moonslav59

Very satisfying win. Mayer and Rafaela with bigs hits. That pitch Rafaela hit was a nice pitch, but the guy is in a groove. The pen looked sweet.

Hmmm.... 🤪

I gotta say, I'm pretty much done with giving Buehler any more chances. If anybody wants him, trade him for nothing. Give some money, if needed.

Tolle's ERA is down to 1.93, now. Song pitched two scoreless innings. (1.96 ERA in AA) Clarke struggled through 2.2 IP, tonight. Futrell went 4 IP, allowing 1 ER (2.49) but 5 hits and 2 BB. Fajardo is through 3 allowing 1 hit, o ERs and 1BB.

If you don't view Perales, Clarke and Early as viable SP'ers in MLB for the future, I think you have to count all 3 as RP'ers. 2 Starters: Tolle & Valera 4-5 Pen: Perales, Clarke, Early, Sandlin and maybe Paez, Monegro, Mullins and farther away: maybe Delzine, Cason & Rivera move up. I'm talking 1-5 years away. I have to think more than 3-4 pictehrs in our system will make an impact in the bigs. Hell, the widely panned DD farm gave us Bello, Houck, Crawford and some decent pen arms. (not all his guys but were in the farm when Bloom took over.) I think you are being pessimistic. We've invested heavily in the farm through trades, higher drafting and signing bonuses and more IFA money to pitchers in the last 2 seasons, under Brez. Almost every trade involved us getting a pitching prospect, even the ones where we traded away pitching.

2013 was widely viewed as a bridge year, when it began.

Cora announces Bregman will forgo a rehab assignment and will start 2 of the last 3 games before the ASB.

Duran does add a wide range of pluses and energy to the team. He's a decent defender, too. There were two incidents that kinda bothered me, but not enough to say "trade him" because of them: 1. The no Covid shot and missing a key TOR series in 2020. 2. The slur and 1 game suspension. He can also be up and down and has stated he's had past issues with mental health that makes me somewhat worried, but in no way do I think he will decline more than the norm for his age. He turns 29 in a couple months and has 3 more years of control. That brings him to the perfect age to possibly say good bye. He will be 31 in 2028 and will turn 32 in September of his last year of control. Everything screams to keep him and trade Abreu, instead but Abreu is a GG RF'er who plays half his games in Fenway. He doesn't even start his arb years until 2027. He has more power and more upside, IMO. Ideally, we keep both and Rafaela, but do we trade Anthony? I think not, even if it's for the next Crochet,

I think Abreu should improve and may become a FT RF'er, soon. He'd be more likely a FT'er on a team without Refsnyder and 3 other plus OF'ers. I'm not sure MIN wants an OF'er, but my thought is Duran to PHI (perhaps with mid levels) for Abel or Painter, then flip that pitcher with maybe Arias & Paez or Romero & Early or Sandlin to get Ryan. Don't get me wrong, I really like Abreu and Duran a ton. I also have total faith in Anthony, and also think the Campbell-Garcia RHB tandem will be fine in the Sox OF for 2026, too. I like Rafaela and his years of control with great CF D more. (He will win the GG, this year.) I would not trade either one, if I did not have complete faith in our OF kids. (I would not be upset with a 2026 OF of Campbell in LF, with more practice out there, Garcia in CF and Anthony in RF.)

Like Paxton, Hendriks and now Sandoval? The one year deals like Perez I & II, Richards, Kluber, Wacha, Hill and now Buehler fit the bill. Yes, the Gio signing could have been 1 year, if he pitched like this, last year. I get your point, and I agree.

You mean 1 year ago, right? Gio was injured, last year, after we signed him and before the 2024 season even started. He pitched over 161 IP, each year from 2021 to 2023. He didn't miss a start in 2020 and has 29+ starts in 2018 and 2019. He was as dependable as anyone, before we signed him. I think that was the idea in replacing the highly undependable Sale with him. Had he pitched well in 2024, we wouldn't have been as upset over the Sale trade, since we viewed the money saved as used for Gio. Yes, he'd have opted out after 2024, if he pitched like this, last year, but that doesn't change how we'd view Brez's 2024 budget spending. Plus, we'd have had $19M more to spend this year, and might have signed Fried not Buehler, instead.

Honestly, I still have faith in Casas as a hitter, but not 1Bman. He should DH, but we have Yoshida. I'd be fine going into 2026 with Casas, Campbell, Toro & Romy fighting for 1B playing time. (Maybe Duran could try out at 1B, since I see Rafaela, Abreu, Anthony & Garcia as better OF defenders,) BUT ONLY IF we fill our other high need areas fully and with clear plus players. This includes: Bregman returning. A top notch #2 SP'er (We lose Buehler & likely Gio.) A top notch Closer (We lose Chapman.) Do all three, and I'm okay rolling the dice at 1B/DH. I'd prefer a more dependable & known 1B, a replacement for Wilson and a decent back up catcher, but those are secondary needs. If we skimp on any of the 3 above, we'll need to fill these needs to make up for the loss.

I'm thinking the best trade might be Abreu & Buehler (+$) to PHI. Abel and some Sox prospects (like Romero, Sandlin & Early) to MIN Joe Ryan to BOS If we swap Abel for Painter, we'd need to give prospects to PHI but less to MIN.

He's 27th in IP since 2022 and has never started less than 23 games in the last 4 seasons (assuming he gets over 23, this year.) He's 28th in GS'd, too. No current of past Sox pitcher is above him on GS'd and only Pivetta has slightly more IP, but some were in relief.

Huh?

The thing about trading Abreu is that, in theory, Anthony can play RF vs R & L and allows Refsnyder to platoon at DH with Yoshida and then we can more afford to lose in 2026. (He's a FA.) He plays our RF very well. He has more HRs than Devers, this year, playing just 70% of the games. He has 2 more years of control than Duran and will cost less over the next 2 years. That's a lot of good stuff, but it's also what makes him so valuable to other teams, too. I must value SP'ing more than some of you guys. I'm not claiming you are wrong, but I will point out that pitchers who start 30+ games, often face more batters in a season than a 700 PA everyday player. For example, Logan Webb faced 841 batters in 2024. Sure, they were all bunched into just 33 games, but they are just as valuable as 650 to 700 scattered over many 160 games, many of which were blowouts or where a single player's input is near meaningless. Abreu & mid level prospects for Joe Ryan and an extension would be great for the Sox, and not just for 2025. The "step down" to Anthony might not even be a step down. The step up from Buehler to Ryan could be enormous.

Not Skenes of Skubal?

I can be wishy washy as I try to present both sides to issues, but I readily admit when I'm wrong, which is often, especially when you consider how many opinions I state. If we don't spend to the tax line, the trade will be bad, unless we strike gold with less spending, I guess. If we spend the money but swing and miss, we can say the trade sucked, unless Devers under performs, too. I'm not sure I'm presenting an opinion that can never be viewed as wrong.

When Bregman returns, there will be no Toro at 3B, but yes, a Toro-Romy platoon at 1B takes him out of the DH mix, and allows Ref to fill it. I was thinking we bot assumed we'd be adding a 1Bman. If we don't then subtract Romy and we still have 5 for 4 slots, not counting Campbell, who may best be suited for CF. If Campbell ends up at 1B (or Yoshida) then Romy is back into the DH mix. We have awesome depth, except at C, 3B and maybe 2B, which should be fixed upon Bregman's return. Upgrading higher need areas with some of that depth makes very good sense to me. I think we need 4 starters for the playoffs. As of now, it looks like we do, but you know how that goes. In 2 weeks we might need 2. (I am not for trading top prospects for a rental SP, RP or 1Bman.)

Certainly, we all know we are racking up runs vs some bad teams, but we've also done well vs some good pitching teams, too: 14 runs/3 gms at SFG (5th in team ERA- and 2nd in FIP) 18 runs/3 gams vs div leader TOR (19th in ERA-) 22 runs/3 gms vs Cincy (10th in ERA- in MLB, even after facing us. They might have been 8th before.) I'm still worried about our inconsistent offense. I'd like to see an upgrade at 1B, unless Yoshida can do it without embarrassing himself and the team. (Campbell?) Once Bregman returns, 2B should be fine. I don't see another area on offense that needs fixing, except a 20% catcher.

I just threw Hoskins out there, but would be fine with someone better, like Alonso. I don't see how we "make it work" without constantly having a deserving player on the bench and areas of need going unaddressed or filled by minor deadline deals like for Urias and Lucas Simms types. Maybe, we get lucky with a Nate or Schwarber type deal, but counting on that is asking for a letdown. We have 4 slots with OF & DH. Here is who we need to be playing: vs RHPs: Abreu, Duran, Rafaela, Anthony, Yoshida and Campbell at some point. (Casas at DH in '26) That's easily 5 and maybe 6 players for 4 slots. vs LHPs: Refsnyder, Rafaela, Anthony, Duran and Romy if not at 1B. (Garcia before long. '26?) That's 5 for 4 slots, but eventually 6 w Jh Garcia. (If we add a 1Bman, Romy is a must at DH vs L.) If we had no weak areas, sure, make it work somehow, but we have several weak areas, and I'm not trading Rafaela. Yoshida is untradeable. A Refsnyder trade would only affect one of these lists, and it's the shorter list. It's not at all about my dislike for Duran or Abreu. I really like them both, a lot. I happen to like Anthony and Rafaela more and recognize that keeping some sort of Yoshida/ Romy-Ref platoon at DH makes more sense. In short, Duran and Abreu would be more valuable to a few other teams than to us, and that is often the impetuous for a trade.

It makes sense that when Bloom failed to trade Sale, they may have pressure Brez to do it, or move other high salaries. Even clearing some cash from Sale, still left Brez with a limited budget. The Devers extension was set to kick in, so I won't count that as "new spending," but it was likely part of a tightening of the winter spending of '23-'24. (They also lost some salary by shedding Verdugo & others.) $19.5M x 2 Giolito $7M/1 O'Neill trade $5M x 2 Hendriks $2M x 1 Joely We can bitch about teh "failure to upgrade," but what can you do with about $33M AAV, when you had a losing season, then subtracted Sale, Dugo and others? had Gio pitched like this in 2024, we'd say he did a pretty good job with $33M, despite Henriks & Joely's lack of help.

I'm assuming "everyone" is only with prospects. IMO, if we keep Arias, Romero can be traded. Sandlin is borderline.

I agree. I doubt they make this trade with zero return or just Bello & Tibbs. I agree on the "pool" analogy, as well, but that increased pool ($20M for 2 years then $30M more for 6 more) will translate into tangible players, as long as JH doesn't go cheap, along the way (again.) I'm hoping JH spends even more than the estimated $76M we may have below the tax line, this winter. I'd like to see him get just below the 1st tier, minimum, so about $95M to spend: $30M SP $18M Closer $25M 1B $22M back-up Catcher plus extensions to Anthony & Mayer. (Take some from 1B, if we need more for extensions.) Trade Duran or Abreu for a key piece (Maybe with prospects for Ryan.) SP: Crochet, Cease, Ryan, Bello, Sandoval, Dobbins, Harrison, Fitts, Tolle & Early RP Helsley, Whitlock, Slaten, Houck, Hicks, Murphy, Perales, Sandlin, Weissert, Alcara, Guerrero, Kelly, I Campbell 1. L Mayer 2B 2. R Bregman 3B 3. L Abreu RF/ R Romy DH 4. L Anthony LF 5. R Story SS 6. L Yoshida DH/ R Refsnyder RF 7. R Hoskins 1B (L Casas/ S Toro) 8. R Narvaez C (_____?) 9. R Rafaela CF (R Jh Garcia?) This looks damn good, to me.

I agree. I doubt they make this trade with zero return or just Bello & Tibbs. I agree on the "pool" analogy, as well, but that increased pool ($20M for 2 years then $30M more for 6 more) will translate into tangible players, as long as JH doesn't go cheap, along the way (again.) I'm hoping JH spends even more than the estimated $76M we may have below the tax line, this winter. I'd like to see him get just below the 1st tier, minimum, so about $95M to spend: $30M SP $18M Closer $25M 1B $22M back-up Catcher plus extensions to Anthony & Mayer. (Take some from 1B, if we need more for extensions.) Trade Duran or Abreu for a key piece (Maybe with prospects for Ryan.) SP: Crochet, Cease, Ryan, Bello, Sandoval, Dobbins, Harrison, Fitts, Tolle & Early RP Helsley, Whitlock, Slaten, Houck, Hicks, Murphy, Perales, Sandlin, Weissert, Alcara, Guerrero, Kelly, I Campbell 1. L Mayer 2B 2. R Bregman 3B 3. L Abreu RF/ R Romy DH 4. L Anthony LF 5. R Story SS 6. L Yoshida DH/ R Refsnyder RF 7. R Hoskins 1B (L Casas/ S Toro) 8. R Narvaez C (_____?) 9. R Rafaela CF (R Jh Garcia?) This looks damn good, to me.