moonslav59

Hello? Teams get better from one year to the next. The ALE got better, so our schedule got harder than all the teams from the ALC and ALW, and no, those teams do not play the same schedule as we do.

If it happens overnight, he still won't be the reason we stay near #23. It will be Duran, Story, the back-up Catcher and maybe DH or downturns from Durbin, Rafaela or Abreu. Anthony will be fine. He's very young, and his "bad season" is a 108. Safe: Contreras, Abreu, AR, Rafaela, Anthony, Mead & Arias. I'd say we aren't touching 3B (Durbin) That leaves DH. There is no urgency on Contreras. I'm more concerned about the offense from Durbin, Rafaela and of course the rookie- Arias. I'm assuming we phase out Yoshida. Story and Duran. I hope we trade 1-2.

Have you morphed into Fred?

Contreras is 100% safe, despite the realization that a decline is imminent. Arias is going to be handed SS. Some of us might wish we had a surer bet on SS offense, but he's the SS in 2027- or he BETTER BE! Mead can play 2B or DH, so one will and shouldn't be upgraded. Same with Anthony at LF or DH. That does leave a couple slots that are somewhat flexible on which to choose from. If it means no Gray replacement, are you fine with just a big bat upgrade?

There is certainly a strong case to be made something has to change, as in a removal and replacement. These were our top 10 batters by most 2026 PAs> OPS+ (in order of most PAs) 117 Abreu 76 Duran (I've been all for upgrading him) 101 Durbin 113 Rafaela 153 Contreras 88 Monasterio (Not projected to be top 10 in PAs in '27) 111 Yoshida 106 Sogard 75 Story 108 Anthony (Mead 132 and AR 108 are not listed, but would have been top 7 in PAs.)

I think Mead and AR are being undersold. We could still use a starpower bat, but at what and who's expense?

Why not name the ones you think need the biggest upgrades? I do think we lack star power on O and could use an upgrade, but some offer great defense or low cost long term control. This guide might help you choose: Position by position: C: AR's .790 is 7th best. (We 100% are not upgrading here.) 1B: Best OPS and 2nd best fWAR in Contreras 2B: Mead's .851 OPS tops any 2Bman's in MLB. 3B: Durbin's OPS was 14th among 3Bmen with 350+ PAs. He placed 9th out of 10 with 500+ PAs. Is there where you'd upgrade? His defense was amazing, and if he can hit like the 2nd half, he's be top 10-15 out of 30, but this could be a spot we try to improve on offense. SS: On paper, this was/is the slot to upgrade. Would you trade Arias for a proven SS with offense plus-plus? LF: I think Anthony is not viewed as a slot that needs an upgrade, but he could DH, so YES, we can upgrade over Duran/Jones/White/Campbell, and knock Yoshida/Mead and others from DH, I guess. (NOT!) CF: Rafaela's offense could be upgrades, but he's our top fWAR guy from 2025-2026. Plus his OPS was upper tier in MLB among 2Bman (9th out of 19 w 350+) RF: Abreu was 9th out of 18 and is a GG winner in a difficult Fenway RF. He's young and still on arbs. NOPE! DH is the obvious slot, but even if we trade Duran, we'd have Mead, Yoshida, Gasper/Jones/Romy at DH. Dumping Duran and Story would boost the offense, even without adding from outside the system, but we could add someone, if we dumped both (plus maybe Yoshida,) but let's be real. We ain't dumping Duran, Story and Yoshida in one winter. We couldn't even dump one last winter. Let's say we can and do: bring it on! Sign a DH (???) and play Mead at 2B and Anthony in LF. Sign a LF'er (Suzuki/Aroz?) and DH Anthony. Sign a 2Bman (B Lowe?) and DH Mead. I'm in. Then I'd wake up.

I'd have to think Rafaela or Abreu would be the start of any major trade for a big bat- if not Arias. I like Gonzales and Primera, but they do not have the return value of Arias and some of the guys we traded away for Mead & AR, or even the value given up for Gray, Contreras, Durbin & Oviedo. My guess is Brez believes Mead and AR is the upgrade we needed, along with hopes for Anthony to stay healthy and improve. These aren't baseless hopes.

I think notin was the only poster who was satisfied with our offense set up for opening day. Many others wanted better offense but realized we chose to make further gains in other areas to perhaps offset what we knew would be a less than ideal offense. We also made a major trade during the season for Mead. The fact that he got hurt on day one doesn't mean an improvement was not made for 2017 and beyond. We then made a bold and expensive deal to upgrade our Catching position by what looked to be an estimated .100+ OPS (over Narvaez and Wong.) That has been slow to materialize, but AR did better Narvaez's OPS by 153 points. Maybe next season he can hit over .780 or even .800. We might expect double the PAs from Anthony, but someone else might get hurt, so maybe this should not be a consideration. Looking at age-related bell curve estimations, these players should improve- stay the same - or get worse: Improve? .851 Mead .773 Abreu .761 Rafaela .735 Anthony .710 Durbin .688 Rutschman .727 Sogard, .993 Jones, .727 Seigler __________________ Same? .627 Duran .823 Gasper .655 Wong, ,665 Monasterio, .572 Romy, .560 Eaton ___________________________ Worse? .901 Contreras .621 Story .746 Yoshida .679 White ________________________ I'd love to see us add a big bat (LH'd.) I just think replacing or bringing back Gray is #1. #2 might be a pipedream but Morejon would be great. #3 would be an upgraded bat, but after #1 and #2, I'm not sure Brez will have enough for the type of offensive upgrade many feel is essential. We could trust in Crochet to replace Gray and hope for better rotational health, but the league trend is for more and more SP'er IL stints and longer ones.

We need a boost to our offense, what other position do you suggest we trade away who we have or add someone to the mix? DH seems like the common answer, despite having Yoshida, Duran or Anthony, Mead or Story plus platoons involving Gasper, Jones, Romy and maybe Casas.

There are many reasons and excuses for 2 less wins this year. Some could be... 1. Most fWAR lost to injuries in MLB. 2. Too many downturns on offense by key players. 3. Tougher schedule. 4. Fill in the blank __________________/ It's interesting to note that Pythagorean had us at 92 wins last year and 90 this year- same two game difference.

The ALE was better this year. Perhaps that explains 2 less wins. Perhaps not. I'm sure you know what is meaningful.

Except if we advance, this would be reversed: no extra rest for Tolle and +1 for Gray & Suarez.

He has that over Yoshida, for sure.

Story at SS for 2027 would be a crime. If the plan is not to have Arias at SS, it would be a bigger reason for disliking Brez than anything anyone has hated on him about to date. Okay, maybe the Sale deal, but no matter what anyone thinks, there was legitimate cause for that deal. It just turned out Sale went from 5 years of nada to CY contention out of nowhere. We are going nor can we trade Story, so having him at 2B (back-up SS) and Mead at DH (back-up 2B) should be the first adjustment made from the 2026 to 2027 season. Of course Mead at DH further muddies the logjam at DH and to some extent LF (Anthony/Duran and even Jones-Campbell.) The next major order of business will be Sonny Gray. How to bring him back or replace him in kind. We should not just assume Crochet fills Gray's slot and no SP additions are needed. Thinking that would be a second MAJOR black mark against Brez, if it happens. None of this should ba major addition to the budget, even if Gray adds $10M to the Lux tax budget. We lose IKF and Sandoval and need to replace them in kind. The next major choice is something I'm sure will be hotly debated all winter long. Add a big bat or add more quality pitching and/or pitching depth. Maybe we can do both. I doubt Henry allows it, and we've just about run out of young and valuable trade capital.

I said record not dumb playoff seed. HOU 81-81 had the 6th best record. TEX 80-82 was 7th 79-82 BAL (-1.5 from #6) 79-83 TOR (-1.0 GB #7)

Got it. BTW, hoe much worse is Yoshida in OF D than Teoscar?

Is it the best Sox pitcher addition winter you know of? It wasn't the Price winter. Pedro? Beckett? I can't think of another winter with 3 additions close to Gray, Suarez and Bennett, and it was coming off the heals of a Crochet add winter and a Tolle draftee. Brez left some holes, but he had a limited budget and too many holes to fill. In a sense, he was playing whack-a-mole.

We also played a tough schedule as 5 of the top 9 AL teams are in the ALE. BAL & TOR were 1-2 GB being #6 and #7. Last year, we had 2 of the worst 6 AL teams in the ALE.

Trading the DH would mean he's no longer the DH. It's not rocket science. Adding Duran forces Anthony to LF (not an option at DH anymore.)

I don't think he gets DFA'd. He might get non tendered, but I think we sign and trade him. I'd prefer Yoshida-Jones platoon as the back up LF'er and White for CF, Campbell for RF. Use the $8-9M for adding better players than we can without the $9M. It's not even a close call for me. Trade him. If nobody wants him- non tender him. I'm not leaving it to an ard that gives him $8-9M.

I'd prefer Yoshida with one year left, and it's not close, even if we subtract $6M from what Aroz gets.

They wouldn't but they would save little money... Yoshida: 27:$18M Teoscar: 27:$14.5M, 28:$15M club option ($6.5M buyout), 29:$15M conditional option They don't need to save money, so maybe we'd have to include someone like Brannon, JO Garcia, or some bubble guy. How about Yoshida & Duran for TH?

$4M is not muc- agreed. $6M maybe. If we avoid paying Duran $8-9M, that's $13-15M and enough to make an impact singing. We might regret either or both choices, and I fully understand the "proven" point you make: bot have also proven they can be much less than wat we hoped for. I don't really want to DFA Gasper and Jones or Romy. Romy as proven himself, too. I like White, too, and I just think the possible drop off to them plus te $14-15M saved would create a net plus and allow us to arckeep everyone, add 3-4 new players and maybe even add Brannon, Jo Garcia and or Wehunt to the 40. I'm done hoping Duran regains, I wish him well, elsewhere. Yoshida is okay, but if we keep Duran we have Duran/Anthony in LF and Mead/Story at 2B that offer solid DH options better than Gasper/Romy-Jones. I'd prefer Yoshida over Duran.

See my last post. I got it down to 37 (38 if we keep Gray or add a FA SP) Duran, Eaton, Kelly, Samaniego, Burgos, Olds (Keep Duran and shed Jones or Gamboa)