moonslav59

True, and they could be worse, especially on a team in the gutter and with little line-ip protection and rbi opportunities.

Devin Futrell might be the sleeper pick on the farm. soxprospects.com has him at #58. While Gage Ziehl dropped from 28 to 39, I think he might rebound. The rebound trio could be Cespedes (34>14) Jo Garcia (51>34) and YRod (55>35.) Dylan Brown made sp.com's largest leap from 60 to 31, and Primera jumped from 36 to 13, but they are not "rebounding."

How about Pythagorean? (They have us at 34-36.)

This seems true for more than just Mayer. I wonder where we are ranked in swings at balls outside the K zone.

Very true, and many of our solutions have not proven to be good choices either. Perhaps the best or top 3 offensive add of the off season by any team was Contreras. Not one of us called for that get. Almost all of us wanted at least one more big bat. Most here wanted Breggie or Bichette after the Contreras deal was made. A few wanted Schwarber. Some wanted Alosno and an OF trade (usually Duran was mentioned) to make room for Alonso at DH. Some wanted KMarte, including me. Only Schwarber and a Duran trade made sense, from yhis boards most discussed wish list. Okay, Murkami, BLowe or Donovan might have worked, but let's be honest- hardly anyone screamed for them. This is no apology, but almost all of us sucked with our "better ideas." I'd still rather have Contreras than Alonso. I'd rather have Suarez than Bregman. Hell, Durbin over Bichette looks okay, too. Sonny Gray over most top FA pitchers looks good, too. Even Coulombe has done okay. We needed to thread the needle with some moves that look more like Sunday morning QB'ing than realistic offseason planning. Not trying for another big bat was a horrible mistake, but signing Bregman or Bichette would have been worse, especially when you figure JH would limit future spending had he signed either one.

On the farm today... Uberstine pitched 4 ip from the pen: 2 hits, 2 BB and 4 Ks (1 ER) Cheng hit his 6th homer, Capra (.802) Romero (.645) & Thaiss (.645) have 2 hits each. Wehunt got lit up for 6 runs, but POR won 7-6. Romy, Baez and Alcantara homered. GRE won 2-1 as Futrell pitched a 7 IP gem (2 hits, 0BB, 5K and 0 ER) Winnay went 3 for 3 (.920) SAL lost 7-2. Not much good to say. FCL Sox are tied 8-8 late. Delzine struggled. Rivas has homered and Soto is 3 for 4. Frazier homered and is 2-4, while Bravo is 2 for 5. Silverio homered in DSL Blues team loss. Jo Ramirez homered and went 4-4 in Red's 17-11 loss. The Sox pitchers walked 16 batters!. DSL Gold lost 8-3

With just over 40% of the season played, here are the numbers: 110+ PAs (12 players) .965 Contreras .791 Rafaela .770 Abreu ______________ .683 Monasterio .675 Anthony .670 IKF .669 Yoshida .655 Duran _______________ .593 Mayer .576 Narvaez .568 Durbin .547 Story ______________ 85-109 PAs ,710 Wong .671 Gasper ________________________ ________________________ Pitching (OPS Against 80+ PAs) .444 Chapman .598 Tolle .598 Whitlock .605 Moran .635 Suarez .697 Gray .714 Samaniego .754 Early .757 Weissert .775 Watson .818 Crochet .851 Bello ___________ 60-79 PAs .587 Coulombe .614 Kelly .788 Bennett .862 Slaten

Yosida was the 5th OF'er: 1. Abreu 2. Rafaela 3. Duran 4. Anthony (DH) He was the #2 DH behind Anthony.

Here is one BTV accepts Chapman, Duran & Yoshida for Tanner Scott (2.4 yrs left) and SS prospect Joendry Vargas or Story, Yoshida, Chapman & Duran & $10M for Yelich & Catcher Jeferson Quero

LOL! He does have a better OBP than Duran and everyone in the line-up not batting 2-3-4 and... #9 Wong.

Not for this trade, but BTV accepts: Story, Wong & Holobetz +$10M for Murphy

AZ was 15th in runs scored in 2023.

Is that after trading Contreras (171 OPS+ now)? Right now, Rafaela (123) and Abreu (117) are over 115, but I do agree we need 2-3 more beyond the 3 we have now. 1 more would not be enough. 2 more mega bats might be enough.

Story is owed a $5M buyout for 2028 and a couple M more for the rest of 2026. ATL does not save money.

I suggested Duran or Narvaez as possible additions to make BTV work- not both. Again, I'm not for the trade, unless it's Story for Murphy 1 to 1, which BTV does not accept.

I'm not for that trade. I just presented what BTV showed. BTW, Story is a noodle bat, too.

No, we are not poor, but who here thinks our budget is flexible enough to do all we need?

I think they were so sure Bregman would be back. Personally, I'm glad he's not, and I doubt he'd have been the difference maker they and many here thought he would have been. On paper, on opening day, the team would have looked good with Bregman at 3B, Contreras at 1B, Mayer-Durbin for 2B and Story-Mayer at SS. 4 OF'ers to fill 3 slots and the DH role looked good. Catcher was an issue. Signing Bregman and not Suarez would be a zero net gain, assuming Bregman doesn't bat .775 to .800 for us.

Many mentioned Schwarber, who might have been very hard to pry away from Philly. In hindsight, he looks like the best. Murakami was not talked up on this board. If anything, most talked him down or suggested others over him. Okamoto has been okay and seemed more wanted than Murakami on this site. Alonso might have been the most hyped player on this board and is now over 800, but as notin pointed out, it may have caused a logjam at DH. Bregman, Bichette and KMarte were probably the next highest hyped players. None are doing very well. Paredes was talked up and is near .720, but he can play 3B. Hindsight picks could have been BLowe or Donovan, but neither are "thumpers."

The Yoshida signing seemed carefree.

Had Crochet stayed healthy, perhaps a SP (Bello/Early?) could have been converted to the pen, early on.

Almost anytime someone suggested trading Duran, a bunch of posters argued trading our best or one or our best offensive weapons was counterproductive. Signing a 2Bman or 3B over Alonso could have prevented a Duran trade, but the best two- Bregman & Bichette have largely failed, so far. Yoshida was untradeable, unless we paid or took back near equal value.

Nothing is ever certain. Story had concerns over injury and road splits, but he came up short on just about the lowest logical projection. Of course most GM would spend better than Story & Yoshida's money, so that is no GM apology. The lack of new spending beyond those two is no owner apology.

The new spending was seriously curtailed from Bogey/Sale to the Devers extension in 2024. He was quickly traded, so even that one could not be counted, and the Bregman signing was one year, so one could argue 2020 to 2026 (Suarez) with just 2 semi-major signings and no major extensions. Those are facts not apologies. I find it funny that I am accused of apologizing for JH, when I am highlighting his massive cutbacks to new spending. I can see how this can be viewed as an apology for the GM, as I am arguing their spending levels were vastly different from Theo, Ben & DD's, but it can't also be apologizing for JH, too. To me, it's not impossible to build a winner withing the new spending budgets the Sox had from 2019 to 2024 (Devers) 2025 (Bregman) or 2026 (Suarez). Bloom failed, and Brez looked like he was turning it around and made 3 good major additions last winter, but the results are what they are, and there is no apology that can cover this mess. Do you really think had DD stayed at the helm and extended Betts, we'd have had significantly more success under the same budgets? Remember, had we extended Betts, we'd have spent less on "new spending" by $30M a year, which in some early years would have meant needing to trade some salaries to meet the budgets. It's easy to pick and choose, in hindsight, who we could have traded and added, and I don't doubt some GM or DD could/might have done better, but it's a stretch to think we'd win a ring from 2020-2026.

The payrolls from 2020 to 2021 were mostly past contracts with very little new spending. DD thrived on good to great trades, but he also had some significant new spending numbers most years, but that stopped in 2019, when he was even nearly forced to trade Betts, himself. His last big expenditures were the extensions to Sale and Bogey. The largest Sox FA signings since JD in 2018 and before Bregman (25) and Suarez (26) were: $140M/6 Story in 2022 $90M/5 Yoshida in 2023 Previous signings and extensions: $217M/7 Price 2016 $142M/7 Crawford 2011 $110M/5 JD 2018 $95M/5 Pablito 2015 $88M/4 HRam 2015 $83M/5 Lackey 2010 $70M/5 Drew 2007 $68M/4 Nate 2019 (kinda like an extension) Major extensions from 2019 to 2024 were few and far between: Crochet 2026 and Devers 2024 were significant but long after the Betts trade. ($130M/8 Anthony starting in 2026) 2019 Sale $145/5 2012 AGon $154M/7 2020 Bogey $120M/6 w opt out (signed in 2019) 2015 Porcello $83M/4 Basically from the Sale/Bogey extensions to the Devers extension, new spending and extensions saw an extreme drop off. No major extensions until 2024 w Devers. Only Story and Yoshida were major signings from JD in 2018 to Bregman 2025 (1 year) and Suarez 2026. That makes it hard for any GM to improve an aging team.