moonslav59

It's like wack-a-mole.

If you look at the 2015 team, unless you think they were lucky and overperformed, the hopes were high for 2026. The loss of Devers appeared to be not as impactful as we thought, as Anthony and others covered up his loss. We knew we had holes, especially thinking of Devers and the pending loss of Bregman, Ref and N Lowe. The loss of Gio was kinda offset by the losses of Buehler, DMat and other failed pitchers coming off the books/roster. The general consensus was we needed two big bats, one big arm and some pen help. We can argue that Contreras filled one of the big bat needs and Suarez the big arm need, so that left one more big bat and pen help. Those two areas have proven to be major issues, as we expected. The idea that Sonny Gray and Oviedo, plus more time from Tolle & Early could make up for the missing bat and that some SP'ers could help out the pen might be argued as a bad plan/choice, but to me, it was still an effort made towards winning more in 2026 than 2025. The addition of Durbin and planning on major time from Mayer was supposed to improve the defense at 2B and maybe stay even at 3B (Breggie & Toro gone) and 1B D would improve. Better pitching and D was supposed to make up for one too few bats. It turns out we are still 2-4 bats too short, as several players flopped- some unexpectedly, some sort of predictably. Sure, blame the GM for this and for not seeing it coming. It's the nature of the job. I look at 2025 and see adding Contreras, Suarez and Gray as the best 3 additions we've seen any GM make in one winter in a very long time. That's not kissing Brez's butt. This team has failed, and he made some wrong choices and non-moves. I'm not going to blame injuries, as other teams have had many and even more than us. The Durbin, IKF and Oviedo deals have not worked well. The winter was not a rousing success, but the fact is the big 3 moves have worked, so far- in isolation. We should have been better, this year. The rest of the AL rated to get worse. I think higher expectations were reasonable but with cautions and concerns. This team has flopped, and to call a team a flop, means they are doing worse than they should be doing. Of course, the "flop" has been directed towards Brez & Co. by several posters, and those points have merit, but let's not forget, too many players have flopped- some are pre-prime or in prime. They are flops, too.

Nice one. I'm an addict stuck on the first step. I realize I'm an addict but will not budge from step one.

2025>2026 .774>.529 Duran (.834 in '24) .741>.547 Story (.809 career) .721>.509 Durbin .726>.608 Narvaez .631> .456 IKF (.657 career)

Huge difference.

Yes, I remember the two. softlaw agreed with my "No Manny-No Rings" epic thread and I agreed with him on Ellsbury being a poor defender (early on in his career,) and for some reason that made my disagreements with him more intense (to him.) He was a real character. The ring in 2007 slowed him down a bit, and his main beef was that Theo ruined the team by deconstructing the 2004 ring team. I think he was eventually banned.

This might be one area sp.com is not so good at.

It could just be a fluke, but the concern level is high. I remember we all worried about Mayer's injuries.

I can see the miseresemblance.

BTV has Durbin worth 23! That's more than Paredes at 19!

Agreed. He seemed like he had a much better shot at a good season than Kluber, Richards & Paxton combined, and they cost $30M total.

Was softlaw still there in 2007- the guy who called almost everyone a Theo apologist and pink hat fan?

Fair enough. Frustration and anger sometimes causes poor word choices. I'll never put Fred on ignore.

If you named the biggest mistake made over the last 2 winters, it's this non action. Buehler was bad, but it was just a one year hit.

"Atrocious" might not even be harsh enough. We may not have better bat options than Story, which is debatable, but get him off SS. The short stop position is the center of team defense.

I may disagree with Fred, a lot, but we've gotten along fine. At least he doesn't misrepresent what others say and chase straw men. I have an issue with telling others this... And absolutely NO ONE should be at the park or support the bums in any way.

Patience is not one of my strong suits. I expected a drop off and was part of the "cliff dweller" club during the DD era. I think 2021 gave JH a false sense of security that we could win without major expenditures, and to some extent, many fans were fooled into thinking the rebuild need not be 5-6 years long. The higher farm rankings also added encouragement, and when some of the prospects from DD's so-called "depleteled farm" came through (Devers, Houck and a few others to lesser extents) the drop off in 2022 and beyond were couched as bad luck or blips on an upward trajectory. It took Bloom longer than many felt it should have to build up the roster depth and farm system, and the lack of top pitchers hurt like hell. Brez has shifted the focus to pitching, and now the offense is the major weakness. It's no suprise. My hopes t start the year were based on two things: 1. The rest of the AL sucks. (I even felt the Yanks were over-rated.) 2. The additions of Suarez, Contreras & Gray were better than what we lost. (This has been true, so far, but the returning player's drop off has been astoundingly extreme.) I might be one of the few that has yet to give up on 2026, but I'm certainly void of any optimism, right now.

My reply was aimed at this: This is the worst management the Sox have had in over a century, and it is not close. To me, it's not even close that previous management groups were way worse than under JH and even worse (maybe not way worse than the last 5 years) than the past 10 years.

Why not switch to another team and spare us?

Bennett got kinda roughed up for Woo, tonight. Sogard and Romero homered in the loss, while KC drew 3 walks. (the only 3 for the team) Sogard is up to .871 and not much talk about a look-see with the big club for him. POR won 5-3 as Arias finally had a bad night (0-5.) Alcantara & Liendo had dingers. GRE is struggling, of late. They lost 5-1. Godbout went 3-5 (.931.) SAL won 6-3 and Morgan pitched well (5IP 1H 0ER 1BB 3K) Azocar homered, singled and walked (.846.) Heyman dbld and walked twice (.869.)

This is what makes the gut punch tougher to take.

Last year, it was Priester.

Ruth was worse than Devers. Had you said the Betts fiasco, I'm listening. To me, living through the period where we dismantled the 1975-1978 teams was the worst, and how they did it, too. The manager hates Bill Lee- gone. Cecil Cooper "can't hit" they said- gone for an over-the-hill George Scott. Tiant plays for the Yanks. They fail to offer Fisk a contract on the due date, making him a FA- gone and for nothing. Trading away Fred Lynn, Burleson and the rest. The list goes on and on. Those were just the high (low) lights. The JH era is not worse than the late 70's to early '80's. It's not close, despite these last 5-6 years.

My issue was more about batting Monasterio 2nd, but WTH do I know? He had a good game at the plate. It's Duran up 1st and Story up 5th or 6th that is killing us, but then again, when you got 5-6 batters under .700, the other options are not pretty.

This game was difficult to watch. The horse has been beaten over and over, but it just seems like the offense keeps needing further beatings. The pen wasn't very helpful either, but it's hard to be too critical of Samaniego for giving up his first run of the season, and to a guy like Schwarber. The D made some nice plays and then Story botches another play. Another wasted gem by our rotation. Suarez must be thinking, WTF! 2.44 ERA and the team is 3-5 in his starts.