moonslav59

I really hope we don't squander a top 10 prospect(s) for a rental(s.) I'm okay with some lower prospects for 1 or 2 or 3, but not top ones. Getting a SP'er with 1.3 or more years of control will be more costly, especially since 20+ teams might be in the bidding, but we can afford to bite the bullet to et 1 or 2 like this (2.3+ years would be even better.) I am doubtful we go this route. Trading 5+ years of a top 10 prospect for even 2.3 years of a stud, shortens the "window" from 5 to 2.3, and I'm not sure the Sox top brass wants to do that, right now. They probably think waiting another year or two to do a deal or two like this, makes more sense. "Choosing a lane," and let's assume it is the buying one, does not mean we are going all in, or even significantly "in." To me, a big part of choosing the buyer lane is to identify where we have duplicated values and deciding who to keep and who to offer up in trade. We may prefer Anthony over Abreu, but a deal might come about, where the other GM insists on Anthony, and we end up sticking with Abreu (Ref/Campbell/Yorke/Lugo/Bleis...) as our 3rd and 4th OF'ers. We may decide to roll the dice with Story, once again and a 2B combination of DHam- Romy/Grissom/Campbell/Yorke/Meidroth...) and bite the bullet by trading away Mayer. We could keep Mayer and trade Campbell. We may think having Wong as out catcher for the "window" is enough, and decide to trade Teel. I doubt our farther away prospects like Bleis, Cespedes and the oft-injured Perales net us a big prize, so I'd hold onto them. Trading Fitts, Sandlin, Perales, E R-C or Dobbins, as part of a bigger package, should only be done, if we get a controllable pitcher in return. I get the sentiment that no team can ever have too much young talent, but the "wait till next year" refrain has already maxed out it's usage. To me, the time is now. What I think will happen is this: 1. We will not trade a top 9-10 prospect, this deadline. 2. We may trade a number of players like Meidroth, Yorke, Lugo, Paulino, Castro, Jordan, Wikelman, Hickey, Kavadas or even ML experienced guys like Valdez or Abreu (assuming we get a RHB for Wilyer) for 2-3 significant but not really good rentals. 3. We trade a top 3 prospect in a package for a TOTR SP"er, this coming winter.

Agreed, but one aspect cannot be overlooked: we are not the only playoff contender struggling, right now. somebody posted, recently, the Yanks have been one of the worst teams in MLB over the last 35-40 games. We could possible play .500 ball and pass them. I'm also not convinced 2-3 teams from the ALC make the dance. Most other teams have tough stretches coming up, too. NYY: has lost 4 of 5 (sound familiar?) and are 10-22 in the last 32 games. BAL: has lost 3 straight and 8 of 11 (10-13 in last 23) MIN: has lost 4 of 6 and 6 of 10 KCR: has being doing well, but has lost 2 straight, and before sweeping the CWS, lost 2 of 3 to BOS. No team wants to rely on other teams to lose, but we are not alone.

The NL is wide open, with just 2 teams out of it. The top 3 teams have 43 or fewer losses, but then the next 10 teams are between 46 and 55 losses. STL is the 3rd WC with 49 losses, and 7 teams are 6 or less losses away. It's very close between the 2WC, 3WC and 3 others: 48 losses NYM 49 STL 50 SDP 50 ARI 50 PIT 53 CIN 54 SFG 55 CHC & WSH WOW!

Amazing how bunched up the top 7-8 in the AL are. 7 teams have between 40 and 47 losses, and HOU leads the ALW and has 49 losses. A lot of teams still in this thing. SEA is still in the ALW race and the WC, too. TEX and TBR are long shots. We need a win streak,

Interesting ideas.

Let's go for it... Anthony, Bleis, Fitts and any 3 from Valdez, Lugo, Wikelman, Paulino, Castro and Jordan for Crochet (2 arbs), Fedde ($7.5M '25) & DeJong (Rental) 2024 (2025) SP: Houck, Crochet, Crawford, Fedde, Bello (Giolito) RP: Jansen (Hendriks), Slaten, Pivetta (Whitlock), Criswell, Bernardino, Kelly, Weissert (Fulmer) C Wong, McGuire (Teel) 1B Casas 2B DHam/Romy (Mayer, Story, Grissom, Campbell) SS DeJong, Romy/DHam/Rafaela (Mayer) 3B Devers LF Duran, Refsnyder (Campbell) CF Rafaela/Abreu RF O'Neill (Abreu) Refsnyder DH Yoshida, Refsnyder/Valdez (Lugo/Yorke) It would be a trade for 2024 and 2025. Crochet makes the window 2024 to 2026, and losing Anthony, Bleis and Fitts does not squash the longer term outlook from 2026>2028+.

Paxton is likely going to be better than Bello has been, but I hope we can do better. He has had a couple nice mini stretches, this year and a pretty long one, last year, so maybe... 2024: 4.37 FIP last 7 starts. 3 starts in a row: 1.00 ERA/3.08 FIP (June 11-24) 3 starts in a row 1.93 ERA/4.58 FIP (May 5-17) First 4 starts of 2024: 2.61 ERA, but 5.80 FIP 2023: First 13 starts: 3.34 ERA/3.58 FIP, including a 6 GS stretch of 1.75/2.31 (5/31- 6/30)

Yes, Sale did look good, last year, and the promise was better than other years. Had he been hurt or sucked, nobody would have been surprised, either. Yes, there were worries about Gio, but really not about his health or durability. Had Gio started 30 games at a 4.00 ERA and Sale 10 at a 3.25 ERA, I doubt anyone would be complaining. We got it wrong. That does not mean there was no logic behind the choices. Getting a couple guesses wrong does not make any GM an idiot. Of course the Grissom outlook is no guarantee, but our 2B issues have been horrific for so long, it nearly rivals our rotation woes. We took a stab at fixing it for 4-5 years. So far, the looks like a bad guess, too. When bad guesses become the norm, then maybe the GM can be blamed, but Brez was not the only guy to think Grissom had more promise than Valdez, Reyes, DHam and others, last winter. I think every single GM would have chosen Grissom over all the others we had. If he's an idiot for that, then something is wrong with the judging criteria. I'd say Brez guessed right on... Dumping Dugo in time Acquiring Slaten Trading two low hope relief pitchers for O'Neill. Signing Criswell at minimum wage with 4 arbs left. Getting Romy off waivers Maybe improving the pen with Booser (2024>>) and I Campbell, Weissert and Judice (2025>>>) Maybe improving the farm with Fitts & Sandlin Maybe improving our 2B position with Grissom from 2025-2028. Maybe improving on the 2025 pitching staff with Hendriks & Fulmer. We can choose to take out the magnifying glass on Sale, Gio and Grissom, but Brez has not swung and missed on every deal. Some or many of the other moves I mentioned might fail or turn out to be insignificant, but the Sale trade had some logic and reason behind it. It just did not work out. It happens. After watching this happen over and over with Bloom, I can see why this causes so much grief, and I'm not happy about it, either, but Brez is not an idiot over one trade.

How many times have we thought this, only to be surprised- to the good and bad?

No doubt. Never thinking of the future can bring that about for long periods.

That's a seperate issue.

We can all see the move backfired, but this constant saying it "made no sense," or they are "idiots" for not predicting these results, is a bit much.

I get it. My point was the attempt was to move away from that, and it backfired on both ends. Gio missed the whole year, and Sale doesn't miss a start. There was an explanation, and there was some reason involved in the decision. I would not call someone an idiot for not predicting Sale would do this, after 4 years of nothing or that Gio would not make a single start. We guessed wrong. It sucks. It's not the first time we guessed wrong on pitching choices.

Pitching Jansen, that game saved Smith for today. LOL.

Wikelman had a nice game (4IP 2H 1ER 1BB 5K) Anthony 2-5 w 2B & BB Campbell 0-3 w 2BB Woo gut smashed in game 1 (8-1.) Wilson pitched 4 no hit innings for DSL Blue.

Almost as importantly, if they told him they were going to try, does he believe them?

AB/HR (over 300) 2 in the top 10... 10.3 Judge 13.0 Ohtani 13.3 Ozuna 13.5 Santander 13.7 O'Neill 14.1 Rooker 14.1 Henderson 14.3 Harper 14.6 Soto 14.6 Devers Not enough ABs: 13.0 Casas 17.5 Westbrook

If we could just put it all together: the pitching from the first 6 weeks with the offense from the last few weeks/months. Even with Casas on the IL, we have 9 guys over .710 and 11 over .690. .963 Devers (1st in HRs and RBI & on pace for best OPS in career) .891 O'Neill (20 HRs in 273 ABs) .865 Duran (1st in XBH, TB and 22 SBs in 26 tries) .844 Refsnyder (OBP of .389 is tops on team) .794 Abreu (.857 v RHPs) .794 Wong (3rd best OBP at .358) .723 Hamilton (25 SBs in 29 attempts) .715 Yoshida (.343 OBP is respectable) .711 Romy (Surprisingly okay) .697 Smith (Doing better after a horrible start to season) .690 Rafaela (2nd in RBI) .575 McGuire (not much good to say)

I get plenty wrong, and admit it, easily. Slaten is not even scheduled for a rehab game, yet. So much for "facts." Nixon, who? I mentioned the age mistake, because you've gotten the ages wrong like 8 out of the last 10 times, right before saying "that's a fact."

I hope not, but doing nothing or very little is a real possibility. I'd rather sell on Jansen, O'Neill & Pivetta to improve our chances in the next few years, than do next to nothing.

He's 4th in XBHs in MLB. 60 Judge & Ohtani 56 Witt 55 Duran He's 6th in TB 246 Ohtani 242 Judge 240 Witt 226 Henderson 218 Ozuna 217 Duran He's 11th in SB (DHam is tied for 4th.)

We should have kept Pablo Reyes as a pitcher, too!

It would be easy to think we should throw in the towel on 2024, after a game and road trip like this one, but there is no great team in the AL, and even NYY & BAL look beatable. I still hope we buy, but I'd rather see us sell than do nothing of "play it safe" by halfway buying. I guess trading some players that are not part of our long term plans to try and improve our 2024 a little bit, would not be horrible, but I kinda hope the "pick a lane" comment was not a sham, too.

Post of the Week!

So much for our run differential being skewed by big blow-out wins.