drewski6

Paredes is neither a star nor a stud.

Stars and studs change teams all the time.

Because this team settles too much. And trades backwards too much. There are times to trade backwards (by that I mean identify the guy to be traded , not the guy you are getting first). So like, hey this isnt our year, lets circle our upcoming free agents and see what we can get = fine. But enough of this , I think we should have traded Duran! For what? Well, I dont know - maybe Paredes. Go the other way, circle the best infielders. Go get them. Overpay if you have to. Take a big salary if you have to. Be the driver. Paredes only makes sense if you work backwards. I think that passive approach is the problem.

And I typed my comment in between your 2 haha

F all this positional alignment. The sox did not go out and get stud hitters. Change your mentality. Paredes is not going and getting a stud hitter. Its more of the same. Oh , we have Masa so we cant get Schwarber. Oh we need 3b/ss that dude is more of a 2b. Noooo the problem is the batting order, yeah, thats it. The problem is a lack of elite baseball players. And we have enough versatility that we can fit an elite baseball player at really any position (even DH). Look up the top 15 baseball players and daydream going after them. Paredes is closer to Durbin than he is Schwarber.

Is it becaus of the position(s) he plays (poorly)

But why is Paredes your daydream?

Story is a much better player than Paredes. Mayer was a top prospect waiting in the wings but certainly could be sent down. Durbin was a reactionary move in an offseason full of them. I dont understand why any of this matters. Its like you are 1/2 accepting positions are dead by lumping all these guys together, and then fall back to we needed to make a trade because positions. Mayer and Durbin, Durbin and Mayer oh nooooo. The Red Sox have enough versatility where they can fit in a stud hitter almost anywhere. Cuz guys can and do move around. Cuz positions are dead.

Paredes has a 0.1 WAR, thats not exactly moving the needle.

It use to be 2b are your 2b and your ss are your ss and every player can only play the one position Then like LF/RF became interchangeable, as well as 2b/ss and maybe even some 1b/3b Now its 2b,3b,ss (interchangeable) but not interchangeable with lf,cf,rf (who are all interchangeable with each other) And even though the trend is towards positions are dead and optimized defense is for the birds....We are still talking about 2b vs 3b , oh if you play a ss at 2b or trade a lf for a 2b Or talking batting order Its all tiny potatoes stuff. Positions are dead. Best 9 hitters. We just dont have enough good hitters. Its not about swapping positions. Like MVP told you we are 2-9 in games Masa starts. And the problem is Duran should have been traded for Paredes, right? Well we are like 2-9 in games Duran doesnt play and Paredes aint a star. What we need is star players. Big contracts. Proven studs. Paredes is not.

And Paredes himself was a settle, so I dont see that as the one who got away.

Run differential = Runs Created - Runs allowed Runs created = hitting + manufacturing (bunting, stealing, sacrificing) Runs allowed = Pitching + Defense Run differential = hitting + Manufacturing - (Pitching + Defense) , basic algebra: Pitching + Defense = hitting + manufacturing. When it comes to winnning the game, using all 4 elements above, what percentages would you assign (note: both sides have to equal 50%) because that is implied working under an assumption that "run differential rules" (which I am not disputing). The other element is the crapshoot element. So I believe that because pitchers are more likely to get hurt (or fall apart or underperform or be effected by external factors), the return on pitching is not as stable as the return on hitting. So this further, in my eyes, makes it wise to build bat-first team. However, Im more of a shade of gray guy than a black/white guy. So I understand that sometimes if you are drafting 12 overall and 8 hitters off board vs 3 pitchers you may go pitcher there. And I also want to acknowledge that top of the market for a stud hitter is higher than a stud pitcher. I do not think pitching nor defense is irrelevant. I would say Pitching (38%) + Defense (12%) = Hitting (43%) + manufacturing (7%). But I think the wisdom in building bats first vs pitching is more than the 43% vs 38% expressed above because I think pitching has a larger crapshoot element. And I think everyone kind of knows the simplest and highest percentage chance one has (generally) to improve their club is through their hitting. This is why hitters make more, get drafted higher.... Now again, Im not a black/white guy so I acknowledge that if you have 1 good pitcher and 6 good hitters and the FA market is making pitching relatively more affordable , then it makes sense to swerve to pitching there. I understand that an all glove, no bat guy is cheaper than an all ba,t no glove guy, so you can get a defensive stud ss or cf on the cheap = sure that has budget saving value elsewhere. I acknowledge all this stuff and dont believe that we shouldnt invest in pitching and defense, and I believe there is even a time and a place to prioritize pitching and defense over hitting (for example if you already have 5 very good hitters). But this 2026 offense was a settle job, and that has been our biggest issue.

Its close, uncomfortably close.

But we put too many eggs in the Duran basket by not having enough good hitters

What if it replaced Narvaez (Contreras to Catcher), Masa to 1b

Boy would this be great if it were true.

Build your team around your bats and you will have much more consistent success.

Im not sure exactly what this is adding on to...But if its me saying not having elite hitters and you saying yes and having the best hitters on your team struggle, I agree :)

Because you are more fun to talk to than Breslow the stiff.

The top 4 hitting teams all made the playoffs last year. Pitching and defense is for nerds.

When I said Paredes isnt the leader or the starpower, I simply meant hes not good enough. Im not crying over Paredes because he's a C+ overall player, and all he really does it fix us positionally. But I dont think a positional problem is a problem in 2026. I think the whole league has gone mix and match and when I post articles saying this I get responses that are like "I dont trust that source because everything that goes contrary to what I want to believe is fake news" The problem of this team is not too many outfielders Had we traded this 81 overall outfielder for a 77 overall 3rd baseman, we'd be very close to where we are. We did not need to optimize our lineup positionally, we needed more A+ hitters. Like I said all along, we need elite hitters and I care not where they play. WE need redundancy and depth. A lot of people overlook that depth is NOT having starting caliber players on your bench (IKF is not btw) its having 9 very good hitters, so if 3 get hurt, you still got 6. You all wanted 9 starting pitchers but were fine with 4 quality hitters. I think we focused too much on positions as it is and thats why we didnt get Schwarber. We needed to get the 2 very best hitters we could, even if one was a DH and the other was a corner outfielder. Dont care. But like IVe been saying everyone wants to take a victory lap. And the people who are like "I think we should have clear batting order and same positional group every day and now , this bad start proves me right" .... But literally no team is doing that in 2026. Moving guys around is not the problem. Juggling too many players is not the problem. The problem is not having enough blue chip , elite hitters. We have 0.

Between Contreras and Story , I would have thought they would have had enough ....But Im hearing that they dont , and its hard to argue considering what we see on the field. But we'll see if they win agian tonight.

Paredes doesnt fix the lack of leadership and the lack of star power.

How dare you! Just his elbow

Im not there yet, but if Narvaez keeps struggling , I do think that Contreras to C becomes an option. At least occasionally in 2026 when Wall St Journal is posting articles about how the set lineup is dead.