Craig Breslow: CBO of the Red Sox

[moonslav59]

28 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Well, I'm not sure if he can keep increasing the cost of the tickets. He is treating the Sox as a real estate investment, but that's at the expense of the MLB club itself. I think it eats into the overall value of the club more than he realizes. At some point, the Sox Nation stuff is oversaturated and people won't care anymore. They need to pander to their fans of a whole generation of people will simply stop caring or not learn to care. 

Agreed, but as of now, they must think not spending on winning makes them more money.

[illinoisredsox]

36 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Click on the three dots in the upper right corner of your post and you should be able to delete it. 

Nope.  The 3 dots give 3 choices: Report, Share and Edit.  Edit doesn’t give a delete option as far as I can tell.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

59 minutes ago, notin said:

The results have been weak, but I am at least satisfied Breslow made deadline trades.   At some point, however, Priester probably needs to get the call simply because this team needs arms that are not worn out…

... from throwing BP to Little Leaguers... or from being attached to worn-out bodies like Paxton's... or Garcia's... or Sim's... or any other brilliant recruits for the stretch-dive.

In Boston, the front office is so smart, half the Asst. VPs were once pre-med. So when they plan every July around the deadline, they keep confusing it with flatline.

This explains why the club flatlines every August and September.

[Old Red]

44 minutes ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

... from throwing BP to Little Leaguers... or from being attached to worn-out bodies like Paxton's... or Garcia's... or Sim's... or any other brilliant recruits for the stretch-dive.

In Boston, the front office is so smart, half the Asst. VPs were once pre-med. So when they plan every July around the deadline, they keep confusing it with flatline.

This explains why the club flatlines every August and September.

Hill, Paxton, Garcia, Sims, Jansen all picked up by Brez around, and after the trade deadline. Would it have been to much to ask for at least one of these to work out? I keep hearing that s*** happens , because of these short comings, but this is full blown diarrhea.

[Bellhorn04]

6 hours ago, illinoisredsox said:

Nope.  The 3 dots give 3 choices: Report, Share and Edit.  Edit doesn’t give a delete option as far as I can tell.

When I click on it I get those 3 plus:

Hide

Split

Delete

Recommend

See if you can scroll down the list further.   

[moonslav59]

46 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

When I click on it I get those 3 plus:

Hide

Split

Delete

Recommend

See if you can scroll down the list further.   

Sometimes, I get the delete option: other times I don't.

[illinoisredsox]

14 hours ago, Bellhorn04 said:

When I click on it I get those 3 plus:

Hide

Split

Delete

Recommend

See if you can scroll down the list further.   

 

13 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

Sometimes, I get the delete option: other times I don't.

Thanks guys.  I’ll try on a computer when I get the chance;  I usually use my phone so I’ll see if there’s a difference.

No sense hijacking this thread further.  The actual topic is far more interesting.

[Maxbialystock]

On 9/4/2024 at 10:00 PM, Randy Red Sox said:

Let John  Henry make his millions in other endeavours

Actually, I think it's billions.  And he did make millions, not billions, in the commodities market.  But over the last 30 years he has invested primarily n baseball, starting with owning a minor league team, then owning the Marlins for 2 years before buying the Sox circa 2002.  

I agree with bellhorn there is nothing likeable about John Henry.  He is fundamentally a cold-hearted businessman.  But he did astutely buy the Sox, hire smart guys to make them better while at the same time underwriting it all with one of the top three payrolls in MLB for close to 20 years--2003-2021.  He not only ended the 86 year drought, but brought home 3 more WS wins, the most in MLB during his tenure with the Sox.   

And that's why the Sox are reportedly worth maybe $5B.  Not too shabby.   Plus JH has a soccer team and other sports ventures and has long been out of the commodities market.  

Would I like him to go back to one of the top 3 payrolls in MLB?  Sure I would.  But I honestly think he owes us fans nothing because he delivered more than any other Sox owner and by a wide margin.  

[Old Red]

I guess Brez did pick a lane at the trade deadline, but unfortunately as I have said before it was the breakdown lane. He picked up Paxton, hitchhiking, and then, because there was room in the car he picked up Hill. His two BP pickups pitched worse after arriving in Boston, and now both of them are hurt. Jansen at C hasn’t added anything either. All in all Brez has made things worse, and not better. 0-5 is not good no matter how you slice, and dice it, and neither was Brez, but then again what would you expect from the 12th pick in the 2024 HOBO draft. Sale, Gio, and Grissom all turning out as bad as they did unfortunately were signs of bad things to come. You can chalk it up to bad luck, or as one poster on here said s*** happens, but right now there is a big Steaming pile right outside of Brez’s door. Maybe Mike Rowe should visit from Dirty Jobs.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

2 hours ago, Old Red said:

I guess Brez did pick a lane at the trade deadline, but unfortunately as I have said before it was the breakdown lane. He picked up Paxton, hitchhiking, and then, because there was room in the car he picked up Hill. His two BP pickups pitched worse after arriving in Boston, and now both of them are hurt. Jansen at C hasn’t added anything either. All in all Brez has made things worse, and not better. 0-5 is not good no matter how you slice, and dice it, and neither was Brez, but then again what would you expect from the 12th pick in the 2024 HOBO draft. Sale, Gio, and Grissom all turning out as bad as they did unfortunately were signs of bad things to come. You can chalk it up to bad luck, or as one poster on here said s*** happens, but right now there is a big Steaming pile right outside of Brez’s door.

Complaints about acquisitions are easy after the fact, after they fail. But the fact is -- since the Dombrowski trade deadlines half a decade ago -- the Red Sox just haven't been in the business of acquiring talent for significant stretch-run upgrades.

Dombro dealt for guys like World Series MVP Steve Pearce and Nate Eovaldi, the best postseason pitcher. He also added Eduardo Nunez, who smacked a big pinch-hit World Series home run, after hitting .321/.892 for Boston the year before. Drew Pomeranz wasn't a hero, but an All-Star when acquired -- so at least DD aimed high, unafraid to part with a top prospect...

Chaim Bloom did swap for Kyle Schwarber, but didn't resign him. Instead, Schwarber has hit 144 HRs for another team the past three years, including a new record for leadoff homers he just set last night. The Vasquez dump was a future winner, but not geared to improve the Sox' chances that year.

Bottom line: Pitching help has been annually abysmal, pieces of token mediocrity or rehabbing retreads doomed to breakdown. Nothing to put them over the top... or even closer to October.

 

[moonslav59]

We need to do  better in the winters, so we don't have to overpay at deadlines and risk meltdowns from those we do get. It's better to overload in the winter and be forced to trade players when bottlenecks occur than to have to scramble to fill need areas we knew were there in December.

[Old Red]

1 hour ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

Complaints about acquisitions are easy after the fact, after they fail. But the fact is -- since the Dombrowski trade deadlines half a decade ago -- the Red Sox just haven't been in the business of acquiring talent for significant stretch-run upgrades.

Dombro dealt for guys like World Series MVP Steve Pearce and Nate Eovaldi, the best postseason pitcher. He also added Eduardo Nunez, who smacked a big pinch-hit World Series home run, after hitting .321/.892 for Boston the year before. Drew Pomeranz wasn't a hero, but an All-Star when acquired -- so at least DD aimed high, unafraid to part with a top prospect...

Chaim Bloom did swap for Kyle Schwarber, but didn't resign him. Instead, Schwarber has hit 144 HRs for another team the past three years, including a new record for leadoff homers he just set last night. The Vasquez dump was a future winner, but not geared to improve the Sox' chances that year.

Bottom line: Pitching help has been annually abysmal, pieces of token mediocrity or rehabbing retreads doomed to breakdown. Nothing to put them over the top... or even closer to October.

 

After the fact, or not the point is that everything Brez did at the trade deadline, and after failed, and the Red Sox became worse then they were before.

[moonslav59]

I know this thread is about Brez, but I'd like to look back at some of the players Bloom left for him, and how some of Bloom's questionable moves, might look a little better after the 2024 season results are in.

I'm not going to praise Bloom for not trading away players handed to him by DD and Ben, nor for extending Devers, Refsnyder, Bello, Rafaela and Whitlock.

Here is a look back at some of his major moes:

Betts: still bad, but Wong has slightly improved on the return guesstimate.

Whitlock from Rule 5: Still looks good, but only 4 GS hurt us in 2024.

Pivetta gave us 4 decent years for such a minimal cost.

Wink was part of the beni trade that looked awful for the first 2 years, but now is not quite so bad.

Story signing still looks god-awful. There is very little time to redemption, but Story could minimize the negative by giving us a couple good and long seasons.

Refsnyder was a steal.

Kelly may turn out well.

Abreu & EValdez for Vaz looks like a big win for Bloom.

DHam was part of the JBJ for Renfroe trade that still looks bad, but not as bad, now.

Jansen and martin were good signings.

Yoshida may still come close to earning his keep, but has not done so, thus far.

Bernardino was decent.

Prospects added: Anthony, Campbell, Mayer, Teel, Arias, Cespedes, Meidroth, Bleis, Romero, Jo Garcia and more...

I'm not defending his overall record, but many of his moves look better or slightly better, now.

[Randy Red Sox]

On 9/5/2024 at 5:32 AM, Old Red said:

We know DD is laughing at the plight of the Red Sox, because of his fondness of JH, and I suspect Bloom is having a few chuckles himself.

i hope DD writes a tell all book one day.  I will be the first to buy it

[moonslav59]

Has any GM, even one who has been long past any chance of getting back into a FO, even written such a book? 

They barely even discuss one move they made.

[Maxbialystock]

43 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I know this thread is about Brez, but I'd like to look back at some of the players Bloom left for him, and how some of Bloom's questionable moves, might look a little better after the 2024 season results are in.

I'm not going to praise Bloom for not trading away players handed to him by DD and Ben, nor for extending Devers, Refsnyder, Bello, Rafaela and Whitlock.

Here is a look back at some of his major moes:

Betts: still bad, but Wong has slightly improved on the return guesstimate.

Whitlock from Rule 5: Still looks good, but only 4 GS hurt us in 2024.

Pivetta gave us 4 decent years for such a minimal cost.

Wink was part of the beni trade that looked awful for the first 2 years, but now is not quite so bad.

Story signing still looks god-awful. There is very little time to redemption, but Story could minimize the negative by giving us a couple good and long seasons.

Refsnyder was a steal.

Kelly may turn out well.

Abreu & EValdez for Vaz looks like a big win for Bloom.

DHam was part of the JBJ for Renfroe trade that still looks bad, but not as bad, now.

Jansen and martin were good signings.

Yoshida may still come close to earning his keep, but has not done so, thus far.

Bernardino was decent.

Prospects added: Anthony, Campbell, Mayer, Teel, Arias, Cespedes, Meidroth, Bleis, Romero, Jo Garcia and more...

I'm not defending his overall record, but many of his moves look better or slightly better, now.

Pretty good laydown. 

I think CB was somewhat screwed from the get go because JH wasn't sure what he wanted.  He had pretty much given DD carte blanche in bringing in good arms like Price, Sale, Eovaldi, Porcello, etc.--and was willing to underwrite the highest payroll in MLB, which was true in both 2018 and 2019. 

On the other hand, JH much earlier (2002?) hired Bill James to guide acquisitions by using sabermetrics.  In the movie Moneyball, the JH actor praised Billy Beane for the very low cost per win the A's had achieved in 2002 and compared that to the Yankees much higher cost per win.  However, as we now know, JH opted for keeping the Sox payroll among the top three in MLB for roughly 20 years.  

One thing was clear from 2020 on--no more big contracts for starters.  For one thing, JH was already having to pay for Price while he was on the Dodgers staff and for Sale while he recovered from TJ surgery, then another injury and then the bicycle injury.  

So to me it's kind of fascinating that Breslow makes two big moves last winter with regard to starters:  he dumped Sale off to the Braves while agreeing to pay $17M of his salary; and he signed Giolito @ $19M/season.  So right now the Sox are shelling out $36M for two pitchers who have done absolutely nothing for the Sox.  Plus Sale is now the Braves ace starter and a candidate for the Cy Young.  

And who exactly are the starters with Sale and Giolito unavailable?  Houck, Crawford, Pivetta, and Bello--who also lead the Sox pitching staff in both IP and WAR--all courtesy of Chaim Bloom.  Pitching is the Sox biggest issue.  Breslow made it worse in his first year as CBO.  And the rotation is right now almost a strength thanks to Chaim Bloom.  FWIW, the 5th best pitching WAR on the Sox is Jansen, another CB acquisition.  

In Breslow's defense, he, like CB, does not have the financial support that JH gave freely to DD, Cherington, Theo Epstein, et al.  

 

 

 

[moonslav59]

Actually, Houck, Crawford and Bello were all DD additions. Pivetta was Bloom. Criswell was Brez. Those are our top IP pitchers for 2024. Next up...

IP

67 Wink- Bloom, 57 Kelly- Bloom, 54 Weissert- Brez, 52 Anderson- Brez (DFA'd,)  52 Jansen- Bloom, 51 Bernardino- Bloom, 50 Slaten- Brez, 42 Bosser- Bloom, 39 Martin- Bloom

Maybe estimates for the 2025 IP list might look like this:

185 Houck- DD

175 Crawford- DD

170 Giolito- Brez

165 Bello- DD

120 Criswell & Priester- Brez & Brez

RP

70 Whit & Wink; Bloom & Bloom

60 Slaten- Brez

50 Hendriks- Brez

[Bellhorn04]

From Dan Secatore at Over the Monster about the Red Sox latest operations overhaul:

https://www.overthemonster.com/2024/9/20/24249910/red-sox-to-overhaul-baseball-operations-department-again-craig-breslow

Key line:

But of the three successive baseball operations overhauls, this is the only one that seems to be prioritizing cutting costs.

[Hugh2]

29 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

From Dan Secatore at Over the Monster about the Red Sox latest operations overhaul:

https://www.overthemonster.com/2024/9/20/24249910/red-sox-to-overhaul-baseball-operations-department-again-craig-breslow

Key line:

But of the three successive baseball operations overhauls, this is the only one that seems to be prioritizing cutting costs.

That line alone didn’t concern me, spending money on the wrong people and on the wrong things can do more harm than good.

addition by subtraction.

no, what got me was the fact that they’re asking people to take pay cuts.  That’s insane.  WTF is going on with the Sox? It’s also not a good look that John Henry seemingly runs away from fans nowadays.

how will he ever enjoy his new SoDaSoPa???

[Randy Red Sox]

On 9/13/2024 at 10:41 AM, moonslav59 said:

Has any GM, even one who has been long past any chance of getting back into a FO, even written such a book? 

They barely even discuss one move they made.

well in hockey they sure do.  Brian Burke and Doug Mclean have written excellent books

[Randy Red Sox]

On 9/11/2024 at 6:13 AM, moonslav59 said:

We need to do  better in the winters, so we don't have to overpay at deadlines and risk meltdowns from those we do get. It's better to overload in the winter and be forced to trade players when bottlenecks occur than to have to scramble to fill need areas we knew were there in December.

true but that requires spending which Henry has refused to do the past several years

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, Randy Red Sox said:

true but that requires spending which Henry has refused to do the past several years

True, but your word "several" goes back just 2 years. JH increased spending by $28.5M from 2021 (a playoff season) to 2022. That was the 3rd biggest jump in spending under JH.

$47M jump from '17>'18

$30M jump from '09>'10

What killed us is the fact that we saw a $60M slash from '19>'20, and those effects have lingered for 4 years.

[dgalehouse]

7 hours ago, Bellhorn04 said:

From Dan Secatore at Over the Monster about the Red Sox latest operations overhaul:

https://www.overthemonster.com/2024/9/20/24249910/red-sox-to-overhaul-baseball-operations-department-again-craig-breslow

Key line:

But of the three successive baseball operations overhauls, this is the only one that seems to be prioritizing cutting costs.

Every organization, every large company has some deadwood, some unproductive people. Maybe that's what Breslow found here. Or maybe he just wants to put some of his own cronies in there. Who knows ?  

[moonslav59]

34 minutes ago, dgalehouse said:

Every organization, every large company has some deadwood, some unproductive people. Maybe that's what Breslow found here. Or maybe he just wants to put some of his own cronies in there. Who knows ?  

Well, we do know who we had in place were not showing any signs of doing what was need to improve our pitching acquisition and development system. Change for change sake is not a sound strategy, either, but in this case, we have to try.

I hope the people we chose to add to this area of our system work out well. They may be more important to our long term success than any one signing we make. It may take years to see if it works.

To me, we've already seen an attempt to add quality or better pitchers to our system under Brez, in less than a year being here. I applaud the attempt. We haven't seen additions like this since the Nate trade in the summer of 2018. That was 6.5 years ago. (The Sale and Nate extensions were just attempts at keeping the status quo.) When you look at all the pitchers we have lost since 2018, the decline is startling. 

Under Brez we have seen a serious effort to acquire more promising pitchers than we saw under Bloom and the last 1.3 years of DD.

Draft by bonus money spent:

$5M OF Montgomery

$2M P Tolle

$1.3 P Cason

$700K P Neely

$500K OF Ehrhard

$400K P Clarke

$300K P Aita

$300K P Tygart

$250K P Futrell

$250K OF Turner

$200K P Brooks

(3 of the 6 players with $150-$185K bonuses were pitchers.)

8 of our top 10 bonuses given out were to pitchers. I'm not sure when that happened last for the Sox. I realize none of these guys might ever make an impact, but we made an effort.

IFA: Dalvinson Reyes looks very promising, but Brez did not really sign more IFA pitchers than Bloom.

Brez has also trade for these pitchers, of which several look mediocre, but most look better or have more promise than the bottom  2-3 pitchers on the current 26 man or 40 man rosters.

Slaten

Fitts

Priester

Criswell (4 arbs left)

Sandlin

Weissert

I Campbell

Judice

(2025: Gio, Hendriks, Fulmer)The effort shows. The results are pending, although Slaten has already shown he's one of our top returning pitchers. Fitts is off to a good start.

 

 

 

[Yaz Fan Since 67]

On 9/7/2024 at 2:22 PM, Maxbialystock said:

I agree with bellhorn there is nothing likeable about John Henry.  He is fundamentally a cold-hearted businessman.  But he did astutely buy the Sox, hire smart guys to make them better while at the same time underwriting it all with one of the top three payrolls in MLB for close to 20 years--2003-2021.  He not only ended the 86 year drought, but brought home 3 more WS wins, the most in MLB during his tenure with the Sox.   

 

A poster points out in his/her signature, as you so here, that the Sox have 4 rings to the Yankees 1 since John Henry bought the team.  To me that that made John Henry very likeable.  Everything changed with the Mookie trade, that was the beginning of the change and something I will never get over. But for a long time JH was a great owner for us and very likeable.   

[Bellhorn04]

27 minutes ago, Yaz Fan Since 67 said:

A poster points out in his/her signature, as you so here, that the Sox have 4 rings to the Yankees 1 since John Henry bought the team.  To me that that made John Henry very likeable.  Everything changed with the Mookie trade, that was the beginning of the change and something I will never get over. But for a long time JH was a great owner for us and very likeable.   

100% agreed.  And as much as I've been ragging on him, I don't dislike Henry and I'm not campaigning for him to sell.  But there has been a change, and it did start with giving up Mookie, and the results so far have been ugly. 

[Yaz Fan Since 67]

1 hour ago, Bellhorn04 said:

100% agreed.  And as much as I've been ragging on him, I don't dislike Henry and I'm not campaigning for him to sell.  But there has been a change, and it did start with giving up Mookie, and the results so far have been ugly. 

Well I am among the others, I can't stand how he is running the team over the recent years.  I'm now torn on what I want him to do because before he was a great owner that we all loved.  

[notin]

19 hours ago, dgalehouse said:

Every organization, every large company has some deadwood, some unproductive people. Maybe that's what Breslow found here. Or maybe he just wants to put some of his own cronies in there. Who knows ?  

Or this a s simple case of scapegoating.  “The team isn’t playing well!! It’s the scouts’ fault!!”

[Bellhorn04]

53 minutes ago, notin said:

Or this a s simple case of scapegoating.  “The team isn’t playing well!! It’s the scouts’ fault!!”

In that OTM article I linked there is this:

Interestingly, this includes several longtime scouts, such as Willie Romay, who is credited with signing Triston Casas, Kutter Crawford, and Roman Anthony.

(The writer goes on to say he doesn't have a clue if this means Romay shouldn't have been let go.) 

[notin]

2 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

In that OTM article I linked there is this:

Interestingly, this includes several longtime scouts, such as Willie Romay, who is credited with signing Triston Casas, Kutter Crawford, and Roman Anthony.

(The writer goes on to say he doesn't have a clue if this means Romay shouldn't have been let go.) 

The article also mentions that the old school style of scouting might be a dinosaur.  Since with all of the organizations and youth programs focusing on elite teenage players, everyone already knows who everyone is anyway…