Red Sox (Suarez) vs Yankees (Warren): 08/30/26, 1:35 PM

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

10 minutes ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

What turned the game around was Suarez's crappy effort. As far as the almost great catch is concerned, the ball did touch the grass right before Raff's glove flipped over. 

Also, tough to win when your team only scores one run.

Btw, I seriously doubt any outfielder in MLB could have come as close to making that catch as Raffy did.

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, Randy Red Sox said:

we need to get rid of both Story and Duran after this season and Yoshida too.

I doubt we dump all three, and even two might be wishful thinking.

IMO, None have more than $1-4M trade value- not counting their contract costs, except Duran.

BTV shows...

Net Value / Player (production vale- salary)

6.9 Duran ( 19.7-12.8)

-16.5 Yoshida (4.5-21)

-29.3 Story (4.8-34.2)

Let's assume we can find a couple teams to pay $4-5M towards each of the Story and Yoshida contracts. We'd knock $8-10M off the budget. If we include a prospect of bubble vet, maybe we can save more. I'm assuming we keep Duran, since Brez will not get the return he thinks he's worth.

That would leave this foundation of a roster (assuming Gray, IKF and Sandoval bolt as FAs)

SP: Crochet, Tolle, Bennett, Suarez, Bello, Houck, Crawford, Oviedo (Burgos, Wehunt, Paez, Ziehl, Holobetz)

RP: Chapman, Whitlock. Miller, Slaten, Guerrero, Moran, Weissert, (Samaniego, Rivera, Gamboa, Kelly, Olds, Bastardo, Song)

C: Rutschman, Wong (Jo Garcia)

1B: Contreras, Romy (Harris, Casas)

2B: Mead, Seigler (Rodgers/Cespedes)

3B: Durbin, Monasterio (Eaton, Romero/Winnay)

SS: Arias, Sogard (Cheng/Godbout)

LF: Duran, Jones (Gonzales, Gutierrez)

CF: Rafaela, White (Ward/Jackson)

RF: Abreu (Campbell, YRod)

DH: Anthony (Gasper, Brannon/M White)

 

[Tedballgame]

4 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I doubt we dump all three, and even two might be wishful thinking.

IMO, None have more than $1-4M trade value- not counting their contract costs, except Duran.

BTV shows...

Net Value / Player (production vale- salary)

6.9 Duran ( 19.7-12.8)

-16.5 Yoshida (4.5-21)

-29.3 Story (4.8-34.2)

Let's assume we can find a couple teams to pay $4-5M towards each of the Story and Yoshida contracts. We'd knock $8-10M off the budget. If we include a prospect of bubble vet, maybe we can save more. I'm assuming we keep Duran, since Brez will not get the return he thinks he's worth.

That would leave this foundation of a roster (assuming Gray, IKF and Sandoval bolt as FAs)

SP: Crochet, Tolle, Bennett, Suarez, Bello, Houck, Crawford, Oviedo (Burgos, Wehunt, Paez, Ziehl, Holobetz)

RP: Chapman, Whitlock. Miller, Slaten, Guerrero, Moran, Weissert, (Samaniego, Rivera, Gamboa, Kelly, Olds, Bastardo, Song)

C: Rutschman, Wong (Jo Garcia)

1B: Contreras, Romy (Harris, Casas)

2B: Mead, Seigler (Rodgers/Cespedes)

3B: Durbin, Monasterio (Eaton, Romero/Winnay)

SS: Arias, Sogard (Cheng/Godbout)

LF: Duran, Jones (Gonzales, Gutierrez)

CF: Rafaela, White (Ward/Jackson)

RF: Abreu (Campbell, YRod)

DH: Anthony (Gasper, Brannon/M White)

 

I would want another dependable starter and another good bullpen guy

[moonslav59]

16 minutes ago, Tedballgame said:

I would want another dependable starter and another good bullpen guy

I think that might be all we do.

Maybe Gray comes back or we get another SP'er.

Brez may take the same pen approach- add guys like Guerrero, Coulombe, Rivera, Gamboa, Samaniego, Kahnle, Olds, Martinez, La Sorsa, Anderson, Burgos and others in hopes 2-3 rise up.

We may need near perfect health, but our bench did well this year and will be back next year, too.

Anthony and Mead could be solid to great 2027 pluses.

I'm not counting on Casas, Romy and Campbell, but one of two could be a force. The rest of the everyday bench is pretty nice

C: Wong, Gasper, Jo Garcia

1B: Romy, Gasper, Casas, Brannon

2B: Sogard, Seigler, Romy, Monasterio

3B: Monasterio, Seigler, Sogard, Romy, Eaton

OF: Duran or Anthony, White, Jones, Campbell

DH: Casas, Romy, Brannon, Campbell

The pitching may overly rely on returning IL pitchers like Crochet, Houck, Crawford, Oviedo, Kelly, Slaten & maybe even Valera.

With just Crochet, Slaten & Kelly returning, our 13 man looks like:

SP: Crochet, Tolle, Bennett, Suarez, Bello

RP: Chapman, Whitlock, Miller, Slaten, Guerrero, Weissert, Moran, Kelly

The starter depth would rely on Houck, Crawford, Oviedo and then Wehunt, Paez, Holobetz, Ziehl, Burgos.

The pen depth: Gamboa, Rivera, Bastardo, Olds, Samaniego, Song

[scs1918]

Now we know we are playing best of 3 at Yankee stadium.

I see Tolle and Gray as starters for game 1 and 2. It may be Tolle to start us out.

In the next 25 games who do we think is going to be the third starter ???

Good and bad with today's game:

Bad we don't have a chance at a home game in first round of playoffs. Which should be a best of 5, stupid you play 162 games to do best of 3? They did that in NBA forever ago and they played an 82 game schedule.

  Good we can take our time with the lineup and the innings and days off for the pitchers.

 

 

[FredLynn]

1 hour ago, moonslav59 said:

I think that might be all we do.

Maybe Gray comes back or we get another SP'er.

Brez may take the same pen approach- add guys like Guerrero, Coulombe, Rivera, Gamboa, Samaniego, Kahnle, Olds, Martinez, La Sorsa, Anderson, Burgos and others in hopes 2-3 rise up.

We may need near perfect health, but our bench did well this year and will be back next year, too.

Anthony and Mead could be solid to great 2027 pluses.

I'm not counting on Casas, Romy and Campbell, but one of two could be a force. The rest of the everyday bench is pretty nice

C: Wong, Gasper, Jo Garcia

1B: Romy, Gasper, Casas, Brannon

2B: Sogard, Seigler, Romy, Monasterio

3B: Monasterio, Seigler, Sogard, Romy, Eaton

OF: Duran or Anthony, White, Jones, Campbell

DH: Casas, Romy, Brannon, Campbell

The pitching may overly rely on returning IL pitchers like Crochet, Houck, Crawford, Oviedo, Kelly, Slaten & maybe even Valera.

With just Crochet, Slaten & Kelly returning, our 13 man looks like:

SP: Crochet, Tolle, Bennett, Suarez, Bello

RP: Chapman, Whitlock, Miller, Slaten, Guerrero, Weissert, Moran, Kelly

The starter depth would rely on Houck, Crawford, Oviedo and then Wehunt, Paez, Holobetz, Ziehl, Burgos.

The pen depth: Gamboa, Rivera, Bastardo, Olds, Samaniego, Song

Pretty sad. Already talking about next year. Too bad BresLOW dropped the ball this winter. He missed a good opportunity to field a competitive team. 

[notin]

1 hour ago, Tedballgame said:

I would want another dependable starter and another good bullpen guy

Can we get through this year’s postseason first?

[notin]

4 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

Pretty sad. Already talking about next year. Too bad BresLOW dropped the ball this winter. He missed a good opportunity to field a competitive team. 

Third best record in the AL isn’t competitive?  Are people serious here? 

 

[illinoisredsox]

11 minutes ago, notin said:

Third best record in the AL isn’t competitive?  Are people serious here? 

 

Have to remember the mantra for far too many here

Must

Win

Every

Inning

[FredLynn]

15 minutes ago, notin said:

Third best record in the AL isn’t competitive?  Are people serious here? 

 

Are we being considered as serious contenders for a ring? If not we aren’t competitive. Getting a ring is the goal, not making the playoffs for another one and done-which is what it’s looking like now. 

[notin]

Just now, FredLynn said:

Are we being considered as serious contenders for a ring? If not we aren’t competitive. Getting a ring is the goal, not making the playoffs for another one and done-which is what it’s looking like now. 

So what are the qualifications to be a serious contender for a ring? 

[notin]

6 minutes ago, illinoisredsox said:

Have to remember the mantra for far too many here

Must

Win

Every

Inning

I think far too many on here think “this team sucks!! They make 27 outs EVERY GAME!!”

[FredLynn]

7 minutes ago, notin said:

So what are the qualifications to be a serious contender for a ring? 

Well we aren’t it. The qualifications start with having enough talent to be in the top 3-4 team’s oddsmakers view as likely WS winners. But it all starts with having enough talent to have a decent chance to win a championship.

Do we have that kind of talent? Keep in mind we are tied for #5-8 according to oddsmakers at 14:1. Not good enough and could have been better had the GM done his job. 

[FredLynn]

11 minutes ago, notin said:

I think far too many on here think “this team sucks!! They make 27 outs EVERY GAME!!”

Not EVERY game. Sometimes we make only 24 outs. We don’t suck. We’re just not good enough. 

[notin]

32 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

Well we aren’t it. The qualifications start with having enough talent to be in the top 3-4 team’s oddsmakers view as likely WS winners. But it all starts with having enough talent to have a decent chance to win a championship.

Do we have that kind of talent? Keep in mind we are tied for #5-8 according to oddsmakers at 14:1. Not good enough and could have been better had the GM done his job. 

Oh how convenient.  We just missed out on the definition by Vegas odds, which are solely based on team baseball ability and don’t take anything else into account, like volume of action on each team, etc.

42-16 in their past 58 games - more than a third of a season - and you’re still mad that the Sox didn’t build the team your way …

[Tedballgame]

2 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

I think that might be all we do.

Maybe Gray comes back or we get another SP'er.

Brez may take the same pen approach- add guys like Guerrero, Coulombe, Rivera, Gamboa, Samaniego, Kahnle, Olds, Martinez, La Sorsa, Anderson, Burgos and others in hopes 2-3 rise up.

We may need near perfect health, but our bench did well this year and will be back next year, too.

Anthony and Mead could be solid to great 2027 pluses.

I'm not counting on Casas, Romy and Campbell, but one of two could be a force. The rest of the everyday bench is pretty nice

C: Wong, Gasper, Jo Garcia

1B: Romy, Gasper, Casas, Brannon

2B: Sogard, Seigler, Romy, Monasterio

3B: Monasterio, Seigler, Sogard, Romy, Eaton

OF: Duran or Anthony, White, Jones, Campbell

DH: Casas, Romy, Brannon, Campbell

The pitching may overly rely on returning IL pitchers like Crochet, Houck, Crawford, Oviedo, Kelly, Slaten & maybe even Valera.

With just Crochet, Slaten & Kelly returning, our 13 man looks like:

SP: Crochet, Tolle, Bennett, Suarez, Bello

RP: Chapman, Whitlock, Miller, Slaten, Guerrero, Weissert, Moran, Kelly

The starter depth would rely on Houck, Crawford, Oviedo and then Wehunt, Paez, Holobetz, Ziehl, Burgos.

The pen depth: Gamboa, Rivera, Bastardo, Olds, Samaniego, Song

Don't rule out a trade or two.

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, scs1918 said:

Now we know we are playing best of 3 at Yankee stadium.

I see Tolle and Gray as starters for game 1 and 2. It may be Tolle to start us out.

In the next 25 games who do we think is going to be the third starter ???

Good and bad with today's game:

Bad we don't have a chance at a home game in first round of playoffs. Which should be a best of 5, stupid you play 162 games to do best of 3? They did that in NBA forever ago and they played an 82 game schedule.

  Good we can take our time with the lineup and the innings and days off for the pitchers.

We could tank and avoid playing the Yanks.

Seriously, the 3 starters in NY would be...

1. Gray

2. Tolle

3. Bennett

That's pretty good.

[Tedballgame]

1 hour ago, notin said:

Can we get through this year’s postseason first?

Sure we can. His post was just about next year's roster which I replied to. Sorry if you are offended.

[moonslav59]

7 minutes ago, Tedballgame said:

Don't rule out a trade or two.

With Brez, at least 3-4 trades are mandatory.

They may not be very major, since we kinda ran out of prospect trade candidates.

Arias will not be traded.

Story, Yoshida and Duran will be very difficult to trade.

We can trade:

White or Jones

One from Romy, Monasterio, Seigler and Sogard.

Maybe we trade Oviedo, Houck, Crawford, Slaten or Bello but for what?

I think we keep Campbell, but maybe not.

None of these trades will bring back a Gray, Contreras, Rutschman or Mead.

As for prospects, Primera is too far away to have great value and too much upside to consider losing that upside. That leaves Gonzalez who could end up as our next 1Bman or LF'er. Godbout won't bring what we need, even if packaged with Holobetz, Paez, Wehunt or Ziehl.

My guess is we make some minor trades, maybe dump one from Yoshida or Story and finally make that long-awaited Duran deal. Maybe we try to shed Bello and or Campbell's back-ended deals. (I doubt this last one.)

Okay, what do we get back for Seigler, White, Oviedo & Slaten?

See where I'm going with this?

I think we sign a SP'er (maybe even Gray.) We fill our other needs via minor deals & signings.

 

[moonslav59]

10 minutes ago, Tedballgame said:

Sure we can. His post was just about next year's roster which I replied to. Sorry if you are offended.

Yes. Thinking of next year does not man we are giving up on 2026.

If anyone thinks Brez is only thinking of 2026, the fact that Rut, Miller, White and Mead are all under control for more than 2026. There were no rental trades.

[FredLynn]

1 hour ago, notin said:

Oh how convenient.  We just missed out on the definition by Vegas odds, which are solely based on team baseball ability and don’t take anything else into account, like volume of action on each team, etc.

42-16 in their past 58 games - more than a third of a season - and you’re still mad that the Sox didn’t build the team your way …

Mad? I don’t take this that seriously. That said the Flops didn’t present a competitive team this year because the known needs were not met….and that’s on BresLOW”. He did a half ass job, filling some needs while ignoring others. The team performed well for 58 games. Unfortunately the season is 162 games long. 

[FredLynn]

1 hour ago, moonslav59 said:

With Brez, at least 3-4 trades are mandatory.

They may not be very major, since we kinda ran out of prospect trade candidates.

Arias will not be traded.

Story, Yoshida and Duran will be very difficult to trade.

We can trade:

White or Jones

One from Romy, Monasterio, Seigler and Sogard.

Maybe we trade Oviedo, Houck, Crawford, Slaten or Bello but for what?

I think we keep Campbell, but maybe not.

None of these trades will bring back a Gray, Contreras, Rutschman or Mead.

As for prospects, Primera is too far away to have great value and too much upside to consider losing that upside. That leaves Gonzalez who could end up as our next 1Bman or LF'er. Godbout won't bring what we need, even if packaged with Holobetz, Paez, Wehunt or Ziehl.

My guess is we make some minor trades, maybe dump one from Yoshida or Story and finally make that long-awaited Duran deal. Maybe we try to shed Bello and or Campbell's back-ended deals. (I doubt this last one.)

Okay, what do we get back for Seigler, White, Oviedo & Slaten?

See where I'm going with this?

I think we sign a SP'er (maybe even Gray.) We fill our other needs via minor deals & signings.

 

With any luck “Brez” won’t be around to do any more harm to the franchise. 

[Tedballgame]

13 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

With any luck “Brez” won’t be around to do any more harm to the franchise. 

Most of his trades have been very good and he is finding and developing pitching. The Sox will make the postseason this year.  He isn't going anywhere for awhile.

[notin]

34 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

Mad? I don’t take this that seriously. That said the Flops didn’t present a competitive team this year because the known needs were not met….and that’s on BresLOW”. He did a half ass job, filling some needs while ignoring others. The team performed well for 58 games. Unfortunately the season is 162 games long. 

Breslow didn’t ignore any needs.  He just made solutions you clearly didn’t like despite the fact that many have worked out.  

[FredLynn]

1 hour ago, notin said:

Breslow didn’t ignore any needs.  He just made solutions you clearly didn’t like despite the fact that many have worked out.  

I like some of his decisions. I just don’t think he finished the job. Missing the playoffs or a one and out doesn’t cut it-not year after year. We can do better 

[Yaz Fan Since 67]

I will never understand forcing a team to play all 3 playoff games (potentially) on the road.  I get that they need to make the regular season important but no other sport does this.  It is totally unfair even though the Sox have a very good road record.  

As I have been saying all season if Trevor Story never plays another game in a Red Sox uniform I'd be OK with that.  Good to see Roman rip a double in his first AB.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

7 hours ago, FredLynn said:

I like some of his decisions. I just don’t think he finished the job. Missing the playoffs or a one and out doesn’t cut it-not year after year. We can do better 

It wasn't just you who worried Breslow didn't add enough bats in the offseason. It was most of the posters on this forum and a major concern all winter and through the most feeble 2 1/2 months ever of Red Sox offense to start a season.

I give Brez credit for admitting the mistake of his incomplete offseason by adding Mead and Rutschman this summer -- and it's not his fault one got immediately injured and the other still might be... or worse, is toast (is that possible at age 28?).

[FredLynn]

2 hours ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

It wasn't just you who worried Breslow didn't add enough bats in the offseason. It was most of the posters on this forum and a major concern all winter and through the most feeble 2 1/2 months ever of Red Sox offense to start a season.

I give Brez credit for admitting the mistake of his incomplete offseason by adding Mead and Rutschman this summer -- and it's not his fault one got immediately injured and the other still might be... or worse, is toast (is that possible at age 28?).

BresLOW put the team in an early season hole in part because he didn’t add the necessary pieces over the winter. Yes, he tried later on to correct his mistake but by then it was “a day late and a dollar short “. Now we are likely headed for another one and out in October, unfortunately. He did some good stuff but didn’t complete the job. 

[notin]

2 hours ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

It wasn't just you who worried Breslow didn't add enough bats in the offseason. It was most of the posters on this forum and a major concern all winter and through the most feeble 2 1/2 months ever of Red Sox offense to start a season.

I give Brez credit for admitting the mistake of his incomplete offseason by adding Mead and Rutschman this summer -- and it's not his fault one got immediately injured and the other still might be... or worse, is toast (is that possible at age 28?).

Fans wanted more bats, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that got ignored. He did add Contreras and Durbin, and they were replacing Abraham Toro and Nate Lowe at 1b and Bregman.  Going into the season, they had what looked like a decent lineup with:

C: Narvaez 

1b: Contreras

2b: Mayer

3b: Durbin

SS: Story

LF: Duran

CF: Rafaela

RF: Abreu

DH: Anthony 

Where are all these other bats expected to play?  Maybe catcher and 2b?  I don’t blame Breslow for not upgrading those positions.  Narvaez’ value wasn’t coming from his bat, anyway.  And they weren’t going to bench Duran or Anthony, and couldn’t trade Duran for what they wanted for him.  Which 2b option out there was supposed to be the “missing bat”?  And was he enough of an upgrade that the Sox should block their best prospects? (Should they likewise block Arias this offseason?)

Not to mention, getting a full season from Anthony plus improvements from Abreu (yes!) and Mayer (didn’t happen) should have at a minimum kept the seventh best offense in MLB at the status quo.  Don’t forget they ranked 7 last year, not 25. The offense wasn’t horrible last year.  Unless you judge the entire 165 game season solely by those last 3 playoff games.

And the big reason many wanted to go for it now was the Sox had a young, controlled ace in Crochet.  Well, so far this year Crochet has been a non-factor, to be kind, yet the Sox have the third best record in the AL.

If we knew Anthony would get injured, Duran would disappear, Mayer would be a non-factor, Narvaez would take numerous steps backwards, Durbin would bat like a pitcher for the first two plus months, Story would struggle and miss time with an injury, sure, I suppose they ignored the possibility that two thirds of the lineup would disappear in April, May and most of June.  

But they didn’t know that, did they?

 

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

I always considered Contreras as a replacement for Devers, who was a big part of the first half of 2025's 7th best offense (even with his opening week of a million Ks, he still led the '25 Sox in OBP, Slug and OPS).

Most of us saw Durbin as a downgrade from Bregman -- and let's admit it, he still is, since Alex is a 4.2 WAR, 20-homer guy with a month to go.

But even if Contreras and Durbin gave us status quo, that means Boston's offensive improvement was counting an awful lot on a 22-year old rookie to blossom into a superstar... which a lot of us worried about last winter. 

And here we are.