Hugh2

If one bat is making this big of a difference now. What would it have looked like if Duran played at an all star level Roman Anthony was healhty and took off Marcelo Mayer was healthy and took off Trevor Story was healthy and played like last year Obviously all teams deal with injuries but if one guy can make a difference then having just one more key injury is going to make a difference. Right?

THEY can't win? as in exclusively to the Red Sox or just in general teams can't win if they don't hit home runs?

14th is fine. A middle of the pact offense with elite pitching can play baseball in October. This team sucked because they were practically deadlast in every offensive category. 14 will do them just fine, and if you add a big bat well....who knows.

Some team offensive numebrs the last few weeks. Since June 19th they've gone 11-5. HR's - 23rd Runs - 11th OWar - 12th SLG - 15th OBP 13th Those aren't elite numbers, but the silver lining is I think they're sustainable. It's about a middle of the pact offense which is what I expected. It's good enough to be a winning team if combined with elite starting pitching and defense. I'm not ready to call them buyers yet but if they continue on this trajectory they will be buyers in a few weeks. Adding a big bat and getting healthy by seasons end would be wonderful. I wouldn't wait all the way to August 3rd to act, but I also want to see more before I'd invest in this team as well. The Sox come out of the all star break with an A.L. EAST home stand vs. TB/BAL/TOR. If they put up a good showing in those three series I'm looking to make move then before heading out the west coast. Also, I think winning together is important. These guys are winning games right now when everyone counted them out, for management to come in and say "here you go, here's a nice big bat to play with" helps solidify that confidence. It means something.

Maybe we can trade for Bloom and bring him back.

I 100% agree with that statement, but I don't think that answers any question I was asking.

Ok, but you're paying Story, and you're paying Yoshida, you're paynig these guys real money. You're not going to pay them and bench them. Especially after the season Story had, he pretty much had his hands tied. Yes we can argue to the Cows come home about how he should have got Alonso or resigned Bregman but Contreras has been much better than both those guys, and Durbin has been lighting it up the past month. I'm not saying there aren't things he could of done. He could traded Yoshida/Story even if he had to eat money, and traded for yet another big bat, or spent that money on one of those guys (on top of Contreras) instead of signing Ranger. I'm not saying things couldn't have been done. But how many people would guess that if you took a wild card team and added those performances they'd have this record? If we took away this season and we were given Contreras stats, Grays stats, Rangers stats and we took away all the names and we were just given the stats almost everybody would guess this team was going to perform much better. It's just weird to me dude, I don't know why everyone feels compelled to make the same point they've been making endelessly for the past 6 months.

I'm not saying Breslow doesn't shoulder responsibility, I'm just saying his 2026 offseason was largely a good one, and he was adding to a team that made the playoffs last year. If had a team coming back that largely is the same team that made the playoffs last year and you could add Sonny Gray to it, and know he'd pitch as well as he has, add Ranger Saurez and know he'd pitch as good as he has, add WIlson Contreras and know he'd be as good as he has been......would you guess this team would start off as s***** as they did? I think the vast majority of people would think they'd be a very highly competitive team. That was my point, or at least the one I was trying to make. I think that's true whether Breslow is 0% to blame or 100% to blame. I find it weird that a team can go from Wild Card to last place after having a relatively good offseason.

4 guys at the bottom of the roster. Every team has those guys. You call guys up for a game or to fill in as depth, those 20 innings from the bottom of the roster is irrelevant to overall point that the guys who were brought in to perform have largely done so this offseason. Every team has those guys, even the Dodgers have 5 guys at the bottom of their roster all with negative WAR and they all account for 40 innings.

You mean the 5 guys (Uberstine, La Sorsa, Gamboa, Khnle, and Oviedo) who all combined for less than 21 innings? Come on....

Are those guys starters? funny you leave out IKF. Also, those guys are only getting playing time because other guys got hurt "Story, Mayer, Anthony" How many teams 3rd/4th options to start, down in the minors come up and play like studs? Also Monasterio has been playing much better lately, he has a .822 OPS the last two weeks. I mean technically you are correct, those are Breslow guys but Gasper not lighting the world on fire isn't exactly the same thing as Wilson Conteras or Sonny Gray not performing. Those guys are expected to start and paid to be starters.

If we had a player with Dalbecs health and Casas talent we'd have a good everyday 1B under team control right now. Of course.......we would have never traded for Contreras so how much better off would we be???

agreed. If the Sox are buyers I'd like to see them go after bats with multiple years of control. I'd happily get on the Matt Shaw train with you.

I'd still trade him if he had value. We need bats.

The rhetoric that surrounds makes me more worried about 2027 than past years. Although if I was a betting man I'd bet against a total lost season. It's far more realistic that a partial season is lost. Still, that changes the calculus in trading for guys. Although I suppose it changes it for everyone else as well. I don't think trading Chapman is giving up on 2027. I think you have to take advantage of what you can get for him vs. the odds of him being just as elite at 39 years old next season. Even if you weren't trading Chapman I'd be wanting to add a closer type reliever to hedge against Chapman entering some kind of steep decline.

Right, because they've never not played a season or a partial season before, that's just never happened. I mean.....didn't people want to make money during all those other lost games as well? From what's being reported, both sides are miles and miles apart and there is a real fear in the industry of a lost season, or at least a partially lost season. The fact that people like money doesn't negate that risk any more than every other strike or shut down that has happened in other years, sports or industries. Even if they do come to an agreement pre season, the risk is there, and it's high, and everyone is going to factor that into the equation at this point. If you're trading for 1.5 years of control of someone there is a REAL risk you're only trading for .5 years of control.

Are you talking about wins and losses or the prospect of even having a season?

Teams get desperate at the deadline for good pitching. A few starts doesn't mean much, but his value can literally skyrocket in that timeframe if he performs.

I really don't have much interest in trading for that extra year of control when the odds of a 2027 season are very dim. We are either buyers.....or give me the prospects.

Last month: Durbin .965 Contreras .918 Now that's obviously cherry picking. But the Sox are 13-9 in that time frame. What you would expect if a team added two .900+ OPS bats. What is exactly what Breslow needed to do. Was the first 2 months of the season just an historically bad start, and the team is coming into their own? or are we just witnessing a blip in an otherwise horrible season, destined for last place? Time will tell.

Not that I want to defend Breslow but I do find it interesting that the worse parts of this roster generally all predate Breslow. E.G. Story, Yoshida, Duran, Mayer, Bello (although he did extend him). You could say in hindsight that he should of traded Mayer but the reality at the time was he was a highly regarded cost controlled youngster playing a position the Sox were desperately thin at. A lot of the guys he did pick up this past winter have all been great. The lone caveat to all this is Caleb Durbin, who nills that caveat with this level of play the past month. If Breslow had the ability to DFA Yoshida and Story but didn't that might be different. But even then, could anyone blame him for holding onto Story who was coming off his best season in Boston and once again...playing a position the Sox were thin at? IDK, the Sox have been great lately but the hole they dug was very deep and it's still a long climb. If we are sitting in a wild card spot at the end of the season and playing good baseball I'll still have a sour taste in my mouth from this horrific start. It's like cheating on your spouse and being forgiven. Yeah, they might have "forgave you" but theres going to be a lot of mistrust that lingers for a long time. Only a world series would get that taste out of my mouth, not even a WC birth would.

Devers OPS last 4 weeks. 1.062 we may have spoke too soon. Although to be fair, in that same time frame Durbin has put up a .965 OPS while playing premium defense and for peanuts on the dollar. Sox still need a thumper in the middle.

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I would still say it's 25-75. Where's two weeks ago it was 5-95. There's still a lot in front of them as they're the 4th worse team in the A.L.

This is exactly how I’d expect Boston to play to play their way back to buyers. but as of right now they still have the 4th worse record in the A.L. They have to go 7-2 in their next nine….and look healthy