moonslav59

If we are so hell-bent on keeping Hicks until 2026, can we find a reason to put him on the IL?

The Yanks have turned it around, after a long 57 game stretch of bad play. (25-32) It was nice seeing DWilliams blow another game, last night. The Yanks had won 8 out of 9 and 15 out of 20, beforehand.

I seem to remember a lot of "no timetable" talk about his injury, but yes, he did not seem to go longer than expected. So, one or two out of 20-25?

Was that right before the DFA'd him?

I've given up hoping on Sox IL players returning. When is the last time one hit his return date target?

Well, Anthony and Narvaez had "no track record," either. One major part of the idea to demote Yoshida is to let him play everyday v L and R, until he gets his eye back. It need not be permanent, unless he sucks there, too. Romy has become an offensive force, especially since last year, so I'm not sure we can count his earlier "track record." His record vs RHPs is incomplete or not very good, granted, until very recently.

If some of those Woo starters are in Boston, Mullins would get a shot. sp.com has him in the Woo pen to start the season.

Looks like one of those rare series, where we win the series but get outscored or tie in runs scored.

Maybe Eaton can get a chance to pitch.

Going by soxprospects.com and their projected 2026 rosters but adjusted by my adding in returning injured players not named Houck, and a couple flips, here are the rosters that may begin the 2026 season: MLB: Crochet, Bello, Sandoval, Crawford, Tolle, Dobbins, Chapman, Slaten, Whitlock, Weissert, Bernardino, Hicks. Narvaez, Wong, Lowe, Romy, Mayer, Story, [Bregman] Anthony, Duran, Abreu, Rafaela, Yoshida, Campbell AAA: Harrison, Fitts, Criswell, Early, Uberstine, Drohan, Perales, Wink, Sandlin, Murphy, Guerrero, Kelly, Moran, Rosario, Montero, Casas, DHam, Grissom, Sogard, Romero, Garcia, Eaton, Castro, Hickey, McDonough, Sikes AA: Mullins, Paez, Holobetz, Clarke, Rogers/Dean, Ingrassia, Carlson, Wu-Yelland, Kirwin, Song, Hoppe. Jo Garcia, Brannon, Alcantara, Arias, Liendo, YRod, Taylor, Bleis, Ferguson, De Leon, Riemer A+ Witherspoon, Valera, Phillips, Eyanson, Aita, Tygart, Foutch, Finley, Mayers, Ehrlicher, Futrell, Brooks, Cohen. Salazar, Anderson, M White, Godbout, Nunez, Gonzales, Martin, Turner, Cespedes, Mussett, H White, Yuten, Encarnacion A-: Fajardo, Neely, Travieso, Ruiz, Patton, Brown, Morgan, J Bello, Gartrell

None of that chemical stuff- pure manure.

Doo doo.

Good way to put it, and I understand they have their reasons. I rarely argue with what they choose to do. I will say I wonder, like... Coulda called up Anthony earlier. (I know, the OF squeeze that c=should have been solved, last winter, IMO.) Coulda called up Mayer earlier or instead of Campbell. (More in hindsight.) I'd like to see how Mullins does in AAA before the Rule 5 choice is made. These are nothing to slam Brez & Co about, just my naive take.

The Perales, Early, Clarke & Valera group is most interesting, to me. One could add Witherspoon and maybe Phillips, but I have Sandlin lower.

Gotta say this lineup looks weak. Now, watch us score 11.

I do think he puts more butts... than Abreu does.

When it comes to Sox injuries and expected return dates, I have chosen to just give up on any expectations for a return. I may be optimistic about more things than others, but not this.

The Devers' deal still had $254M/8 left after 2025 with a $29.1 Tax hit x 8 yrs. Hicks is on the hook for $24M/2 and $10.3M on the tax line x 2 years. I'll go my the tax numbers "savings:" basically about $19M x 2 then $29M x 6 more years, after Hicks is done. The Crochet extension was done before the trade and amounts to a $24.5M uptick on the tax budget from 2025 to 2026. Let's not count that, unless you think we planned to trade Devers due to the Crochet extension. Here is a look at the other extensions, by tax line additions: $16.25M Anthony x 8 years (+ 1 option year) $7.5M Campbell x 8 year (+ 2 option years) That's about $24M x 8 years. This total is already more than the savings from Devers-Hicks. After 2 years, there is a surplus of about $5M x 6 more years. I'm not claiming these extensions would not have been made, but I do wonder about the Chapman one, despite is looking like a no-brainer good-for-the- club deal. $13.3M/1 Chapman (with 1 option year.) What will be JH's winter spending budget?

Man! Add one more to the list! Houck: our ace from 2024 pitches 9 starts that showed something was wrong and is now out until 2027. Crawford: maybe our 4/5 starter expected to miss some or most of '25 is out until 2026. (0 GS) Sandoval: maybe viewed as a 4/5 and expected to be back by AUG is now out for the season with 0 GS. Dobbins: maybe viewed as our 8-11 SP'er in March, pitched pretty well for us in 11 GS, then missed teh rest of the season. Fitts was probably ranked too highly on our preseason depth chart, and he did start 10 games (5.00 ERA,) but he is on the IL and may not return. Criswell did pretty well as our 4/5 SP'er, last year, but started just 1 game, this year, and is now on the IL and not expected back, this year. Perales was minor league depth who was known to be our for all of 2025. Winckowski had some success as a starter in the past, but was likely going to be used from the pen. Out for the season. Whitlock started in several recent seasons but was rightfully moved to the pen (not injured.) Newcomb sucked and was traded. Priester never got a real chance and was traded. Now, Harrison misses his first shot at a start. I'm not sure how you calculate all the possible missed starts, here, and since many of the misses starts are all for the same open slots, it can really only total about 73 (162- Crochet 33, Bello 29 and Giolito 27) That would also mean Buehler got no GS, so this is all hypothetical, but 9-10 pitchers had a shot at pitching a big chunk of those "open starts."

Okay, right: I didn't ask a question on this thread. Where did I blame Devers? No, I did not ask if fans are happy with Devers play. I did ask, somewhere, if fans are happy with the results of the team after the trade. I mentioned how some fans here use wins and only wins to judge every move and how that applies to this situation. I don't blame Devers for SF's losses. Some poster mentioned the trade was good for everyone, and I'm not so sure it was good for SFG fans. That's not blaming Devers for the winning turning into losing, but we all know fans see losing as the effect of every move made.

4-6 weeks could mean 2026.

I'm told we need to have more faith in Yoshida. We just lost Anthony- our best LHB, and we called up Sogard. I know Campbell and Jh Garcia are RHBs, but we need some O.

I see it that way, too. Something from Harrison would be nice, but not essential to making this a plus for us. I seriously doubt we make all these extensions with the Devers contract still on the books. Let's see what we do this winter with the budget.

No one player makes or breaks a season, but losing Anthony for what appears to be into October really is a gut punch to this team and its chances at a ring. Other teams have had several major injuries, so I hate crying over this, but it's going to be very hard to advance through the playoffs with out Roman. It's bad enough losing 4 of our top SP'ers for the rest of the season, plus Casas, but Anthony looks like the straw that will break our backs. I'm not giving up. Maybe Abreu takes up some slack. Maybe Lowe has found his lost touch. Maybe, maybe, maybe is gettingtiring.