moonslav59

Over Red's dead body, we WILL!

I don't assume anyone is available. I assume everyone is. I assume any GM will listen, when more value is offered than what they give up. (This was not true on the offer here.)

Most of my trades offer more value to the other teams- this one did not. I just rejoined BTV's site, and my trades see more thumbs down on the Sox side than the other side. Nice try,

Why are you straining to try and find a way for us to go light this offseason? We need to improve to increase our chances at winning. Right now, we are not back to even with 2025 on offense or defense. Yes, we seemingly have 8 positions filled, but talk of Rafaela at 2B is not a good idea. To me, we need K Marte, with the next tier of Bregman, Bichette or maybe Paredes as acceptable. Anything less, and we go into 2026 looking worse or even on paper.

Old Fred & Red Lynn

Fred or Red?

LOL

Sign Okamoto. Trade Mayer, Rafaela & Holobetz for Greene Trade DHam, Valera and Cespedes for Donovan ____________________________ 1. L Anthony CF 2. R Okamoto 3B 3. L Duran LF 4. R Contreras 1B 5. L Abreu RF 6. R Story SS 7. L Donovan 2B 8. L Yoshida/L Casas/ R Romy DH 9. R Narvaez C SP: Crochet, Greene, Gray, Bello, Sandoval/Oviedo (Tolle/Early) RP: CHapman, Whitlock, Slaten, Crawford, Harrison, Weissert, Hicks, Watson

...and number 3, too, apparently.

I think Paredes will have a career year in 2026, and might have a better 2026 OPS than any current Sox player. (Anthony, Duran, Abreu and Contreras should be close.) Fangraphs projects: .802 Anthony (19 HRs in 630 PAs) .798 Paredes (20 Hrs in 455 PAs) .788 Abreu (22 Hrs in 525) .784 Contreras (25 in 609) .761 Duran (16 in 602)

Hopefully, we are not done adding to the offense, but here is a look at the 2025 numbers, by position, and what we might look like, as of now at each slot: C: .653 I think we can improve on this, maybe with a little regression from Narvaez, but .650+ from Wong. 1B: .691 This might be our best chance at improvement with the addition of Contreras. If Contreras can bring the 1B OPS up to .791, we could add 100 points here. 2B: .670 This might be the toughest position to project. I'm assuming Mayer is at 3B and we go with romy, DHam & Sogard at 2B. .670 might be too lofty a goal, but maybe call it even. SS: .736. I'm expecting some Story regression, but maybe no by too much. Maybe his sub (Mayer) can help keep the overall OPS near .740. 3B: .777 With Mayer at 3B, we could easily lose 50 to .75 points, here. LF: .781 Call it the same. CF: .774 Maybe about the same. RF: .882 Should be about the same. DH: .823 If we go with LHBs Masa & Casas and RHB Romy & Campbell we might be lucky to keep the drop off to .25 to .50 points. If we get lucky, maybe the add at 1B cancels out the losses at 3B and DH, but we'll need almost perfect health and no serious regressions to keep our offense about the same as 2025. Remember, we needed help on offense in '25. We still do!

We sorely need to replace Devers' power. Contreras on O might replace Lowe & Bregman's O, but we still have to replace Devers + Ref.

Kluber had done better the previous season than Richards did. Both cost $10M/1.

No. He says making predictions is pointless and worthless.

How about... Duran & Harrison to PHI Painter & DHam to AZ KMarte & T Banks to BOS

We hashed this over and over, at the time of the trade. Some stats and metrics show he's a #1 or #2, if you go by top 30 or top 60. Some show he's a #3 or #4. I'd say he's okay as a #2. I'd have preferred better. Even Brez avoided saying he was a #2. Gray is old and showing some decline. With older pitchers I don't count three year averages as much as the last 1-2 years, but here are some key numbers with various recent sample size. 2025 Only: (you need a sample size of 80 IP to get the total to near 150.) 3.6 fWAR is 20th- a clear #1 or great #2! 3.39 FIP ranks 22nd, again a clear #1. (He's 54th in WHIP- a lower #2.) 104 ERA- ranks 82nd and that is a lower level #3. (91st is a #4.) I'd call him a #2 for 2025 but worry if he declines more, he's more like a #3 (with Bello.) 2024 to 2015 (150+ IP qualifies) 77th in ERA- at a pedestrian 100. (#3) 41st in WHIP (#2) 7.4 fWAR is an amazing 14th and a top tier #1! 3.26 FIP is also 14th. 2.95 xFIP ranks 5th behind Crochet, Skubal, Sale & Skenes!!!!! I'd say that makes him a solid #2 with worries about serious age decline.

Involve a third team, if they don't want Duran or Rafaela. Duran to PHI, Painter and Harrison to AZ.

I think DHam is a fine back-up or platoon 2Bman. It's Red who cringes everytime I say his name. He plays solid 2B defense. He may be a top 5 baserunner in MLB. He did not hit well in 2025 or for parts of 2024, but he offers some hopes vs RHP. I would not be happy starting the season with Mayer at 3B and DHam/Romy at 2B, but I guess is we made a trade of an OF'er +++ for a second ace or solid #2, I could live with it. As for Paredes, I suggested Rafaela for Paredes plus one of HOU's LH'd RP'ers. I'm not sure I'd trade Duran for Paredes plus 2 of their LHPs. Much of the hype on Paredes is speculative, but the RHB has put up some very nice numbers since 2023: 1650 PAs: .246/.350/.443/.793 (similar to Contreras in 2025.) per 162 games, which has been an issue: .246 29 94 I'm not sure if Fenways helps him get to 35+ Hrs, but I can see it. He turns 27, soon and is in peak prime.

Like a top 10 batter is a bad word.

He thinks he's a fluke. Although his offense may drop off some, if he doesn't adjust to the adjustments, but his defense is solid. Here is the catcher set-up projected by soxprospects.com to start 2026: MLB: Narvaez, Wong w Contreras as emergency of late inning shift/fill-in. AAA: Jason Delay, ronald Rosario & Enderso Lira AA: (Promising) Jo Garcia (highest catcher prospect ranked at 26) & Hudson White, plus Brooks Brannon ranked 45th (mostly 1B) A+ (Not as bad as some think) Adonys Guzman (added and ranked 31st), Ronny Hernandez, Raudelis Martinez A- (Got a lot brighter) Luke Heyman (added and ranked 32nd), Kleyver Salazar, Geraldo Rodriguez (58th) FCL: Franklin Primera (promising but NR) & Jorge Rodrigues (ranked 43rd) We have a ranked prospect at all levels below AAA, and we have 3 vets who can catch on the 26 man roster. Look away: no catcher issues in 2026.

If we want the better offensive team, we'd trade Rafaela ($6.3M AAV) and maybe Crawford ($2.7M) for KMarter ($15M AAV.) That's only adding $6M to the tax line- right up JH's alley. If we want to keep the defense and longer-controlled Rafaela, we can trade Duran ($7.7M) and maybe Harrison (min) for KMarte. This adds about $7M to the tax line. 1. L Anthony CF 2. S KMarte 2B 3. L Duran LF 4. R Contreras 1B 5. L Abreu RF 6. R Story SS 7. L Yoshida/Casas DH & R Romy DH/3B 8. R Narvaez C 9. L. Mayer 3B Losing Crawford lessens the SP'er depth even more, but with Tolle/Early, I think we'll be fine: SP: Crochet, Gray, Bello, Sandoval, Oviedo (Harrison from pen) AAA: Tolle, Early, Sandlin, Uberstine, Drohan, Mullins, Gamboa RP: Chapman, Whitlock, Slaten, Weissert, Harrison, Hicks, Kelly, Watson/ AAA: Moran, Mullins & other SP'ers in AAA, like Samaniego, Anderson, Song, Harris, Berrios, Wu-Yelland

i'm not suggesting JH agrees to one, but I keep coming back to one guy and one guy only. Not Bregman at 4, 5 or 6 years. Not Bichette at 5, 6 of 7+ years. It's Ketel Marte with an AAV due to deferrals of about $15M a year. Yes, he breaks the no long deals for anyone over 30, but if we are to "break the mold," I'd go with him. I think the closest we might come is Okamoto or Suarez. Even those two might be pipedreams, unless Suarez take 1-2 years, or Okamoto signs a deal like Murakami's.

Once again, you miss the point: One who never makes predictions and doesn't even believe in them cannot later say they predicted something correctly. One can try, but the claims ring hollow.

That will teach the Sox to never sign a guy like Bregman before asking your diva, if it's okay.

So, Mayer replaces Bregman. 300 more PAs from Anthony replaces Refsnyder. Healthy Casas and Masa replace Devers. The only one that works for me is Contreras replacing N Lowe, Tore & Co. at 1B. On the pitching side... Gray is fine replacing Giolito. Sandoval, Oviedo, Crawford, Harrison & Co should easily replace Buehler, Houck, Fitts, Dobbins & Co. Watson and converted SP'ers replace Bernardino, Murphy, Criswell, Guerrero & Co. That's a lot of moving parts from a team that was a few injuries and decent pitching from our $21M pitcher (Buehler) from maybe doing something very special.