moonslav59

These September swoons are now commonplace, and it's not like a GM can go out and try to add players that do well in September.

But why does recency matter for some but not him. Recently, you have been giving very small recent sample sizes to back up your opinions- many much smaller than Mead's last 300+ PAs

No. He's not on the MLB HOF.

Not in the HOF. Neither is Dewey or Tiant.

He responded to the part that said "proven playoff performer." I don't think he meant to downplay what he does during the season. I'd rather have Aroz than Yoshi, but that's not where the money needs to be spent, IMO.

It's no secret my feelings on Duran, but what a joy it is to watch him score that run that maybe nobody else in MLB would have done.

Does Pablito ring a bell? Hey, Yoshida and Story- two guys many of us want traded did well in the playoffs!

We're saving the mojo for next week.

4 in 1973: Aparicio, Cepeda, Fisk and Yaz 4 in 1974: Marichal, Rice, Fisk and Yaz 3 in 1975: Rice, Fisk and Yaz 4 in 1976-1977: Jenkins, Rice, Fisk and Yaz 4 in 1978-1979: Eckersley, Rice, Fisk and Yaz 5 in 1980: Tony Perez, Eckersley, Rice, Fisk and Yaz

I've heard the stories. I lived in Milwaukee at the time.

Old School... AL 18-5 2.72 Gray 16-5 2.67 Rassmussen 15-5 2.94 N Martinez 14-6 1.94 Schlitter 11-6 2.40 Cease 12-9 2.55 Messick NL 18-6 2.93 C Sanchez 15-5 1.86 Misiorowski 14-5 2.87 Luzardo 15-7 2.89 ERod 14-8 2.51 Yamamoto 14-9 2.16 Sale

Jimmy P was from before my time as a Sox fan, but I sure remember Lee fondly.

Good summary. Nobody like the idea of relying on 4-5 dark horses as ML depth, but we do have Houck, Crawford and Oviedo ahead of them.

Remember the Bill Lee 10 hit shut outs? This kinda feels like that in reverse.

Before the streak.... Crochet still had more IP than Bennett. Early was second in IP. Watson was 6th on the team in IP. Samaniego (20) Coulombe (18) Kelly (16) Anderson (8) and Kahnle (7) had more combined IP than Whitlock (25) , Chapman (22) and Guerrero (13) combined. Mayer (224) Yoshida (169) Narvaez (145) were top 9 in PAs.

SPs calls his fastball a "plus offering," so maybe that is will determine his outcome. They claim he tops out at 96 but is in the 92-94 range. He'd better have some movement or precise control to make that a plus, IMO. They rank his slider, curve and change-up as below average. They say he will most likely make it as a RP'er. Kinda scary when he's the second highest ranked pitcher over 18 in the system. Valera is high but called a "high variance prospect" by SP. To me, Holobetz, Paez, Wehunt and Bastardo are all best viewed as pen depth. Our AAA rotation is not impressive. Ziehl might have the best chance at sticking to a starter role.

I get it. Many of the guys helping in that streak weren't really playing much or at all before the streak. I also view the returning IL pitchers in a much better light than I did Sandoval, Buehler, Giolito, Hendriks, Paxton, Kluber, Richards and okay guys like Wacha and Hill.

Looking at ages and recent trends, could we expect these 2027 OPS? .850 Contreras (down from .905 for the 35 y/o) .800 Abreu (up from .785 for the in-prime 28 yr-old) .800 Mead (26 y/o who hit .850 this half year.) .800 Anthony (23 y/o with a .792 career OPS) .760 Rafaela (staying the same at age 26 seems okay) .750 Rutschman (will be 29 and hitting .737 now) .750 Yoshida (will be 33 and is near his numbers now) .735 Sogard (29 and the same) .730 Seigler (28 and the same) .700 Story (34 and has a .714 OPS ince 2025 & .705 w BOS) Duran, Gasper, Wong, Jones, Romy, Monasterio & others are too hard to project.

I want to be clear though. We won't have a great offense, unless we don't have hardly any injuries and almost everyone gels in the same season. That's more hope than good strategy, but I'm thinking our pitching and defense should be good enough to carry a #6-12 offense to a ring. Part of passing on getting a big bat is based on bringing Gray back or maybe signing Nick Martinez and Morejon over signing a big bat and one decent arm.

I'm curious why some recent short sample sizes mean a lot to you but others are highly questionable. I'm not busting your you-know-what, but we gave up Early for this guy, and counting his first few years is often not a good way to judge how good someone is. I'm not saying I have no doubts on Mead. I had some with early, too. His 75 OPS+ before 2026 is scary, but it was just 445 ABs. His 285 PAs in 2026 is not far away from the total (142 OPS+.) The guy could have hit .200 over the 160 B difference and still have a very nice OPS+. He's no Schwarber. I doubt he'll be KMarte. He should, however, be a major boost over the .673 OPS we had this year at 2B. I'm also hopeful AR will greatly improve our .627 Catcher OPS. If we can gain 100 points at both positions, it's the same as upgrading one slot by 200 points. Like DH from .761 to .961.

Other teams had more than "more stars," too. Look at that Reds team! The Yanks of the mid to late 70's.

I agree. There is no Schwarber or Alonso, this year. To get a major upgrade on O, it would have to be a trade. We've already traded as much youth (or more) than I'm comfortable with, so it would have to 2 starters for one upgrade and then rely on bench pieces to not be big drop offs that wipe out the projected gain. We won't get anything for Yoshida, Duran and or Story, but 1 from from Mead or Arias plus one from Anthony, Abreu or Rafaela would. Is that what anyone wants? We'd be relying on Duran (Jones/White) and Story Seigler/Monasterio) to make up for the two losses. Looks like one step up and two steps back. Wanna trade Primera or Gonzales, instead? I doubt one of the 4 vets plus Valera gets us a stud, unless it's Abreu or Anthony we trade.

White and Jones are the only "bubble players" without options. Mead, Story & Contreras are the other everyday players without options. To me, the bench is about as solid as any team can be. When I look at the starting 9, it looks solid. It does lack star power and is kinda heavy on RHBs. The stronger platoon bats on the bench are mostly RHBs, too (Romy & Jones, but Gasper & Duran offer some hope vs RHPs.) I'm certainly not against adding a major bat. I'm just trying to be realistic about just how much budget space Brez will be given this winter, and am feeling like what we have left to trade is not good enough to being a star power player back. Now, we could trade one of our starting nine, add a player/prospects or two and hope for a decent upgrade, but 3 for 1 trades are not as easy as they look. If the idea is to make a solid boost to the offense, it makes sense to look at our weakest offensive positions. Not 1B (Contreras), RF (Abreu) or LF (Anthony) I doubt middle infield (Mead, Story & Arias plus a bench that can hit okay) That leaves C (Rustchman, who we just gave up 2 arms and a leg to get) CF (Rafaela- our 1 and 2 year WAR leader) and DH (Where we pay Yoshida $18M and have Anthony to DH, if Duran plays LF or Mead to DH, if Arias and Story are the middle infielders.) Which one do you upgrade? Catchers are very expensive (see what 1.3 years of AR costs) CF'ers are not a dime a dozen, but many teams would gladly trade a big bat for Rafaela plus decent add-ons. DH seems easiest, especially if we can dump Yoshida, Story & Duran. That would make Anthony the LF'er. Arias the SS, Mead the 2Bman and still leave us with decent depth for everyone. We'd get nothing but maybe $3-5M salary relief for Yoshida. That's fine. We'd get nothing but $4-7M salary relief for Story, if we find a taker. We can just non tender Duran and save his estimated $7-9M arb cost- or sign and trade him for scraps. Let's assume we can trade all 3 and get nothing of value in return, except maybe $16-19M added budget space. That could be enough to allow us to make 2 significant signings and one trade: SP (Gray) Bat ______ (Rafaela + Duran + ______ for __________) RP (Morejon)

While I agree, I think Mead will provide a big boost. Full seasons from Anthony, Story & AR could help a lot, too, but of course someone will get hurt. We do have nice depth. Assume these are the starters: C AR 1B Contreras 2B: Story SS: Arias 3B: Durbin LF Anthony CF: Rafaela RF: Abreu DH Mead The bench would be... C: Gasper/Wong 1B: Romy/Gasper/Casas (Mead) 2B: Seigler, Rodgers (Mead/Sogard) SS: Sogard, Cheng (Story/Monasterio) 3B: Monasterio, Romero LF: Duran, Jones (Yoshida) CF: White, Ward (Duran) RF: Campbell (White/Ward/Gonzales) DH: Yoshida, Brannon, Jo Garcia (KC)

I have to think Gray enjoyed this season with a playoff team. There is no way to know for sure, or to know how much returning to BOS means to Sonny. Maybe we can lock him up before he reaches free agency. that might take a 2-3 year deal (2 with a hefty buy out on a 3rd year might be enough.) Trevor Rogers? He's 28 and will get a mega deal. To me, Nick Martinez at age 36 might be the only other starter Brez could be allowed to sign. Morejon for the pen would be great, and maybe we sign him and then try to stockpile rotation depth, but we'd be relying on Oviedo, Crawford and Houck to be the 5-6-7s. 1. Tolle 2. Suarez 3. Bennett 4. Bello Too risky for my liking.