moonslav59

We may not even make the 6th seed anyway. You haven't seemed very optimistic, lately, either. If we do, we won't win a ring, just like other 6th seeds. Thanks for adding support to my point.

I'm fine with the trade. I just don't think we have to bash Devers to convince ourselves the trade was for the good of the team. I also don't like doing JH's dirty work for him, even if we are just presenting facts not opinions. The sample size of Devers since the trade is pretty small. The sample size of Hicks, Harrison and Tibbs is even smaller. The players we added with the Devers savings is at zero, right now. Let's talk again in a year or two.

We coulda sold Abreu or Duran for a gross overpay, then flipped the prospects or combined some with out own to grossly overpay for Ryan & Jh Duran or Keller & Bednar.

The atmosphere would have been Toxic, even with a half sell-off, like you suggested, but maybe had we also made one "buy" of a controlled pitcher like Ryan or Keller, the Nation would be no more angry than they are right now. They'd also get over it, if we went for it this winter.

IMO, no. Just post them again, after he gets back near or over .900.

If we were going to trade for a pitcher, we could have included Early, Sandlin or Paez with Tibbs and maybe even Romero or Bleis and gotten much better pitchers than May and Matz.

We are not good enough to do any more than maybe sneak into the 2 or 3 WC slot. Even if you believe in the "playoff crapshoot" philosophy, you have to admit, we'd have had a much better chance with Ryan or Keller plus a LH'd platoon 1Bman better than Toro.

We did NOT have to sell out the farm to make big enough gains to be a top 2-3 AL contender. We could have struck a nice balance and still had a very nice farm system. If we were not going to make significant improvements in just 2-3 areas (SP, 1B platoon & RP) then I'd have been 100% with Fred: sell, Sell SELL!!! We could have been sitting very pretty for 2026 and beyond. 1. Sit down with Bregman and say we want you back in 2026, then trade him. 2. Trade Chapman for a nice prospect or two. 3. Trade Giolito for a nice prospect or two. 4. Trade Wilson, Buehler & Refsnyder for the best you could have gotten, even if you think it's unfair. We could easily be a top 3-4 contender in MLB in 2026 by just spending to the tax line and making a couple key trades involving the swollen prospect pool plus Abreu, we'd have accumulated at the deadline and over the prior few years under Bloom & Brez. SP1 Crochet SP2 __FA__ (F Valdez/Ra Suarez/M King/Cease/Lugo) SP3 Ryan (for Abreu, Early & Sandlin) SP4 Bello SP5 Sandoval/Dobbins/Crawford/Houck/Harrison/Fitts Closer __FA__ (Chapman $22M/2 or Helsley/Ro Suarez, E Diaz) RP2 __FA__ (Finnegan/R Iglesias) RP3 Whitlock RP4 Slaten RP5 Houck/Dobbins/Crawford/Harrison/Fitts RP6 Dobbins/Crawford/Harrison/Fitts RP7 Weissert RP8 Crawford/Harrison/Fitts/Bernardino/Murphy C Narvaez & Wong 1B __FA__ (Alonso or E Suarez) or Campbell/Casas/Toro-Romy 2B Story (Campbell/Romy/DHam/Grissom) SS Mayer (Story/Romy) 3B Bregman (brought back at $35M x 4) (Mayer) LF Duran & Jh Garcia CF Rafaela (Duran) RF Anthony (Jh Garcia) DH Casas, Yoshida-Romy or __FA__ (Schwarber)

Or, they wanted more or better prospects than stingy Brez would agree to giving.

I woke up thinking I feel better than I did, last night. If what you says is true, I'm more pissed than ever. 3 years of Duran plus I'd even add a couple #7-20 prospects (or 3 #12-25's for Ryan is a no-brainer, to me. Ryan has 3 arbs left. He's a top 15 SP'er since 2024 (6.1 fWAR and 79 in ERA-) His 251 IP places 52nd, but he's just 35 IP from top 30. I hate to trade Duran or Abreu, but the step down to Anthony might not even be down. The step up from Fitts/Harrison/May to Ryan is off the charts upwards.

Our farm is looking very good, despite all the graduations. I expect our farm pitching to take off in the next 1-3 years. I think our everyday prospects will hold their own. C: Jo Garcia, Brannon, Salazar, Jo Rod 1B: Campbell (graduated) 2B: Cespedes, Cason, M White, Alcantara, Godbout (Grissom- graduated) SS: Arias, Ramos (Sogard) 3B: Romero, Reimer, Nunez LF: Y Rod, Yuten, Azocar, Cespedes? (Eaton) CF: Taylor, Bleis, Rivas (Castro) RF: Jh Garcia, Ju Gonzales DH: Hickey, Cespedes? It's not great, but with so many showing promise, I expect enough to jump up and shine. The rotations look very promising, with some needing to move to the pen: AAA: Harrison, Fitts, Tolle, Early, Uberstine, Sandlin, Perales, Wehunt, Drohan (That's 9, if none make the big squad!) AA: Clarke, Paez, Holobetz, Rivera, Rogers/Dean (maybe a AAA guys starts out at AA) Monegro will be on the IL A+: Valera, Witherspoon, Phillips, Evanson, Aita, Tygart, Judice (IL) A-: Fajardo, Neely, Travieso, J Bello, J Gartrell, Y Ruiz, M Patton, B Morgan, D Brown FCL looks very promising: Cason, Delzine, Reyes, Frias, Zink, Cordero

We had enough farm assets to offer more without hurting the future. We had enough OF depth to capitalize on teams overpaying for good ML talent and then flip for a better pitcher than Matz or May. We chose not to do it.

Toro is .591 in last 97 PAs. He was at .638 career in 1300 PAs, before 2025. He had one brief hot streak, when we needed it, but he is who he is- not very good.

We certainly have winter trade options, but we just wasted a season of Crochet, Bregman and others.

They also got Doval- a NL saves leader in 2023.

Some did much more. The Yanks got the NL saves leader to fill their biggest hole. They added secondary pieces better than our two adds. SEA got way better. TEX got way better. DET & HOU got significantly better. That's 5 teams for 6 slots. TOR is 5 ahead of us. That's team #6. We just went from a top 6 team to the #7 team out of 15 in the AL.

No. Option A: trade K Campbell, Jh Garcia, Romero, Sandlin, Early and Mullins for 2 controllable pitchers or a better pitcher and a 1Bman. That's not trading the entire farm. It's 1 top 10 prospect. Option B: Don't trade the "entire team," just trade all free agents to be: Chapman, Bregman, Wilson, Buehler & Refsnyder. (We could re-sign Bregman, this winter.)

We "overpaid" for Crochet, and that was fine. We don't know what MIN wanted for Ryan or Pit for Keller, but it was likely more than what they will want in December.

Yes. I have to. He's been right more than I am, and I ain't admitting I'm a dummy.

So, you are optimistic an the worst major sports team in New England, but are this down on the Sox? Very puzzling. The Pats suck and will suck in 2025, despite the easy schedule.

Fred seems overly negative, especially in game threads, but he seems well informed and honest. We have been flops and bums for over 5 years. Being realistic does not mean he takes pleasure in us being floppy bums. I think he'd be happy to be wrong.

True. Easily.

Yes, I forgot about Duran's control years. He'd get what Helsely got.

Following the minors might be more fun than the big club, now. Woo rained out. POR won 2-1. Romero had 2 hits. Bolden pitched well. The Sea Dogs are 48-48. GRE is losing 3-2, early. YRod with 2 hits.

Bregman might have gotten what E Suarez got, despite the money, or we could have paid some of it. Gio could have gotten a lot. Chapman could have gotten what Duran and helsley got and then some. Wilson, Buehler, Refsnyder could have gotten something with hope. We could have been very well set up for 2026 had the Sox listened to you.