moonslav59

LOL, Gray. My keyboard is dyslexic.

Gone from 2025: Buehler, Giolito, Early, Dobbins, Bernardino, Wilson, Fitts, Newcomb, Murphy, Hicks, May, Matz, Harrison, Drohan, Winckowski, Criswell, L Guerrero, I Campbell, Hendricks, Hoppe and many other prospect pitchers Bregman, (Devers mid season 2025) Narvaez, Toro, Refsnyder, N Lowe, Mayer plus JH Garcia and other prospects.

We did more to "compete this year" than just about any Sox GM has done in my lifetime. Some moves did not pan out as expected, but the sheer amount of moves, significant and moderately significant was stunning. We had a playoff team and saw more turnover than anyone would have expected. While the year end budget only increased by about $8M, the CB Tax budget went up $25M, and we actually got other teams to pay parts of salaries (Gray & Contreras), instead of vice-versa (Sale and several others.) Not even counting the Crochet extension, we added (LUX TAX) $41M Gray (-$20M STL) $26M Suarez $21.3M Contreras (-$4M STL) $6M IKF Durbin, Bennett, Monasterio, Seigler, Oviedo, Then, we added Mead, Miller and AR. Name a Sox season, where we added more than this. It turned out to not be enough. Of course we could used Bregman or Alonso's bat. I wanted one of the other, too. Instead we chose to add Suarez and Durbin, then tried to patch holes with Mead, Miller and AR. Looking at just those in-season moves, one could argue that those midseason additions had higher possibilities than we thought Schwarber & Robles had in '21 and Eovaldi & Pearce had in '18. The 2 PAs from Mead sucked. Had we gotten 2 PAs from Schwarber and many more from Mead, which might have been more likely, maybe we'd see things differently. I don't blame Brez for injuries and for not trying. If anything, he tried too hard, and now we have very little trade capital to upgrade for 2027. The Gray one and done add is an example of what trying to win now can do to a team.

Did you say this about 4 years ago, when we signed Yoshida and Story?

Roman did have a pretty decent first 300 PAs in MLB in 2025. I think most teams would not baby a guy after what he had shown. You praise the Yanks, but they did give Volpe 550 PAs in year one at age 22 (started 2023 season at age 21.). They had him leading off by mid April his rookie year, but his struggles forced them to move him back to 8-9. Rookie year he started: 38 games 5th or 6th 31 games 1-3 34 games 9th 29 8th 20 7th Year 2 (like Anthony's 2026) 76 1st 26 5th or 6th 33 7th 23 8th or 9th This was after he hit .666 his rookie year. Anthony hit over .800.

Not non-stop and not continuous focus on who your first impression thought sucked. You will readily admit someone surprised you.

Not really. He will be 38 year old Goldschmidt's (.763) replacement. I totally get the point about adding offense and worry about positions afterwards, but only for a major bat or two addition. The thing that bodes well about that strategy is how we have several flexible-position players: Mead 2B/1B/DH Anthony or Yoshida LF/DH Sogard 3B/1B/DH We can add a 2Bman (B Lowe?) and move Mead to DH. We could add a SS and have Mead DH and Arias/Story at 2B. We can add a LF'er (Suzuki/Arozena) and move Anthony to DH. We can add a DH and have 2B/SS three deep and LF 2-3 deep. We could even add a corner IF'er and move Durbin to 2B (I would not) or Contreras to DH. The only positions we should not even consider is CF, RF and Catcher.

Not convinced but worried/concerned.

We replace Bregman with Durbin not Mayer. Yes, we expected more from RA than he gave. I'm pretty sure everyone expected more. Yes, every year we count on someone who does not come through. Welcome to MLB and every team in the league. How did McMahon do for the Yanks? Chisholm? Wasn't Volpe hyper and overhyped? I got Narvaez wrong, but did Austin Wells meet expectations? The Yanks got nice help from Warren & Weathers, as we did from Bennett and rookies Tolle & Early. Don't be surprised if one of our three bigly hyped prospects do well in 2027 and or beyond. (I doubt Mayer does, but some players take a while to come into their own.) I'd love to see Arias as our starting SS in 2027, but I'm not projecting even a .735 OPS. (I do think .725 would be higher than Story, and Arias plays better defense.) I'd love to see AR hit .800, which would be 250 points higher than Narvaez, but ,750 is reasonable and 200 points better. I think Mead can easily hit .850 next year, which is 30 points better than Bregman's 2026 and 30 points under the 32 year old Alonso. I won't project it, but .780-.810 should be what sites project from him. Anthony should not be counted on in 2027, and of course nothing from Casas. I'm writing off Duran, Story and Yoshida, but I do think we have a decent core to build around, and anything from Roman and these three vets could be a nice boost. Rafaela, Abreu, Contreras, Durbin, Mead and AR do not need upgrades. The other 3 slots could but it's not possible unless JH gets a new MO. Instead, we will choose one of the three links as the weakest and maybe try a major fix. My guess is we put out hopes in... LF: Anthony, Duran, Yoshida, Jones. White & Campbell SS: Arias, Story, Monasterio & Cheng and get a DH. (LF, if we move Anthony to DH and trade Duran- fine with me.) We use the rest of our budget and trade capital to keep or replace Gray and keep the pen strong and deep.

I'm glad we didn't pay the same or more than the Cubs for Bregman, so hell yes. I prefer Suarez, Durbin, Monasterio and Seigler to Harrison, Drohan, DHam and Bregman and this is not counting what we can do with the Bregman vs Suarez money over the next few years. This, despite Bregman surprising me with his 5.4 WAR at his age. Even with this great first season with the Cubs, Suarez was 3.8 and Durbin 3.1. (Okay, I left out Harrison & Drohan, but Bennett and Gray did just fine over them.) In a vacuum, yes, Bregman would have been a big help. I wanted Bregman or Alonso. It's the back-end that scares me more than the 30 year old Suarez.

They were suspects too, until they weren't.

I disagree. They did have high hopes for Mayer, but they never handed him a FT job like they did the minor league player of the year and top prospect KC. At most, Mayer became a platoon player and played more due to injuries to Story and IKF. We also went out and trade one infielder (DHam) for 3, which does not support the idea that we had a lot of faith in Mayer. They did trust in Anthony, but again, they had solid contingency plans (that also failed.) They did not trade Duran, as they should have had they had total faith in Anthony. They also had Yoshida and several other DH platoon options in place. I'm not going to pretend I did not expect better from the 3 you selected, but we did get more than I expected from Tolle, Bennett and Early. Also, just because these three have not produced right out of the gate, doesn't mean they will end up as duds. It also has no bearing on the chances Arias, Godbout, Gonzales and Primera do well or not.

They also had some impressive starting pitchers and SP'er depth. The return of Judge is notable, and maybe they get better health and production from Cole, Rodon, Fried and others, but I can't help but think their ages will catch up to them at some point. (I know- I know, I've been saying this for 2-3 seasons.) Yankee current ages: (PA) 38 Goldschmidt 380 36 Stanton 96 34 Judge 285 31 McMahon IP 36 Hill 59, Cruz 55 35 Cole 127 34 Yarbrough 63 33 Rodon 84 33 Fulmer 10 32 Fried 113 32 Blackburn 85 32 Schreiber 11 The contrasting Sox... 34 Contreras 535 33 Story 266 32 Yoshida 297 32 White 60 IP 38 Chapman 52 36 Gray 169 (FA) 35 Guerrero 41 31 Weissert 61, Kelly 16 Look at how much each of these players mean to their teams and how closer they are to 40 than 30. I see this: Gray 36 (FA) Contreras 34 & Chapman 38 vs Judge 34, Cole 35, Rodon 33, Fried 32 & Goldschmidt 38

...and he attacks certain players, managers, GMs, owners mercilessly. He continually called Anthony's injury his pinky finger to get across an obvious side-swipe. When a prospect does very well, does he come back from long absences to make sure we know he got one wrong?

The CWS are the only team in MLB to lead in every inning of a playoff series.

Tough way to end the season. That magical stretch was just that: magic. It’s difficult to think about next year, so soon, and there are so many unanswered questions and unknowns- many centered around injured players or players that had better or worse than expected 2026 seasons. There are not many FAs lost issues, except Gray. It could be a huge loss, but it’s really just one. IKF & Sandoval are not significant losses. I’ll get into budget issues later on, but wanted to start off with what the roster and foundation look like going into 2027. IMO, the 26 man roster will involve some tough choices as some players are out of options, paid handsomely or coming off the IL to a slot that is already filled. If we make the minimum 2-3 additions I think are needed, that will further squeeze the 26. I’m not too worried about the 40 man roster crunch, even if we add 3 new players. It’s not that I dislike our “bubble players,” but I don’t think we need to worry about cutting a few loose or trading some. Each winter, Brez seems to trade away a bunch of these types for prospects or same level players. Before any changes are made, here is what I see is the likely 26 man roster. I’m going to put Gray, but only because I feel strongly that we will bring him back or try to replace him in kind. (I’ll go with Arias in AAA, since he is not a Rule 5 guy and can wait to be added. I’d prefer he start the year as out FT SS.) I’m also assuming Duran is gone, but if he’s back, one from Jones or White will be traded, since both are out of options. SP: Tolle, Crochet, Gray, Suarez, Bennett RP: Chapman, Whitlock, Miller, Bello, Slaten, Guerrero, Houck, Moran (no options) C: Rutschman & Wong 1B: Contreras 2B: Mead 3B: Durbin & Sogard SS: Story LF: Anthony, Jones CF: Rafaela, White RF: Abreu DH: Yoshida The rest of the 40 could be… (14 in AAA/AA) 9: Oviedo, Crawford, Weissert, Romy, Monasterio, Gasper, Campbell, Gamboa, Paez 5 from: Trade/DFA: Duran, Casas, Eaton, Cheng, Rivera, Samaniego, Kelly, Burgos, Olds Rule 5: Brannon, Jo Garcia, Wehunt, Ward (Ro Hernandez, Mullins, Romero/Rogers) If and when we do add players (assuming no 1-for-1 trades, we will need to bump others down. I think we’ll trade Duran and maybe Story (add Arias) or Yoshida (add Casas.) We’ll add Brannon, Jo Garcia and Wehunt to the 40. We’ll keep Eaton, Cheng, Rivera and Samaniego. The last point I will hit on for the kick-off post is this: Where is our biggest need areas and who might we bump out of a starting slot or significant role? Most likely players to hold slots/roles (in order of most likely to return) : Everyday: CF Rafaela 1B Contreras RF Abreu C Rutschman 2B/DH Mead 3B Durbin DH/LF Anthony (is higher on list but injury drops him) This leaves SS (Arias, Story, Monasterio, Cheng) and LF/DH (Yoshida, Jones, White, Campbell, Gasper-Jones, Sogard-Romy) as the most upgradeable positions. Pitching SP1 Crochet SP2 Tolle SP3 Gray (or replacement) SP4 Bennett SP5 Suarez Closer Chapman RP2 Whitlock SP/RP Bello RP3 Miller SP/RP Houck SP/RP Crawford & Oviedo RP: Slaten, Moran & Weissert Maybe we bring Gray back or sign Nick Martinez, King or Morejon. I hope there is no prolonged lock-out, and we have a productive off season. I’m glad we extended Brez & Tracy. From 2020 to 2023, the Sox went 2 under .500. Under Brez, we’ve been +26 games in 3 seasons. Although we had less wins in 2026 than 2025, I think the team got better, at least on paper- before all the injuries. Let’s hope JH is willing to spend, and Brez still has the good trade mojo. Let's bring Gray or someone like him back. Let's add a nice pen piece (Morejon?) and a big bat (____???_____.)

Fantasy land.

I hear the same thing about the Astros medical staff and longer than projected recover times, so I'm not sure our set up is any worse than others, but it seems like we continually wait and wait- only to end up with a less than ready player, a player who gets hurt again, or a player that should have had surgery right off. It's hard to know what to expect from all these guys who were on the IL for most of this year ro to end the season (or both.)

If Betts and Bogey were having great seasons, the tak would have been significantly more frequent and virulent. I'm involved in a lot of the talk, too. I'm not bad-mouthing it, except for Blaze and DHam. LOL

Your obsession with certain players' failures, then never letting go, needs some self-reflection at best or some serious therapy sessions.

It looks that way. We were already playing some subs of subs, and even to the 3rd or 4th level at 2B and SS (DH.) Fangraphs had us at the most WAR lost due to injury, and hopefully we are not the leaders there next year, but we need to fix 2-3 slots, IMO, and not by minor differentials.

Thanks. I've been countering you pretty hard, lately, but your points were very well taken by me. We do need a bat. Counting on Mead, AR and improvements only goes so far.

We can't blame this on injuries, either. We got Anthony and Story back. Sure, the Mead injury hurt, but every team has a good player or more out.

Yup, and Harrison did very well, until near the end. The talk will never cease.

What a disappointing end to a season that gave us a magical moment that magically disappeared. We saw some continued growth from Rafaela, Sogard, Durbin (after a horrific start) Tolle and Bennett, but too many younger players failed to improve. We saw major dips and injuries to some of our better or top 2025 performers- Crochet, Duran, Story to name just 3. In the end, the pitching injuries caught up to us. The Mead & AR additions failed to boost the offense. We ended up calling up Mead and Crochet from the IL who had no business playing their first games like that. We need to replace Gray, of convince him to get over his anger and come back. We could use another solid pen arm and SP'er depth. We could use a big LH'd bat and maybe a nice RHB, too. We'll spend the winter arguing over who to get and who should be replaced, assuming no lock-out, or a short one. The FA market does not have any sure bet bats, and we've used up nearly all of our young player trade capital on AR, Mead and last winter's trades that brought us Gray, Contreras, Durbin and Oviedo. I'll be working on the Realistic 2027 thread soon. I'd hoped it might be mid October. Oh well.