2026 MLB post-Red Sox postseason thread

[mvp 78]

30 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Yup- just like the Crochet trade and extension, that one poster is now saying is "poor spending."

I included Crochet towards the 100M that pitched very well. Just noted that they didn't get anything out of his contract this season. Where's the lie? 

[drewski6]

7 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Who and what excuses?

Joe Brady was making excuses about how we cant blame Breslow if we cant score in the yankees series, before the yankees series.

[mvp 78]

2 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

Me? I bow to one man.  And its Paul Pierce, not Breslow.

He'd be a horrible CBO.

[drewski6]

1 minute ago, mvp 78 said:

I included Crochet towards the 100M that pitched very well. Just noted that they didn't get anything out of his contract this season. Where's the lie? 

Well the lie is they did get something out of it, something negative.

[drewski6]

Just now, mvp 78 said:

He'd be a horrible CBO.

Pretty sure he can at least match Breslows 0 playoff series wins in 4 years.  

[drewski6]

Who do you want Chavo Guerrero?

[moonslav59]

3 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

Joe Brady was making excuses about how we cant blame Breslow if we cant score in the yankees series, before the yankees series.

So, he's cueing up 2027?

You do know Brez added Contreras (.901), Mead (.851) and Rutschman (.740 in '26, which is about 200 points higher than Narvaez), plus a near .800 second half from Durbin.

While I wish he had added Alonso or Schwarber, I think the "blame" lies with all the players that did way worse in 2026 than 2025- not Brez.

While Alonso hit .884, Schwarber hit .857- both below Contreras. That's not to say I'd rather have Willson than those two, but it's not like Brez neglected the offense.

I guess his mistake as not foreseeing 100+ point drops from Anthony, Duran, Narvaez,  Story and other significant drops from Abreu, Mayer and others. He should have traded them all.

[mvp 78]

5 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

Who do you want Chavo Guerrero?

There's only one GM for me. 

[moonslav59]

9 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

Well the lie is they did get something out of it, something negative.

His +0.3 fWAR?

I agree, he was a negative in 2026, but we really want to blame Brez for that, too?

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

7 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

(BTW, I wanted Alonso or Schwarber- not Bregman or Suarez.)

I wanted Bregman and either Alonso or Contreras (I suggested trading for him and Gray early, mainly because Bloom knows Boston's system). I knew we weren't overpaying for Schwarber, nor was Dombro underpaying to keep him. 

I also wanted Suarez or Cease. 

That's asking a lot, but not just from a wishful fan. We all knew the Sox needed Bregman and another big bat -- or two new big bats -- and a full healthy year from Anthony if they wanted to play in October. 

Breslow knew it, too -- all last winter, and all spring and summer, but didn't get any help for Contreras for the heart of the order until he swapped Early for Mead. 

[moonslav59]

21 minutes ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

I wanted Bregman and either Alonso or Contreras (I suggested trading for him and Gray early, mainly because Bloom knows Boston's system). I knew we weren't overpaying for Schwarber, nor was Dombro underpaying to keep him. 

I also wanted Suarez or Cease. 

That's asking a lot, but not just from a wishful fan. We all knew the Sox needed Bregman and another big bat -- or two new big bats -- and a full healthy year from Anthony if they wanted to play in October. 

Breslow knew it, too -- all last winter, and all spring and summer, but didn't get any help for Contreras for the heart of the order until he swapped Early for Mead. 

I liked Bregman for 2027, but I think he declines afterwards and it may be steep.

I preferred Suarez over Bregman, despite knowing we'd be short on offense, for that long term reason.

It turned out Contreras did about as well as Alonso and Schwarber, and I seriously doubt we ever thought about adding Contreras and Alonso, since we were paying $18M for Yoshida to DH and had Duran-Anthony crowded in LF with no idea Duran was gonna suck.

Yes, Bregman and a 1Bman made the most sense for offense, but I honestly think Durbin will out-WAR Bregman over the 5 years.

I could be wrong on Breggie. His last couple years (including the partial 2025 season) might show he is aging well, but he had a long downturn in his career:

.924 ages 23-25

.795 ages 26-30

.820 ages 31-32 (1200 PAs)

 

[notin]

1 hour ago, drewski6 said:

Take it up with Ella Fitzgerald

No way.  Never again…

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

Breslow would brag he replaced Bregman's 18 homers from '25 with 22 combined from Durbin, Monasterio and Seigler. 

But the Cubs would brag Bregman hit 28 this year.

[JimEd]

7 minutes ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

Breslow would brag he replaced Bregman's 18 homers from '25 with 22 combined from Durbin, Monasterio and Seigler. 

But the Cubs would brag Bregman hit 28 this year.

Breslow has already bragged that seven players set career highs in HRs including 5 by Sogard and 3 by Siegler. 😂 what a clown.

[Old Red]

14 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

I liked Bregman for 2027, but I think he declines afterwards and it may be steep.

I preferred Suarez over Bregman, despite knowing we'd be short on offense, for that long term reason.

It turned out Contreras did about as well as Alonso and Schwarber, and I seriously doubt we ever thought about adding Contreras and Alonso, since we were paying $18M for Yoshida to DH and had Duran-Anthony crowded in LF with no idea Duran was gonna suck.

Yes, Bregman and a 1Bman made the most sense for offense, but I honestly think Durbin will out-WAR Bregman over the 5 years.

I could be wrong on Breggie. His last couple years (including the partial 2025 season) might show he is aging well, but he had a long downturn in his career:

.924 ages 23-25

.795 ages 26-30

.820 ages 31-32 (1200 PAs)

 

I know you guys are all hung up on OPS as the be all end all, but I like to break things down you know like homers for example. Flintstone 45, Alonso 43, and lagging way behind is the Con Man at 27. How about RBI? Alonso 113, Flintstone 97, and lagging way behind is the Con Man at 81. How about total bases? Alonso 314, Flintstone 292, and lagging behind is the Con Man at 224. That doesn’t add up to me that the Con Man did about as well as Alonso, or Flintstone despite what the OPS says. Con Man did lead them in HBP though with 24, which helped his OBP, which helped his OPS, so which batting stat is it that makes you think Con Man did about as well as Alonso, or Flintstone?🤔

[NHNative]

1 hour ago, Old Red said:

I know you guys are all hung up on OPS as the be all end all, but I like to break things down you know like homers for example. Flintstone 45, Alonso 43, and lagging way behind is the Con Man at 27. How about RBI? Alonso 113, Flintstone 97, and lagging way behind is the Con Man at 81. How about total bases? Alonso 314, Flintstone 292, and lagging behind is the Con Man at 224. That doesn’t add up to me that the Con Man did about as well as Alonso, or Flintstone despite what the OPS says. Con Man did lead them in HBP though with 24, which helped his OBP, which helped his OPS, so which batting stat is it that makes you think Con Man did about as well as Alonso, or Flintstone?🤔

This is the way.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

Moneyball focused on the importance of On Base Percentage. But it never won the A's any rings, even combined with one of the top starting rotations in the majors.

It did win Epstein at least one banner, thanks in part that he didn't part with Youkilis, coveted by Billy Beane.

And yet, decades later, we still have team announcers like NESN's O'Brien introducing every player at bat with batting average, home runs and RBIs. Seldom does he or anyone mention WAR, OPS or even OBP.

Why? Don't tell me it's just habit or for the majority of TV baseball viewers who are as old as us (or contaminated soil).

"Here's Seigler, with 3 home runs on the season," OB will say -- because to him, everything will exist in the future tense. Never do we hear that Tony Sigs has the same On Base % as Wilyer Abreu, or higher than Wong and Duran...

NESN, owned by the Red Sox, must have access to their analytics, where stats only seem to matter to those who care about them.

[JoeBrady]

On 10/12/2026 at 8:40 AM, mvp 78 said:

Misiorowski only went 4.1 IP and Skubal only threw 81 pitches. Should I be yelling at Tracy over this? 

All the HR-hitting teams, except for the LAD, are sitting at home watching Mil, CL & TB.  Should be yelling at Breslow for not acquiring more HRs?

[JoeBrady]

On 10/12/2026 at 9:30 AM, drewski6 said:

No, but maybe the posters who say that you should look to be cheap up and down the batting order and go into the playoffs with 7 aces acquired via the budget savings from prioritizing defense on a min wage contract at multiple lineup positions.

I assume you are referring to Milwaukee, Cleveland & TB?  

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

All the MLB analysts are saying the reason the Dodgers haven't won a game in the NLCS yet is because they haven't hit a home run.

[JoeBrady]

On 10/12/2026 at 9:32 AM, drewski6 said:

they all laughed at christopher columbus when he said the world was round.

Off-topic, but the issue at the time is that Columbus calculated the circumference of the world as 20,000 miles, when everyone else knew it was about 25,000.  He had no chance of getting to Japan or China.  And he'd have starved.

[JoeBrady]

23 hours ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

The defending champs are down 0-2 and have zero HRs.

Are we back to good pitching stops good hitting?

[JoeBrady]

20 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

The Brewers had the 2nd most runs scored this year with the 2nd least HR hit. 

TB was 22nd in HRs and 12th in runs scored.

CL was 27th in HRs and 24th in runs scored.

[JoeBrady]

18 hours ago, notin said:

The spherical globe, while incomplete and probably very inaccurate, was first invented around 150 BC by Greek philosopher Crates of Mallus…

I assume Drewski was just kidding, but to me, it's incredibly interesting that the statue of Atlas holding the globe is from 150 AD.  It was obvious that everyone knew.  But people today think this is a semi-recent discovery.  When Columbus went to the king of England, the king's advisers knew almost exactly what the earth's circumference was, I think within 100 miles or so.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

3 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

TB was 22nd in HRs and 12th in runs scored.

CL was 27th in HRs and 24th in runs scored.

Instead of regular season stats, why not focus on their trade deadline acquisitions who won each of the first two LCS games:

Griffin started and gave CL 4 solid IP, Adell and Lowe drove in 2 runs apiece in Gm 1;

Peralta threw 6 shutout innings and Hicks drove in 2 to win Gm 2 for TB.

Some luck is involved, but Brez could've had half of those guys for the haul he swapped to keep an injured Rutschman out of pinstripes.

[JoeBrady]

17 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

How many playoff hits did Alonso get?

Going by a 2-game sample size is a bit silly, but add up all the stats from all popular targets.  The total numbers of RBIs from Schwarber, Bregman, Paredes, Marte, Alonso, Bichette, and Ketel Marte add up to a total of:

1

[JoeBrady]

17 hours ago, drewski6 said:

Joe Brady was making excuses about how we cant blame Breslow if we cant score in the yankees series, before the yankees series.

Just an observation that the team with the CY winner and a #1, with a combined ERA of 2.26, might be difficult to score against.  We should have scored more, but I am not surprised that Schlittler and Fried pitched well.

[JoeBrady]

44 minutes ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

Moneyball focused on the importance of On Base Percentage. But it never won the A's any rings, even combined with one of the top starting rotations in the majors.

But it did enable them to be the best small-market team in BB.  Being smarter is a poor substitute for being richer, at least in sports.

[drewski6]

17 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

So, he's cueing up 2027?

You do know Brez added Contreras (.901), Mead (.851) and Rutschman (.740 in '26, which is about 200 points higher than Narvaez), plus a near .800 second half from Durbin.

While I wish he had added Alonso or Schwarber, I think the "blame" lies with all the players that did way worse in 2026 than 2025- not Brez.

While Alonso hit .884, Schwarber hit .857- both below Contreras. That's not to say I'd rather have Willson than those two, but it's not like Brez neglected the offense.

I guess his mistake as not foreseeing 100+ point drops from Anthony, Duran, Narvaez,  Story and other significant drops from Abreu, Mayer and others. He should have traded them all.

No, everyone knew entering the year we didnt have enough thud.  Nor did we have any elite players on teh offensive side of the ball.  Nothing unforeseen happened, other than we ended up using most of the crazy pitching depth that Breslow acquired in lieu of fixing the offense.  But the pitching help doesnt help you if you cant score runs. 

[drewski6]

13 hours ago, JimEd said:

Breslow has already bragged that seven players set career highs in HRs including 5 by Sogard and 3 by Siegler. 😂 what a clown.

Any excuse for a victory lap by Breslow and his fanboys.