moonslav59

I'd go... Beckett/Lowell Pedro (trade from 1997, but was essential to 2004 ring season) VTek/DLowe (trade in '97 but essential to '04 ring) Schilling Sale Cabrera/Mientkiewicz Eovaldi Roberts Crisp ERod Kimbrel Wright Porcello Holt Salty

I meant how hopeful I felt going into 2024, after seeing the Brez moves and non moves over the winter vs what I see coming back, next year. Since we don't know who might be added, I'm looking at how I felt about guys like Houck, Crawford, Bello and the everyday players vs how I see them looking for 2025. It's a mixed bag, right now.

It's pretty clear he said it and already apologized, so I think the fact is he did it. I'm not sure what the punishment will or should be, but probably some sort of "sensitivity training" will be mandated. This is really a bad time for this sort of distraction for the team and Jaren.

Those hopes have sure sunk, for now. I'm not sure things look more hopeful for next year. Wwe will need additions, for sure.

If we had signed 4 Criswell's, we'd have a few more wins. BTW, he has a +0.6 bWAR. Brez signed two guys like him: Criswell and Chase Anderson.

Is this something other teams avoid? We do seem to have 2-3, every year. This year, it was Wikelman & Perales. I can see why we kept them from Rule 5. Next year, it might be Monegro & Jh Garcia as Guerrero and Fitts could be ML depth. Is two, too many?

We may have room for 4 without dealing Wikelman, but trading him would not hurt my feelings. We have plenty of trade/DFA guys: Dalbec EValdez Heineman (Teel?) Horn Westbrook Murphy Mata Bernardino These guys see their control end in a couple months: Pivetta, Jansen, Martin, O'neill, Garcia, Sims, paxton Keller and D Smith

Every pitcher's ERA is helped by one team's stats, and 3.06 is pretty damn good. 4.11 would be leading the Sox post ASB ERA. They chose well- initially and in hindsight.

There are many different ways to set up next year's line-up, including the one you mentioned. To me, adding a TOTR pitcher is essential for us to have any chance, but that is just the starting point to fixing our roster. We do need another solid SP'er and should not count on Gio as an addition, since he can be viewed as just replacing Pivetta. A trade makes sense on too many levels to not happen. We have various logjams that can allow us to trade from strength and depth, without really even noticing the loss. Trading Casas and moving Devers to 1B is one idea. Mayer at 3B makes some sense, assuming Story can stay healthy. Moving Story to 2B and playing mayer at SS might work, too, and having casas and Devers in the line-up would be a plus, as well. Trading an OF'er makes the most sense, to me. Abreu would not bring the same return as Anthony, but if we signed a guy like Burnes, trading Abreu plus a couple mid-level prospects might bring back a good enough SP'er to make the rotation close to whole. The heavy LHB nature of our everyday players has to be dealt with, as all of the big 3 prospects are LHBs, too. (I'm not sure Campbell can be counted for the 2015 26 man roster, but he is a RHB.) Trading Yoshida seems like a pipedream, and we'd certainly have to pay a sizeable chunk of his contract to do it. I do love the idea of an Abreu-Ref DH platoon (back-up OF, too.) LF Duran, CF Rafaela, RF Anthony looks impressive.

That is all of them.

Agreed, and our "bad luck" streak on FA SP'er signings is years long. Gio was known to be injured with enough time to so something about it: Whitlock, not as easily, for sure.

Farm Leaders OBP (250+ PAs) .458 Gasper .455 Campbell .439 Meidroth .424 Kavadas .422 Arias .390 Teel .382 Sogard .381 Westbrook .370 Mayer .369 Jh Garcia .367 Anthony SLG .594 Jh Garcia .577 Campbell .559 Gasper .551 Kavadas .532 Romero .518 Arias .492 B Gonzalez .489 Anthony .480 Mayer .475 Westbrook .475 Dalbec .462 Teel .449 Castro .439 Sogard OPS Against (50+ IP) .360 Valera .548 Ingrassia .554 Dean .565 Kirwin .625 Cohen .628 Dobbins .633 Sansone .637 Early .645 Penrod .648 Fogel .651 Duffy .667 Carlson .669 Monegro .677 Mullins .684 I Coffey .687 Stebens .691 Wikelman .706 Rogers

Agreed. He seems ML-ready, now, but likely not ML goo enough to stick around.

What a stark turnaround from April.

I'm sure he feels the bite, and in many ways, this team has been bitten, badly- no bigger than Sale having his best year since the extension- for another team, but we've also had quite a bit of things go right, too. Our younger players stepped up in a big way, in several areas, and most of our big time farm hands took strides forward, and few made fantastic gains. Brez will be faced with the same pressing concern, this winter: building up the pitching staff in a major way. It's a pitching staff that has major issues before it loses Jansen, Martin & Pivetta. How Brez handles it may be his defining moment.

The Criswell addition worked better than expected.

A lot can happen in 6 weeks, but it sure looks bleak, now. We do still play many teams just ahead of us, not that it makes anything easier. The Royals guessed right on their pitching choices, last winter, and are being rewarded for it.

You don't get booted for just saying what someone said.

I wasn't there. Why not tell us?

He said, "Yell at Henry, not US!"

Exactly. There was now way, he could claim ignorance.

Hate is a strong word, and I'd have given my left nut for just one ring up to the time JH came here. I seriously doubt we have even one, without him, so I cannot hate the man. I just hate what he's been doing for 6-7 years. Plus, the farm and foundation give me some optimism, and I can't believe any GM is too stupid to not insist on trading from our everyday strength to build up our weak link area- pitching. I do not think Brez is dumb, just because many of his biggest winter and deadline deals back-fired.

I think everyone agrees that Brez missed the boat on quality and quantity rotation additions, last winter, and when you count trading Sale away, the net additions were close to zero. These were the starting pitchers we had, before the known injuries: Giolito Bello Pivetta Crawford Whitlock Houck Mata Murphy Criswell Anderson Walter, Gambrell, Alexander, Fitts, Van Belle, Wikelman/Perales/Penrod It's not like the list was just 7 deep, but we did find out many were injured and others were known to not be the types that could give us even 120+ IP, let alone 150+. The biggest shock was doing nothing to replace Gio, when he was the one guy who might have given us 170 IP. Whitlock was lost after 4 starts, but that should not have been shocking, as you have pointed out, correctly, several times. Brez did put some focus on the pen, but even there, we ran into issues and injuries.

Yes, and I thought we had a good shot back in early July. I'm just saying I don't think anyone said they thought the would make it, as in even "pretty sure."

Cora is probably the only one who dares speak his mind.