moonslav59

Maybe they want to give the impression they want to keep Adames, so it doesn't drive his value down. They should trade him, and deadline trades bring more back than winter trades.

I'm no expert on the timing of prospect promotions, but I'd like to see Arias in AAA.

The problem was we got Suarez instead of Bregman, who was never going to be that "other big bat." I was glad Brez botched those negotiations, but that is not putting a feather in his cap. The offer we made to Alonso was not a serious one. I think we were fine with Anthony/Duran/Yoshida at DH and once we got Contreras, we stopped looking at 1B/DH types. Like it or not, Schwarber & Alonso instead of Contreras was the only option, and I'm not sure Schwarber would leave PHI, anyway. In hindsight, Brez should have dealt for BLowe or Donovan AND Durbin.

Adding a Catcher and LF/DH looks like a good start, but they'd have to be great on offense to make us jump high enough to be a top contender. I realize we may have to "settle" on someone like Story at 2B, Mayer at SS or Narvaez/Wong at Catcher since we will not be adding 3-4 bats, this winter, but to me We need to add a middle infielder who can also hit. Story-Mayer & Co is not a winning keystone combo. Some have faith in Arias, but counting on him to hit the MLB ground running in 2027 is like hoping on Campbell in 2025 and Mayer in 2026. I'm not up for that, again. Pitchers like Houck, Crawford and Oviedo will not have the trade value needed to be dealt for what we need. Perhaps one could be part of a larger trade, but we do need rotation depth, too. I doubt Brez wants to trade Eyanson, but we will need to give something to get real value back. Trading Arias takes away from our middle infield future but who else can we trade to get a stud bat? It has to be Eyanson and or Arias. (Mayer's trade value is not as high as his upside value to us, and he won't bring a stud bat either, unless maybe a one year contract DH type.) Brez has shown he's willing to make wholesale changes to the roster. He flipped 20+ players last winter and 10+ the winter before. He's traded some highly ranked prospects and players like Sale. He's not shy on pulling the trigger like Bloom was. That could be a good thing, if he does as well as the Contreras and Gray deals, again this winter, but he's also made a few deals that may have looked okay at the time, but have looked bad out of the gate (Harrison & Priester.) The Sale trade has haunted him beyond the opening gate. The best shot at winning in 2027 would be to sell this summer and try to get players and ML ready prospects that can fill an open slot or two listed in previous posts. Gray should bring something good enough to fill a slot. Trading Chapman might, too, but then we have the closer slot to refill. IKF, Coulombe and other one and done players are not bringing us top value for 2027, but see what we can get, anyway. I would not trade Contreras, unless we get a great offer. Are we fed up with Abreu's failure to become a stud? Do we trade him and hope he doesn't become a stud for his next team? Who else has the trade value to bring back top value?

I'd be fine trading for non rentals, but the deadline is not the time for that. After these last two losses, I'm on the fence about adding BLowe and Jeffers or the like. To make bold trades, this coming winter, you have to think about trading away a couple or more top prospects. I'm not against the idea, but we simply have to strike gold, or we could be looking at another 8 more years of futility. We need a big bat and likely two. Assuming we trade Duran and dump Yoshida, we can really look at any position. Since Contreras looks fine at 1B, we will likely look at the other 8 slots. We aren't adding 9 everyday players, so we need to decide who stays. I'd start with: C ______ 1B Contreras 2B ______ (Durbin/Story) 3B Durbin SS ______ LF ______ (Anthony) CF Rafaela RF Abreu DH _____ (Anthony) Bench: Narvaez or Wong, 1 or 2 from Mayer, Seigler, Monasterio, Eaton SP: Crochet, Suarez, Tolle, Early, Bennett depth or pen: Houck/Crawford/Oviedo/Eyanson RP: Chapman, Whitlock, ______, _______, Slaten, ______, Bello, Moran, Weissert/Kelly/Guerero/Watson/Samaniego/Uberstine/Holobetz/Wehunt Do you trade Arias when our middle infield is wide open? Do you trade Eyanson and trust our current rotation and depth? Does Witherspoon, Gonzales, Godbout, Azocar, Valera, Soto, Primera, Delzine and others get us what we need?

Yes. People called Ben Lucchino's errand/coffee boy, and I guess he didn't want to continue being that under DD. He ended up getting a position with more control. I get criticized for all my hypothetical questions, but I do wonder if DD would have quit had he been handed the budgets Bloom got.

The Dodger counter from the right coast.

I'm thinking solace will be elussive all season long. I guess we can focus on singular players like Ceddanne, Contreras, the young SP'ers and maybe Durbin, if he keeps this up to find something to not bum out on, but yes, this is very difficult to watch.

After they hired DD to "oversee" him. Ben's departure was meh, in part because Lucchino had just left and DD was hired to a different position, although it was clear he would be pulling the strings.

Yup. It must be Brez's fault. He shoulda known.

I'm not admitting to a nonsense claim. A couple guys he traded away, that nobody cried about when it happened, have done well for less than a full season. Bennett is depth now: Perales is still speculative depth and is not MLB ready. He swung and missed on a few additions like Oviedo & Sandoval. He counted on them and Crawford to add some depth. He added Suarez and Gray to push those guys down the pecking order. He counted on Crochet and Bello- wow big sin. The one thing Brez did right was the rotation and its depth. Admit it.

The Mets are the perfect example to the phrase, "Be careful what you wish for."

Theo & DD. Ben & Bloom were kinda meh. I guess you could call 'em whimpers.

It matters not.

literally, LMAO.

Major moves: Suarez, Contreras & Gray Moderate moves: Durbin w infield depth, Oviedo & IDK Minor moves: Coulombe, Watson, Kahnle, Gasper and others Moves not made: No second big bat and no Duran trade.

It won't matter: you'll want the next guy to quit day two.

Arias homered, again (#17) walked twice and was HBP. He's at 1.020, now. That's 13th best in all the minors (250+ PAs) Only 8 players have more PAs and a better OPS than he. Primera is 2nd in OPS among players with 130+ PAs. Nobody has more PAs and a higher OPS than he does. It's nice to see we have some hopes on offense down the pike. We have 4 catchers doing well: Ronny Hernandez (1.066) Jorge Rodriguez (.886) Jo Garcia (.851) Luke Heyman (.830) Brannon at .872 might be a 3rd catcher type, but will likely DH or 1B, if he ever makes it. Godbout may not be very far away and is at .902. Winnay is up to.886 and at AA, now. Azocar at .804 is ranked highly. Brito is doing very well at 1.020, but he's far away.

So, making the playoffs is not the main goal?

If JH tells Brez to sell, he should quit... LMAO

Not at all. I think .725 to .775 OPS was close. He's not the reason we are losing, but he was decent depth, along with Duran for Anthony. Most felt we kept too many OF'ers and should have added a better offensive infielder. Instead, we kept depth for Anthony (and Rafaela/Abreu.) That's not evidence that we bet the whole house on Roman.

MLB has seen way too many pitcher injuries, recently, and many are big named stars. When you consider the quality of pitching the Sox have had on the IL, it's pretty amazing how well the staff has done, so far- particularly the rotation. We've lost... SP'ers: #1 SP Crochet #4-5 SP Houck #5-7 Crawford #6-8 Sandoval #6-8 Oviedo (Not to mention Bello's implosion and demotion and Early's recent move to the IL.) RP'ers (not bad at all) : Slaten, Moran and others.

He added many depth arms, too. While Kahnle, Watson and Oviedo have not helped us, Brez did add depth like Coulombe, Guerrero, Samaniego, Weissert & Slaten, Would you rather have minor leaguer Perales or Bennett? Fitts & Clarke for depth or Gray in the rotation, which added depth by knocking almost every SP'er down a notch? Suarez knocked all but Crochet down one slot on the depth charts, too. A pitcher out for the year (Priester) or Holobetz & Phillips as a longshot depth piece? You want Hicks and Sandlin back? You want Dobbins back for Willson? To me, one of Brez's top focus areas has been pitching depth and farm pitching improvement. He's traded away a ton of pitching, including Sale, Priester, Harrison and Drohan. Some were bound to do well, and they did. More have done squat or are still TBD,

Bottom line: I'm glad Devers is a Giant Forevers. I'm glad Bregman is a Cubbie. I'm glad Bichette is a Met. I'm fine with Contreras over Alonso. I wish we'd gotten a second bigger bat (or two.)

I always felt he had pretty quick reflexes and was more nimble that one would expect from his body type. About half his errors were throwing, so for a long time, I felt he'd be a better fit at 1B than 3B. We also had a big need at 1B for several years, so it's not like he was blocked. The Bregman signing made it obvious: 1B and DH. Why they did not prepare him for 1B, too is beyond me. It should have started years ago.