I don’t think there is a better web site on the Pacific War than Jon Parshall’s “Combined Fleet” site.
Here’s a link to his page on the naval battles of the Solomons Campaign. His conclusion is an excellent summary of what the IJN is going to look like in a few months.
http://combinedfleet.com/battles/Solomon_Islands_Campaign
And if you really want to see just how bad it was for the Japanese, look at his page on the production statistics between the United States and Japan.
http://www.combinedfleet.com/economic.htm
The history of the Solomons naval warfare shows how important the decision to replace Ghormley with Halsey was. He was willing to slug it out despite the losses.
The second site is even more eye opening, especially what would have happened had we lost at Midway. We still would have overwhelmed them with ship construction replacing the losses. The only quibble I have is that had we lost our carriers at Midway we probably could not have sustained the Guadalcanal campaign. But that would merely have postponed the Solomons land campaign, not stopped it.
Again, I go back to the line Webster speaks late in the Band of Brothers series:
Hey, you! That's right, you stupid Kraut bastards! That's right! Say hello to Ford, and General fu@#$n' Motors! You stupid fascist pigs! Look at you! You have horses! What were you thinking? Dragging our asses half way around the world, interrupting our lives... For what, you ignorant, servile scum! What the f@#k are we doing here?
The same question could be put to the Japanese: What were you thinking???