moonslav59

They don't have to in order to know Gapser was not a major addition.

I totally agree, except I think Schwarber is elite, but was too old to give length.

Godbout hit his 6th dinger, but Phillips got drilled. Nunez & Heyman homered in SAL's win.

I'd prefer Durbin, IKF & Monasterio over DHam, Drohan and maybe Harrison, but I do think we could have gotten Durbin or IKF plus Schwarber or Alonso and been much better. I do notice you stopped saying Schwarber, Alonso, Breggie or Bichette. I don't think the $6M spent on IKF prevented one of those signings, and I know you don't either. I'm not sure why you coach it that way. You were fine with R Suarez, Contreras and Gray, but you wanted at least one more big bat. Some you listed (Schwarber & Alonso) are doing okay or well. Some are doing poorly to okay (Bregman) and some are off to horrible starts (Bichette and ESuarez.) Some of my suggested gets are doing poorly to okay, too.

It wasn't a signing, and certainly did not prevent another addition. We claimed him off waivers and pay him the minimum. Every team adds players like this and hope they never need to call them up.

I think every owner views their team as an asset. They are just not obtuse enough to say it outloud. I see JH as being more committed to spending than any past Sox owner, which isn't saying much. Of course we can and should call him out for not spending more, but I don't see the need to neglect the fact that he started spending significantly more. Yes, context is needed on that statement, as he lowered the bar so low, a significant uptick barely gets us near where we were in 2019.

At least we can't lose, today!

I take his points seriously, but do see some points that are up for debate, and he seems to ignore the major uptick in spending, much of which will be seen in later years as these extensions start increasing the yearly budgets. The Suarez contract and all of the young kid extensions will show large increases in spending going forward. Of course, if JH chooses to not replace lost contracts like Story, Masa, Gray and others, then Fred can or might be proven right, but for now, the spending has increased despite the Devers dump.

The bar was set so low with the lack of new spending since 2019, and much of the spending was on 1-2 year contracts, which almost by definition limits the quality of the signings or is based on high risk signings of former good/great players coming off injuries. Since the bar was set and maintained at such a low position for years, the $40M uptick in spending was and is still not enough, but ignoring it happened is something that does not need to happen to justify the point that JH is still nto spending enough. We are spending significantly more. It's still not enough. Both statements can be true, and aI believe they are. I'm fine with anyone disagreeing, but neglecting to at least mention the significant uptick in spending seems like an intentional choice made. The two semi-large contracts Bloom gave out were mere drops in the bucket within the context of lost contracts since 2019. The recent signings and extensions blow Blooms "drops in the bucket" away, even counting the Devers dump. To me, the big question is where do we go from here. Was this recent blip just an attempt to placate fans or a sign that spending will continue to increase until we get to top 5 competitiveness. I'm not suggesting that will happen. I have extreme doubts like most of us. I have no idea what JH has planned for next winter. He may still believe we can win without major spending. He may know we can't win without spending more and "lie" about his beliefs. To me, that doesn't matter as much as what he chooses to do: spend or not. Then, the next worry is that if he does allow major spending, can Brez beat the odds? The Suarez signing and trades for big contracts like Gray and Contreras seem to be good ones, so far, but none of those three are really major contractual outlays. The Crochet extension was and is, but that's the only real major outlay since the Devers extension thatw as quickly undone with his recent dump deal. This season is not over, and not because the Sox are showing hope or promise, but because the AL sucks about as badly as ever. The AL sucking should not take Brez and JH off the hook, for sure, and we need to play better to get to a point where we can actually believe a couple big winter additions can get us to top 5 status again. If we don't show some life, especially with our young talent, it might not even matter.

Bichette could hit his career numbers and still not be worth that deal. We should not spend huge money on players not even close to being elite batters. He's not a good defender either. At least Bregman can play plus defense.

Just about everybody thinks JH should spend more. The 4-5 year stretch before this recent uptick was such a gut punch, that the uptick doesn't even bring us back to even. It's encouraging to me to see the uptick, but we needed and still need more. We also need to make better choices when we do spend, but that is not easy to do, when the odds are against most big signings being productive. I'm not sure it's a "lie," because it's hard to know if these guys actually believe their words or not. I think 2021's near miss got these guys believing winning is possible without new spending.

The Sox are 25th in runs scored and even lower on wRC+, OPS and wOBA. They are 13 runs below 15th place and 25 runs from #10. The Sox have moved up to 13th in runs allowed (earned and unearned.) That's just 1 run from 10th and 14 runs from 5th. The team is 7th in ERA- but below average in FIP and xFIP. 13th in ERA. We are 17-22 with a Pyth of 18-21. We have the 11th best record in the AL and the 4th worst. 0.5 GB mid tier 1 GB the 6th best record in the AL. 2 GB the last WC slot (with 6 teams between us & SEA.) We are also 2GA of the worst record in the AL. 4 games separate the last WC team and the worst team.

D Reyes went 4.1 IP, last night: 0 Hits 0 BBs (1 HBP) 5 Ks.

In hindsight BLowe was the best solution. BLowe, Contreras, R Suarez & Gray. Adding Schwarber, Okamoto or Murakami to those 4 might have made us not suck.

We'd still suck with many combos you'd have been okay with.

No hope for that ever happening.

I'm not following. You call the guys you wanted "stiffs" or did I miss something. Okay, not instead of Ranger Suarez. Ranger, Willson plus one from Bregman/Bichette would still not have been okay with you. Sub Alonso or Schwarber for one, and still no?

Okay, so say we signed Bichette not Suarez and made all the same trades, minus Durbin's. We'd still suck. You'd still call them the flops. You'd still say Brez and Henry need to go. Right?

Big game for Tolle and the Sox. Yes, it's just May 9th, but the Rays are likely a team we will need to pass to get into the dance. A loss means -1 to them. A win means +1 vs them. It's a 2 game swing with the Rays, today.

Any word on Crochet's condition and ETA? He's the guy we need most.

He grabbed a biscuit on his way to the airport.

I do expect Devers to improve. I'm not sure he ever gets into the hearts of SF fans.

While Suarez is not a position player, he's no king crab either. They did fork over money for Contreras and future money on Anthony, Campbell & Rafaela. Some say more than market value. We are spending $40M more AAV than 2 years ago, for what that is worth, but I agree that we need to spend more. My big worry is not spending it wisely, if we do spend more next winter.

I could be wrong, but didn't you have Bichette on an earlier wish list? Bregman has not been an elite bat, except for two half seasons for many years. Schwarber's age worried me, but he was clearly the best winter bat for the short term. I wanted Alosno, too, and I'd have been okay with Alonso & Contreras, booting Masa and trading an OF'er for a 2B/3Bman (good bat or not.)

Career OPS+/ Last 3 years OPS+(23-25) /2025-2026 OPS+ 134/129/139 Alonso 131/122/123 Bregman 127/135/148 Schwarber (The oldest guy on this list) 124/120/127 Wilyer Abreu 120/114/116 Bichette (Youngest on list) 119/127/127 Contreras (The second oldest on list) Throw the age curve out on these results. The two players who have done better than their career are the oldest. The worst is the youngest! If you look at the two more recent numbers: Abreu & Contreras> Bregman & Bichette Improvement over career: +21 Schwarber +10 Contreras +5 Alonso +3 Abreu -4 Bichette -8 Bregman