Hugh2

I'm all for early extensions, but let the guy get at least a few months in the majors.

I mean, having someone like Ronald Acuna Jr for $17 million a year for the next several years is also maximizing the roster. You're still maximizing the roster just in later years, which honestly makese more sense now when the team sucks

Have you seen the lack of low quality players in free agency growing the last decade? Extending young players is meaning more and more that premium players are reaching free agency at 30 or older. All teams are doing it, teams like the Braves have just done it more than other organizations and the Braves were 1st place 3 of the last 5 seasons with a world series to show for it.....and they're in first place now so....

I remember listening to an old soxprospects.com podcast, when KC was hitting in the minors but right before he blew up nationally. The scouting report on him then was how polarizing he was to scouts. Some scouts absolutely loved him and others thought his swing was to uppercutty and he'd get exposed at the higher level. I'm not sure if they should have never messed with his swing and just let him hit the way he always has, or if he needs more time to make these adjustments. I always liked KC, and I'll be rooting for him to put it all together but I always thought the extension was way way way too premature. I like the ideal of extending guys early, but I think they jumped the gun on KC.

I mean, how absurd are these really? Maybe they've recently updated their ETA's because they have Monegro at mid 2028 now, 2027 would have been unrealistic so if it was really that I"m sure it's in update thing. I'm not sure Witherspoon is that far off at all. Yeah it doesn't look good, but he's just a month into his pro career. We've seen how things click with pitchers and they just take off, late 27' is still almost two full seasons at this point, maybe closer to 1.5. If Witherspoon figures it out he'll probably find himself in AA this year or early next year when it clicks. I don't think it's far fetched that he should be knocking on the door in 27. That doesn't mean your 28 prediction is off either by the way, I think that's perfectly reasonable, this is a subjective exercise by the way. Azocar late 2028 very well may come to fruition but it does seem a little premature to be that aggresive on him. I dunno, I don't think they're perfect but I don't think they're far off either. They're also predictions based on a snapshot in time and as you guys said, how often are these updated? Obviously they do because it looks like they did update Monegros' which was probably the most absurd one.

Which ones seem way off?

I mean, who is good at predicting when guys will get to the majors?

At the end of the day, a team that score 4 runs in the first inning and a team that scores 4 runs in the 9th inning still scores just 4 runs. Sox are 4th in the A.L. in runs allowed. Sure, if the offense fixed itself one could move attention to the bullpen as an area to fix but it's far from being "exposed" Maybe thats the starting pitching picking them up that much but 9 innings is 9 innings.

The pitching and defense has been so good an average offense would make for a great team. The offense has been that bad for them to suck this much.

It's pretty much the same offense, the pitching just held them to 1 run. That's what this team needs to do to win, hold the opposition to 0-1 runs.

The mind plays tricks, I got an alert on my phone last night and I saw the Sox lost to the phillies. I thought to myself "of course" threw my phone on the couch and put on some TV. This morning I'm seeing they won last night....apparently, I've been conditioned to expect loss.

absolutely nobody is saying that they're not underperforming. I even started the day off in here by saying I expect a regression to the mean. It's not a zero sum game, it can both be true that they're underperfoming AND they did a s*** job of building the roster and the offense which is what many people from pundits to experts to fans were all saying about the offseason. One of the biggest criticisms of this team the past almost decade now has been their affinity to shy away from big contracts to big names. And while I can appreciate not irresponsibly throwing your money around on aging players you need vets, you need leadership, you need a stud, and this team doesn't have it and even with all their underperformances aside this team was highly flawed and it shows. Ya'll can defend as much as you want but at the end of the day the results speak for themselves. The only way this team gets better is for guys to perform and for the rookies to grow. And they should of hoped for that but banking on that was dumb.

It's like, imagine someone is trying to lose weight, and they're going to the gym 6 days a week but their diet is s*** and they eat 4,000 calories a day. Imagine saying "you know what we need.....an extra work out a week" "no....no what you need is to put down the little debbies" That is where the problem is.

They're typically one in the same, one typically follows the other. Wood isn't a "star" now but if this is who he is he will be considered a star by seasons end.

James wood has a 166 OPS + and is a former top prospect in all of the game. He's 23 and well on his way to being a star. Just because his name isn't marketable like Bryce Harper doesn't mean the team doesn't have any stars. They obviously have people performing like stars right now and budding into them.

You're right, the Sox did a great job at assembling an offense they're just off to a slow start. They will be fine.

Yeah that was me, probably poorly worded and really a mute point for what I was trying to get across. I got nothing against Duran, but his poor start aside relying on him and Story to be your two best players along witha rookie was poor planning.

Caring about the bullpen was like the Sox going out and paying $$$ for another starter when they blatantly needed hitting. When you're team is 2nd to last in runs scored, and 2nd in runs allowed in the A.L. you're going get much more bang for your buck by adding offense. way way way way more bang for your buck.

OK....is that leader of a ws caliber type of player? The Dodgers of Ohtani and Betts + the Yankees have Judge, the Rangers had Seager, the Phillies had Bryce Harper, The Astros had Altuve and Alvarez. If you're trying to compare Duran as our singular all star lead a team to a world series type of player you're wrong. He's not that guy. I like Duran, but he's not the leader of team, he can part of a veteran core....if he was like the 3rd or 4th guy that's fine. Again, this team has arguably the WORSE offense in baseball right now and they severly lack leadership. They don't have a constant. Duran is the closest thing they have to it and yes he's underpeforming, but that's part of the problem.....that he's the closest thing they have to it.

If the bullpen comes in and blows a 1-1 tie and you lose 2-1 I get why you might say the problem is onthe bullpen, but when you're scoring 1-2 runs almost everynight the wider problem IS THE OFFENSE. If this team had some pop and blew some teams out here and there they wouldn't have to rely on the bullpen to keep them in every game.

Part of the Red Sox failures has been underperformance and to some extent we should expect a "regression to the mean". I certianly do. BUT THey're 4th to last in runs score. They're 2nd to last in Home Runs 3rd to last in OPS, dead last in the AL You can't explain that all by underperformance. The offense is poorly built and lacks star power. THat's on the FO 100%. How much of that is Breslow and how much of that is Henry handcuffing him IDK, but either way it's on the F.O. for constructing a bad product.

Except the bullpen isn't why we are losing games. The offense has retired.

Ummmm ok what are we arguing over here, the fact that Duran has been the shinning glimmering example of consistency? we are talking about the Sox lacking sure fire, elite star power at the top of their offense. Duran has had ONE season in his entire career where he has been that. I like Duran, I figure he can turn it around but he is certianly NOT that guy.

Oddly enough the weatherman are 100% accurate at how accurate they are. If they tell you there's a 90% chance of rain and it doesn't rain every says the weatherman can't predict anyting. But if you took 1,000 instances of them predicting 90% rain you'd find 900 times it rained and 100 times it did not. A lot of people predicted this Sox team would lack the firepower and leadership on offense to score runs.

They also HAD a Bregman last year. None of those other guys have ever been very consistent. Duran has had up and down years, Story had a good season but his career had been riddled with injuries and he is now 33, relying on a 33 year old Trevor Story to just "work" again should be malpractice.