moonslav59

Do you feel comfortable with Romy at 3B? Cora only played him at 3B in 2 games (12 innings) and we really needed help there. Of course, we needed him at 2B and 1B, too, so maybe that's why he did not play much 3B. I can see Romy being counted on to fill or be part of the mix at... 2B platoon with Mayer or DHam 1B platoon with Lowe (Casas would not need a platoon.) DH platoon with Yoshida Possibly as a 3B platoon with Mayer, if we add a 2Bman, somehow.

It seemed weird that the word was that we did not have to take Hicks, but we never did hear what else would have changed in the deal. Maybe no Harrison and some lesser arm, instead. No Hicks and we'd have stayed under. They must have known they'd be over. Did they try to move other salary after that trade?

Not trying to go political, here, but doesn't every company follow the same path towards maximizing profit, even if their customers get short-changed?

Just bring Matz back.

Many seem to think we'll be staying under the line by a more than comfortable margin. I hope to hell that doesn't happen. It shouldn't happen. I'd like to think it won't happen. But I've been disappointed too many time to get myself expecting it to not happen.

I read somewhere that Campbell would be a key piece in the Ryan trade, which I'm fine with, but I really hope we don't include Early or Tolle. I'd be fine adding Harrison or Clarke/Valera/Fajardo (just one SP'er prospect) and then maybe add a Sandlin/Mullins/Cespedes/Bleis or Murphy/Kelly/Guerrero/Moran type. This could mean Duran DH's most of the time, with others rotating through when Duran plays LF or CF. That brings us back to where does Masa fit, but I'd be fine with him in AAA, on the bench or traded for some salary dump Pitcher, 1Bman, 3Bman or 2Bman. (I have yet to identify the right fit and team.)

Good to see them get some credit. I think our OF D can get even better with 2 things happening: 1. Anthony plays FT in LF (Duran to DH or traded away) 2. We completely stop playing Rafaela in the infield. (A third boost could come from Jh Garcia becoming the 4th OF'er over Refsnyder/Duran/Campbell. He has to earn it, first.)

I'm pretty sure Cora notices, and Brez should, too. They were both gutsy players.

I wondered about Valera & Monegro, too. They have Valera as starting the season as the A+ ace. He'd probably have to be promoted to AA in '26 to be on track for a shot at '27, but late '27 could be the time. Monegro might have been a close Rule 5 call had he not had TJS, and yes 2028 seems more likely. The chart does show a pretty even flow of prospect pitchers ML ready times. Of course those due in '28 & '29 are not as highly ranked, but much of the is due to lack of evidence, experience and rawness. 4 of our top 15 prospects (5 if you count Valera) are pitchers due in 2028. With Tolle, Early, Dobbins & Fitts getting a taste of MLB, this season and Perales due very soon, we should expect 3-4 of them to make considerable contributions in 2026. Maybe two from Holobetz, Clarke, Paez or Aita make some contribution in '27 and then that class of '28 provides a bigger boost than '27. Maybe a couple college kids jump up by a half season or full one.

I'm not so sure he feels all that great about 2025. He knows they got caught in another lie (about getting help after the Devers dump.)

Has he said anything to hint he's proud of what "he" did?

I have to strongly disagree. No team will put him on their 26 man roster for a full season in hopes that he fulfills his "5 tool" promise. He's had 5 years in the minors and never topped .746 after FCL. Instead of getting better, he's declined at every level and failed to get to AAA. .687 A- .672 A+ .554 AA I'd say the odds are less than 2% we protect him and less than 1% anybody takes him. (I'd say less than 1% on protecting him, if I felt we had a roster crunch, but I don't. Sandlin 80% chance of protection: 60% chance selected. Mullins 40% chance of protection: 10% chance selected. Paez 10% and 1%. Bleis 2% and less than 1%.

I wonder if the cost of keeping Bregman (your #2) might prevent 1 or 3 from being affordable. We could trade for one, but then we lose a bat like Duran's or Abreu's, too.

At $18M a year, I doubt we look to replace Masa at DH. 1B seems like the most likely spot to upgrade power. Alonso could move to DH, once Masa is gone. Suarez at 3B would upgrade power but not defense or clubhouse leadership, in theory. Both is probably a pipedream.

This season looks like there is no clear favorite. I don't see the 7-1 Colts as dominant. My 5-1-1 Packers look like the best, but not by much. 6-2 Denver, TB & NE? Nope. 6-2 PHI? A sure contender, 5-2 BUF & DET? Maybe. 5-2 LA, SEA? Meh. 5-3 KC & SF? Look worse than 2024-25.

Coaches Poll 1. OSU 2. IN 3. TX A&M 4. AL 5. GA 6. OR 7. OM 8. BYU 9. TX Tech 10. ND 11. VA 12. OK ______________ 13. TX 14. GA Tech 15. Louisville 16. Vandy 17. MO 18. MIA 19. UT 20. MI, 21 USC, 22. TN, 23. Mem, 24. IA, 25 CIN

"No chance?" MIL had a great regular season. CLE made the dance. KCR advanced one round in the dance, last season. STL has shown they can compete from time to time. The Rays are a small market team that used to be semi-competitive, but have shown they cannot, anymore. MIA is showing some near future hopes but not really at ring-winning level, To me, the no chance teams (not necessarily smallest markets) are: PIT, COL, ATH & CWS Borderline: MIA, WSH, TBR, LAA (despite the spending) Straddling the line: STL, KCR, BAL, MIN It would be hard to determine which teams should be disbanded, if MLB decided to downsize, but they are more likely to expand to 32 than decrease. Based on market size and city interest, it might be TBR, MIA and maybe ATH, but PIT and COL seem like worse teams. Imagine a 27 team league with no NL & AL that could look like this: East: BOS, NYY, NYM, PHI, BAL, WSH, ATL, TOR, PIT Central: DET, CLE, CIN, MIL, CWS, CHC, MIN, STL, KCR West: TEX, HOU, COL, KCR, SEA, SFG, LAA, LAD, SDP The schedule could be more balanced: 12 games vs 8 div teams= 96 games 4 games vs 18 non division teams= 64 games (2H and 2A) 160 games (maybe add 2 games, somehow.)

Soxprospects.com has these estimated arrival times for their top pitching prospects: 2026: 1. Tolle 3. Peralez 5. Early 13. Sandlin (RP?) 20. Uberstine 22. Mullins (RP?) 25. Drohan (Maybe E Rivera) 2027: 7. Valera 8. Clarke 21. Holobetz 17. Paez 33. Monegro 35. Aita (Maybe Tygart & Neeley) 2028: 4. Witherspoon 11. Fajardo 14. Phillips 15. Eyanson (Maybe Jose Bello, Y Ruiz, B Morgan, D Brown) 2029: 23. Travieso 28. Delzine 32. Cason (Maybe M Bido, Y Chirino, M Frias)

Matt Gelb of The Athletic hears that the Phillies “have signaled to other clubs that Andrew Painter, Mick Abel and Griff McGarry are not available.” “The strength of our organization is our young starting pitching — it’s a very talented group of starting pitchers,” Dombrowski said. “And the other thing I have found about talented young starting pitchers — and you can check back where I’ve been — [is that] sometimes they get to the big leagues very fast. I’m not saying this year, but there’s some people that could be competing for spots for next year that are youngsters. I’ve had no problem pitching guys who are 20 years old and having a lot of success with them at the big leagues. And they’re that good that some of those guys could be pitching here.

Not to mention the super mega TV revenue stream.

One could have said the window opened, this year, and JH did spend way more than previous seasons, last winter, so that was a sign he is aware the window is open. The Devers dump kinda dampened that idea a bit, but some serious spending occurred and trends were upended. Bregman signed to the highest AAV in Red Sox history. Buehler signed to the highest AAV for a pitcher since Price. Crochet signed the second largest and longest Sox pitching contract ever. The total AAV signed last winter was by far the most in a very long time, if not ever. Yes, almost all was spent on 1-2 year deals, but we ended up extending Chapman before his deal ended. 31.6 Bregman ($40M counting deferred) 21.1 Buehler 10.8 Chapman 9.1 Sandoval 2.3 Wilson That's about $75M AAV during the same season we extended Crochet (28.3), Chapman (13.3), Anthony (16.3)& Campbell (7.5). We dumped the $30M x 8 Devers deal but took back $12M x 2 for Hicks ($10.3M AAV.) We do have some reason to hope JH is AWARE and will act accordingly, but I will not let myself expect it to happen.

Yes, the way the money is spent is crucial, and our FA signing record under Brez has been significantly less than stellar, but I do agree the Story's 2026 outlook is as risky or more so than any random FA signing at near his salary cost (AAV.) If he opts out, our infield would have 4 open slots with Mayer, Romy, maybe Lowe, Casas, DHam, Sogard and Eaton as the in-house possibilities. That scares the beJesus out of me, when you need to count on JH to fork over significant money to sign 3-4 solid infielders.

Even if PHI loses Schwarber, I doubt they'd want Masas, and I can't imagine them losing Schwarber and trading Harper, but I do think forcing Hicks on them could be managed. We'd have to give more than without Hicks, but saving some AAV money on the tax budget would allow us to add another big signing or two.

I'd prefer watching us "slay" DD's Phillies.

I agree, JH won't go wild with spending, but with 1 or 2 key trades, I think there is a way to add some high quality free agent signings and stay under the first or second tax line. The trades might need to involve saving a few $ million to help stretch the winter budget out enough to add 2-3 big signings over 1-2, and maybe we can get creative and dump Yoshida and/or Hicks by adding a prospect or two or taking back a lesser AAV contract, but I'm not counting on this aspect of our winter plan. To me, and maybe I'm oversimplifying things, we could get significantly better by just adding 3 major pieces and maybe 2 minor ones. I know "just" seems like too much to ask for JH. 1. Trade for a pitcher like Joe Ryan. (Maybe Duran is part of a 3 way deal to get him- maybe not. We do have guys like Campbell or Garcia and Clarke, Valera, Fajardo and Arias the Twins might covet enough.) 2. Sign Alonso or Schwarber (or trade for Harper or K Marte) 3. Sign Suarez, Polanco or Bichette (or trade for Harper, KMarte or ____?) 4. Minor signings like S Matz and Ref (if we trade Duran or Abreu) I saw a clip with Merloni saying the Sox are super high on pitchers with very high swing and miss rates on balls in the K zone, and that Joe Ryan is their guy. (I wasn't aware this is his strength.)