moonslav59

It was not intended, and I don't think player leadership is over-rated.

Cason homered twice in FCL's first game.

Maybe Story ends up having the same fate as Devers, except some money will have to be included in the dump. (How many teams want Story? Hint: the number is very rounded.)

How about the Pirates? 18-16 and in last place. 7 batters over .710 6 batters over .750, 5 over .770 and 4 over .815 Their two top batters were under-the-radar winter additions: .895 B Lowe .888 O'Hearn Remind me who is their baseball operations guy? ---------------------------------- How about those 20-13 Cardinals, wo traded away much of their veteran leaders (Contreras, Gray, Arenado & Donovan)? Who is the guy in charge there? ---------------------------------- Note: this is not meant as a wish we still have Ben or Chaim in charge. This is just a public service announcement.

We have limited options, but yes, we keep playing the cold bats and on top of that, they bat in the top 3 slots almost exclusively. How long is the leash? Yoshida is at .321 OPS since April 21st. Maybe an extreme line-up shake-up could send a message, but I'm not sure Yoshida deserves to play more. Bat Duran 9th maybe? Move Anthony to the 5 slot? Who bats 1-2-3-4 besides Contreras and Abreu? Maybe try Mayer & Rafaela? Hell, .650 and .700 beats .550 by a lot.

There are some obvious reasons why some our worst performers have gotten more playing time than others doing better, but I do wonder sometimes if sticking with these guys is the best philosophy. (Also moving them down in the line-up or trying them in the pen is another option over benching.) OPS listed in order of most PAs: OPS Against in order of most PAs against: SP'ers .723 Early (151 PAs Against- his control issues need to be fixed) .818 Crochet (138- to have any chance, we need him back and in form) 1.074 Bello (133- may be demoted to pem AAA or IL when Gray returns) .553 Suarez (132- is now our "ace.") .743 Gray (99- may come off IL on Wednesday) .532 Tolle (42- looks to own a rotation slot, now) .794 Bennett (20- deserves another start or two?) 1.378 Oviedo (18- on 60 Day IL) --------------------------- RP'ers .851 Watson (96- much as mop up) .573 Moran (76- surprising as #2 in IP) .857 Weissert (56-sucked early on) .685 Whitlock (51- mostly high leverage) .549 Kelly (46- surprisingly low OPSA) .515 Samaniego (41- might pitch more going forward) .573 Chapman (37- still getting the job done) .736 Coulombe (36- meh) .713 Anderson (32- yo-yo w Woo) .452 Slaten (14- can't stay healthy) 1.064 Uberstine (11- on IL) .200 Eduardo Rivera (10- may get another look-see) _______________________ The Offense: .545 Story (139 PAs- this needed to change) .846 Contreras (137- Mr. Steady) .849 Abreu (135- as been moved up in the line-up) .683 Anthony (124- not really any better options) .520 Durbin (118- do we have a better 3Bman?) .517 Duran (117- has batted very high in line-up when playing) .703 Rafaela (112- should play more and maybe bat higher?) .661 Mayer (92- no better option) .609 Narvaez (70- mix w Wong) .727 Yoshida (60- maybe play over Duran?) .678 Monasterio (48- play over Durbin/Story more?) .692 Wong (47- mix w Narvaez) .499 IKF (37- has not played much)

Yes, it was. GG is a great poster and offers unique and sometimes funny and entertaining insights. I don't always agree, but he makes sense and offers supporting ideas when challenged.

No Story today. Duran LF .394 last 7 days/.513 last 14 days Contreras 1B 1.021 last 7 days/.798 last 14 days Anthony DH .675 last 7/ .658 last 14 days Abreu RF .900 last 7/ .815 last 14 days Monasterio SS .286 last 7/ .656 last 14 days Mayer 2B .666 last 7/ .846 last 14 days Rafaela CF .684 last 7/ .654 last 14 days Narvaez C .644 last 7/ .933 last 14 days Durbin 3B .473 last 7/ .656 last 14 days

I agree with Fred a lot.

So, it's impossible that your winter moves were a plus, but the team still plays worse? It's not obvious. We agree, he left a gaping hole on a power bat, but you'd have been fine with his winter moves had he signed Alonso and all his actual moves, right? We coulda signed Alonso & Bregman plus not changed any other moves except the Durbin trade, and you'd have been thrilled. (We might have one more win.) Would it have been "obvious" he was a failure had this happened, too? If yes, then your ideas were failures, too.

Is one year clearly better than the other? 2025: The Crochet deal & Chapman signing were fantastic- the rest is TBD or bad Traded for: Crochet (Teel, Montgomery, Meidroth, Wikelman) Narvaez (ER-C) Fajardo (Booser) Moran (Gasper) Signed: Buehler ($21M) Sandoval ($19M) Chapman ($11M) Wilson(2.3M) _______________________________ 2026:: Left a big hole on a power bat but fortified the pitching (on paper) Traded for: Gray (Fitts & Clarke) Contreras (Dobbins, Fajardo & Aita) Oviedo, Guzman & Samaniego (JhGarcia & Travieso) Bennett (Perales) Durbin, Monasterio, Comp pick & Seigler (Harrison, DHam & Drohan) Ziehl (Hicks, Sandlin) TGray, RHern,Ward, Heyman & Jackson (Bernardino, Murphy, LGuerrero, Hoppe, Grissom) Signed: Suarez ($26M) Chapman ($13M) _____________________________ Much is still TBD, and I did not count in season trades from 2025, like Priester & Newcomb and Matz & DMay.

Wow! What a race! Last to first, and it looked like Golden Tempo was 7 or 8 lengths back heading into the final stretch. Shazam!

Since the 1932 season, when the Sox went 43-111 (.279) here are the worst losing percentages: .394 2026 .400 2020 .422 1960 .438 2014 .444 1966 .447 1943 .448 1954 .451 1992

Everyone agrees, except maybe notin. We don't agree Bregman filled the big bat need. He made some very bad adds in 2025 and left holes then, too. With a limited budget that happens, a lot.

Breg is an all star: I agree. He's not an all star bat based on two good half years in 4 seasons.

The budget was not limitless. He did fine with what he was given.

Yes on Alonso, and I think if you look at all the suggested signings by posters here, Alonso might have been #1, Bregman #2 and who knows #3? (Bichette/Schwarber?)

No, but calling Bregman an All Star bat is very debatable. 2019-2026 27th in MLB in OPS .833: That's good but not great. (131 in wRC+ is #21 and close to great.) 2024-2026 47th at .784: That's barely top third tier (46 out of 145 qualifiers- he's 47th in wRC+ at 119)

MLBTR reports... Sonny Gray threw a three-inning live batting practice session on Friday, in what could be the last step before his activation from the 15-day IL. Gray hasn’t pitched since April 20 due to a hamstring strain, but the injury is seemingly minor enough that Gray could be back in Boston’s rotation as early as Wednesday.

Not much talk about adding Capra to the 40 and 26. He went 2 for 3 with a 2B & BB today to bring his seasonal OPS to 1.072. Eaton went 0-5 w 4Ks. Castro & Hickey homered but both remain below .581. Sansone got lit up in the WOO loss.

While some cringe when these numbers are posted over and over, here is an updated list of 2026 OPS: 1.271 Rushing (remember the notin suggestion of Duran for him?) .974 Max Muncy (not much talk about him) .973 Nate Lowe (why can't we ever get guys like him?) .967 Murakami (can't hit fastballs) .955 Donovan (a Cardinal we didn't trade for) .941 CJ Abrams (not really available) .937 Schwarber (make more room for another DH) .926 Yandy Diaz (was mentioned before Willson trade) .925 Dom Smith (for real?) .917 V Grissom (LOL) .884 Jeffers (this guy can hit) .872 O'Hearn (another notin mention) .865 B Lowe (8 HRs) .861 Willson .835 Hoerner .828 Abreu .812 Andujar .795 Shaw ________________ .769 Bogey .767 Dubon .763 Tristan Gray .757 Arenado .751 Hoskins .745 Paredes .740 Neto & Seager .732 Alonso (6 HRs) .730 Okamoto .711 Bregman .710 Betts .706 Teoscar .700 Arraez .696 Realmuto & G Torres .692 Kyle Tucker & .681 Meidroth .665 KMarte & .663 E Suarez .653 O'Neill & .650 Josh Bell ________________________ .644 Vientos & .640 Brice Matthews .637 DHam & .636 Willi Castro .631 R Lewis & .624 Matt McLain .618 Josh Naylor & .614 Chisholm .613 Moncada .602 Bichette .594 W Adames & .579 Stott .563 Semien & .544 Rengifo _________________________ .540 DEVERS .539 E Tovar .511 Refsnyder & .504 Ozuna .446 Bohm

i'm assuming they know it would have been Schwarber vs Suarez or Schwarber vs IKF and no Gray trade. Also, absolutely zero Alonso talk, although he was mentioned more than Schwarber and anyone else not named Bregman.

None of these guys are Brez additions. While many wanted Duran traded, and some worried about further Story regression on defense and him not matching 2025 offense, we realized he was not going to be replaced in the line-up. (Some wanted a position flip.) Everybody wanted Anthony playing FT. While many thought we should not count on him as a top 2-3 batter, we expected better than this. These three are a major issue, but we can't ignore how over 150 PAs from Durbin & IKF have really hurt, too. Durbin as expected to be .675-.700 and IKF .625-.650ish. Both have done much worse. Wong took up some slack from the Narvaez dip, but now Narvaez is coming around as Wong is slumping a bit. Contreras, Abreu, Mayer and Rafaela have been doing close to what was expected, except for maybe Ceddanne's drop on defense in CF.

This is why I kinda shudder when I hear that "Brez provided Cora with crap." I think he improved the roster from 2025 on paper and in actual current stats. Yes, the offense was not the focus point many wanted, but again we should look at what were the other options many of us wanted instead of Contreras, Durbin, IKF & Monasterio? Most have flopped, under performed or not done better than Contreras. While the last 3 have not done well, so far, they still look about the same as many much higher paid winter options. IMO, this is why the blame was placed on the manager and coaches- rightly or wrongly. Lord knows we can't blame the players.

I'm not sure there was an order of choices. I'm thinking they went into this thinking "Let's clean house and who should we keep around." They might have wanted to can VTek but worried about their precious image. I doubt the upper brass thought about including Brez, but maybe they did.