moonslav59

One of the major beefs about our opening day rosters (26 & 40) was the lack of everyday stars. Many felt Contreras might be over the hill and borderline to begin with. Many felt Duran might get back to star quality, but 2025 made him borderline, too. Abreu was at the age where a peak or career year seemed ready to happen, but since he had yet to have a season like that and was platooned until 2026, he could not be called a star. We looked to have some real good role players like Rafaela, Narvaez, and maybe Story/Mayer could come close to upside projections. We've just gone 27-3 and 35-2, but how many are clear everyday player stars? Durbin has been for 5-6 weeks, but you need a full season like that to be called a star. Contreras has clearly removed the "borderline" and "over the hill" labels and is a star. Abreu has yet to earn the term. Duran has all but lost any hope of every coming close. Rafaela looks about to earn the label, but he needs to finish 2026 better than 2025. The rest are all role players, some 3rd, 4th or 5th stringers to start 2026. Here are our fWAR leaders: 4.1 Rafaela in 111 gms (11th in MLB everyday players) 3.5 Contreras 105 (16th) 2.7 Abreu 113 (40th) 2.2 Durbin 108 (63rd) 1.1 IKF in just 47 Pitchers: 3.2 Suarez in 103 IP (11th best in MLB 2.7 Tolle (107) 25th despite low IP 2.3 Gray (120) 38th 1.7 Bennett (71) 67th despite low IP 0.5 Sandoval in 24 (projects to 2.0 in 100 IP) _________ 1.2 Whitlock (43) 8th in MLB RP'ers 1.1 Bello (44) 19th 0.8 Chapman (39) 47th If Bennett did this well over 100 IP, we'd have 4 SP'ers in the top 40. We also have 3 RP'ers in the top 50.

Once Anthony is healthy, Duran or Yoshida will sit. Duran has not earned a right to stay starting. Yoshida has, but that could change- as could Duran's outlook. I think Mead gets a starting slot more than Story gets one, but Brez & Co. likely disagrees. There is room for both to start, too. To me, Story has to earn it back, despite his ending to the 2025 season.

Futrell at #48 might be the most under-rated of them all. He pitched well in his POR debut, last night.

This is one reason why a weaker farm may not be a real bad thing. We don't really need major farm infusions over the next 2-4 years, other than Arias and maybe one or two from Gonzales, Valera, Godbout, Schaffner, Hull & Holobetz. This is what soxprospects projects with some blanks (and players) added by me, where I thing there is a gap: 2028: SP: Crochet, Suarez, Tolle, Bennett, _____, Bello, Crawford, Holobetz, Wehunt RP: ______, ______, Slaten, Miller, Moran, Weissert, Kelly, Rivera, Phillips, Mullins C: _____, Wong, Jo Garcia 1B: Contreras, Casas (Mead, Brannon) 2B: Mead, Seigler (Romy/Winnay/MWhite) SS: Arias, Monasterio (Cheng) 3B: Durbin, Romero (Romero) LF: Duran, White (Anthony, Gonzales) CF: Rafaela (Gutierrez, White, Campbell) RF: Abreu (Gonzales, White) DH: Anthony, Campbell, Gonzales, Brannon (Winnay/Cespedes) 2030: SP: Crochet, Suarez, Tolle, Bennett, _____, Valera, Delzine, LaFavor, Holobetz, Wehunt (D Brown, Monegro, Ziehl, B Morgan) RP: _____, _____, Bello, Moran, ____, ____, Phillips, Rivera, Mullins (Bastardo, Paez, Finley, Cason, Futrell) C: Primera, Jo Garcia (Ge Rodrigues/Heyman) 1B: Gonzales (Mead) 2B: Mead, Seigler (Winnay/MWhite) SS: Arias, Mataczynski (Soto/Ramos/Brito)) 3B: Durbin, Godbout, Romero LF: Anthony, Hull, YRod (Shelar) CF: Rafaela, Hull (Rivas) RF: ______, Campbell, Gutierrez (Silverio) DH: ______, Schaffner, Brannon (Cespedes) There will be more _____, but the ones I placed could be all there is needed.

I think Anthony will DH and Yoshida will platoon with Duran in LF. (I guess Anthony could play LF vs L.) Jones goes, but White is a tough call.

Whenever Story is called up, who will be better on defense at SS, Monasterio or Story?

I thought the Weissert demotion and Burgos promotion might have been for that idea, but they used him up. They could demoted him and call up ____? (Rivera or Gamboa?) I'd say yes.

It would be a C, unless Rogers leads us to a ring or Narvaez turns it around.

So, tell us your grade right now, and give leg room to come back later and defend the praise criticism or meh opinion.

I agree. I think we'll just DFA IKF, and only need to add 4. We'll go with 3 catchers and maybe even DH AR, some, if he's hitting well. My 28 Man Roster: No JJ (DFAd) or Seigler & Sogard C: AR, Wong & Rogers 1B: Contreras (Mead) 2B: Mead (Story/Monasterio) SS: Monasterio & Story 3B: Durbin (Monasterio) LF: Duran & Yoshida CF: Rafaela & White RF: Abreu (White) DH: Anthony (Yoshida/Mead) SP: Gray, Suarez, Bennett, Tolle, Crochet RP: Chapman, Whitlock, Slaten, Bello, Moran, T Guerrero, Sandoval, Miller, Weissert,

While I've been life-long believer in Catchers making a big difference in how pitchers do, as long as the guy is good, I'm not sure it matters much. Some pitchers are quirky, and it's more about comfort and routine than how good the catcher is defensively, but it looks like Tolle is not that type. I doubt Bennet is either.

Ahhh, yes. We are 27-3 after this last win, which happened to be a series opener.

Gasper has options, but yes, he should be one of the first to be DFA'd once someone needs to come off the 60 (first one?) If we DFA Roger (NO!!!!) then we might keep Gasper as (eeek!) Catching depth.

Everytime I hear or say, "THis generation_____" in some sort of bad context, I always think about how people said the same about my generation and the ones before and after. Take a look at the state of the world, today. My generation has been "in charge" for a while now, and this is on us. We were also responsible for raising the next generation, so.... ...something about glass houses.

The first bullet makes no sense, unless I'm reading it wrongly. Series opening wins = winning the first game of the series. We've won the first game in 11 straight series and 17 out of 20, but we lost the first game in 7 out of the previous 8 series, before this amazing run.