bums.  Hamilton is the same player he's always been.  Either a low-end starter or a very high-end UIF.  Much like Sogard, Seigler, and Money.

[moonslav59]

12 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

It feels like fans and writers all make the same mistake.  It's like players are either stars, or they are bums.  Hamilton is the same player he's always been.  Either a low-end starter or a very high-end UIF.  Much like Sogard, Seigler, and Money.

It's funny how we viewed him as a good defensive 2Bman with great baserunning skills and okay splts to be a platoon type guy, at best.

MIL moved him to SS and tried to make him a FT player.

[moonslav59]

A few SP'ers on the farm are probably positioning themselves on the Sox SP'er depth chart. We do have the opener/ Bello option that looks pretty solid. We've used Burgos, and he's on the 40 already, so he is likely "the next guy." We can add someone for the Yankee doubleheader coming up, and it might be Burgos, but who is next?

All these guys would need to be added to the 40, first:

Paez went 5 today: 1 ER, 1H, 0 BB 8K, which is much better than the others' most recent starts. (2.92 AAA and .682 OPS Against overall- B$ tonight)

Wehunt 3.56 (7.04 OPS Against)

Ziehl 4.23 (.776)

Holobetz 4.65 (.723)

[moonslav59]

We{ve seen our share of bench players not helping much, but this year has seen a pretty big share of successes. Some may have been short lived, but some fizzled out then came back to help again' like Gasper.

Jones plus White are near 1.000 combined

.844 Gasper

.799 Sogard

.739 Seigler

.724 Monasterio

League OPS is .719

.713 Wong

.705 IKF

 

[moonslav59]

Sox Last 30 Days:

1.954 Gasper (21 ABs)

1.726 Jones (17)

1.389 Rogers (6)

.900 Abreu

.864 Rafaela

.859 Yoshida

.838 Contreras

.819 Sogard

.798 Durbin

.767 Duran

.698 Wong, .678 Monasterio, .653 Seigler

.530 White (24 ABs) .499 Rut (41 PAs)

[moonslav59]

ERA Last 30 Days (listed in order of most IP)

2.52 Tolle

2.81 Gray

5.40 Bennett

5.26 Sandoval

4.70 Suarez

1.37 Bello (just 3 less IP than Suarez)

________________

3.65 Guerrero

3.86 Moran

1.64 Chapman

0.00 Miller

2.70 Burgos

3.00 Weissert

0.00 Gamboa (7.2 IP)

1.50 Whitlock (6.0)

3.18 Slaten (5.2)

0.00 Olds (4.0)

21.2 IP by Miller, Gamboa & Olds with ZERO ERs!

[moonslav59]

How about the Sox XBH Leaders:

54 Abreu

51 Rafaela

49 Contreras

36 Duran & 35 Durbin

30 Monasterio in just 273 ABs

(Gasper has 13 in just 128 ABs & Sogard has 12 in just 131 ABs & Seigler 16 in 144)

[moonslav59]

OPS Against Leaders

As SP (not counting openers)

.610 Bennett

.642 Suarez

.644 Tolle

.682 Gray

(.720 Early)

.818 Crochet

.866 Sandoval

1.057 Bello

As RP (33+ PAs)

.395 Miller

.450 Burgos

.503 Bello

.524 Moran

.531 Whitlock

.585 Chapman

.585 Guerrero

.595 Gamboa

.614 Kelly (IL)

(.629 Coulombe)

.633 Samaniego

.714 Weissert

.736 Slaten

(.752 Watson)

(1.064 Kahnle)

 

[notin]

14 hours ago, JoeBrady said:

It feels like fans and writers all make the same mistake.  It's like players are either stars, or they are bums.  Hamilton is the same player he's always been.  Either a low-end starter or a very high-end UIF.  Much like Sogard, Seigler, and Money.

Same player?

Bos: 79 OPS+ 

Mil: 80 OPS+
 

See? Leaps and bounds of growth.

I’m actually not sure how much Milwaukee was counting on a David Hamilton Breakout Season considering they had Cooper Pratt (already extended) and Jett Williams behind him.  And they certainly weren’t moving Turang off Hamilton’s best position…

[mvp 78]

15 hours ago, JoeBrady said:

It feels like fans and writers all make the same mistake.  It's like players are either stars, or they are bums.  Hamilton is the same player he's always been.  Either a low-end starter or a very high-end UIF.  Much like Sogard, Seigler, and Money.

Hamilton ended the game last night with a big E against the Mets. He's getting too much run in MIL and shouldn't be an everyday guy.

[mvp 78]

28 minutes ago, notin said:

Same player?

Bos: 79 OPS+ 

Mil: 80 OPS+
 

See? Leaps and bounds of growth.

I’m actually not sure how much Milwaukee was counting on a David Hamilton Breakout Season considering they had Cooper Pratt (already extended) and Jett Williams behind him.  And they certainly weren’t moving Turang off Hamilton’s best position…

They acquired Hamilton thinking that they'd be able to turn him into Caleb Durbin. They don't have the same skillset. I think Hamilton's defense has always been overrated.

[notin]

53 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

They acquired Hamilton thinking that they'd be able to turn him into Caleb Durbin. They don't have the same skillset. I think Hamilton's defense has always been overrated.

I assumed he was a stopgap they hoped might be something, but they were well positioned to take that gamble thanks to having Pratt and Williams…

[mvp 78]

14 minutes ago, notin said:

I assumed he was a stopgap they hoped might be something, but they were well positioned to take that gamble thanks to having Pratt and Williams…

That's like saying the Sox were fine with not adding a big bat because they had Mayer and Romero. 

[mvp 78]

 

[notin]

2 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

That's like saying the Sox were fine with not adding a big bat because they had Mayer and Romero. 

Neither of whom were extended like Pratt was…

[notin]

9 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

 

And this is why I NEVER SAID Breslow ignored the bullpen.  And I certainly didn’t post about it between 20 and 30 times.

But on the off chance I did accidentally post something to that effect repeatedly, I would never deny it now like I am clearly not doing here in this post…

[moonslav59]

4 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

They acquired Hamilton thinking that they'd be able to turn him into Caleb Durbin. They don't have the same skillset. I think Hamilton's defense has always been overrated.

How could they think SS for DHam?

[mvp 78]

15 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

How could they think SS for DHam?

Red Sox thought he looked great there. Why? IDK. 

[mvp 78]

48 minutes ago, notin said:

And this is why I NEVER SAID Breslow ignored the bullpen.  And I certainly didn’t post about it between 20 and 30 times.

But on the off chance I did accidentally post something to that effect repeatedly, I would never deny it now like I am clearly not doing here in this post…

With Slaten and Whitlock down, I'd feel a little better with another big arm out there to go along with Miller. If Slaten or Whitlock aren't healthy for the postseason, we may see some cracks. 

[Duran Is The Man]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

 

hard to not give Breslow credit for this.

[moonslav59]

2 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Red Sox thought he looked great there. Why? IDK. 

I don't think they did. They played him at 2B, where he looked fine as much as possible.

He played a lot there in 2024, but they ended up moving the GG CF'er to SS, and he led the team in SS innings- not DHam.

MIL did end up moving DHam to 3B, so they did learn quick.

[mvp 78]

12 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I don't think they did. They played him at 2B, where he looked fine as much as possible.

He played a lot there in 2024, but they ended up moving the GG CF'er to SS, and he led the team in SS innings- not DHam.

MIL did end up moving DHam to 3B, so they did learn quick.

The Red Sox were saying that their internal models thought Hamilton would hold up well at SS, not that they ever gave him significant run there. 

[moonslav59]

23 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

The Red Sox were saying that their internal models thought Hamilton would hold up well at SS, not that they ever gave him significant run there. 

It seemed their actions did not match their "sayings."

IMO, he sucked at SS and was a plus at 2B. 

[JoeBrady]

1 hour ago, moonslav59 said:

It seemed their actions did not match their "sayings."

IMO, he sucked at SS and was a plus at 2B. 

He's a UIF.  Guys that are UIF's play wherever there is a need.  Neither the RS nor Mil necessarily likes him at any position.