moonslav59

KCR had a winter spending budget that allowed them to sign several pitchers. Of course, that does not absolve Brez from his big swings and misses on Gio, Grissom and most of his deadline deals, so far.

I remember him, fondly. He was one of the most underappreciated stars on those teams in the 90's.

I did not know he was that huge. Maybe it helps him become a good pitcher. I do like how Brez has attempted to improve our pitching pipeline, even if just with quantity and not so much quality. We have to start somewhere, and not many felt like Crawford, Wink and Pivetta would amount to much, when we acquired or drafted them. Gio, Slaten, Criswell, Hendriks, Weissert, I Campbell, Paxton, Hill, Garcia, Sims, Horn & other MLB pitchers Priester, Fitts, Sandlin, Judice, Tolle, Cason (SS, too), B Neely, D Reyes, B Clarke, B Tygart, B Aita, D Futrell, S Rojas, J Medina, S Brooks, S Sprague, A Bouchard, J Gartrell, G Kilander, C Tolbert, B Hansen... Pitchers we traded away: Sale (Grissom), Schreiber (Sandlin) , N Robertson & V Santos (O'Neill), Zeferjahn & Vargas (Garcia), O Portis (Sims), G Batista (Jansen), Bolivar (Paxton)

It's in MVP's head, too. I could see choosing Mayer as the one top prospect to trade away, but with out middle infield being the weakest area on our every day roster, I don't really like the idea, unless it brings back someone like George Kirby and his 4 years of arb control.

Skubal & Crochet both have 2 arb years left. Unless we extend them after a trade, I don't think a 2 year window is big enough to trade so much young talent for. Deals like Luis Castillo and Pablo Lopez do come up, here and there: both were extended after the trades. If I'm giving up two our top 4 prospects (Anthony or Campbell plus Mayer or Teel,) I'm looking for longer team control pitchers like... Logan Gilbert (3 arbs), George Kirby (4 arbs) or 2 pre-arb guys like Bryce Miller & Bryan Woo, who might take 3 top prospects to get (only 1 from Anthony & Campbell.) We could also look to trade for a higher salary guy like Luis Castillo ($21.6M AAV through 2027 w option for 2028,) and it wouldn't cost as much in prospects to make happen. This, of course, depends on SEA's willingness to trade pitching for hitting. We'd likely have to WOW them to get a deal. Mayer, Teel, Abreu and Winckowski might be enough.

I feel the same way. Part of my thinking on the Sale trade was that we probably fixed the 2B problem (We did not) and added $10M to the winter spending budget that would surely add more than just Gio, Criswell and Chase Anderson. We ended up cutting the opening day budget by exactly the $10M we saved on Sale, so I don't see it as using his saved money to sign Gio. I see it as using it to pay JH's yacht crew & mansion staff. Had we spent up to the tax line, we could have signed Imanaga or Lugo, instead of Hendriks. That would probably have been enough to get us into the playoffs, especially if we took Lugo away from KCR. The next what if was Gio's injury, but that crap happens , all the time. The Astros are ahead of us, despite having 4 of their top 6 starters out, all year or most of it.

Brez is near having his first year as team CBO under his belt. He's already done a lot of moves, including some significant ones, as well as attempted to change the way we acquire and develop our prospects and players. I won't get into the changes he has made to the scouting and development, so far, and those changes may take years to realize any gains (or losses.) I hope this thread can be an honest look at what he has done, can do, should do and is allowed to do by JH & Co. I'll kick the thread off by simply cataloguing his most significant moves made, so far. I'm sure I'll miss some or list some that might not be viewed as significant, but here is my list: Signed Giolito: $18M/1 w $19M player option for 2025 ($1M buyout) and club option for $14M for 2026 or $19M, if he pitches 140+ IP in 2025. Extended Brayan Bello to $55M/6 w option for $21M in '30 ($1M buyout) Extended Ceddanne Rafaela to $50M/8 w $16M option for '32 and $4M buyout Traded for Vaughn Grissom (Chris Sale & $17M cash) Traded for Justin Slaten- a Rule 5 pick (Ryan Ammons) Traded for Richard Fitts, Greg Weissert & Nicholas Judice (Verdugo) Traded for Tyler O'Neill (Nick Robertson & Victor Santos) Signed Cooper Criswell ($1M/1 w arbs pending after 2025) and Chase Anderson Signed Liam Hendriks $8M/2 w option for '26 at $12M (w $2M buyout- making it a $10M/2 or $20M/3 deal) Traded for David Sandlin (Schreiber) Traded for Isaiah Campbell (Luis Urias) Traded for Quinn Priester 7/28 (Nick Yorke) Traded for Danny Jansen 7/27 (Paulino, C Coffey & G Batista) Traded for Luis Garcia 7/29 (M Lugo, Kavadas, Zeferjahn & Vargas) Traded for Lucas Sims 7/29 (Ovis Portes) Traded for James Paxton 7/26 (Moises Bolivar) Signed Dominic Smith (May 1st) and Brad Keller (5/28) Signed Rich Hill (8/17) to minor league deal> majors Traded for Garrett Cooper (Cash) Traded for T Wingenter (CJ Weins) Traded for Bailey Horn, Tyler Heineman, Zach Short, N Uwasawa (all for cash) Later, traded Short for cash. Traded Pablo Reyes for cash. Rule 5 Picks: Mickey Gasper (minor league phase) & Shane Drohan returned to Sox Waiver Claims: Romy Gonzalez, Max Castillo, Y Ramirez Signed to minor league deals: Michael Fulmer (2 yrs), Jamie Westbrook, Joely Rodriguez, Wyatt Mills (2 yrs), Lucas Luetge Drafted: Braden Montgomery (12), Payton Tolle (50), B Neely (86), Z Ehrhard (115), B Clarke (148) and 11 more pitchers and 4 everyday players. (14 pitchers out of 20 draft picks) IFA signings: V Asencio ($1M), C Carrasqquel ($590K), E Brito ($450K), D Reyes ($450K- RHP), A Fermin ($400K), Justin Gonzalez ($250K) and many more to $200K or less All-in-all, there were a lot of pitchers acquired, of which some won't play until 2025 or beyond, if at all. We've already hashed out the Gio signing and Sale trade, and to some extent other moves, but not all that much.

Who said they thought Grissom was a better hitter than Campbell. I don't disagree that Campbell might be ready to be called up, now. I do, however, trust the Sox organization to know when he is ready, and how to maximize his years of control on the big club, when he is at a point where he will be playing his best. Why waste a year of control having him learn and adjust, when we can have a year added in his prime, on the back end? Calling someone up is not such a simple task. That being said, if they called him up, today, I'd be happy. I'd be thinking he must be ready. I've not given up on Grissom, but he has to earn his way to the 26, and earn his way to being a starter. His only "leg up" on Campbell is that his years of service clock has already begun.

Agreed. It's like they thought it was going to be easy.

The Domers pulled it out. I wasn't impressed by our QB play.

The second option could be Mayer, with DHam- Grissom/Romy (Campbell?) at 2B.

I always thought JBJ had a nice swing. I don't see the comp, except for the great D.

Except the Sox pitching ranks 9th to 12th in xFIP, ERA- and other stats that factor in the poor defense. Now, our stats are highly affected by the early great start to the season, so the staff we have now is not top 12 or even 15.

Yanks lost. MIN getting killed. Another missed opportunity. Time is getting short.

He is still young and has room to improve, even if his plate discipline does not improve or does so just slightly. His defense is off the charts. I'll take .685 and GG CF defense for the next 5 years.

Fitting to end it on a line out. DAMN!

Its up to Devers...

We've hit some hard shots, today. We need some luck, now.

We gotta get to the 9th still down just 1. Top of the order with Duran has to create some late thunder.

Rafaela has been "working" on swinging at out of K zone pitches his whole life. I think he is what he is- sink or swim with it. He seemed to make some sort of adjustment after the poor start to 2024, but now, he has to find a way to adjust to the opponents readjusting. He plays great CF D and has some speed, when he gets on base. I think that should be enough to outweigh a .680-.690 OPS, and besides, .690 is the new .725 in MLB.

Brez did add Slaten and Criswell. He also added a few pitchers who looked pretty good, on paper, but have not been a plus in 2024, most notably Gio, Weissert, I Campbell, Hendriks and Fulmer. They may help in 2025. He also add prospects Sandlin, Fitts, Priester and Judice. I think the jury is still out on his 2024 moves, except to say not much helped, this year and this year only. I like the Dugo-O'Neill switch out: RHB for LHB, while flipping Nick Robertson and Victor Santos for Weissert, Fitts and Judice. I think we got a plus on O and pitching on those two deals combined. I like the Slaten, Sandlin and Priester additions, but it's all speculation. I do admire the attempt to improve the farm pitching, and Brez also drafted more pitchers than we have in a long time. The deadline deals all soured, except for maybe Jansen, and none but maybe the Priester deals will help in 2025 and beyond. I do think Brez tried to make a difference more than Bloom did, but we have to start connecting on some of our bigger deals, and soon!

The DSL Red Sox won the championship, today. They won 6-0, despite walking 7 batters. 4 pitchers combined for a 2 hitter. Justin Gonzalez went 4-5 w a 2B. Fermin went 3-5. Brito 1-1 w 2 BB. Woo lost 6-0. Campbell went 1-3 w BB.

That 2 run 2B is yet another example of a bad fielding mistake, not counted as an error, leading to a flip in the team leading. Ref just coasted back, then had to jump, when it could have been a routine play. (Plus, the ball went off the side of his glove, not the top of it.)

He is 5th on the Sox in PAs. He is 5th on the Sox in RBIs. Does it matter than so many are from solo blasts? RBI per PA: .15 Devers .14 Abreu & Yoshida (EValdez) .13 Rafaela & O'Neil (before today) .12 Refsnyder .11 Duran & Wong .09 DHam

I respect your opinions, Max, and I know sometimes you shoot from the hip or out of anger. I agree that pitching and hitting vastly outrank defense, but a really bad defense can make a difference that good bats and pitching can't overcome. 2024 is proof in the pudding. Offense: 7th in runs scored (just 4 behind 5th place) 4th in OPS with one of MLB's most balanced line-up, in terms of the least amount of batters below .720 or .690. We are 4th in wOBA. Basically, we are top 5. Pitching, when taking away the defensive aspect; 10th in xFIP at 4.03 (just 0.05 from 8th,) 9th in SIERA 3.93 (just 0.03 from 8th.) We are 11th in ERA-, but 17th in ERA. That pretty much tells the story of our run prevention. Our pitching is about 10th, while our defense is about 29th or 30th, and that's why the ERA is 17th, not 9th to 11th. In short, we have a top 5-6 offense and a top 10-11th pitching staff. Why do we have the 14th best record in MLB with those rankings, if defense is not all that important? (Hint: it's not poor baserunning.)