moonslav59

My first favorite player was Tommy Harper. In the mid to late 70's it was Rick Burleson & Bill Lee. The 80's: Evans and Burks. The 90's: Valantin & Pedro. The 2000's: Pedro, VTek & Wake. The 2010's: JBJ, Koji & Sale and the 2020's: Rafaela & Nate/Chapman

A convenient view, but not without merit. I do think the 2020 team was worse, and BTW that was an 84 game season, and we have played 101 games, so far. The way we are going, now, we may very well end up under .400. This team has sucked- no doubt.

Top OPS (100+ PAs) 1.333 Primera FCL .990 Brannon AA .953 Arias AA .947 Gasper AAA .918 Winnay A+ .916 Garcia AA .915 M White A+ .902 Godbout A+ .879 Azocar A/A+ .871 Sogard AAA .855 Rivas FCL .832 Seigler AAA & A+ .809 Heyman A/A+ .801 Capra AAA .798 Eaton AAA/ .794 Cheng AAA/.793 YRod A+

BTV still has Mayer valued at $38M (5th highest.) Would you trade him now? (I would for the right return, despite our great need for infielders not playing 1B.)

If Harrison was still on the Sox AND pitching well (big if,) I'd be thrilled with the Devers trade. I was okay with it as just a salary dump only deal. Durbin & Co. may yet outvalue Harrison. (I'm not predicting it, but we are less than 3 months into a trade of 5 year players.

Good points. I'd add... They kept 4 OF'er and had Yoshida for DH, so in no way were they 100% behind Anthony playing 155 games and being great all 2026. They had a solid back-up plan. Of course, they expected him to do very well, eventually. Mayer was not extended nor handed the FT job. He's been platooned. KC was extended and handed the FT job, but they had Romy, DHam and others behind him. He was not counted on for 2026, at all. That's why we traded for Durbin, Monasterio, Cheng, Capra and Seigler. I agree on being more aggressive, but I think swinging for the fences is one form of aggressiveness we should lay back on.

One of the points Brez has been most criticized for is the focus on SP'ers over bats and RP'ers, so I find the argument that trading away SP'er depth as not really true. He happened to trade away a couple guys who have had 1/2 to 1 good season after the trade, and he has traded away some minor league SP'er depth, but overall, he has added to the depth more than taken away, and some of the additions have worked out very well- better than Harrison and Priester and Drohan/Dobbins/_____. Both Harrison and Priester were near or below #10 on the depth charts when traded. I don't think a single poster had either Priester or Harrison higher than #8 or 9, when traded. Most were fed up with Sale's injuries before he was traded. He was part of a long-standing injured rotation list. Here was how I viewed our 2025 SP depth chart (injury free) 1 Crochet, 2 Houck, 3 Buehler, 4 Giolito, 5 Bello, 6 Crawford, 7. Fitts, 8 Winckowski, 9 Newcomb, 10 Criswell, 11 Dobbins/Priester/Drohan/Fulmer I could see placing Priester as high as #8 but no higher. I could see placing him at #14. The fact that I listed 14 pitchers highlights B rez's focus on SP quality and quantity, and yet he is criticized for trading one of the 14. (The wrong one, maybe, but still....) 2026: 1 Crochet, 2 Suarez, 3 Gray, 4 Bello, 5 Houck 6. Crawford, 7 Sandoval, 8 Oviedo, 9 Tolle, 10 Early, 11 Harrison/Bennett/Uberstine. Okay, take away Houck as he was known to be out, I'd still have placed Harrison at #10 at best. Acquiring SP'er depth has been Brez's top strategy. Once can argue he chose the wrong ones to add and subtract, but the high focus and demonstrated actions are undeniable. Added: Crochet, Suarez, Gray, Giolito, Buehler, Oviedo, Sandoval, Fitts, Priester, Harrison, Newcomb, Criswell, Fulmer, Bennett and some I forgot Subtracted: Sale, Harrison, Priester, Drohan, Clarke, Fitts, Perales, Fajardo, Aita, Sandlin, Travieso, Wikelman and some I forgot. Brez's weak point is adding big bats: Add: Contreras (I count Bregman as a good bat not "big bat.") He's been hit and miss on the pen. He's done well with SP'ers and SP depth. We've already started #10 and 11, this year, and we are 12th in SP xFIP and 15th in ERA-. That's not great, but we are missing our ace, replaced Bello, and have gotten zero from Houck, Crawford, Sandoval & Oviedo. One could argue, that's Brez's fault, but I don't agree. Brez has made many mistakes, but I think he's done well with the rotation.

Loving this!

Te Sale trade is a perfect example of a hindsight sucky trade. I understand many hated or disliked it on day one, but it made some sense, when made. One common view seems to be that when someone is trade, it means we gave up on them. That may not be true or only partially true. It may be more about liking the return more- for good or bad. We obviously like Priester and Harrison enough to trade for them. Maybe after seeing them up close, we soured on them- maybe not. Maybe we just liked the players we got back more, and that was the main reason. We got many of the "returns" wrong- like Grissom. There was a time when the return of Harrison was viewed as horrible. Now, we rue the day we traded him. Go figure!

Not at all. I'm not for trading Contreras for that reason, unless we get better value or equal value with more control years. I'm not even 100% done with 2026....YET

But you were, at the time, on Priester and Harrison? In both instances, these guys were below #10 on our SP'er depth charts, and by "our" I mean the Sox organization and every single poster on this site, unless these two pitchers have parents posting here. Both deals got off to very bad starts, and the GM gets the blame for that. I get it. I play the same blame game, myself, but I do think context needs to be a factor when grading a GM. I may differ from most as I don't view hindsight only or even as the major component. I'd also add that true "hindsight" should occur after all players involved in the trade have met their team control years. Most of the Brez trades are far from that point.

We do need a SS. It is one position you don't just slap a poor defensive player there. That being said, we have all 9 positions we can add a big bat to. I'd avoid CF, but if we trade or sign one, we can move him to LF or RF, so big bat additions are not restricted to positions, under my view. If we add 2 big bats anywhere but SS, I'd be okay with Mayer at SS. If we add a SS, we'd have Mayer at 3B or 2B, but we'd have Durbin, Romy and others to choose from. We don't have that choice at SS. I'm just saying my preference for big bats is at SS and either 2B or 3B. I realize those two slots don't have a ton of .900 potential guys that are available, so we'd likely have to look at my next tier of preference: DH or C. The last preferences are 1B (assuming no Willson trade) and OF, unless we trade Duran and move Anthony to DH. I'm not limiting the addition of a .900 bat by any position- just offering preferences. I actually agree with your point that the 2 big bats is the top priority- not positions. I will add that your ",900" point makes it a near impossible ask for this coming winter. There are only 5 batters in MLB with a .900+ OPS from 2025-2026 combined, and which one is available? 600+ PAs 1.078 Judge .999 Ohtani & Kurtz .937 Soto .925 Schwaber Okay, assume you meant near .900 or someone with strong promise to be near .900... .892 Buxton, .891 Rice, .890 Carroll, .882 Acuna, .881 Springer There is a big drop to... .867 Wood, .865 Olsen & Langeliers, .864 Yandy Diaz & Muncy, .862 Freeman & Raleigh Drop the PAs to 300 to try and find promising players or players who got hurt... .968 Yoran, .886 Stanton, .876 Canzone, .841 Colsen Montgomery I'm not seeing many opportunities to find two big bats at your level of greatness.

Just about what I've been saying. I'm going on teh assumption we will be out of it in mid to late July. Even then, I'd like Willson for 2027 and maybe 2028, so I'm not offering him for the best offer- like it or not. I would do that for Gray, Chapman and IKF

Exactly. BTW, Willson is not paid much. Counting the $5M buyout for 2028, he's owed ... $41.5/2 or $$54M/3 STL is paying $6M for $27 & '28 and a prorated $2M towards 2026. That makes it more like... $35M/2 or $47.5M/3 I think many teams would not worry too much about the money owed, if he has a steep decline in 2027 or 2028. Hell, teams pay $35M for one year! (See Bregman)

You think we have a chance in 2026?

It would be about the future. You assume Willson stays this good for 2027 and 2028. IMO, he seems to be aging well, so I'd keep him but listen to offers that would give us pieces that look as encouraging as he does going forward, but without the looming age-decline aspect. If nobody gives us that- just say no.

It's a bad move now, just like Priester's looked last summer. It may end up being bad or even horrible, but maybe not. To me, on paper, Brez won 3 or 4 out of his 5 major deals (as of now): Win: Crochet, Gray, Contreras Maybe: Devers (for the stud named Harrison) Loss: Grissom

It is not making finding 2 big bats much more difficult by limiting the positions to 6 out of 9. 1B or DH SS 2B or 3B C Add 2 big bats that are not OF'ers, but even there, we can trade Duran and DH ANthony and add a big OF bat, as well. That makes it "any position"

I'm not sure trading for a pitcher (Painter was just demoted) is the best idea, either. I heard Aiden Miller has a serious injury, so I say no.

I agree, but the worry might be that things aren't going well for Contreras next summer, and his value is kaput.

Get the best you can get for Duran, Gray & IKF. Chapman has a year left, and that should up his value way higher than BTV gives him. Contreras is aging, but aging well. He has 2 more years, as does Whitlock. These three should be shopped but are NOT in the "trade for the best offer- no matter what it is" category.

Missed some big ones, too! LOL (BTW, Gruesome is doing okay after we traded nhim away.)

He did trade for Priester and Harrison, too, you know. The Priester trade now looks like a TBD, to me. Maybe in a couple years, we will view the Harrison deal differently. I will say, nobody here had high hopes for Harrison after 2025. Now, we say Brez should have known he was a gem. (Durbin is still a TBD and an excellent defensive 3Bman.) All-in-all, the net trade report card looks better than a "C" but wins on paper don't mean wins on the field.

Many trades that looked like "suck" are now TBD, including the Harrison to MIL trade. Of course, some that look good now may turn sour, or the player we traded becomes a star much later. The overall roster construction left serious flaws- many of which we readily noticed, mentioned or criticized from day one. The limited budget offers some context, but Brez was given new spending budgets much higher than Bloom and the sort period of DD's last year, right after the Sale and Bogey extensions and Nate's re-up, which can be viewed as not being "new spending." (Post JD could be called the starting point.) However, we had a decent team, last year, lost some high salaries, of which only Bregman & Gio looked like major losses, and Brez was given enough money to improve the team. On paper, it looks like the deals he made were a net plus, but the games are not played on paper.

Thanks- I'm sure I forgot a few others.