moonslav59

Maybe I need to start bashing every Sox player!

The replay shows his eyes were closed! LOL! (That homer is still not enough to get him over .600 since his 9 game hot streak.)

He's young, but I agree. Also, is anyone else worried about Crochet leading the league in IP, after being babied last year? He's 4th in batters faced at 565.

Book it! Chapter and verse!

$10M out of $27M- just about the same as Gio's contract.

RF: Abreu- Refsnyder DH: Anthony 1B: Campbell- Romy (both RHBs) 2B: Mayer-Romy or RF: Abreu-Anthony DH: Anthony-Refsnyder 1B: same as above Yoshida's time expired for 2025, IMO, but as long as Mayer is out, he can DH v RHPs.

Yes, JH's wallet.

We are 10th in road OPS. Is that a tree that stands out in a forest? Our offense is good, but it's not 4th or 5th best.

The never ending Story!

Romy and Ref are lefty killers. To those who dislike platoons, take note!

Ooops

Here is a comp between the 2025 and 2021 Red Sox: Rotation: (BWAR) listed by IP EDGE 2025 3 to 2 Crochet 4.6> Nate 4.3 Bello 1.7> ERod 1.7 Pivetta 2.5> Buehler -1.2 Giolito 0.6> M Perez 0.4> Sale 0.9 Richards 0.2> Houck 1.5> Newcomb -0.2>Dobbins 0.3> Fitts -0.3 Pen: EDGE 2021 (3 to 1 with 4 equal), but it doesn't seem right, to me Chapman 2.3> Barnes 1.1 '21 Whitlock 2.8> '25 Whitlock 1.1 Weissert 0.5 = Ottavino 0.8 Josh Taylor 1.2> Bernardino 0.2 Sawamura 0.8= Wilson 0.4 DHern 0.9> Slaten 0.0>Kelly -0.6 Valdez -0.2> Robles 0.5= Guerrero 0.0>Murphy 0.3 Andries -0.6> Rios 0.4= -0.1 Criswell & 0.0 Alacla ___________________ Everyday Players: 2025 +5, 2021 +3, Equal 1 C: Narvaez 2.9> Vaz 1.2/ Plawecki 0.2 1B: Toro 0.4+ Romy 1.3> Dalbec 0.3 2B: Marwin -0.3> Arroyo 1.5> KC -0.8>Mayer 0.2+ DHam 0.3 SS: Bogey 5.2> Story 2.3 3B: Bregman 3.3> Devers 3.6 LF: Duran 3.3> Verdugo 2.2 CF: Kike 4.9= Rafaela 3.7 RF: Abreu 2.6 + Ref 1.2> Renfroe 2.4 DH: JD 3.2> Devers 2.3>Yoshida -0.1 Gotta give the edge to 2025.

I think it's time to move the game thread back to the #1 slot.

Did Brez shop Buhler?

I wish we'd see an upgrade over Toro at 1B vs RHPs (70% of our games.) 1B is a hitter position. Sub .600 needs an upgrade. Call up Campbell!

I'm seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. The trade for Crochet rivals the Sale, Beckett, Schilling and Pedro trades, but has a way to go. On this past winter FA signings: Buehler: bust, so far. Sandoval: TBD Chapman: Great! Wilson: Great for the money. (The 2024 Gio signing has moved from the bust column to pretty decent in 2025.) Yes, the Sale & Priester trades look horrible and the Buehler & Hendriks signings look real bad. I can't blame anyone for not believing in a farm change with pitching, until we see it, but isn't Bello, Dobbins, Crawford and Houck about as good as we've seen from the farm in over a decade? It's still not great, but it's not bad, either. While Fitts, Slaten, Whitlock, Wink and others were "developed" more by other clubs, we did get them as prospects. The emphasis on drafting,increased IFA signing bonuses and trading for prospect pitching has taken an enormous step up, and we now see 3 of our top 4 prospects as pitchers and 7 of our top 9 (Tolle, Perales, Witherspoon, then Clarke, Valera, Early & Sandlin. We also have 9 pitchers ranked #10-27th (Phillips, Eyanson, Paez, Fajardo, Uberstine, Mullins, Delzine, Wehunt & Cason.) Don't be surprised if some of the pitchers jump into the top 20 or 30, soon: Holobetz, J Bello, Monegro, Aita, Travieso, Ingrassia, Foutch, Futrell, Morgan, Tygart, Neely, D Reyes or Patton. The effort is there, now.

That is likely a fact, especially since 2020. Even the Price signing looks bad on paper. (Nate was technically a FA signing, but I don't really count that one.) Lackey was no big prize. We can maybe go back 10-12 years or more.

You gotta see some merit in this idea: We can only play 3 OF'ers at a time, and unless Rafaela plays 2B or someone DHs, one of our 4 OF'er sits, every game and offers zero value, except as a PH. The theory is this: Our 4th OF'er gets downgraded from 1 of the 4 to Garcia or Yoshida/Ref. The 3rd OF'er gets "downgraded" from Duran or Abreu to Anthony. The worst SP'er (Buehler, Fitts, Criswell) gets upgraded to _____ (Ryan? Keller?) Does the upgrade at pitching outweigh the possible downgrade at OF3 and OF4? You may disagree with the idea, but I think you have to see merit in the idea. It doesn't always work out as planned, of course. Rafaela at 2B might save our season, if Mayer does not return. I felt the same about Grissom being an large enough upgrade at 2B to offset the risky Sale in our rotation, and we all saw how that one worked out.

Yup, more than 25M a year x 8.

True, but ultimately Brez would not raise the offers or accept less than what was offered for anyone else. I gotta believe we could have gotten better than May & Matz by adding 1-2 Mullins, Paez, Wehunt, Monegro, Blies, Cespedes or Castro. For a rental, I can understand not adding Jh Garcia, Romero, Early or Sandlin. I agree. We will likely never know many of the specifics offers made to us and turned down.

3.49 is better than most team's #2s and 3's and some #1s. The OPSA, WHIP and FIP are more in line with an okay #3 and decent #4/5.

Agree. I am very happy with Brez, despite the Sale and Priester trades and a disappointing deadline day. I like our team and really like our future outlook. IMO, Brez did nothing to hurt our future at the deadline, so that part is fine. I think he'll get bold, this winter with signings and a big trade or two.

We seemingly got more for Devers than we did in any other vet trade since maybe Betts, but the again Jeter Downs sucked. Okay, Vaz for Abreu was better. We got Wink & Franchy for Beni. We got DHam & JBJ for Renfroe. We got Fitts and Weissert for Dugo. (Is that better than Harrison, Hicks, Tibbs and J Bello?) We got Grissom for Sale (not a prospect) I see the trade as largely a salary and attitude dump. I do think they feel we will end up with a couple plus players, perhaps Harrison and Bello. Hicks was a flyer and partial salary offset. Tibbs is already gone for a rental.

I think he can be "faulted" for being reluctant to trade an OF'er, when we have 4+ of them, but it is "understandable. (I think one gets traded, this winter, so it might not be based on "reluctance." I may have been based on the idea that Rafaela may be needed at 2B more than any of us want that to be. I agree on not trading top pitching prospects for a rental anything, but trading one or more for a controlled pitcher would change that dynamis, to me. I know it's easy to speak in theory, but I think we could have added someone like Mullins, Paez, Monegro or Wehunt to get a slightly better pitcher(s) than Matz and May. I would not have added Early or Valera for a better rental. Sandlin, maybe. Not Tolle or Perales, for sure. I also wonder what adding Garcia or Romero might have netted us. I doubt adding Castro, Cespedes or even Blies would have given us a big uptick, but who knows.

Criswell was much better as a SP'er in 2024. 3.49 as SP (.726 OPSA) in 85 IP 7.53 as RP (.900) in 14 IP Tiny 2025 sample size: 1.29 SP in 7 IP 5.06 RP in 11 IP Career: 3.54 in 97 IP as SP (.739 OPSA) 6.05 in 58 IP as RP (.864)