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And Fitts recalled. Also, Shugart headed back to Worcester…

I haven’t given much board time to RHH needs, but they are real. So some thought: 1. Bring back O’Neill for RF. Assuming he doesn’t want years. The Sox need a guy on short years to hold the position for Anthony. 2. Story and Grissom both return. While likely to hit better vs LHP than Hamilton, not sure this is anything more than a minimal upgrade. 3. I like Yoshida, but an exchange with Larry made me notice a realistic Yoshida trade would send him and Hamilton to Seattle for Mitch Garver. Garver has been awful this year, but he also entered the season with terrible numbers in Seattle. Can he bounce back? If not , unlike Yoshida, he has only one year left.

No. I said the MLB landscape is littered with stuff guys blah blah. Basically, don’t tell me about stuff. Tell me why Miller is better than Houck. He penciled Miller into the 2 slot ahead of Houck…

I have no clue about the budget, so I anticipate minimal change. I also suspect some of the groundwork for 2025i !has already been done - namely Hendriks, Fulmer, Priester. Not sure why you disagree with this. As I said, it’s already been done. i hope they attack the top of the rotation. As I expect one major SP to be added at most, I’d prefer Skubal, Freddy Peralta, or Garret Crochet (in that order). While the availability of all three has been rumored or could happen due to the contract, it seems to me only Crochet is going to be available. I don’t think Burnes or Fried are on the radar, or ever will be. id like to see better than Crochet, whom the Sox pounded last night. But who else will be available?

Also all I have said about Hendriks and Fulmer is they’re both already signed. The point being “don’t expect the Sox to overspend on the bullpen.” I’ve yet to say anything about the performance of either. Also I’m 99% sure Hendriks gets first crack at the 2025 closer role, I’ll go out on that limb…

The only support for him being better than than was given was about his “superior stuff.” That’s not real support…

It’s one year. Burnes, like any pitcher, can have a good or bad season. The real point is Crawford is better than many think. He’s not a reliever and not a depth piece. He’s an MLB-caliber starting pitcher who probably needs to build up some stamina. His last few starts have been better (second wind?), but his season overall has been complete overshadowed by his post-ASB struggles. And barring an unforeseen trade or injury, he will be in the Sox rotation next year. By which I mean Boston, not Worcester.

Not what I asked. I asked why he was better than Houck..

No, I suggested Priester as a stand-in for Giolito., who I doubt is recovered until July/August. Crawford has the same bWAR as Corbin Burnes. Why not count on him? Would you count on Burnes? I can find dozens of posts denigrating Houck and Crawford while wishing for Burnes and/ or Fried. But as of today, Houck and Crawford (total 5.5) are outperforming Burnes and Fried (5.1) on bWAR… Ive said it before. If we had Sale, we’d be in the postseason. Doubtful another Sale is available, but I’ve been posting lately about the best pitchers rumored to be available, or seeing whose contracts are coming up and therefore might be…

Yeah realism!! I wonder what it will take for folks to notice Houck (3.3) actually has more bWAR than Fried (2.6) and Corbin Burnes (2.2). In fact, Burnes has the same bWAR as Crawford. Our grass as Fenway is greener than we realize, And we need to use that green to extend Houck and Duran…

“Stuff” Is meaningless unless it can be translated into useful pitching. The MLB landscape is littered with guys with amazing stuff who simply couldn’t pitch…

Just a guy who knows JH isn’t going to spring for a Dream Pitching Staff, and who doesn’t look at Houck and his 3.3 bWAR as a “#3 at best” while eyeballing some arm from another team with 2-2.5 bWAR as the missing TOR starter we need…

Casas, Abreu, Yoshida and Hamilton for Miller and Garver? Seems a bit too big to ever happen. Also why is Bryce Miller (2.6 bWAR) a clear #2 while Tanner Houck (3.4 bWAR) is not?

If they acquired Yoshida, they’d need to play him in the OF unless the Sox took back Mitch Garver. That’s much less fair to Seattle on BTV, but they have no need for both Yoshida and Garver. A deal of Yoshida and Hamilton for Garver works on BTV and gives the Sox the RHH DH they could really use, but doesn’t help their pitching at all. It also requires some faith in Garver bouncing back

I’d be shocked if Seattle took that trade. Yoshida has a large contract and they give very little money back. Plus he has no position. Hagenman is a 27yo AAA depth arm. Seattle, like every team, didn’t have a shortage of them. Hamilton is a question mark but might have some appeal. Casas is a good centerpiece here. And there’s always the issue of taking on 3 players requiring 40 man roster spots. (Will Hagenman require one next year? If so, that’s 4 spots.) But BTV gives Casas a surplus value of $27.9. Bryce Miller had a surplus of $54.4mill. If you like their model, Casas plus Abreu is better match for Bryce Miller…

And Crawford is a “depth piece”? He’s second on the team in bWAR and has pitched 160 MLB innings with a 4.08 ERA, and yet somehow isn’t good enough for the rotation? Is Breslow expected to assemble a staff like one normally seen in a 10-man Yahoo Fantasy League?

If we had kept Sale, we’d be a playoff team this year. That’s one TOR pitcher away…

Rebuild half the staff? The Sox have 4 SPs and the bulk of the BP returning, plus Hendriks and Fulmer. SPs will include Houck, Bello, Crawford, and Giolito, probably with Priester filling in for him until he’s cleared..

I didn’t pick some section in the middle. I picked his last 5 seasons in Boston. Why do his wins in 2012 still matter? And he went 6-11 in 2019. Are we not supposed to count that? Or is he only a proven winner in the seasons he gets wins? Also, in case you missed it, 17 wins is not a lot for 5 years. Or maybe, just maybe W-L record for pitchers really is meaningless. As for Crochet, there are concerns. But he does have serious talent. But of all the things to hold against him, won loss record tells you nothing…

If the Sox need pitching that badly, just sell and stockpile for 2026…

From 2019 through 2023, Sale was 17-18. Is that W-L record mean anything?

Fits in with our youthful pitching core. If BTV is any judge (and they often are) his value of 40.2 is well below that of Anthony and Mayer so he might be had for less. But there are risks. Stil he is worth looking into. Peralta has two team options left, both very friendly $8mill ones at that. Most likely, Milwaukee keeps him for another run, especially since Woodruff comes back next year. But they might (emphasize “might”) be willing to move him early for a player like Mayer. Beyond these two, the trade market for top starting pitchers is a mystery to me right now. And I’m not even sure about Peralta…

I did like my proposed Mayer/Abreu/Fitts package for Skubal. But Detroit at 71-71 might not be ready to sell yet. This isn’t some small market Tampa team dealing off 50% of their arb eligible players every year. Sure Detroit, like KC and Minny, is propped up by a 9-1 record vs the White Sox, but they can probably count on that next year as well. I think Skubal might be less available than we hope. Crochet can still be had. Freddy Peralta might be available. (And they SS Willie Adames is a free agent after this year. Hmmm..)

Texas? You might be right. I only assumed Atlanta because they clearly remained interested. I had my doubts any team was really even that interested in Sale. Although the story broke in August of 2023 and the offer was reportedly in July of 2022, so Sale had a few less injuries at the time. I wanted Sale to front that rotation in 2021, 2022 and 2023. Of course I was always told “you can’t count on him”, probably by a lot of people who changed to “you should have counted on him.” Maybe some of those who wanted him at closer. If Sale just missed 2020, this contract probably works out and he’s still here. But those repeated absences were just killers every year. Anyway, I get why they made this trade. Not like some others. Jon Lester for Yoenus Cespedes? Seriously? Was Cherington even aware of that contract? Why did he take MLB talent from a team that clearly still should need it? (Oakland did make the postseason that year.) Or Lackey for Allen Craig and Joe Kelly? Why would you trade 1.5 years of a dirt cheap starter for a struggling and injured utility infielder and a middle reliever, both already in MLB, when you’re a last place team?

All I said about this trade is it made sense at the time. I hated that they at a minimum they did nothing to replace Giolito (I was more on board with Houck/Bello/Crawford than most, and still am). I also didn’t like that they did no minor league depth signings beyond some guy named Criswell. Now in hindsight, the trade was a disaster. That’s not exclusive from whether or not it made sense at the time. It made sense and it still bombed. Yes, they needed pitching. Sale was doing a poor job at providing it for 4 years at that point. I get moving on and looking elsewhere. Last year after the deadline, there was a story about Bloom receiving offers on Sale the previous summer, and declining them. I’m guessing they were from a Atlanta. The alleged offers were for Sale’s whole contract and nothing in return. A lot of people were mad at Bloom for not taking that offer. Would that really have been better? I would have liked more pitching even before the Giolito injury. And certainly after it. But that doesn’t mean Sale was a logical choice there any more than acquiring deGrom from Texas would be. They had options and did nothing. That’s a big problem. Not whether or not Sale pitched. Because will we see this passive approach again?