moonslav59

Alcala claimed by STL. How bad is their staff?

He failed in 2024. I said that. Who came even close to awarding him a trophy? He tried on the Sale trade, too, and failed. No trophy there, too.

I rarely go by one season to make statements, and I did say "might be...: He has 50 SBs and 8 CS since 2024. I believe he was only on 1B 94 times, in that period of time.

I think his effort, last deadline, was almost at the level needed. Many of us wanted him to sell, so one could argue he did more than he should/could have done. The fact that Garcia, Sims and Paxton failed does not make Brez look any better, but he did try, and he did get Jansen. This year, we had a better chance at making the playoffs and going further, and he did less. I'm not arguing Brez did well at the deadline- I just don't tend to choose one of many areas someone does not do well at. (Plus, maybe M & M do better than expected- just as the pitchers we got last summer did worse.) I think Brez is going about things the right way, in the overall view. Building depth and quality during the winter is the best strategy. Continually grossly overpaying every deadline, as you seem to suggest is a better strategy, is not a good philosophy, IMO. Are there time you need to throw caution to the wind and go against your overall view? Probably, yes, and I do wish Brez had done more. I'm choosing not to hard on it and talk about little else but that one area of his body of work. He built up a staff that quite honestly should not have needed a deadline deal. He overpaid but did not grossly overpay, this past winter to do just that. The Buehler deal does look like a gross overpay, now, but the Dodgers did offer him the QO. Chapman & Wilson were steals. Bregman was worth it. He's built up a solid everyday player group of players that are young, mostly inexpensive and under team control for 3, 4, 5 or more years, except for Bregman and Refsnyder. The farm is solid and now has hopes that pitchers will start falling from the trees. I agree that obtaining a #2, like Ryan would have made us the AL favorites, and that is no small thing to ignore or sweep under the rug, just because Brez did well, up to the deadline, but GM need to balance the now with the long game. If he fails to land a solid #2, this winter, I will be as critical as you are in this area. We don't know exactly what MIN wanted. If it was Duran or Abreu plus Tolle, I'm not going to blame Brez for saying no. I MIGHT have said yes, butwith extreme reservations. Even if I heard they insisted on Duran or Abreu plus Arias and Sandlin, I would not roast him for saying no, despite me thinking it was a clear yes offer. You do mention some good things, but it always seems like it's an aside or minimal afterthought. The fact is we are better than we have been since at least 2021 and more leikly 2018, and our extended future looks way better than it did in 2018, when the pending "cliff" was being heavily debated.

Bregman to wait to offseason to discuss extension... https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/08/alex-bregman-to-wait-until-offseason-to-discuss-contract.html While Bregman is “obviously…open to talking” at season’s end, the third baseman stressed that “for the next few months, I’m just really focused on the baseball. I’m just focused on trying to do what I can to help this team win and get into the playoffs. I feel like that’s where my head and mind need to be.”

I'm not worried about him, at all.

In general, it's much less costly to make winter deals- not deadline ones. I had wished we had done more, but I'm more than okay with the full body of work from Brez. We had about 10-12 SP'er depth and needed every one of them, including the one he traded away (Priester.) We could have used a 1Bman and a better pitcher(s) than M & M, but gross overpays are just that. BTW, SEA has traditionally had very good pitching staff, and their home field makes them look even better, but this year, they do not. 19th in fWAR, 16th in FIP & 18th in ERA-, all behind the Sox. How can their GM be that short-sighted????

i'm not for giving top prospects for a rental, but 1B rentals are not very costly. We didn't need to get the best- just a platoon 1Bman who can hit .725 and play decent D. No top prospect was needed. On Yoshida, I think we'd have to have paid $12-14M out of the $18M for nothing in return. We could have added someone like Mullins and maybe saved a few more millions. Now that he has just 2 years left, maybe a taker can be found for Yoshida. We could also take back a high priced pitcher with a little hope left in his arm.

He did get Gio, last year and Crochet, Chapman & Bregman, this year. $21M on Buehler blew up, so of course that is all you see and write about. Not many GMs go 10 for 10.

Tolle had a rough first start with Woo. 5 IP, 7H, 5ER, 1BB, 3K (2 HRs) Mata pitched well in relief, but you have to wonder, if his days are numbered with the Sox. Campbell homered in the 6-3 loss. He had 2 hits and a HBP. POR lost 3-1 to drop 3 games under .500. Mullins pitched well (2.28 ERA) Castro is heating up and had 2 hits. GRE won 2-1, as Sansone pitched well. They are 2 over .500. Jo Garcia had an RBI. Mussett had 3 hits. SAL won 8-7 but has no chance of reaching .500. Martin went 4-5, Salazar 3-3 and Gonzales & Azocar each had 2 hits.

Once Max says it's okay to DFA Toro, Brez will comply. Max? You there?????

Who are these "some fans?"

Cut the leash on Toro loose.

We gotta say good bye to Toro. Period.

It would make more sense if the mistake was this and not a mix up in names.

DHam has two useful skills and neither lead him to a starter, even vs RHPs: 1. He may be one of the top 3 base stealers in MLB. 2. He plays plus D at 2B- a position we have sucked in (D & O) for over 5 season. If he is going to be on our 26, that is the only two ways we should use him: PR'er and late inning D at 2B.

He's trolling. Just ignore, and hopefully he'll go away.

Since I use OPS for batters, despite its flaws, I like OPS Against for pitchers.

ERA is not a good indicator for a RP'er effectiveness, as they often come in with 1-2 outs. Slaten's OPS Against shows he's much better than Alcala and most other RP'ers on our staff, when healthy.

I hate the idea or moving Rafaela out of CF, but with our loaded OF and Rafaela a plus defender at 2B, too, I think he should play 2B FT. Maybe Romy can play 2B to give CR a day off, but I'd use Romy at 1B FT, or call Campbell up to play 1B v RHPs.

PR DHam, have him steal 3B and give the team 2 chances for a fly ball or correctly placed ground out and 3 chances for a hit or WP/PB?

I'd swap Abreu with Yoshida in the line-up, but Cora seems to get things like this right more than wrong. L Anthony R Bregman L Duran R Story L Yoshida R Romy (no Toro- thank you, Cora!) L Abreu R Rafaela R Wong

I realize KC was hitting worse than Toro has been for a couple months, but I think we should roll the dice. 2nd option: play Romy at 1B full time.

Top Sox OPS over the last 50 games (2 months) .961 Romy (BAM!) .874 Duran (Who is the clown wanting to trade him!) .867 Bregman (glad you're back) .863 Story (Finally!) .828 Abreu (Steady Wilyer) .826 Anthony (for real) .811 Rafaela (growing sample size of competence- take not, Fred!) .771 Ref (if this is your slump, come back, next year!) .707 Yoshida (leash loosened, recently) .653 Mayer (IL) .611 Narvaez (injured) .557 Toro (5th most PAs is killing us) .453 Wong (doing better on D) .449 DHam (looks like a great PR)

We are 33-17 since June 10th (2 months.) Pitching in these 50 games: 7-1 Giolito 2.43 (IP leader at 67) 6-4 Bello 2.26 (2nd in IP at 64) 7-0 Crochet 2.09 (60 IP) 3-2 Buehler 5.61 (51) Pen 2.08 Whitlock 22 IP 3.10 Murphy 20 0.49 Chapman 18 2.65 Bernardino 17 (demoted) 3.46 Wilson 13