moonslav59

Dumb Brez!

Chris Sale transfered to 60 Day IL.

Bregman, Cease and Chapman would be fine with me. Trade Duran and prospects for 2-3 of these: 2B, 1B and 2nd Catcher. Nothing here seems absurd or will put us way over the current Deverless budget.

Agreed, and the one-two punch with "Volunteers" was formidable.

I know there is still much to prove, but I'm sold on Anthony. Mayer is close behind.

I hate the song, "Sara," too, but Miracles, With Your Love, Count on Me and Runaway are all very sappy, but I like 'em a lot. I have a weird taste of music. I hate country and almost all pop songs, especially the sappy ones, but a few grab me, for some unknown reason. I'm not a Grace Slick fan, but am a closet Marty Balin fan. I also love the spinoff band, Hot Tuna. "Volunteers" is a legendary song. Of course, "White Rabbit." Wow! "We Can be Together" is underrated, and maybe "Somebody to Love" is overrated but still a classic.

I absolutely despise that song! When I hear it, I sing along, "YOU built this city on rig-a-ma-role."

I was very angry that winter, especially after the "full throttle" quote. In hindsight, maybe even another big signing or two would not have been enough, but we were played, that winter. I liked what Brez did last winter, and while I thought signing a longer term pitcher made more sense than Buehler at $21M/2 and Sandoval at $19M/2, I can understand why the risk factor made them go short. The AAV for Buehler + Sandoval = Fried. The Bregman signing restored my faith, but now, after the Devers dump, I'm back to square one.

Ahhh, Tony C as the DH. The big wonder on "Miracles" was how it passed the censors. Great song and band. I particularly like their early stuff as the Airplane, but they had some good songs after they went pop.

I keep waiting for the "journeyman" and "AAAA" guy to come back down to earth. He hasn't. The Sox have done pretty well with guys like Toro, Romy & Refsnyder. Of course, there is a longer list of failures, but we have 3 that have stuck.

I did not mean to imply you do not want to add a solid P in 2026 by waiting for Skubal in 2027. I am pretty sure that for as long as I have been a Sox fan, 53 years and counting, I have always wanted us to add an ace or solid #2 every season. I hate the idea of trying to improve the rotation by upgrading the #4 or 5 slot, and even attempts at upgrading the #3 slot often fail, especially with the Sox choices. Okay, you want names: of course I'd start with trying like hell to trade for Skenes or Skubal without giving up Mayer or Anthony, but that may be impossible, even with an offer like Abreu, Campbell, Garcia, Tolle, Arias and Sandlin. I'm not sure who else might be available. I'm not sure I count Luis Castillo as a #2 anymore, but Pablo Lopez & Cole Ragans are pitchers I'd count as "good enough." (Trade guys) Maybe Joe Ryan or Nate. Probably Free Agency is the way to go, despite paying way to much and needing 2-3 more years than reasonable. I'm assuming we'll have enough money to keep Bregman and sign a SP'er and Closer, but with JH, nothing should be assumed. These guys fit the bill, for me: SP: Cease, Gallen, F Valdez, Ranger Suarez and maybe M King, Canning, M Kelly or Seth Lugo (shorter deal) I do not think Flaherty, Eflin and the super old guys make my list. Closer: Helsley, Robert Suarez, E. Diaz or Chapman (1-2 yr deal.) Maybe Weaver, Iglesias or Finnegan would be okay, if we check all the other high need boxes off, first.

This week saw the Sox play Campbell and Tibbs at 1B. Word is the added a cutter to Harrison's pitch mix and are having him focus on his sinker more. Yoshida begins his Woo rehab, tonight. Does anybody know why it took so long? Sox announced Judice will miss the whole season. Moran was activated from the 60 Day IL for Woo. GRE added two demoted players: Jacob Webb from Woo and Juan Montero from POR. 3 players promoted from SAL to GRE: Sprague, Medina and K diaz.. Labriola promoted from FCL to SAL. SP's players of the week: Early- 6 no hit innings Hector Ramos (DSL): BA: .556 / 1.636 OPS in 5 games (just 1 K)

I know adding one more piece to my offer may still get a big NO from PIT, but I'd do it. It's hard to know who PIT likes over others. They might love a prospect like Bleis or Cespedes, or prefer Perales or Clarke to Tolle. I'd do any of those swap outs. By addition, I could see us adding Mullins or Romy. What about Abreu, Campbell, Garcia, Perales?

Another example on why assigned pitcher wins and losses is not a good way of assigning pitcher value and skill. IP ER Team Result 2024 5.1 0 Loss 7-2 5.0 0 Loss 5-4 5.0 0 Loss 4-2 5.0 4 Loss 6-1 2025 6.0 3 Loss 3-2 6.0 3 Loss 6-2 5.0 0 Loss 3-2 3.0 0 Loss 5-1 1.0 5 Loss 7-6 (most runs allowed but only 3rd run run loss) 4.0 2 Loss 5-2 5 of 10 starts w zero ERs allowed. 8 of 10 allowing 0-2 ERs.

I read somewhere that if you looked at every mega large and long deal in the history of MLB, the vast majority would look like a plus, if the player was traded after 1.5 years. I'm not happy about losing Devers, but this part may work well for us. While the Betts trade was separate from the extension, he is one that would have worked out well.

I'm not ready to give up on Campbell at 2B, but he has a ways to go to get to just average on defense, there. Maybe 1B is the best option, since we cannot count on Casas or the Toro-Romy platoon for 2026. Filling the 4-6 big holes we have with prospects creates more money to spend on other holes and allows for the idea of one major package deal not two. I think we could roll the dice on 1B with Campbell, Casas, Toro and Romy, but it's risky. Bregman has to be our 3Bman in 2026. Mayer and Story would be fine for middle infield. We can trade an OF'er and still look great out there. Narvaez looks like a keeper. DH could be an OF'er or Yoshida or Casas platooning with Romy or Refsnyder. We could roll the dice on this, too. Doing this means no addition to the everyday roster- just bring Bregman back. That seems scary. I feel like we'd have to keep Bregman AND add Alonso (1B) or G Torres (2B) or maybe Hoskins & Torres. Maybe make a run at the Japanese stat M-something or other. Use the rest of the money and trade capital on a second ace and a top closer.

Waiting until 2027 "wastes" another Crochet season.

Even DD's pitching prospects did not look all that good, and the end results of his prospects were not as good as the expectations.

I think Campbell will make the needed adjustments to be a fine MLB hitter. His defense is the bigger question. I'm thinking OF, 1B or DH might be his spots, and if we trade Duran and or Abreu, we can find an OF slot for him. 1B is wide open, as is DH. I don't think he can improve enough to be our 2Bman, sadly. We really need a 2Bman. (Maybe Story/Mayer fix it, finally, once Bregman returns.)

I feel like some of the GM changes were directly related to major shifts in team building philosophy. Ben to DD went with the plan to spend large and long. That makes some sense, although I do think Ben deserved another year. The DD to Bloom change went with the plan to severely cut the budget and switching to a Rays approach made sense for that, too. I'm not defending JH on these moves and radical changes in philosophy, over and over, but when you look at 2003 to 2018, there were some ups and downs in spending and self imposed rules on how to spend and when to go large and long on key deals. It worked 4 times, and nearly worked in other seasons. The major change going into 2019 and more prominently into 2020 was extreme. The slowness in getting the spending back to higher levels was unprecedented. It looked like we were back to pre-2018 times, this past winter, but then we dump Devers. It's hard to know what this winter will bring, and I have told myself to not get expectations too high, in recent years. I like Breslow's roster choices and focus on pitching from bottom to top. The Devers fiasco, Sale trade results and Buehler signing all ring loudly in my ears, but I see a lot of good moves and signs. I hope JH does not pull the Brez plus, too quickly, and he seems like the type of GM that can handle lean spending and big spending, despite the big swing and miss on Buehler. (The Gio signing is looking better, now, and Bregman looks like a nice choice, despite the injury.)

Agreed, but again, we are losing a huge chunk of budget, and that includes many of the 4-6 slots we need filled, AND we can offer better vet and prospects trade packages than most teams without opening gaping holes, elsewhere. Yes, this depends on high winter spending and the willingness to go bold on another Crochet-type trade, plus a vet OF'er trade.

Yes. My key word was "theory," because that's all it has been, until last winter. (Then, we undid the spending with the Devers trade, so back to "theory.")

Agreed. Mayer looks pretty good, too! BTW, Anthony was hitting the ball hard, earlier, but many were caught.

June Numbers: .917 Romy 3 HRs and 13 RBI .870 Rafaela 6 HRs and 13 RBI .827 Story 5 HRs and 23 RBI .788 Mayer 4 HRs and 7 RBI .780 Narvaez 2 HRs and 9 RBI .775 Abreu 3 HRs and 16 RBI .761 Toro 2 HRs and 11 RBI .742 Refsnyder .364 OBP .701 Duran (.210 BA and .301 OBP) .667 Anthony (some tough luck) .658 Campbell (demoted to AAA) .509 DHam (3 SB- 2 CS) .396 Wong (can't get much worse than this.) (.917 Sogard in 12 PAs and .633 Eaton in 12 PAs, and .835 Devers in 61 PAs.) ERA (listed in order of most IP) 2.68 Crochet .597 OPS Against 2.87 Bello .603 OPSA 3.04 Giolito .694 (That's a damn good top 3 rotation in June) 11.07 Bueler 1.074 3.60 Dobbins (on IL) .593 2.84 Weissert .678 5.25 Guerrero .538 3.09 Whitlock .385 0.00 Chapman (12 games) .167 : 2 hits and 2 BBs in 37 PAs 2.53 Kelly .825 12.38 Bernardino .943 2.45 Wilson .791 1.80 Alcala .578

We've had great success with these picks- even better than regular picks coming before them.