moonslav59

Man, he woulda looked nice in a Sox uniform, but if anyone is ever untouchable, it's Jose.

Now that is certainly true for some. I'm not sure about all the "same people." I'm glad we got Suarez for $130M over Breggie for $170M & a no trade clause. The deferred money would have helped on the AAV tax line, but since the dollar amounts are not the same, maybe the tax hit would have been about even. I wish Breggie was our 2026 3Bman. We'd be much better with him, but let's see what Brez does to fill the one major opening we still have, first.

I think it's more than just you, Kimi and I who were not for going large and long on Breggie. Kimmi might have preferred $165M for Breggie over $130M for Suarez. She's against almost all large and long deals. Agreed, saying "bum" is rather harsh. Can you answer whether you think Brez bungled the Breggie negotiations or did not? If it's not, I feel you should have said so when you "repeated" what others said. If you agree, then own up to it. (and you might be right- maybe he did bungle it.)

If you don't think Brez bungled the negotiations, say so and I will 100% apologize. I assume if someone says "by all accounts" then doesn't say, but I disagree with what everyone is saying, they think the statement is true. Forgive me, if I'm wrong doing that. I assumed you posted your statement because you agreed with it and did not say otherwise in that post, It's not the first time you cast Brez in this light, and the whole 12th round pick is just one example. I'm fine with not thinking Brez is doing a good job. There is ample examples on mistakes he's made. I'm not sure if not signing Bregman was a mistake and for several reasons. 1. I thought $150M was too much, but acceptable. (I think we both agree he wasn't worth what he got.) 2. I'm not sure if the no trade clause and deferments were the reasons he signed with the Cubs, of if it was the money. If it wasn't about the money, I don't know if Brez is to blame or not for those aspects of the offer, and the fact that many or all sites are saying Brez bungled it proves nothing to me. (I also would not repeat what other say, if I disagreed with it, unless I came out and said I disagree or doubt what they are saying.) 3. I think Brez has done a pretty good job turning the team around and using the assets Bloom left him in a mostly beneficial way. I'm especially happy with the apparent uptick in our pitching outlook from the MLB level all the way down to the most "suspect" of suspects in A ball and the DSL. He's made mistakes, that I have pointed out, and he has made some good moves that I have supported. Overall, I feel he's done a good job. I don't run away from supporting Brez on things I think he's done well, but. I won't sit idle when I'm accused of supporting Brez on issues I have not supported or have no opinion on, due to lack of information needed to have a firm opinion.

I gotta say, if you think Abreu is just slightly better at hitting, I'm going to strongly disagree. Rafaela had a lot of key hits, no doubt. He improved over 2023-2024, as Abreu did not. I still have hope that Rafaela can hit .750 or higher, someday. I have confidence Abreu can hit .800 or even .850, soon, perhaps 2026. I also think Abreu can and will hit 30 HRs in the next year or two. Bot are GG OF'er in very difficult Fenway positions. I wanna keep 'em both. I like them both so much, I'm willing to trade perhaps our 2nd or 3rd best offensive weapon (to Roman & maybe Contreras), Duran, to keep them both.

Some would have praised Brez had he signed Bregman to fill in the blank amount. I do believe that, But, so what? Ole Red & I would have said they overpaid and should not have done it, and Brez would still be a bum in Ole Red's eyes, no matter what. (not mine.)

You said Brez "supposedly bungled" the negotiations. If changing the word to botched is inflammatory, I apologize. "Sam praised O’Halloran for working on the deal for Ranger, and not Brez who supposedly worked on, and bungled the Bregman negotiations. " - Ole Red Now, you'll accuse me of "overanalyzing," which is what you say when posters call you out on your statements. I'm not seeking our or saying anyone did or should "praise" Brez. I'm not even saying he did not bungle or botch the Breggie negotiations. I'm saying I don't know, because we don't know who insisted on the no-no trade clause and deferments. I could care less if 100% of "sites" you watch and listen to did not praise Brez or blamed him for things we don't know who was at fault over. You see this as defending Brez. it's not. It's not praising or criticizing. If I don't know something, I refrain from saying they bungled it. If he did bungled it, I'm glad. I wish Bloom bungled the Masa negotiations.

MLB.com has released its new top prospects rankings. The Sox are tied for 9th in team rankings with no ALE teams ahead of them. Sox top prospects: 19. Tolle 31. Arias 56. Early 84. Witherspoon Pretty damn good, considering we graduated 4 players in 2025: Anthony, Mayer, Campbell & Narvaez

Jose Ramirez gets extension from CLE to age 39! His current contract was restructured with significant deferrals.

Narvaez/Wong (Brez) > Wong/McGuire (Bloom) You missed the Narvaez trade? Are you talking about improvements made, only this winter?

Looking at just offense and just OPS, here are the 2024-2025 numbers for selected 2B/3Bmen: .913 K Marte (.251 ISO) .849 Muncy .242 .806 E Suarez .256 (most power/bad D) .796 Machado .191 (mega contract) .791 Bregman .191 (signed w Cubs) .786 Romy .167 .784 B Lowe (already traded) .224 .784 Chisholm ,206 .779 Moncada .201 (just signed) .769 Vientos .214 (better at 1B, but has power) .768 Paredes .175 (IMO, ready to bust out) .766 Donovan ,138 (virtually no power) .762 Bohm .147 .760 Riley .187 (decent power but available?) .741 Polanco .188 (already signed for just 2 yrs) .726 Torres .126 (no power) .724 Hoerner .098 (no power but plus glove) .716 Baty .158 .705 R Lewis .181 .705 Bogey .123 ,697 Arenado .130 (already traded) .695 Stott .122 .690 M Shaw .168 .673 Renifo

Well, we do get Muncy and extended salary relief. I wouldn't do it, either.

How could I forget the Dodgers signed Tucker?!?!

They may not be downgrades though, either on what we had before Brez, although the one thing Bloom did was upgrade the 40 man roster from the bottom up Soxprospects.com has this for the EOY 2023 bench: McGuire vs Wong (C) Duval & Refsnyder vs Duran/Abreu/Rafaela (4th OF/DH) Pablo Reyes (Urias was on the IL) vs Romy/DHam/Sogard/Eaton (infield) Dalbec vs Romy (1B) Casas was on the IL then and will be now- that's a push. We ended the season with E Valdez at 2B. Everyday players 2023 EOY vs Projected 2026: C Wong/McGuire <<< Narvaez/Wong 1B Turner/Casas/Dalbec < Contreras/Casas/Romy 2B EValdez/Reyes/Urias ??? Romy/DHam SS Story ??? Story 3B Devers >>> Mayer/Eaton/Sogard LF Verdugo (RF) <<< Anthony/Duran CF Rafaela < Rafaela RF Abreu/Duval ??? Abreu DH Yoshida/Duvall < Duran/Masa/Casas/Romy You like the 2023 line-up better?

How the league allows this is beyond me!

Exactly how I felt. The Cubs paid more than I said was the max, but had we paid that extra amount, I'd have been happy Breggie was back. I'm usually not big on the whole clubhouse leadership thing, but Breggie was an extreme plus on that, and I firmly believe he helped several Sox players in just one year with the Sox. His defense was a welcome sight to see, too. His offense was a plus, despite not having the power we need. We'd have been a much better team with him, right now. The plus side is that we are also a much better team with Ranger, just in a different way. He also rates to age better than Breggie. We also have two logjams (OF and SP depth) that we should be able to use to acquire a decent 3B/2Bman, without subtracting enough to make the trade a push. We should win any trade we make for a 3B/2Bman, in terms of how much we improve that position vs lessening our bench strength. I'm not sure about all the ins and outs of the Breggie talks , but I seriously doubt it was Brez who set the no trade clause in stone and the must have major deferments clause, too. If it was, then it's fair to place blame on Brez. The whole "by all accounts" Brez bungled it ignore the accounts that talked about the no trade clause and steep deferments. Would Breggie have said yes to $5M more from the Sox but without the no trade clause and deferments? Do "all accounts" address that aspect?

Let's say we get the worst choice for our 2026 3B/2Bman addition- maybe Vientos (bad D/decent power.) Is Suarez + Vientos > Bregman and no more pitchers? I'd say yes, especially as the years move on past 2026. (on paper, anyway.) How about E Suarez + R Suarez > Bregman + nada? (We'd likely have to dump salary to make this happen, and it almost certainly won't be Masa or Hicks, but rather Duran ($7.8M) Bello ($9.2M) Campbell ($7.5M) Rafaela ($6,2M) or maybe 2 of these guys. If we trade 1 or 2 of these guys for prospects, it's not good for the 2026 season. It might not be good, even if we get ML'ers back. The issue with the E Suarez and trade salary idea is this: Who do we trade Bello for, if we have ESuarez at 3B and Mayer at 2B? A catcher? A top RP'er? A 2Bman and demote Mayer to AAA? A 3Bman and DH E Suarez? It's kinda complex.

The funniest part of all this is that Ole Red didn't want Breggie at that cost or years, but is pissed at Brez for bungling the negotiations.

I think the advantage on offense is significantly more than "slight," but I'd keep Rafaela over both of those other 2. Stellar D in a tough CF position and 6 years of control vs 3 and 4 years. OPS+ 2025/career 116/118 Abreu 114/114 Duran 95/89 Rafaela

Would anyone trade 7-9 years of K Campbell ($7.5M AAV) for 2 years of Paredes ($9.2M in '26 and 1 more arb?) Would HOU say yes

This trade was rejected by BTV, despite all being pretty balanced- numbers wise: To BOS: Bogaerts (-79) F Fermin (12) J Dryer (7) & $50M from SDP To LAD: Duran (42) & Wong (0) To SDP: Rushing (35) Yoshida (-30) Hicks (-18) & $50M to BOS 3 catchers swapped. LAD gets their OF'er. SDP gets the good catcher. The Sox get Bogey for 2B, upgrade back-up C and add a RP'er. Bogey is owed something like $200M/8, but SDP pays $50M and takes $60M in salary from Yoshia + Hicks. No way this goes down.

Can Max Muncy still play good enough 3B defense for his one year of control left? Would you trade 3 yrs of Duran ($7.8M), Crawford ($2.7M)and Wong plus a Hicks dump ($10.3M.) for 1 ys of Muncy ($10M x 1) and 6 yrs of D Rushing (pre arb) We'd knock about $10M off the tax budget, but get just a temporary fix at 3B. The deal would really be about Rushing, but is Catcher really our biggest need?

Breggie was overpaid. I'm glad we didn't go further. I'm glad we got Suarez, and don't care if he was plan B or plan Z. They didn't just bumble into signing the largest and longest deal since Story. It wasn't done behind Brez's back, for sure- not that anyone claimed that

It seems that way, but I guess some like to assume the worst, and that Brez has no clue. Afterall, he was our 12th round pick.

I don't see much need to replace our everyday players, except 2B. Brez improved the C, & 1B. We got worse at 3B.