moonslav59

In theory, maybe signing Alonso and not Suarez, then trading Duran for Paredes (not sure HOU agrees) we might be better off, but who is our SP'er replacement? Signing Bregman not Suarez with Contreras might have worked had we not needed to trade Harrison for Durbin. This assumes Breggie gets over the .700 line.

5 batters below .650, including #3 Gasper and #5 Duran. Very sad. That being said, having Yoshida, Monasterio, Eaton or Narvaez instead is no great improvement, if any. Thanks Brez!

I meant players. I think HOU might want Duran, although they didn't seem to that much last winter.

Yes, it can turn out that way, and the extension, too. That trade is far from its final grade. It looked like an A to A+ last year, but it's maybe a B+ to B or TBD, now.

Agreed. Harrison is having an excellent season. Priester was last year, and now we hardly hear about that "horrible trade." Someday, the Harrison trade may be viewed differently, just as the Priester deal might be, depending on how YRod, Holobetz and Phillips turn out. Using only the "now" criteria when you trade for prospects is seriously flawed. The Harrison for Durbin trade was not that type of trade, and it's perfectly okay to say we have lost on the trade so far, but the final judgement is years away.

He thinks if you don't agree with him, you cant or don't understand his point. He wildly changes his criteria and expects us to follow along and agree with them. "Now" matters only when it fits "What [he] said before..."

They traded for Contreras December 22, which was 11 days after Alonso signed, but judging by our meager offer to Alonso, I'm not sure he was clearly our first and realistic choice to play 1B. The Contreras trade was also long before Breggie signed, but I do believe Breggie was always our first choice as a winter add. They play different positions, so wanting both was the likely situation. Contreras is doing great NOW, so I'm not sure why the goal posts are being moved. Alonso is doing well "now," but at a much higher cost, and he's still doing worse than Willson by any 2026 time frame chosen. Contreras is also a way better defender. Durbin may end up near Breggie in the season ending 2026 OPS. Both are excellent on D. Suarez and Gray look as good as pitching additions than any other team did. This is not letting Brez off the hook. He failed to add another big bat, and several of us wanted two more big bats beyond Willson. The pen was also left exposed. We can't keep counting on converted SP'ers to the pen, as we end up going 10-13 deep in the SP'er depth chart year after year. We are not even halfway through the 2026 season, and we are at least at #11. 1 Crochet 2 Suarez 3 Gray 4 Bello 5 Houck 6 Crawford 7 Sandoval 8 Oviedo 9 Tolle 10 Early 11 Bennett. We've also been forced to use an opener in 4 games.

Schwarber had another great night, and is now 6th in OPS at .963. Many of us wanted him badly, last winter, despite having Duran/Anthony and Yoshida/Romy as DHs. I'm not sure what chance we had getting him, and we might have had to outbid the Phillies by more than $1-2M a year to get him here. The best hindsight signings were barely talked up by posters, here. Murakami (.938) was actually talked down more than even mentioned as a possible signing. Who here wanted Nate Lowe back? He's at .847 as is the second best FA signing by OPS. Most of us laughed at the Luis Arraez idea (.802.) O"hearn was mentioned by notin, as I remember, and he's at .798. Okamoto has slipped to .753 (129th in OPS out of 352 batters with 100+ PAs) Alonso was a big hype guy on this site. He's doing better, now, and is up to .793- still far short of Willson. Tucker was not talked about due to our OF glut, but he has not done well (.715) Bregman is at .693. Many wanted him back, and he seemed like the Sox #1 choice. Bichette is at .667 and was some poster's top choice after we lost out on Breggie. Players who were actually traded last winter: .842 B Lowe and .839 Donovan .635 Semien & .629 DHam Other notable players, so far... .780 Neto, .761 KMarte & .755 Paredes .745 Shaw, .719 M Chapman & .703 Josh Bell .685 Stott, .683 Naylor & .677 Keaschall .674 Hoskins, .664 M McLain & .657 Seager .653 Bohm, .644 T Gray & .641 Hoerner .617 Swanson, .593 Ozuna, .534 Rengifo & .468 Croneworth .740 Devers & .734 Meidroth .727 Beni, Dubon .719 & .695 V Grissom .678 Betts, .643 Bogey & .432 Refsnyder

Shifting criteria runs rampant everywhere- not just TalkSox. We constantly hear how ex Sox players are doing- mostly only the ones doing well. Many times, it's doing well in tiny sample sizes, then when they start sucking or get hurt, the talk stops, and it's on to the next hot item. The numbers matter for them, but when someone points out the good to great numbers by Contreras, Gray and Suarez, we are told only W-Ls matter, and Brez can't make good moves.

Yes, T Guerrero should be added to the trade list.

Of course, we are losing due to poor hitting- timely and untimely. The other issue is that the AL sucks so badly, it makes our record look worse than it is, as we suck in a sucky league. However, other AL teams are worse and much worse in run differential, which is a factor normally tied closely to Wins and Losses. There is a disconnect. This is not to say we are a good team. We are still -5 while playing in a horrible league. It's not an excuse, but we should be closer to .500.

How is Masa 14 for 14 in SB attempts?

I'm not seeing any specific trade suggestions, here. Who can/should we get for... Gray IKF & Coulombe? Duran? Chapman?

Skill lacking and untimely hitting/run-scoring. 13th in Run Diff and 26th in W-L% shows some sort of disconnect.

Last 28 Days OPS .997 Contreras (Getting even better!) .884 Durbin (Man on Fire) .869 Wong (25 PAs) .804 Seigler (8 PAs) .803 IKF (on IL) .795 Rafaela (as steady as he's ever been) .726 Abreu (maybe last night lit a spark) .715 Duran (.272 OBP- not hearing leadoff talk anymore.) .646 Mayer (.772 last 9 games) .626 Masa (.722 last 5 games) .585 Gasper (the friendly ghost) .563 Sogard (17 PAs) .556 Monasterio (bring Seigler back up?) .260 Narvaez (talk about a ghost) .143 Eaton (7 PAs)

Yes, I cherry-picked. (IMO, his last start was 6.1 IP and 2 ERs, which is good or very good but not really excellent.)

OPS Against as SP .607 Suarez .615 Tolle .695 Bennett .709 Gray .732 Early .818 Crochet 1.057 Bello 1.417 Samaniego as "opener" 1.433 Moran as "opener" _______________________ as RP .479 Chapman .480 Moran (WOW! Take away his opener numbers, and...) .484 Bello (WOW!!!) .577 Whitlock .593 Coulombe .614 Kelly (in AAA) .633 Samaniego (in AAA) .677 Guerrero .721 Weissert .777 Watson .873 Slaten Is it time to end the Watson experiment and give Kelly or Samaniego another look-see?

Too bad IKF went on the IL. He was doing well, and may have had some decent trade value. While Coulombe has an awful ERA his .593 OPS Against and other data might make him a trade target. Gray is the prize, in terms of trade value (BTV be damned.) Duran's time in BOS is likely near its end. Chapman has the 2027 option that becomes guaranteed at 40 IP, so I'm not so sure he will or should be traded. To me, these 5 are the the only real trade candidates.

I'm fine with that Durbin play. He's hit .886 in June and .909 in his last 19 games. April>May>June .524>.540>.886 Durbin .721>.687>.646 Bregman (.682 in last 19 games) Both are excellent defensive 3Bmen.

Some crazy numbers: Run Differential and W-L records -8 PHI 41-35 (7th best in MLB) -6 CLE 41-36 (8th best) -3 CWS 39-36 (9th best) -9 SDP 39-36 (10th best) -23 AZ 39-38 (13th) -1 MIA 39-38 (14th) The Sox are 13th in Run Diff at -5 but 26th in W-L% at .419. Untimely hitting and too many 1 to 2 run losses pretty much sums it up. It seems more mental than skill-lacking.

Yes, because "NOW" is all that matters. (Note: Harrison has an ERA north of 6 in his last 3 starts.) We might not have to wait 5 years to call that trade a win or push.

It's very common for people to go goo-goo gah-gah over tiny sample sizes.

Most PAs Against at Home & Away and OPS Against Home .594 Moran .596 Gray ,628 Bennett .633 Suarez .655 Gray .760 Weissert .762 Samaniego .774 Bello .788 Watson .807 Early Away .562 Tolle .582 Suarez .614 Moran .672 Weissert .701 Early .744 Whitlock .757 Watson .830 Gray .837 Crochet .899 Bello It's not these last 3 pitcher's faults for the H-A splits

10 most PAs at home .447 Mayer .489 Story .562 Narvaez .677 Duran .710 IKF .717 Yoshida .748 Abreu .796 Rafaela .974 Contreras Road .558 Narvaez .601 Story .614 Yoshida .637 Duran .699 Durbin .714 Monasterio .751 Mayer .763 Abreu .781 Rafaela .862 Contreras

American League by Run Differential +115 NYY +15 SEA +7 TBR -3 CWS -5 BOS -6 CLE & DET -12 TEX Everyone else is -25 or worse!