moonslav59

The Sox are looking for a reliable DH.

Are you willing to give up Arias and Clarke for Peralta? How about Jh Garcia & Valera?

7-4 may not be good enough, as one of the hardest schedules one can imagine follows the AS Break: (not in order) LAD, PHI, HOU x 2 series, CHC, SDP The "easiest" two teams we face from July 18 to AUG 13th are 3 at MIN and 3 vs KCR. Brutal 24 games.

At least we don't have DHam & Wong going in the same line-up. Wong goes, tonight. Abreu at DH & Anthony in RF. Mayer at 2B with Toro at 3B and Romy at 1B vs the RHP.

Agreed, but those types of deals are usually reserved for winter time, and would be more costly in July, IMO. So, putting those ideas aside, what are we willing to part with for a rental? I am saying no to the 4 rookies, no to Dobbins, Arias, Jh Garcia, Tolle, Early, Clarke and Valera. I'd be very hesitant to trade away Perales, Justin Gonzales, Soto & Delzine. Borderline: Rivera, Bleis & Cespedes Might for the right piece: Sandlin, Romero, Taylor, Cason, Azocar, Jo Garcia, Ehrhard, D Reyes, H Rivas, Aita & Tibbs Don't hand away, but yes: Mullins, Guerrero, Jordan, Monegro, Paez, Uberstine, Wehunt, Castro & anybody not listed

I had to leave so much off. Funny you mention "Moon got experience." On my album "Are You Experienced," I wrote on the cover, (My name_ "_____ ______'s got experience" under the title.

Great Songs! I started out with a top 10 song list, and ended up with 30, and that was way too short.

I like the older, bluesier Fleetwood Mac, more too, but this song grabs me hard. The Buckingham solo versions are awesome.

MLB.com released its updated Top 100 Prospects List: 100 Jh Garcia 40 Arias 6 Mayer 1 Anthony (Graduated: Campbell)

I prefer 5 over 4, if we don't have to part with a higher ranked prospect, as a result. To me, our top 3 prosects are worth more than the next 2 combined. Arias, Garcia and Tolle are close to worth more than any two combined, lower than them or lower than Perales & Valera. For example, I'd rather give Bleis & Cespedes than Arias or Garcia. I'd rather give Valera & Dandlin than Tolle, Perales or early.

My top 20 List of Rockin' Songs, for now... (There could be 10 other songs, tomorrow.) Sister Ray- The Velvet Underground Teenage Riot- Sonic Youth Dangerous- Billy Bragg Wasted- Mazzy Star Prana Ferox- The Mountain Goats Baba O'Riley - The Who The End- The Doors (When the Music's Over- a close second) Kashmir- Led Zeppelin Tomorrow Never Knows- The Beatles (She Said, She Said a close second) Wish You Were Here- Pink Floyd Spill the Wine- The Animals Dear Mr. Fantasy- Traffic Sea of Joy- Blind Faith The Ghost in You- The Psychedelic Furs Fire on the Mountain (Cornell)- The Grateful Dead Hey Hey, My My- Neil Young and Devo (uncut) Mainline Florida- Eric Clapton Hello Jeff- Stanley Clarke (w Jeff Beck) The Rollercoaster Ride- Belle & Sebastian Change Your Mind- JJ Cale Waiting for the Man- Lou Reed Pink Moon- Nick Drake The Future- Leonard Cohen Never Going Back Again- Fleetwood Mac In Your Eyes- Peter Gabriel Baby What You Want Me to Do- Hot Tuna Wah-Wah (Live at the Concert for Bangladesh) George Harrison & friends Just Like a Woman (Live at the Concert for Bangladesh) Bob Dylan & friends Fat Man in the Bathroom- Little Feat

Nice list. I find it near impossible to list just 10 for the 60's, but here is a stab at it: The Velvet Underground and Nico (The other 2 following albums are top 20) Piper at the Gates of Dawn- Pink Floyd (w the great Sid Barret) My Generation- The Who Revolver- The Beatles (Sgt, Peppers a close 2nd) Led Zeppelin I The Doors (First Album) Are You Experienced- Jimi Hendrix Everybody Knows This is Nowhere- Neil Young Bob Dylan (I can't pick just one: maybe Free Wheelin') Volunteers- Jefferson Airplane (Surrealistic Pillow a close call) Honorable Mention: Chicago II, Pet Sounds- The Beach Boys, Music from the Big Pink- The Band, Cream/Blind Faith, The Kinks, The Dead, CCR, & so many others...

The Toro-Romy straight platoon has been awesome. When we no longer need to play Toro vs LHPs, his value increases. The Abreu-Refsnyder RF platoon looks to be one of the best in recent Sox history. With openings at DH and 1B for this year and next, the Toro-Romy and Yoshida-Refsnyder platoons might fill those voids, but I think we will look to make a serious addition at 1B, and his name is not Casas. If we got big by bringing back Bregman and adding a top SP'er, Closer and 2Bman, I'd be okay with leaving 1B and DH open to those I just mentioned, as well as others in the system, already, such as Duran/Anthony/Jh Garcia as DH options and Campbell & Casas as competition for a role at 1B in 2026.

Alcantara remains a mystery. So much upside there, but also so much worry. His contract is a lot, but if he can return to close to what he was, it would be a bargain. I like Fortes as our back-up catcher, but he will bear the return cost of a FT catcher. They have several interesting pen arms and Edward Cabrera has been discussed as a trade target for years, on this site. I'm just not sure we want to package up enough higher ranked prospects to get 1 or 2 guys from this list. I'm not close to knowing what the cost will be and who MIA likes the most in our system. The one thing that jumps out at me about MIA is that they might be one of the few teams that still values farther away prospects more than almost all other teams, because they have no "window" to look forward to in 2026 or 2027. There may be just 3-4 teams that fit this profile. Maybe they covet Bleis, Cespedes, Azocar, Soto, Delzine, Jo Garcia and Gonzales. I'm pretty sure they'd like Valera & Arias and maybe older guys like Perales, Sandlin & Romero, but I'm not sure I part with anyone higher than these guys, and they may demand someone not listed. I'm not sure I want to part with Arias, Valera, Soto or Delzine, either for anyone they have to offer. (I probably would.)

Crochet did great, and the extra IP does make his value more, hence the higher WAR, but what Chapman did is off the charts. It was a tough choice, but I'd go with Chapman just because of how absurdly spectacular those numbers were.

Devers has a pretty long history of having some 2-4 week slumps- some connected to injury- some not any known injury. I have to think he will get red hot, again, a few times, before his time in SF is up. I doubt he goes the Bogey route.

Agreed, but with JH, you never know from year to year. I'd love to hear we extended Bregman, Mayer, Narvaez and Anthony, next, but I share Kimmi's worries on 5 years for Bregman. I think what Alex brings to the dugout and clubhouse makes it worth the extra year or two. A longer term deal with Bregman would actually lower the AAV and tax budget hit for 2026 vs 2025. Losing the Devers, Buehler, Gio, Chapman and Hendriks contracts opens up a wide window for "repurposing" spending. On the surface, it looks like replacing a top closer for $12M is impossible, replacing a DH for $31M, a s***** SP'er for $21M and a do nothing RP'er (Hendriks) for $5M should be a cakewalk. Replacing Gio & Wilson will not be easy, but Gio makes big money. I think it can be done, but there is very little room for error, unless JH opens up the wallet beyond just the "repurposed" money.

My wife and I went to see Chicago a couple years ago. It was funny, how she barely knew the songs I loved and I had forgotten some of the more commercial songs were done by Chicago, and those were the ones she knew and loved.

I've come out against the idea of trading top prospects for rentals, in hopes we can squeak into the 2025 playoffs, but what can be done? We've seen us make deals like Beeks for Nate, Espinal for Pearce and Aldo for Schwarber, but I'm not sure we can count on finding deals like that, this July. We've tried trading lower level prospects over the last few years and failed miserably. Many fans loathed the idea of "playing it halfway" and doing "too little, too late." I find myself thinking I do not want us to try and do more than seeing what we can get for guys like Bleis, Cespedes, Mullins, Tibbs, Sandlin and or course some vets like DHam, Grissom and Wong could be sent packing, if any teams wants them as part of a package. Here is a look back at our failed attempts to find the next Nate, Schwarber and Pearce: 2024: Bolivar for Paxton, Portes for Lucas Sims, Lugo, Kavadas, Zeferjahn for Luis Garcia, Paulino, Coffey & Batista for Danny Jansen, Yorke for Priester (While these deal almost all flopped, it was actually a valiant effort, involving 9 prospects being shipped out- some Rule 5 borderline guys.) 2023: Sell: Kike for Nick Robertson & Justin Hagenman/ Buy: Blalock for Luis Urias (another vain attempt at fixing 2B.) A very do nothing deadline. 2022: Another Buy/Sell deadline: Sell: Vazquez for Abreu & EValdez. Buy: Groome for Hosmer, Rosier & Ferguson (kinda buy, too) and PTBNL for Tommy Pham. (Turned out to be a nice "buy" deadline with us getting Abreu for a declining Vaz.) I'm skipping the wildly successful 2021 deadline. 2020: Full scale Buy: Workman & Hembree for Pivetta (a young vet w control) & Seabold. Moreland for Potts & Rosarion. Pillar for Jacob Wallace. Osich for Z Bryant. (Other than Pivetta, we got nothing, but we didn't have much to sell.)

When I heard it for the first time, I didn't know it was by the Starship, so my hatred was not related. I shoulda known Slick's voice and made the connection. Another band that made a similar turn, most notably after the deaths of some key members was Chicago. After Terry Kath's death and then others, the band really put out some sappy stuff out there- more bearable that most icky pop songs, but still...

.723 last 8 games .514 last 15 games .610 last 16 games .783 last 22 games I'm not sure why 15 games means more than 8 or 22. I'm not counting on Romy & Toro to be our 1B solution for 2026, but these guys have done well for us, in their targeted and limited roles, as has Refsnyder for an even longer period of time. When you look at our June numbers, the leaders are shocking names. .917 Romy, .870 Rafaela, .827 Story, .788 Mayer, .780 Narvaez, ,775 Abrey, .761 Toro. 0.00 Chapman, 1.80 Alcala, 2.45 Wilson, 2.53 Kelly

I would not say "glad," since the whole fiasco stunk to high heavens from day one of the Bregman signing, and it should not have had to get this far. Once again, we are relying on the key words, "repurposing his money," and we can't kid ourselves that we will both do it and do it well. We might, but we can't count on it. Plus, we have more than just his money to repurpose, and do it well to have a legit shot in '26. We have to bring Bregman back AND spend Devers, Chapman, Giolito and Buehler's money wisely. Yes, the cloud is gone, but so are 35 bombs and 100+ RBI's and a batter that had the Yank's number. Maybe the kids take up the slack, but we didn't trade Devers for the kids: we coulda had Devers AND the kids. (Plus, we wasn't an old man, yet. Some called him a child.)

I'm not ready to anoint Hicks the closer, just yet, but he could be a very nice set-up man, going forward. Let's see how the tweaks we made with harrison work out, before we make him the #2 SP'er we need. These two, with the prospects as longshots should be viewed as ancillary pieces or depth. We cannot shy away from adding a #2 SP'er (Cease?) and a closer (Helsely, Suarez, Diaz or Chapman?), this winter, because of them.

No, he actually morphed into Freakin' Chris Sale, over the last couple years with the Sox. (Earlier, if I'd thought of it.) He is what he is, but the Sox Nation still cries over his loss. It's a freakin' shame.

As great as Crochet looked, I think Chapman deserves 1st. You said it all... "Chapman posted 0.7 WAR, a 0.00 ERA, and a 0.18 FIP. The Red Sox closer had an absurd 51.4% K rate, while walking just 5% of the batters he faced. Chapman faced 37 batters and he allowed just one run, two hits, and two walks. INSANE. "