moonslav59

The budget was not limitless. He did fine with what he was given.

Yes on Alonso, and I think if you look at all the suggested signings by posters here, Alonso might have been #1, Bregman #2 and who knows #3? (Bichette/Schwarber?)

No, but calling Bregman an All Star bat is very debatable. 2019-2026 27th in MLB in OPS .833: That's good but not great. (131 in wRC+ is #21 and close to great.) 2024-2026 47th at .784: That's barely top third tier (46 out of 145 qualifiers- he's 47th in wRC+ at 119)

MLBTR reports... Sonny Gray threw a three-inning live batting practice session on Friday, in what could be the last step before his activation from the 15-day IL. Gray hasn’t pitched since April 20 due to a hamstring strain, but the injury is seemingly minor enough that Gray could be back in Boston’s rotation as early as Wednesday.

Not much talk about adding Capra to the 40 and 26. He went 2 for 3 with a 2B & BB today to bring his seasonal OPS to 1.072. Eaton went 0-5 w 4Ks. Castro & Hickey homered but both remain below .581. Sansone got lit up in the WOO loss.

While some cringe when these numbers are posted over and over, here is an updated list of 2026 OPS: 1.271 Rushing (remember the notin suggestion of Duran for him?) .974 Max Muncy (not much talk about him) .973 Nate Lowe (why can't we ever get guys like him?) .967 Murakami (can't hit fastballs) .955 Donovan (a Cardinal we didn't trade for) .941 CJ Abrams (not really available) .937 Schwarber (make more room for another DH) .926 Yandy Diaz (was mentioned before Willson trade) .925 Dom Smith (for real?) .917 V Grissom (LOL) .884 Jeffers (this guy can hit) .872 O'Hearn (another notin mention) .865 B Lowe (8 HRs) .861 Willson .835 Hoerner .828 Abreu .812 Andujar .795 Shaw ________________ .769 Bogey .767 Dubon .763 Tristan Gray .757 Arenado .751 Hoskins .745 Paredes .740 Neto & Seager .732 Alonso (6 HRs) .730 Okamoto .711 Bregman .710 Betts .706 Teoscar .700 Arraez .696 Realmuto & G Torres .692 Kyle Tucker & .681 Meidroth .665 KMarte & .663 E Suarez .653 O'Neill & .650 Josh Bell ________________________ .644 Vientos & .640 Brice Matthews .637 DHam & .636 Willi Castro .631 R Lewis & .624 Matt McLain .618 Josh Naylor & .614 Chisholm .613 Moncada .602 Bichette .594 W Adames & .579 Stott .563 Semien & .544 Rengifo _________________________ .540 DEVERS .539 E Tovar .511 Refsnyder & .504 Ozuna .446 Bohm

i'm assuming they know it would have been Schwarber vs Suarez or Schwarber vs IKF and no Gray trade. Also, absolutely zero Alonso talk, although he was mentioned more than Schwarber and anyone else not named Bregman.

None of these guys are Brez additions. While many wanted Duran traded, and some worried about further Story regression on defense and him not matching 2025 offense, we realized he was not going to be replaced in the line-up. (Some wanted a position flip.) Everybody wanted Anthony playing FT. While many thought we should not count on him as a top 2-3 batter, we expected better than this. These three are a major issue, but we can't ignore how over 150 PAs from Durbin & IKF have really hurt, too. Durbin as expected to be .675-.700 and IKF .625-.650ish. Both have done much worse. Wong took up some slack from the Narvaez dip, but now Narvaez is coming around as Wong is slumping a bit. Contreras, Abreu, Mayer and Rafaela have been doing close to what was expected, except for maybe Ceddanne's drop on defense in CF.

This is why I kinda shudder when I hear that "Brez provided Cora with crap." I think he improved the roster from 2025 on paper and in actual current stats. Yes, the offense was not the focus point many wanted, but again we should look at what were the other options many of us wanted instead of Contreras, Durbin, IKF & Monasterio? Most have flopped, under performed or not done better than Contreras. While the last 3 have not done well, so far, they still look about the same as many much higher paid winter options. IMO, this is why the blame was placed on the manager and coaches- rightly or wrongly. Lord knows we can't blame the players.

I'm not sure there was an order of choices. I'm thinking they went into this thinking "Let's clean house and who should we keep around." They might have wanted to can VTek but worried about their precious image. I doubt the upper brass thought about including Brez, but maybe they did.

While Jovan Moran has not been great this year, he is currently 6th in IP (18.2) His 10 BB jumps out, but he's only allowed 10 hits, too. His 4.58 FIP is better than Early's 4.62, Bello's 7.62, Watson's 5.63 and Weissert's 5.57. His 2.41 ERA looks nice, but with RP'ers ERA is not really a good stat. One interesting factiod: we traded Gasper for him and then got Gapser back via waivers.

Yes, but my opinion was based more on Duran being inconsistent and erratic with a noodle arm. Anthony has looked much worse than I expected and worse than what we saw in 2025, although he DH'd mostly in '25.

Okay, how about last 14 games? .336 Wong (19 PAs) .438 Masa (21) .471 IKF (17) .495 Duran (41) .567 Story (50) .631 Monasterio (26) Anthony is right in the middle (7th best out of 13) at .643. .933 Mayer (just 30 PAs) .933 Narvaez (just 27 PAs) .804 Contreras (56: Mr Steady) .739 Abreu (55) .677 Ceddanne (47: been more consistent in '26) .670 Durbin (maybe turning things around?)

Maybe to keep Anthony ready to play defense, in case he's needed more. Maybe to rest Duran without sitting him out. Before the year started, I felt Anthony would be the better LF'er. I was wrong.

Yup. As we all know, fangraphs spring projections tend to be on the conservative side, but here are their projections vs current actuals: .797 Contreras .861 (+64) .784 Abreu .828 (+44) .780 Anthony .673 (-107) .763 Yoshida .716 (-47) .746 Duran .511 (-235) .742 Romy N/A .723 Durbin .528 (-195) .721 Rafaela .711 (+10) .703 Story .546 (-147) .700 Monasterio .678 (-12) .697 Mayer .685 (+12) .634 IKF .499 (-135) .680 Narvaez .609 (-71) .683 Wong .712 (+29) ___________________ Of the batters expected to get a lot of playing time, these are the 3 killers: -235 Duran -195 Durbin -147 Story These are 3 that have not been helpful -105 Anthony -71 Narvaez -47 Yoshida These are 3-5 that have done well: +64 Contreras +44 Abreu +12 Mayer/ +10 Rafaela/+29 Wong

I don't think anybody did, but with questions surrounding Mayer & Durbin, and Story's health records, we did think he might be used even more than he has been, so far. I also think the .499 OPS was a bit unexpected, although .599 would not have been, so maybe that's a bit overblown. The sign Bregman crowd might have felt Bregman> Suarez+ IKF. (not me)

Or Alonso vs Suarez & Durbin? Or Alonso & Bregman vs Contreras, Suarez & Durbin? Or Alonso & Bichette vs Contreras, Suarez & Durbin?

Agreed, but eventually a BB rate like that will come back to bite us in the ass.

We have 3 batters under .550 in just about every line-up we put out there. There aren't really any better choices, so we have to hope they snap out of it. Maybe some have already started snapping... 9th Durbin (.851 last 6 games) 5th Story (.619 last 11 games) 1st Duran (.550 last 9 games)

LOL, and so many of us were screaming "Dubon, Dubon, DUBIN!" "Brandon LOWE!" "MURAKAMI!"

Before the season started, most baseball experts raved about our rotation outlook and decent SP'er depth. Some argued we focused too much on pitching and could have spared one or two of the SP'ers and used their value to improve the batting. It's hard to argue against that idea at the 20% mark of the season, but as it turned out, we have needed all the SP'er "decent" depth and have actually dipped down to the #10 or 11 slot on the depth chart. Three of the SP'ers from #6 to #10 or 11 have done very well (Early, Tolle & Bennett,) and in hindsight, we could claim we should have started some of them over Oviedo and Bello to begin with, but we didn't spend a lot to get Oviedo. We didn't really spend a lot to get Gray, either. We did spend nearly all of the Bregman offer money on Suarez, but he's done well. Most of the winter talk about adding bats focused on players like... Bregman and or Bichette Alonso and or Schwarber Trades for KMarte and or Paredes, Hoerner, Shaw and or Donovan and gamble signings like ESuarez, Polanco or Murakami/Okamoto. If you add all these most-discussed player up, a large percentage have not done well. If we wanted 2-3 of these guys, instead of Suarez, Gray & Contreras, how can we justify we were right and Brez was wrong or worse than us? Sure, we can cherry-pick and hindsight this to death: we shoulda traded for BLowe (or Donovan) and signed Schwarber, Murakami & Ranger Suarez, but not one of us suggested that combo.

It's hard to know if Bregman's numbers would be better had he came back to BOS, or what his effect would have been on Anthony and other player's numbers. I think it's fair to bring up how other highly winter-discussed players are doing so far, if we are using the bad stats of players we did add as a way to criticize Brez & Co. I, for one am holding back being highly critical of Brez for adding Durbin, when many of the players I suggested we add are crapping themselves at big money levels. Sure, some of my suggested additions are doing well, but some of Brez's adds are too (Contreras, Suarez & Samaniego.) How many of us wanted us to move on from Wong (.712?) How many did not trust counting on young arms to fill key roles? While Watson has sucked and Oviedo is on the 60, Early, Tolle, Bennet & Samaniego have helped us in many of our 13 wins. As bad as we have looked, this year, one thing some of us pointed out last winter has rung true: the rest of the AL teams have serious issues, too. Only 2 AL teams are more than 2 games above .500, (21-11 NYY & 19-12 TBR) and I'm not sure the Rays even make the playoffs this year. Our best hopes might lie with us having less weaknesses than 10 other AL teams. Currently, 11 teams are withing 4 games of each other and between 17-15 (.531) and 13-19 (.406.) The current 5th best AL team is 16-16 (TEX.) Whodathunk the Rays (19-12) A's (17-15) Guardians (17-16) & TEX (16-16) would be the other 4 playoff teams with NYY at about the 20% mark of the season? My guess is several, if not all won't make the playoffs. The next 4 teams all looked more promising in March: 16-17 SEA & DET 15-17 TOR & BAL These 4 could easily replace the 4 I listed. The Sox are 2 GB TOR & BAL. They are 2.5 GB SEA & DET. They are 3 GM the last WC slot. Yes, it's way too early to talk WC slot and with 6 other teams between us and Texas, it might be harder than it looks, but all of these teams will go through some tough stretches. We might just need to limit any more like we just went through. We've won 4 of 6 vs BAL, TOR & HOU. Maybe we can keep this going, despite 4 of our 5 SP'ers being on the IL (Crochet, Gray, Oviedo) or sucking (Bello.)

Durbin is 5th in PAs (ahead of Duran, Rafaela & Mayer) Durbin + IKF combined would lead the team in PAs at 151 PAs. I kinda feel we could have gotten by with just one, since we have Gasper, Sogard, Eaton & Cheng in AAA. While none of these guys look great, are they really much worse than IKF? Together, they make less than he does alone. At some point, we might have to consider limiting IKF's & Durbin's PAs. .528 Durbin (5th in PAs) & .499 IKF (13th) More from...? .685 Mayer (8th) .678 Monsterio (11th) Gasper/Cheng or Sogard/Eaton? In defense of Durbin, he's hit .659 in his last 17 games, which is close enough to Mayer/Monasterio to keep letting him plug away. Durbin is also .679 in last 10 games and .851 in his last 6 games, so now is not "the time," it appears.

You are now free to move about the cabin.

Top OPS on the farm (70+ PAs) 1.196 Arias AA (leads system in HRS) 1.045 Capra AAA (.464 OBP) 1.013 YRod A+ (6 HRs is second in system) 1.010 Cespedes A+ (26Ks in 107 PAs but .385 OBP & 6 HRs) .931 Gasper AAA (Will he get a call-up?) .905 Gonzales A+ (Is the sky the limit?) .884 Opata A- (22 y/o) .864 Encarnacion A+ (21 y/o who busted out at AA) .859 Tucker A->A+ (24 y/o utility man) .856 Turner AA (23 y/o who changed his swing) .833 Azocar A- (only 19 y/o) .831 Eaton AAA (Needs a ML injury for a long call-up) .830 Sogard AAA (Needs a ML injury for a shot) .828 Godbout A+ (off to a nice 2 season start on the farm) .827 Cheng AAA (Not sure if he'll replace Durbin/Monasterio) .818 Mason White A+ (23 y/o catcher) .806 Heyman A- (Alex Hoppe trade) (Note: .994 Max Ferguson in 62 PAs)