moonslav59

I do think the sheer amount of buyers and tire-kickers will be as high as ever, this deadline, and that should drive the cost of return higher and higher, but I do think we can still get some meaningful pieces without giving up not only any top 3 prospects, but maybe not top 4-6 either. Keeping Perales, Fitts and Sandlin could be possible, too, but if we get some decent pitching in return, we will likely have to part with some of our own pitching prospects. We could trade the LHB Abreu, who really struggles vs LHPs. We have O'Neill, Ref and Rafaela (Yorke, Lugo & Campbell on the farm as possible LF'ers) as RHBs and Duran and Yoshida (DH first/LF option) with Anthony knocking at the door as LHB OF'ers. I think we could get some decent returns for these guys, but maybe I'm just a pink hat homer: Abreu Meidroth Lugo Valdez DHam (if we get a RHB SS) Maybe decent returns for: Mata or Wikelman Murphy or Walter Paulino or Castro Hickey or Brannon Jordan or Coffey Romero or Anderson Not sure we want to part with Zanetello, the Garcia brothers, E R-C or Dobbins, but if we go all in, we probably will have to. I think it can be done, but do we really want to nearly gut our entire farm depth for a longshot chance at 2024 glory? I know some fans are all about the here and now, and I get their points, but I doubt we scrap the 5 year rebuild plan based on the hopes the 2024 team has given us up until 4 days ago.

I kind of expected Campbell to be higher, but his approach does leave a lot of questions and concerns on how he translates to higher level play. Still: not bad having 4 in the top 63, 5 in the top 100 and guys like Perales, Cespedes and maybe Bleis poised to make jumps in the EOY rankings or by mid-season 2025. Of course, we won't know how these higher ranked prospects do in MLB for at least a year or so, but it's encouraging to see some high hopes on the horizon.

Love seeing these promotions, and look forward to seeing their results.

I wasn't doubting your reporting. I guess the uniqueness of the Casas injury might preclude him from even starting to swing a bat with full force, until he reaches exactly 100%, hence no rehab games.

Our biggest need after April, seemed to be middle IF and a RHB. Strangely, the Rafaela, DHam, Romy and even some mini hot streaks by Valdez and Westbrook, seemed to stabilize the MI, or at worst turn if from being horrific on O and D, to being halfway decent. O'Neill and Ref have done okay vs LHPs, but not really consistently. However, our rankings since May 1st supports the idea that we should still be above a .500 team: fWAR Still 3rd in pitching at 12.3, but just 0.4 from being 7th. 14th in O+D at 9.4 (0.8 from #10 and 2.3 from #20- much closer to top 10 than bottom 10, though.) 12th in runs scored (3 runs from #10) 6th in OPS & 9th in wRC+ 24th in OAA Simply put, since May 1st, we have been about a ... Top 7 team in pitching (maybe top 4 due to poor D hurting the numbers) Top 12 in batting Bottom 7 on defense

That's been the case, 4 times. BTW, has the "momentum" shifted? LOL

I didn't know he said that. Last I heard, Casas was hitting the ball of a tee, and wasn't close to playing a rehab game. CBS has him listed at a Sept 1st ETA.

While I don't disagree, how many meaningful trades have gone down in June and July, so far? Teams are waiting for desperation to set in, and some teams are have not been sure they are sellers, yet. It's not easy getting significant talent once the season starts until a few days before the deadline.

If he picks the lane to be a buyer, and has JH's okay to add some salary, along the way, what would "decisive" look like? To me, to get us to a legitimate contender, we'd need... 1 & 2. A solid #2 SP'er and a #5 or two #3/4's. 3. A solid set-up RP'er like Martin was in '23 and Slaten was until going on the IL, this year. 4. A solid middle RP'er 5. A meaningful RHB at SS (Rafaela to CF) or 1B. (Maybe both) This is bare minimum needs. We might need more than the 5 additions I just listed. How does Brez pull this off without selling low on Bleis or Cespedes and/or parting with Fitts or Sandlin? It's hard to imagine him getting a solid #2 SP'er without giving up a top 5-9 prospect or two, even if he's a rental.

With Casas out maybe all year, and Slaten & Martin, as well, there does appear to be too many holes to fill without taking a big chunk out of the farm & future. If all we needed was a 4th starter, a couple decent RP'ers and a RHB at SS or 1B, we could probably fill those needs by trading some prospects in the 10-30 range, plus MAYBE Abreu. Now, the list is so long, that probably can't be done, and I'm not so sure we'd want to take a massive chunk out of our farm depth, anyway. I'm torn, right now. I did not expect this feeling to come, so suddenly. No 4 game stretch should ever do this, but it seems to have done so. The next 6 games could change that, but even if we go 5-1 or 4-2, it does look like making the playoffs might be at less than 50-50, and doing anything special in the playoffs at very long odds. I'm not giving up, but this really sucks. What a gut punch!

Yup. Take ‘em one at a time.

Pick a lane and go full throttle.

I'm hoping we do better. I'm not being negative.

I would, too, but we won't get Paxton.

For some reason, all this talk about hor bad COl at this and that, does not make me feel any better.

Another major problem with the 2019 team was not replacing Kimbrel and Kelly. Compared to Brez adding Slaten, Booser, Anderson, Weissert, ICampbell and Criswell, DD did next to nothing about the pen from 2018 to 2019. At the end of 2018 and through the playoffs, the pen screamed for help. Nothing was done. Perhaps budget constraints were part of the reason, but we found money to bring back Pearce at about $2M AAV than Kelly got with LAD.

Agreed, and not to the Sox.

Exactly, and that's wht the whole FO, winter talk, including the "full throttle" statement was a sham. The team was and is not a sham, but their actions vs their words was and has been for years.

1. You conflate "doing nothing" with moves that looked good not working out. 2. Slaten's 1.3 fWAR as a RP'ers places him 9th in MLB. I suppose Brez should be blamed for his injury, too. 3.Booser has a 0.5 fWAR (tied with Bernardino for 4th best on the 6th best pen in MLB.) and Weissert 0.1, which is tied for 7th best with Horn & Keller- two other Brez additions. Find another position and reason, but we were fine with the pen, until 2 of our top 3 RP'ers went on the IL. Not many GMs provided enough depth for their teams to overcome that.

Beating COL is a must. Turning around the momentum might help as we head into a very tough stretch our schedule after COL, but the team cannot look ahead. One game at a time! Just win, baby!

Also 20-43 in September the last2 years,combined.

Brez added Slaten, Weissert and I Campbell to the pen, last winter. IC was supposed to be good, but as with most RPers, they can be a hit one year and a miss the next one. Also Criswell and Anderson were added as pen depth, but with 2 SPers down, Criswell had to be used I. The rotation, mostly. Our pen was not a weakness on opening day.

Agreed. I expected more negativity than this

Hard to know. IMO, unless we go 5-2 or 1-6/2-5, we will be on the bubble of which lane to pick. I think we will be cautious buyers, giving up only blocked or duplicated values for useful but not great returns. We may trade Abreu and any prospects at #10 or below for a 4/5 SP, 1-2 RP'ers and a RHB that can play SS, or maybe 1B, 2B or RF (if Abreu is traded.) If we do trade Abreu, adding a RHB SS would allow Rafaela to go back to CF FT. I'm not sure how many RHB SSs are on the market, but we just need a rental to bridge to Mayer and Story in 2025. I think DHam, Grissom and others offer enough MI depth to not need a keeper at SS. We can get by with an OF of Refsnyder, Duran, Rafaela and O'Neall until Anthony replaces O'Neill in 2025. (We also might have Campbell, Lugo, Valdez available in LF in '25.) 1B depth is a need, but more for 2024 than 2025. Our pen needs help.

Winning more than losing seems to keep some of the instigators at bay, a bit more than when we are losing. Certain posters show up much more often, when losing. I've done my fair share of instigating, too, so I'm not trying to throw stones, but nothing like a losing streak to bring out the worst is some.