2026 MLB post-Red Sox postseason thread

[mvp 78]

2 minutes ago, notin said:

No magic formula…

The only real magic formula is to get good players and stay healthy. 

[Old Red]

Just now, mvp 78 said:

Alonso had 165 additional plate appearances to get those HR and RBI. Schwarber had 166 PAs. 

Alonso has more RBI in all of baseball the last 5 years, and he and Schwarber are in the top 5 in HR. Con Man is nowhere to be found, you can cite AB all you want, but Con Man is not in the same tier as those two, and never has been. I’m not dissing on Con Man, but he’s just not as good, or productive no matter what OPS says.

[mvp 78]

2 minutes ago, Old Red said:

Alonso has more RBI in all of baseball the last 5 years, and he and Schwarber are in the top 5 in HR. Con Man is nowhere to be found, you can cite AB all you want, but Con Man is not in the same tier as those two, and never has been. I’m not dissing on Con Man, but he’s just not as good, or productive no matter what OPS says.

You do a great job of over and over NOT dissing "Con Man." 🫣

[notin]

10 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

The only real magic formula is to get good players and stay healthy. 

No much magic…

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

I'm not sticking up for anyone here, just repeating what I've always felt... I prefer BA over OBP because walks can only move baserunners one base at a time. 

Hits can move runners all the way around the bases -- or more likely two bases: 1st to 3rd or 2nd to home -- and a lot of those hits are singles... where the batter reaches the same base a walker ends up, on 1st (unless the batter takes 2nd on a throw trying to nab a lead runner, which barely ever happens on a walk).

[Old Red]

4 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

You do a great job of over and over NOT dissing "Con Man." 🫣

The only reason I say it is, because some on here cite OPS so much, and compare it to Alonso, and Flintstone even though he lags behind in the important hitting categories like I’ve listed to the other two.

[Old Red]

3 minutes ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

I'm not sticking up for anyone here, just repeating what I've always felt... I prefer BA over OBP because walks can only move baserunners one base at a time. 

Hits can move runners all the way around the bases -- or more likely two bases: 1st to 3rd or 2nd to home -- and a lot of those hits are singles... where the batter reaches the same base a walker ends up, on 1st (unless the batter takes 2nd on a throw trying to nab a lead runner, which barely ever happens on a walk).

I agree, and HR clears them all, and even better with runners on base, which is a lot better than LOB.

[JoeBrady]

3 hours ago, drewski6 said:

I just think that things like "good pitching beats good hitting" and "obp is king" is just a complete substitution of thoughtfulness with folklore cliches,

That could all well be true, but if Mil and CL meet in the WS, OBP, pitching and defense will be the new mantra.  And there is nothing wrong with additional offense, in any form.  But if the #26 and #28 teams in HRs are in the WS, it's almost a guarantee that people will question the importance of HRs.

[NHNative]

1 minute ago, JoeBrady said:

That could all well be true, but if Mil and CL meet in the WS, OBP, pitching and defense will be the new mantra.  And there is nothing wrong with additional offense, in any form.  But if the #26 and #28 teams in HRs are in the WS, it's almost a guarantee that people will question the importance of HRs.

The way I see it is you need bat control to get on base and the slugger to drive em home. Having both is the better yielder. We have shown we can do this. We just need at least one more elite bat, regardless of cost--if we want a WS. I also agree with those who have confidence in our core and pitching.

[Old Red]

2 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

That could all well be true, but if Mil and CL meet in the WS, OBP, pitching and defense will be the new mantra.  And there is nothing wrong with additional offense, in any form.  But if the #26 and #28 teams in HRs are in the WS, it's almost a guarantee that people will question the importance of HRs.

No questions at all. Each team does things in different ways. The Red Sox were down 23 HR from the year before, and 97 runs. They could have used more of both. I really don’t care what other teams do.

 

[JoeBrady]

2 hours ago, drewski6 said:

In the playoffs?

Regular season.

[JoeBrady]

2 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Why didn't high OBP win MIL anything in '24 or '25??? Why would one season change the narrative on anything TBH?

The best record in baseball both seasons.

[mvp 78]

8 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

That could all well be true, but if Mil and CL meet in the WS, OBP, pitching and defense will be the new mantra.  And there is nothing wrong with additional offense, in any form.  But if the #26 and #28 teams in HRs are in the WS, it's almost a guarantee that people will question the importance of HRs.

[Old Red]

Just now, NHNative said:

The way I see it is you need bat control to get on base and the slugger to drive em home. Having both is the better yielder. We have shown we can do this. We just need at least one more elite bat, regardless of cost--if we want a WS. I also agree with those who have confidence in our core and pitching.

The confidence is fine, but things don’t usually carry over from year to year. Crochet was a good example of that after having his first heavy workload the year before. How will Tolle far next year after his biggest workload even though it wasn’t as heavy as Crochet. Gray if back, and Con Man will be a year older, and who knows what you’ll get out of little A healthy, or not.

[NHNative]

3 minutes ago, Old Red said:

The confidence is fine, but things don’t usually carry over from year to year. Crochet was a good example of that after having his first heavy workload the year before. How will Tolle far next year after his biggest workload even though it wasn’t as heavy as Crochet. Gray if back, and Con Man will be a year older, and who knows what you’ll get out of little A healthy, or not.

There is always a risk of injury. As far as Tolle, he has a pretty robust body, but again who knows. Over all with guys coming back, I think we are solid.

[Old Red]

1 minute ago, NHNative said:

There is always a risk of injury. As far as Tolle, he has a pretty robust body, but again who knows. Over all with guys coming back, I think we are solid.

Crochet has a pretty robust body too.

[NHNative]

3 minutes ago, Old Red said:

Crochet has a pretty robust body too.

My mental health is better with ignoring 50% of negative waves.

[Old Red]

2 minutes ago, NHNative said:

My mental health is better with ignoring 50% of negative waves.

Sorry, but the Red Sox have had some bad injury juju especially since Sale. It could be a long offseason too.

[NHNative]

7 minutes ago, Old Red said:

Sorry, but the Red Sox have had some bad injury juju especially since Sale. It could be a long offseason too.

Max says--I am not listening.

[JoeBrady]

2 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

All CLE had to do was win a 5 game series against an 84 win team to get these accolades? Ok!

The takeaway is that there are many ways to win.  And just acquiring mashers is probably the least effective and least efficient manner.  OBP correlates closer to scoring than does HRs.  We know this.  SLG and OBP are very close, but HRs still lag.

And as I've mentioned before, I have no issue with HR hitters.  They just aren't the panacea fans think they are, and OBP, pitching and defense is a winning formula.

[mvp 78]

3 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

The takeaway is that there are many ways to win. 

If the Sox switched to the AL Central, maybe they are in the ALCS now too. 

[JoeBrady]

2 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

One reason we sucked on offense is that nobody was on base for our middle order batters.

I've mentioned this before.  We were 28th in OBP in the 1-hole and #29th in the 2-hole.  So even though we were 16th in HRs in the 3-hole and 16th in the 4-hole, we still wound up being 28/29th in scoring in the 1st inning.

[Old Red]

2 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

If the Sox switched to the AL Central, maybe they are in the ALCS now too. 

If they were in the NL they wouldn’t even have made the postseason🤫

[JoeBrady]

2 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

Yes, we failed to change with the times.

That's one way of looking at it.  Another way to look at it is that we abandoned what worked for us.  In the years that we won, our OBP was 1st, 2nd, 1st, and 1st.  Our HRs, while good, were 5th, 18th, 6th, and 9th.

[JoeBrady]

2 hours ago, drewski6 said:

Guys end up drawing walks and are disappointed with them all the time.

Here are the walk leaders over the past 5 years:

Juan Soto    601
Kyle Schwarber    531
Aaron Judge    499
Shohei Ohtani    434
Matt Olson    405
Ian Happ    405
Bryce Harper    379
Freddie Freeman    360
Rafael Devers    360
Kyle Tucker    360
Yordan Alvarez    353

I'm not sure how disappointing that list is.

[JoeBrady]

2 hours ago, drewski6 said:

I assure you Joe Brady thinks the returning offense is more than enough and hes salivating at trading some O for pitching.  Or staying below the lux tax lol

Nonsense.  Anything else?

[mvp 78]

23 minutes ago, Old Red said:

If they were in the NL they wouldn’t even have made the postseason🤫

IDK, they had a .563 W/L in Interleague play. They dominated the NL this year. 

[JoeBrady]

2 hours ago, drewski6 said:

The advantage of being ahead in the count is that it allows you to keyhole your red zone.

So now the key to good hitting is taking pitches early in the count?  I kind of agree, but that doesn't sound like what you said yesterday.

[Old Red]

2 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

Here are the walk leaders over the past 5 years:

Juan Soto    601
Kyle Schwarber    531
Aaron Judge    499
Shohei Ohtani    434
Matt Olson    405
Ian Happ    405
Bryce Harper    379
Freddie Freeman    360
Rafael Devers    360
Kyle Tucker    360
Yordan Alvarez    353

I'm not sure how disappointing that list is.

Lots of homers in that group also.

[mvp 78]

Just now, JoeBrady said:

So now the key to good hitting is taking pitches early in the count?  I kind of agree, but that doesn't sound like what you said yesterday.

Swing on 0-0 no matter what. Take the next two pitches. One will most likely be a ball. Swing on pitch 4 because now it's either 2-1 and you're ahead or 1-2 and you're protecting the plate.