Red Sox Pre-Offseason Mega Thread

[Old Red]

11 minutes ago, notin said:

My grandma used to say “you know you’re doing something right when the idiots disagree with you.”

Your grandma was right.. You, and MOOn prove it everyday. Thanks for admitting it.👍👍👍👏

[notin]

On 10/30/2026 at 3:16 PM, JoeBrady said:

If JH wasn't so cheap, you could've signed up a real polar bear.  Then have a contest.  The polar bear starts on 1st, and a (Yankee) fan starts on 2nd.  If he (Yankee) fan reaches the BP 1st, he gets $1M.  If he doesn't, then well, he doesn't.

And this conversation about sellout ends forever.

Rename the stadium the Polar Ursadrome?

I take it you’ve felt a bit of an entertainment gap since the collapse of the Roman Empire?

[Nick]

Although I'm a former CPA, all the analytical crap is too hard for me to comprehend or maybe I just don't want to wreck my brain at my age, 70.

Let's keep it simple.

Milwaukee Projected 2027 40 man payroll at year end = 99M, 23rd in the majors.

Boston Projected 2027 40 man payroll at year end = 213M, 7th in the majors.

I'm not sure if I would call JH 'cheap'. Perhaps he needs better personnel to evaluate and train the talent.

I only care about two statistics, runs scored and runs allowed.

Pitching (runs allowed)

Boston's 611 runs allowed, 3rd in mlb. Milwaukee, 618, 4th in mlb.

I know we lost Sonny Gray who gave up only  52 runs in 169 innings but Crochet gave up only 62 runs in 205 innings in 2025 (23 runs in 30 innings pitched in 2026). I have to assume he'll get back to his 2025 form. If he can't get back to where he was, well we're in trouble.

Offense (runs scored)

Big problem here. Sox scored 689 runs (23rd in mlb) while the Brewers came in at 832 runs (2nd in mlb). 

Apparently hitting long ball has nothing to do with it. Sox hit 21st best 163 homers while the Brewers came in 28th with 154 dingers. This surprised me.

Big disparity was in OPS. Brewers were 3rd with OPS of .744 and the Sox with OPS of 717 came in tie for 18th. Slugging percentages were similar meaning the difference was in OBP.

The Brewers drew 668 walks (#2) compared to 517 walks (#21) for the Sox.

Perhaps we don't need another slugger. Full year of Mead, healthy Anthony and Adley and a year older Durbin will maybe improve our OPS. With the Monster, we are always leading the league in two baggers. 

We should strengthen the pen and add more depth to our starting rotation without spending too much money. 

And wait out the horrendous contracts of Yoshida and Story to expire. That's $41M. 

 

 

[notin]

28 minutes ago, Old Red said:

Your grandma was right.. You, and MOOn prove it everyday. Thanks for admitting it.👍👍👍👏

Apparently some folks never outgrow “I’m rubber and you’re glue….”  (The ones who did outgrow it, did so by age 9.)

I mean, at least outgrow patting yourself on the back for using it.  

[JoeBrady]

2 hours ago, notin said:

So is this a case of “Old Red maked up hype and blames everyone else for it”?

That's basically it.  The hype is there no matter what.  Anthony was ranked #2 by BA & MLB, and #1 by BP.  There was probably no regular baseball fans that didn't know who who was.

[JoeBrady]

4 hours ago, notin said:

Even nowadays when teams take analytical approach to game strategies,

The only difference between 2026 and 1926 is 1) our ability to quantify our beliefs, and our ability to make measurements.  I'd guess about 100% of everything Ted Williams said 80 years ago is still valid today.  When we were 10 years old, we discussed baseball non-stop.  We'd make comparisons between good hitters, good fielders, runners, everything.

[JoeBrady]

3 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

One guy that comes to mind in Manny Ramirez.

I think he is a perfect example.  He had his MBM moments, but he'd step out after every pitch to think through the progressions.  Same in other sports.  The better players don't rely on pure athletic skills.  They know how to play.  They know the best moves.

[JoeBrady]

4 hours ago, notin said:

Many of these analysts have both math and baseball backgrounds.

There were guys that kept notebooks on every player, ever since I invented the pencil.  Wee Willie said "hit 'em where they ain't", and he was playing in the 1800s.

[moonslav59]

25 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

That's basically it.  The hype is there no matter what.  Anthony was ranked #2 by BA & MLB, and #1 by BP.  There was probably no regular baseball fans that didn't know who who was.

Of course many of us had high hopes for our top prospects, and we rarely had so many in such a short window (Anthony, KC & Mayer, and even Tolle) but I'm pretty sure everyone of us knew there are no guarantees in baseball.

I really don't think anyone suggested any of them would be near MVP caliber in year one or two. Sure, some of us pencilled prospects into starting FT roles, but that's not equal to expectations of all star play from day one. I'm also pretty sure Brez & Co had serious contingency plans in place, in case they started out slowly (or had unexpected injuries.)

Anthony: We kept Duran, despite already having an $18M DH/LF'er.

Mayer: We spent $6M on a utility infielder (IKF) and traded 2 pitchers and DHam for 3 infielders (Durbin, Siegler & Monasterio.) Anther clue? Mayer was one of the few top prospects not extended.

KC: Last year, we had Romy, DHam, Mayer, Sogard and Rafaela as depth.

These set-up did not smell like management being so believing of the hype Ole Red seems to think they did.

Hell, I still have high expectations for Anthony & Tolle, and may be one of the few to not write of KC just yet.

Reminder: We heard the same newbie criticism about Rafaela & Bello after their extensions. Durbin was a rookie in 2025, and some wondered about expectations for him being too high. Some were okay with trading  "the suspect," Tolle, last winter. Don't hear much about him- nor an unflattering nickname from our resident red-nosed clown.

[moonslav59]

6 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

There were guys that kept notebooks on every player, ever since I invented the pencil.  Wee Willie said "hit 'em where they ain't", and he was playing in the 1800s.

So, our beloved VTek was a "nerd."

[moonslav59]

33 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

I think he is a perfect example.  He had his MBM moments, but he'd step out after every pitch to think through the progressions.  Same in other sports.  The better players don't rely on pure athletic skills.  They know how to play.  They know the best moves.

I loved Manny's approach, and that included talking walks when a big hit was needed. He simply refuse to swing at many balls out of the zone. I'm not sure he very got real upset with an ump more than 5 times in his whole career. 

He had an inner peace.

The flip side had Youk and Nixon who would slam their bats down 10 times a week. (I liked them as batters, too, but they had opiate approaches.)

[JoeBrady]

2 hours ago, Nick said:

The Brewers drew 668 walks (#2) compared to 517 walks (#21) for the Sox.

That's where my headaches start.  Our OBP, in general, stinks.  But our 1-2 are the worst in baseball.  I don't mind adding a slugger, but a 35-HR hitter, batting 3rd in our current lineup, would be lucky to drive in 85.

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, JoeBrady said:

That's where my headaches start.  Our OBP, in general, stinks.  But our 1-2 are the worst in baseball.  I don't mind adding a slugger, but a 35-HR hitter, batting 3rd in our current lineup, would be lucky to drive in 85.

Good point, but a healthy Anthony should greatly improve the 1 slot, and if Mead can come near his 2026 numbers, the #2 slot would be fine.

OBP

Anthony .339 (2026) .371 career

Mead .353 (2026) .321 career

I'd like a better LHB than Abreu (.327/.327) up 3rd and before Willson, but he might be good enough, if he has an improved season and we find a nice 5 batter.

A good idea might be to bat Contreras 3rd v LHPs and _____ or Abreu vs RHPs. Despite Abreu's reverse splits in 2026, I think probably reverts to doing better v RHPs.

Some possibly available LHB or switch hitters that kill righties are:

OPS 2025-2026

.892 Lowe (but sucks v LHPs)

.892 Acuna

.887 Springer

.848 Pena

.846 Abrams

.841 de la Cruz

.833 Lindor

.832 Bauers

.822 Paredes

.819 Seager

.804 Happ

.795 Suzuki

.794 Arozarena

 

Long shot adds:

1.074 Kurtz

1.018 Alvarez

.937 Harper

.932 Alonso

.881 Wood

,872 Donovan