Nick

At what point do the big 3 make their major league appearance? How much better is Roman Anthony than say Abreu? How soon can we expect to see Teel? Do we stick with Reese McGuire for another year? His third and final year of arbitration? How realistic is it for Mayer to replace healthy Story with decent hitting? Do we move Story to second base to accommodate Mayer? When does the switch occur? Will Kristian Campbell placed in the same time table as the big 3? He is already 22 and plays in Portland. Is it possible for him to shift to CF and have Rafaela play short and Story second if Mayer does not pan out? We're very fortunate to have Rafaela because his ability to play short and center gives us tons of flexibility. At this point, the Sox may feel they need to extend/sign Pivetta and hope for the best from Giolito in 2025 and call it the day. We can't make any bold moves without giving up top talent in my opinion. You can't have it all. I know what DD would do. He would get rid of at least one of the top 4 to acquire a top talent, even if it's a rental.

So is our pitching #2?

5'4" release point from a 6'6" guy? Average D1 release point is 6'0". Is that lower than say Chris Sale?

Let's be self critical of this board. Admit everything we were wrong about. 1) Tanner Houck, projected by the team as #5 starter, there are many on this board always thought he and Whitlock should be relievers. The biggest complaint was he didn't throw enough effective pitches and hard trouble getting through the line up second and third time around. 2) Duran, there were some doubts as to whether he can have a starting role and still questioned his ability to play center. 3) Rafaela, many wanted him to work out his swing selection in the minors. Other like myself was little more astute (lol, I'm not astute) saying Rafaela played good enough defense, let him bat 9th and work it out. I DON'T BELIEVE HITTING AGAINST MINOR LEAGUE PITCHERS WILL HAVE HELPED WITH SWING SELECTION. THEY DON'T THROW LIKE THE MAJOR LEAGUE PITCHERS FOR ONE. We're fortunate that starting pitching has held up, bullpen has been pretty solid and peripheral players such as Hamilton, Abreu, O'Neill and others have supplemented our offense.

It appears, Paxton is only starting lefty in the rotation right now unless they have someone coming up from the minors. Rockies also have one left handed starter, Gomber with ERA of 4.61. Our bats should score some runs. 4-2 doesn't seem out of reach.

Moon the reality again is tha Bres thinks Liam can replace Jansen. Why would he spend money to get a closer when Liam already has a contract? My guess is he also thinks Giolito can repace Pivetta. And what to do with?Whitlock? I am pretty sure he thinks he can either start or replace Martin. What I am trying to say is has has the opportunity to go find top liners with minimum of $60M. I rather us go spend on real impact players. That to me means NOT spending $16M on a closer when they already have Liam. And I agree with that approach.

Without power, not sure how Grissom can play much better than Hamilton.

Not to kick a player when he's down but Duggie came in on a game ending fly ball then fell flat on his face trying to go back on the same play. Good job bud. MassLive has an article on Duggie about that last play. Wow, everyone is enjoying his misery.

He throws his sinker the most, 40%+ and batters are hitting .340? Does anyone else have a stat worse than that? Unreal.

Uh....that's $20M for all 3.....I wouldn't be that stupid.

Cot's has us at $106M under the luxury tax line of $241M. We lose Jansen and Martin. What if we're able to replace them with Liam (management thinks so) and Whitlock? Their salaries are already baked in. We'll get to see Liam pitch surely by September. Bres thinks he can be a closer for us. We lose Pivetta but we gain Giolito. I'd say that's a wash at worst. We'll have 3 significant Arbitration 1 guys in Duran, Kutter and Houck. My guess is that's a $20M pop at best. Unless of course we extend them. Let's say Henry goes cheap and puts our tax 'budget' at $220M, giving us only $86M to spend. So far we've only spent $20M, leaving us with $66M. Surely we can sign 3 major impact players for $22M each. And at some point, we'll get rid of Yoshida and Story giving us additional money, though it might be miniscule but better than nothing. Life is getting better for the Sox fans. Why NOT add a top of the line pitcher to join Kutter, Houck, Bello and Giolito?

Alex Verdugo’s spiral at plate remains a concerning Yankees trend Per New York Post BALTIMORE — Alex Verdugo was a key part of a thriving Yankee offense for the first six weeks of the regular season, with an .812 OPS until May 9. But since then, the left fielder, who was brought in from Boston in the offseason to provide some much-needed balance to a righty-heavy lineup in The Bronx, has mostly struggled. In his previous 58 games prior to Saturday’s 6-1 win against the Orioles at Camden Yards, Verdugo had just a .606 OPS. Aaron Boone said Verdugo was “grinding, but I do feel like he’s doing a good job competing through that and know that he has that faith and confidence as a hitter that he’s gonna get it rolling.” That’s one of the reasons the Yankees put Verdugo back at the top of the lineup Saturday in what’s seemed recently like a perpetual search for a leadoff hitter to get on in front of Juan Soto and Aaron Judge. But recent history shows Verdugo might not be on the verge of turning his season around, despite Boone’s words of encouragement. Verdugo’s production at the plate has slipped in each of his three-plus months as a Yankee. After putting up an OPS of .804 by the end of April, Verdugo’s OPS in May was just .687 before it fell to .589 for the month of June. And in the middle of July, Verdugo entered Saturday with a .563 OPS for the month. In some ways, Verdugo’s drop off is reminiscent of his season a year ago with the Red Sox, when he had an OPS of .856 in his first 72 games, but beginning in late June, he had a .620 OPS over his final 70 games of the season. And Boone added Verdugo’s history as a solid contact hitter should help him get out of his funk. “He’s in the prime of his career,’’ Boone said. “That should show itself over time.” The numbers, though, tell a slightly different story. Verdugo is on track to put up some of the worst numbers of his career — including OPS and OPS-plus and his on-base percentage, down again, has dropped every year since 2021. Yep, Verdugo's OPS is .675 compared to Abreu's at .805. He's a punk and that's all I got to say about him.

It's time to add major piece or two. We're knocking at the door. We have Kutter for 4 additional years, Tanner for 3 additional years and Bello for 5 + 1 years. Giolito more than likely will have 2 years on his contract assuming he's off to a slow start (in terms innings pitched in 2025) With the return of Casas and Story, our lineup is solid with one exception and that's a big right handed bat. I'm confident we'll piece together the bullpen. We'll see how good Liam is, the management thinks he can be the closer next year. Whitlock hopefully will return as a 'Martin' type set up guy unless they give him one more shot at starting. Go Henry.

You sell mainly to acquire young talent with CHANCE of a high ceiling guy. We ain't getting that with what we have to sell. At best we may get an Abreu type. But we don't need that type any longer. We have plethora of young guys. As Moon would say we got to the window of winning seasons sooner than what we thought. It's time for JH to push the chips. It's time to go all in. We're close. And our window in wide open for few years.

There is just no reason at this point trading Jansen. We need him. His salary is baked in. Not to mention what a PR nightmare it would be. Go get a starter better than Criswell.

My point was I am happy with our catching situation. Our primary catcher right now bats right handed. AND Moon has more good news in that he hits righties just as well if not better. I was concerned with plethora of left handed bats at other 8 positions projecting into 2025. righties, Rafaela (CF) and Story (2B) lefties, Yoshida (DH), Casas (1B), Devers (3B), Duran (LF), Mayer (SS) and Abreu/Anthony (RF). Do we trade either Anthony or Mayer to get a young, team controlled (3+ years) starting pitcher to balance out the lineup? And do this at the trade deadline? Or, just getting rid of Yoshida and bring in a righty bat or resign O'Neill as a DH sufficient to balance out the line up (4 righties and 5 lefties) and retain our 3 prospects?

But if you are going to carry two catchers as every team does, it's good to have a left handed bat. Also have a catcher that can DH, I think both Wong and Teel can.

Cora is playing as many right handed bats as possible tonight vs A's lefty starter. We have our Big 3 prospects in Portland. I can see Keel platooning with Wong. If Mayer ends up short, we will have 3 of 4 infielders batting left. If Anthony is better than Abreu then I can see him eventually getting traded. Especially now that Duran is a fixture in the outfield. That's 5 out of six non catching positions with left handed batters. There is no way we can keep Yoshida as our DH. That makes 6 out of seven lefties. Would it be wise therefore to trade Mayer? At some point we need better balance offensively.

That was a stupid cobtract that Padres gave. I would be pissed if I'm a fan.

"I gave the team good chamce to win." Is Bello that naive?

Per Bres no decision yet on addition(s). I'm not optimistic

Sox not the only team struggling with starting pitching. Yankees starters were 35-13 after first 72 games. They lead the majors with the lowest ERA. But during their 5-15 tailspin, the starters are 3-13. Everyone needs starting pitching.

Why do you constantly talk about this? Yes it would be great had we not done the deal. What if if if if. Geeze live in the real world! You can't do anything?about it. Focus on making?the team better. I predict this thread will be 100+ pages.

I think we were expecting Bello to pitch at Luxury Tax Payroll level. In reality he is pitching to his annual W-2 wages. He will get better and keep up with his cash wages.

If you have Verizon make sure your IP address is fixed and not in "static" mode.