moonslav59

Looks that way. I doubt it is a sign they all have a a "good eye."

There has been increased spending- just not on big bats. The Suarez, Gray and Contreras adds were the biggest spending this winter, and all have done well on paper. The next biggest spending in the last 2 years was Crochet, and he's done nada in 2026. When you put 3 of your top 4 eggs into the rotation, you are kinda betting on them all staying healthy and making up for the lack of focus on hitting. I think Brez & Co fell into the trap of taking for granted the foundation of everyday players was solid enough, deep enough and at the age where improvement usually takes place. On paper, the loss of Bregman and gain of Contreras looks close to a push, but just about everyone not named Rafaela has gotten worse or injured. I'm not sure signing even Schwarber over Suarez would have made a big difference, and I'm not sure he'd have signed with BOS, even if we offered a couple $M more.

At this point, the reason for falling off a cliff doesn't matter much, unless it holds the key to working on an issue. He's clearly lost something. It could just be his quick minor league success was just a mirage. It wouldn't be the first or last time. The longer this struggle goes on, the more likely it gets inside his head, if it hasn't already done so and destroyed his confidence forever. I'm thinking notin is right. They are coaching him and trying to make him focus on one thing at a time. What that is, we may never know. Maybe I'm giving our minor league coaches too much credit. Maybe not. Nothing seems to be working, and he's been demoted for about a year, now. He's still too young to write off, but sometimes players can regain or turn it around. I'm hoping he can, but a sign would be nice.

Clearly you were not making excuses, but the resident clown sees any disagreement as an excuse or apology.

Was DD a genius because our farm was over-rated? Hardly anyone did well. No, he was genius because almost every big signing worked, almost every trade worked, and the prospects he kept were largely unknowns who ended up being better than many highly ranked prospects he dealt. No, comparing Brez and DD is pointless.

Sometimes I think they believe themselves, but clearly some years they knew damn well we would not be competitive.

You are seriously using the Celtics make the playoffs more as a point? 20 out of 30 teams make it every year. Why not use the NHL? Look, I agree JH should spend more and value money-making more than winning, but welcome to the real world. It's a business for every major sports team.

Wouldn't doing well or bad as a prospect both be "suspect?" LMAO.

One step up and two steps back.

He might, but his profile is much like hundreds and probably thousands who have failed. He spent 6 seasons in the minors and never impressed many people. He did well in A+ then kinda meh. 73 HRs in 2367 PAs (24 in 620 at AAA.) That's not bad, but he's a longshot.

I'd venture to guess that over 90% of all teams prioritize profit over winning. You should boycott all money-making sports.

It is a useful tool in a limited sense. BTW, you do not know we are currently 23rd. I think we all agree, we can and should be spending more.

Capra homered in WOOs win. Delay had 3 hits. Thaiss, Hickey, Ward & Capra had 2. POR lost 6-4, but Eyanson went 4 scoreless innings (3H, 1BB, 5K) Arias is heating back up (3-5 w HR) Liendo homered, too. GRE lost 7-6 as Phillips went 4.1 (7H, 3ER, 1BB, 5K) Gonzales (.780), Cespedes & Jackson (.749) homered, Cespedes went 3-3 (.862) SAL is playing very badly. They lost 3-0.

Maybe the one bright spot of the Sox team, beyond Willson, is how well the SP'ers have done without Crochet (#1) Houck (Maybe #4-5) Crawford (Maybe #5-6) Sandoval (Maybe #6-7) and Oviedo (Maybe #8.) That's 5 of the top 8 SP'ers out. (One could argue Tolle & Early were top 8, but I think they would probably be behind these other had they been healthy.) 2.93 Suarez (.607 OPS Against) 2.93 Tolle (.615) 3.12 Gray (.709) 3.64 Early (.732) (4.79 Bennett .695)

It's downright silly.

Give up. It's pointless.

Yup. Here are the AL OPS numbers of the top 135 batters by PAs (9 players x 15 teams) Top 15: .854-1.054 2nd 15: .801-.845 3rd 15: .774-.800 (Top tier .800+) 4th 15: .745-.770 Mid 15: .724-.743 6th 15: .695-723 (Middle tier can be under .700!!!) 7th 15: .659-.691 8th 15: .613-.658 9th 15: .486-.609 The lowest 30 AL batters are under .660. The lowest 1/3 are under .690!

In theory, maybe signing Alonso and not Suarez, then trading Duran for Paredes (not sure HOU agrees) we might be better off, but who is our SP'er replacement? Signing Bregman not Suarez with Contreras might have worked had we not needed to trade Harrison for Durbin. This assumes Breggie gets over the .700 line.

5 batters below .650, including #3 Gasper and #5 Duran. Very sad. That being said, having Yoshida, Monasterio, Eaton or Narvaez instead is no great improvement, if any. Thanks Brez!

I meant players. I think HOU might want Duran, although they didn't seem to that much last winter.

Yes, it can turn out that way, and the extension, too. That trade is far from its final grade. It looked like an A to A+ last year, but it's maybe a B+ to B or TBD, now.

Agreed. Harrison is having an excellent season. Priester was last year, and now we hardly hear about that "horrible trade." Someday, the Harrison trade may be viewed differently, just as the Priester deal might be, depending on how YRod, Holobetz and Phillips turn out. Using only the "now" criteria when you trade for prospects is seriously flawed. The Harrison for Durbin trade was not that type of trade, and it's perfectly okay to say we have lost on the trade so far, but the final judgement is years away.

He thinks if you don't agree with him, you cant or don't understand his point. He wildly changes his criteria and expects us to follow along and agree with them. "Now" matters only when it fits "What [he] said before..."

They traded for Contreras December 22, which was 11 days after Alonso signed, but judging by our meager offer to Alonso, I'm not sure he was clearly our first and realistic choice to play 1B. The Contreras trade was also long before Breggie signed, but I do believe Breggie was always our first choice as a winter add. They play different positions, so wanting both was the likely situation. Contreras is doing great NOW, so I'm not sure why the goal posts are being moved. Alonso is doing well "now," but at a much higher cost, and he's still doing worse than Willson by any 2026 time frame chosen. Contreras is also a way better defender. Durbin may end up near Breggie in the season ending 2026 OPS. Both are excellent on D. Suarez and Gray look as good as pitching additions than any other team did. This is not letting Brez off the hook. He failed to add another big bat, and several of us wanted two more big bats beyond Willson. The pen was also left exposed. We can't keep counting on converted SP'ers to the pen, as we end up going 10-13 deep in the SP'er depth chart year after year. We are not even halfway through the 2026 season, and we are at least at #11. 1 Crochet 2 Suarez 3 Gray 4 Bello 5 Houck 6 Crawford 7 Sandoval 8 Oviedo 9 Tolle 10 Early 11 Bennett. We've also been forced to use an opener in 4 games.

Schwarber had another great night, and is now 6th in OPS at .963. Many of us wanted him badly, last winter, despite having Duran/Anthony and Yoshida/Romy as DHs. I'm not sure what chance we had getting him, and we might have had to outbid the Phillies by more than $1-2M a year to get him here. The best hindsight signings were barely talked up by posters, here. Murakami (.938) was actually talked down more than even mentioned as a possible signing. Who here wanted Nate Lowe back? He's at .847 as is the second best FA signing by OPS. Most of us laughed at the Luis Arraez idea (.802.) O"hearn was mentioned by notin, as I remember, and he's at .798. Okamoto has slipped to .753 (129th in OPS out of 352 batters with 100+ PAs) Alonso was a big hype guy on this site. He's doing better, now, and is up to .793- still far short of Willson. Tucker was not talked about due to our OF glut, but he has not done well (.715) Bregman is at .693. Many wanted him back, and he seemed like the Sox #1 choice. Bichette is at .667 and was some poster's top choice after we lost out on Breggie. Players who were actually traded last winter: .842 B Lowe and .839 Donovan .635 Semien & .629 DHam Other notable players, so far... .780 Neto, .761 KMarte & .755 Paredes .745 Shaw, .719 M Chapman & .703 Josh Bell .685 Stott, .683 Naylor & .677 Keaschall .674 Hoskins, .664 M McLain & .657 Seager .653 Bohm, .644 T Gray & .641 Hoerner .617 Swanson, .593 Ozuna, .534 Rengifo & .468 Croneworth .740 Devers & .734 Meidroth .727 Beni, Dubon .719 & .695 V Grissom .678 Betts, .643 Bogey & .432 Refsnyder