moonslav59

Just what we needed! I guess he wont be getting the 180 IP he was on pace for.

The one "undo" might have been Duran+ Jh Garcia + Travieso for a better bat. (No Oviedo)

The only one I can disagree with is the one not made: for another big bat. Perhaps the Oviedo trade, which an injury makes look unsuccessful, could have been done with additional players to get a better bat than we have now. Suarez, Gray and Contreras have been very good to great moves, so far. The Durbin, Seager & Monasterio trade is looking better than it did a few weeks back. IKF and Coulombe look okay or decent.

Nobody said anyone was the backbone of the 2026 team, except maybe about Crochet. He was viewed as a major foundation piece for the extended future, but anyone who knows baseball would never say he will be the star or 2026 in just his 350th to 1,000th PA of his career. There was a ton of hope Anthony would turn out to be great, but nobody was certain it would begin in year 2 of his career.

The pen is showing signs of breaking down. Maybe Moran and Sandoval can help patch things up, but a trade might help more.

Pedro went from 145 to 195, then over 200 for 5 straight seasons: no ramp-up induced injury. Schilling went from 76 to 226 then followed that with 235- no injury. Pitchers are dropping like flies these days, and it could be related to being asked to increase spin rates or velocity and not sudden increases is IP. Maybe it's a combo. We don't know. Tolle and Early have been pulled before reaching 5 IP several times. Tolle has never gone past 99 pitches and has been under 89 in 7 or 12 starts. Under 85 in half his starts. Early has gone 5.1 IP or less in half his starts. He's gone into the 7th 4 times in 17 starts. He's been pulled before 5 IP in 3 of his last 5 starts. May be that's a sign they are ramping him down. He's gone over 90 pitches in 12 starts, so he's been taxed more than the harder throwing Tolle, but we'll see what happens the rest of the way. Early is 37th in MLB in IP in an era where nobody goes long nearly every start. Suarez is 54th at 89 IP and is on pace for a career high in IP. Gray is at 84 IP (ranked 62nd) Tolle is 94th at 71.1 IP 147 MLB pitchers have over 40 IP as a SP'er. Also, counting minors & majors: 2024> 2025: Early 103>120 IP (on pace for 180, at current rate) Tolle 81 in college> 108 (on pace for about 140)

I'm saying that's not an extreme ramp up and is very common. Is it why they all got hurt? Maybe- maybe not. You stated year one to year two. It was not year one-two for any of these guys and not even close.

No GM can ever keep you from saying "fire him."

You do realize if Brez is fired we will hire another one, and you can't name one who did better. Am I happy with his performance? That's hard to answer, but unlike you, I won't give a non answer. I think he has done a great job changing the focus on pitcher acquisition & development. We needed that badly. I think he put too much trust in the everyday players we had, as many of us did. The players have failed to play up to expectations and I blame them more than Brez, but ultimately, it's his job to be a fortune teller and he did not do well on that side of the game. I agreed with you that he failed to add another big bat that we needed, but unlike many here, I did not view Breggie or Bichette as "big bats." I think you'd have been happy had he signed them, then you convince yourself he could still have signed Suarez and paid Gray's $21M, and if JH wouldn't let him he should quit. That's your view of what a good GM should do: quit. I'm glad he signed Suarez over Breggie or Bichette. I don't think Schwarber was a true option, but I'm fine with dingning him for not trying. I was high on Alonso, but am happier we got Contreras, so I can't ding him there. I get your point about not worrying about positions, but signing Alonso to be our 5th DH is not a winning strategy. Could he have traded for a bat- certainly yes. That is a big strike against Brez and keeps me from giving him a B or B+. I'm glad we didn't give Tolle for KMarte, as KMarte is not meeting the threshold you set for what we needed. Yet, you blame him anyway- "for not trying" when he would have failed on almost every "try" you, others and I suggested last winter. To me, he trusted a team that looked pretty good, last winter and did way more good than bad and bad by omission. this past winter and the one before. I think dumping Devers was a bit lucky, but hey, a GM gets blamed for being unlucky, so he should get a plus when he gets lucky, too. He gets a B- from me. I blame the players and JH way more than him. Like JH 50%, Players 40% and Brez 10% for not getting a bat. I don't discount all the good moves because he failed to make one more good bat add.

Arias homered (#16) and is back over 1.000.

You think he left serious money on the table? I mentioned IDK to be fair to all he spent. BTW, he did better than many others who signed for way more. How about answering the actual question? Name just one GM. I'm waiting.

What GM got better bang for their buch, last winter? $21M Gray (STL paying $20M out of $41M) $16M Contreras (STL paying $2M of $18M) $7.6M Suarez (I know you dislike using AAV) $6M IKF $1M Coulombe

They will limit their IP, but not every pitchers implodes after a career high in IP. My point was, some other Sox players got off to good to great starts to the season. Houck pitched several seasons before getting hurt: Crawford, too. Houck: 60 IP> 106>179 (22>24) They ramped him up slowly. Crawford: 77>129>184 (22>24) Crochet went from 146 in 24 to 205 in 25. That's significant but hardly abnormal.

Tolle and Early have done fine. Bennett was not "developed" but the "organization," but they did acquire him by trading one of our own- Perales.

Great points. One I'd like to add, his "slow start" still leaves him second on the team in OBP,which is what we need from our lead off hitter.

No, we don't know his value. I have yet to hear one name of a player offered for him. I do think his value has gone down from last winter. Do you disagree? I suggested many Duran trades over the years, but have never been for handing him away, no matter what the offer. My guess is I valued him more highly than any GM, but maybe it was Brez who said no to some decent offers. We may never know.

I'm not sure why JH will agree to spend like a maniac, now, We were much more hopeful, last winter, and he wouldn't budge. BLowe and Jeffers should not cost us Arias, Tolle or any other high end prospect. Both are rentals.

That's the lamest counterpoint I've ever heard. You want JH to be 100% responsible. You want Brez to be 100% responsible. Math doesn't work like that.

I think Schwarber would have had to be blown away with an offer to leave PHI, bavoided theut I suppose one can still blame Brez for not doing so. I'm glad he "botched" the Bregman talks, and he's the Cubs problem now. I'm glad he avoided the Bichette bidding. He probably should have traded JH Garcia, Travieso and another prospect for a bat and not Oviedo. IMO, Brez did better at winter signings than any realistic plan any of us came up with, Nobody here, said Contreras, BLowe, Suarez & Gray. No body said anything better that JH would have paid for. I suppose he could have traded Arias & Witherspoon, We still don't know what anyone offered for Duran, if anything, so it's hard for me to lay the blame on Brez, He didn't sign Story and Yoshida.

He was given a ton of money to spend, not even counting the extensions to the kids. You'd have been happy had he also signed Breg or Bichette, when both would not have helped much.

He does seem to enjoy getting under people's skin, but he had his mind made up on Ceddanne long before those two ABs. They just confirmed there was and would not be any improvements.

That's not on Brez: it's on JH.

At least he's been decisive. He's made an enormous amount of trades, except at deadlines.

Trends are a real thing in MLB.

True, the redundancy is tiresome. Only the poster who begins half is his posts with "Like I said before..." is more redundant.