drewski6

Yes, like Ive said. Everyone thinks the reason the team is struggling is because the team didnt do what that poster specifically wanted. Had we flipped Duran for prospects like youve been screaming to do, Im not sure that we would go from 2026 zero to hero.

I saw it in the Olympics for hockey too. Guys coming back and struggling. NOt all but some. People are individuals. I just find it more likely that Duran and Roman are not struggling becasue theyve have 2 extra days off each than they would have had if Masa had not been on teh roster.

There were plenty, and I do many plenty of ways we could have further bolstered the infield while leaving the strength of the outfield intact.

I feel confident the problem of this team isnt that we have too many hitters.

I think they are struggling from a WBC hangover more than getting ample rest. Rest days are up across all teams. I dont rule out the swapping and getting everybody in may be preventing a few guys from getting into a groove but I dont think its the main driver of it. I think its the WBC hangover.

Agree that a good bench is not a bad problem and not why we are struggling. I disagree that Cora being unable to play players consistently is driving our struggles. All managers are working in benches more and playing matchup more vs same guys every night. I think that 99.99% of the time when your team underperforms , its more likely to be not enough talent than too much.

The sample size of 2026 games played thus far by Philly is a much more valid sample when discussing the 2026 Phillies team than it is trying to assess Dombrowski who has a body of work of like 20 years between like 4 teams. Comparing 2026 Phils vs 2026 Red Sox is not apples to apples comparing Breslow to Dombrowski. And Breslow was just not able to make the moves he wanted to make, because hes a bad communicator and we've told you this even before he botched the offseason, which I graded a "D" Dombrowski is a very respected baseball guy. Breslow is an absolute clown. And I dont care about the Phillies 2026 record. Maybe we'll stop asking for Dombrowksi back if the Phills keep struggling ..... If thats what you want , you will probably get it. But Breslow needs to get fired today (and Cora promoted)

Im optimistic we are better than this, not optimistic that we have a young dynamo cant-miss core is in place for future championships.

Im optimistic that if I start yelling about how awful and badly constructed this team is, and how we are already toast - I will wind up looking foolish. Because this team prob does have 30-50 games of good play in them, and is very capable of clawing back into a postseason conversation. The expanded format helps a lot. But I do think that a lot of people yelling about how were were second best team in baseball or just as good a shot as anyone to win division - all of that was too optimistic. I myself started drinking some kool-aid when everyone was on fire during WBC, but then what feels like an adrenaline dump happened.

Now we're getting into it on Wrestlemania weekend! Best tag teams: 1. The Hardy Boys 2. The New Age Outlaws 3. The Acolytes / APA 4. Legion of Doom / The Road Warriors 5. The Usos 6. The Rockers 7. The Dudley Boyz 8. Demolition 9. The Hart Foundation 10. The New Day

When TedYazPapi calls you a horse the first time, you say "Im not a horse man". When TedYazPapi calls you a horse a second time you hit back a little bit something like Actually, Trevor Story led the team in errors last season with 19, which was ten more than number two on that list. Abreu came in at eighth overall with five. Kristian Campbell ranked ahead of him though, with seven. When TedYazPapi calls you horse a third time, its time to accept fact and eat some hay. Im sorry, Alan.

I agree, and Im not against speculating what those trades might be when we are closer to the deadline , just wanted to point out that so much can change and there are many unresolved questions already. Short of bringing in an absolute stud if one is available, I think we are best served with a little patience. If we are rounding into June and making up no ground, maybe then we start getting itchy. But the team is starting to come around and we're winning games at enough of a clip to warrant just waiting on more info from like Durbin, Mayer, catchers, health, Roman (just the arm)....

Get off the they cant move Duran, its nonsense. There are 29 teams interested in Duran. Not everyone who someone considers moving, and doesnt get moved, is pulled from the trade block because the player is not moveable.

Looks like you are just going to have to change your name to Alan, Alex

Theres too many potential scenarios right now to talk about trading Duran. Versatility is good , as it allows us to have our best 9 hitters on the field without being a trainwreck defensively. Which is the goal. Not ideal defensive optimization. Lets let our catchers heat up before we decide that Roman to first is not a possibility this year. Lets let Durbin and Mayer heat up before we decide to keep them up all year. RA at 1b/Contreras at C Cedanne at 2b/SS (mayer in AAA) Cedanne at 2b/ss (durbin getting the vaughn grissom) RA being wactastic all year with the arm and having to play DH I dont want to rush into a trade that cant be undone with so much unsettled. I can see multiple different combinations/positional alignment by playoffs. And thats even assuming full health. When we factor in who could get hurt, plus how things could shake out with our 5-6 question marks - there are just so many ways that logjams work themselves out. And we're playing better now that I think we can buy ourselves a little time. Im fine moving around deck chairs and position swapping and even swapping around in batting order because that can all be undone. Im fine sending down someone with options becasue that can be undone. But trading Duran (or even Cedanne right now)....What if Roman still cant throw, Durbin is Vaughn Grissom 2.0, Mayer is still hitting .200 in June, Story is an error machine, Abreu is hurt, and Narvaez is slumping hard But youve traded Duran and Masa and now you are just terrible. We have too many question marks and too much versatility in my opinion to be stressing about how who could have and didnt subtract.

What if we divorced the 2? Would you be open to moving Story off of SS if it was someone else to take over?

This is the first post that Ive seen in this thread, from Alex, that I would consider to have "an agenda"

No! Every single problem the Red Sox have had since 2019 is squarely the fault of the fans! How dare you

This is a good point, and I dont mean to fully argue against it. Just illustrating why I think guys like this are underrated. A good example of a guy who : "if johan got in a guy like this would have a stronger case than he deserves" is Jacob DeGromm. Dominant but not enough consistent longevity/availability. So maybe I should have never brought in HOF. Because I do think that 10-20 years from now - DeGromm will be underrated because people will look at his career WAR and put guys who were not nearly as good as getting hitters out above him because they played longer. IF you were never a top 7 pitcher in your era, I put Johan and DeGromm above them, but some of em may have higher WAR. My main point is that I tend to think guys like Johan and DeGromm are underrated, not really that they deserve to be in the hall of fame.

In most cases, yes. And btw , I lean yes on Saberhagen too. But Johans 5 year stretch might be the best ever 5 year stretch for a pitcher not in HOF. And someone has to have that, i get that. If Johan were to be in, there would be another guy who had the best 5 year stretch of all pitchers not in hall. But Johan had finished in top 5 cy young voting , 5 years running and was heading for a sixth when career ruining injuries started. Saberhagen had close to as many dominant years but they were spread out and he had the benefit of not getting so hurt so young. I understand the danger of scaling for health and luck. But I do think that sometimes , in rare cases, you have to contextualize it. If A dude came up at 22, and was the best pitcher until age 29 and died in a plane crash, he'd prob get in. In rare cases, I am willing to consider what a pitcher/player did over a span even if the longevity isnt there. And for some of those guys, I tend to think they are underrated. Only the ones who were dominant in that stretch but something happened outside of their control that zapped their career short. I would prefer an A++ player for 8 years than an A- player for 20 years. I would consider a guy like Johan underrated in my eyes but that doesnt mean I think hes a no doubt HOF'er. I just get more jazzed about peak upside/dominance than longevity. But not as much as I use to. I have recently started givng more props to the dudes who were very good for very long because thats just as hard to do as be completely dominant in a short window.

Love Greinke. Another guy who I feel gets underrated by the historians is Johan Santana. I understand his career was cut short by injury but man did he dominate in that window. I dont even think hes in MLB HOF.

Glavine is a good comp. Some differences (Glavine was a 2-seam primary vs 4-seam for Early) but both very fluid, lefty, good secondaries, lack of 100 mph, control, poise. Im not sure if Early can field like Glavine did but Im not sure they even teach pitchers to field these days.

Yes, the tone of that post was not 100% serious.

I think the only pitcher who I would comfortably say was clearly better than Kershaw is Maddux. I think that you can make very storng arguments for RJ, Pedro, Steve Carlton and Seaver. Maybe 1-2 others. I would rank Kershaw like top 10 all time, but back half. I think Kershaw was better than Nolan Ryan, Verlander, Doc Halladay, Glavine

I would give Walter Johnson a "too far back, disqualified" just because I just dont have the apatite to try to force a comparison between two pitchers from such different eras spread so far apart. And I would take Kershaw firmly over the rest. Gibson has a career 127 ERA+ and 3 top 5 cy young finishes and Kershaw has a career 154 ERA+ and like 7 top 5 cy young finishes. I would take Gibson firmly over Bob because even though I love my some heater from Van Meter, he was famous for being awesome yet incredibly wild and he was. I think he led the league in strikeouts and walks and HBP like 8 years in a row. I lean Gibson over Koufax but thats a lot because Koufax retired at 30 years old after 2 cy youngs in a row. Not sure why exactly (injury or jsut going out on top)