moonslav59

Close, but I agree. I wonder what a Keller offer would have needed to be.

Finally, we dumped Alcala.

DHam is a clear plus on D at 2B. That alone might be enough to pick him over Grissom. DHam has great baserunning skills and can be used to PR, when not in the game. DHam had a nice WAR after a slow start in 2024. Grissom hasn't been good in about 2 years.

If he can fix the 1B problem, I'm all for it. If we trade an OF'er, he could play 1B and be a 4th OF option, too.

As a combined deadline outlook, 2024 was better.

Some think Abreu or Duran PLUS Tolle.

Jansen was a significant addition, at the time. OPS Against Luis Garcia .626 at time on '24 trade (Matz .669) Lucas Sims .741 at time of '24 trade (May .760) Paxton had a 4.43 ERA and a .739 OPSA, when we got him in 2024 (Both better than May's numbers in '25.)

True, but the other three looked better than M &M.

They were afraid their best trade asset would get hurt before pulling the trigger.

I think Jansen, Sims, Garcia & Paxton looked better on paper, on deadline day 2024, than M & M do, now. The 2023 deadline should have been sell, sell, sell. We "sold" Kike and added Urias. Totally lame and worse than 2025, for sure. 2022 was buy & Sell, and we got Abreu. 2021 was better w Schwarber, Robles & Austin and later on, Iggy & T Shaw. 2020 was sell: got Pivetta

Garcia may play RF v L and 1B v R, if Casas sucks or is hurt, again. (Romy plays 1B v L, if not needed at 2B)

Agreed. They both seem to do well as PH'ers, too.

There may be a lack of ML ready position players, but not only for good reason (we just graduated 4 or 'em) but we should not need very many for the next few years, because we have young and or controlled players at nearly every position for 3+ years C: 5+ Narvaez, Wong 3 1B: Casas & Romy 3, Campbell 7+ 2B: Mayer 5+, Campbell 5+, DHam & Grissom 4 (Rafaela) SS: Story 3, Mayer 5+, Romy 3 (Rafaela) 3B: Bregman 1, Mayer 5+, Toro 2 LF: Duran 2, Anthony 5+ CF: Rafaela 6 RF: Abreu 4 DH: Yoshida 2 Garcia replaces Duran in 2 years Anyone can DH for Yoshida 3B is our only need area for 3 years. We have Romero and Arias coming up in 1-3 years. We can move Story or mayer around to make them fit.

I think Garcia is a plus defender, so I'm not sure it's such a good idea putting Password at 1B, but then again, Rafaela, Abreu and Anthony are plus or plus-plus on D, too. (Duran is not bad, either.) I still think we trade an OF'er, this winter, so Garcia might be needed in the OF, either as depth or a RF platoon with Abreu.

I thought of that, this morning. Duh!

This always makes me wonder if the problem actually occurred, when he showed a sharp decline in performance back in 2024, but it was not identified by our crack(head) medical staff for over a year.

Someone posted that Mayer will elect surgery, but I don't find that report anywhere.

I don't think he's lying or that he did not try hard to make better or more deals. I'm a big fan of Brez, and without knowing what was demanded or offered, I can never know for sure if he should have done something different, but I'm thinking I'd have done something more grand, fully realizing it would have been an "overpay" on paper. I'm very happy with Breslow's overall portfolio of moves and choices, including the serious attention he's paid to upgrading pitching on the farm and 26/40 rosters. Had he not added the rotation depth he did, we'd be battling for 4th or 5th place, again. The Chapman and Wilson signings saved our season.

How 4 wins makes some forget the mood of the entire board on trade deadline night. Fred is eternally negative. I'm not. There is still a very significant chance, we look back and say, "What if we did ___ at the deadline." Now that we look like stronger contenders, the impact may end up being more meaningful than we originally thought, and those original thoughts were god-awful. (OK, a few wanted us to sell, sell, sell, but almost everyone else wanted us to do more.) Let's see how M & M do. Let's see how Toro ends the season. Let's see how we deal with no Mayer at 2B. I've been no less optimistic than anyone else on this board. When things were bad, I mostly held the faith. While I don't get upset with Fred as much as many do, the fact is he's been right about us flopping. Eventually, he will be wrong, and it looks like this year might be the time. (I also think he's wrong about Rafaela, and have been on him about it for many weeks.)

Ref and Romy should put to rest any aversions to platoons. It doesn't even matter if Abreu or others starts to hit LHPs, better; these two need to start vs every LH's SP'er.

I was never one to think he would not age well, and maybe this is just a glitch in his twitch.

The AL has no dominant team. All have some serious weak areas and a few minor ones. While 4-5 of the top 7 teams made a serious deadline move, or two, they failed to fix all their issues. We have issues, too. We are not going to win every game, going forward. We will probably hit a rough patch, where some revert back to "fire Cora" and "fire Brez" chants, but I think this team is in it for the long haul. They seem to have grit, but more than anything else, the competition is just not all that good. The Yanks have gone two full months of significantly sub .500 ball. HOU had one winning month. DET seems to be the most consistent team, but they have not risen above the rest. TOR is starting to show its weaknesses. SEA made some bold deadline trades, but for once, their pitching looks suspect, due in part to several injuries. TEX has too many weak areas on offense. I can't see them doing what MVP thinks they might do: get hot. While I had hoped we'd have done better then adding M & M, I do think the moves should help, where needed most. My biggest worry is the 4 & 5 slot in the rotation, and minor areas like a 1B platoon and needing to play Rafaela at 2B, now.

There is not a single poster here that I have not had long debates with, and even the ones I think share most of my views, don't often enough to keep things lively. I get how many get emotional during games. They say things in the heat of the moment, that deep down they know is not really true.admiring I, for one, loved how Bello got through this game, despite how own error and other struggles. I think it helps build character. I'm also admiring how Rafaela is holding tough. He went through years of coaching in the Sox system trying to get him to have better plate discipline and knowledge of the K zone. It seemed like he was getting nowhere, fast. He's still not walking much, but he has improved some, there. He seems to be just hitting the ball more than missing, even if the ball is not in the K zone or where he most likes it. Not all batters are good at hitting pitches all over the plate. He seems to be getting better at that. Maybe it's just luck, and he'll regress back where you think his level is, but maybe not. I'm believing he's for real. On Alcala, I'd have DFA'd him, last week.

You should hear how often I literally laugh, out loud. My wife often asks me what about. Sometimes, I say, "Oh, it's just Fred being Fred." 🤪

When is the last time the Sox were a top 10 MLB team on August 4th? 2018? We are tied for 9th best w SDP and a half game from being tied for 7th w HOU & NYM. We are 2 GB DD's team 3GB a tie for the 2nd best record in MLB behind MIL.