Orioles (Sugano) vs Red Sox (Buehler): 8/19/25, 7:10pm

[drewski6]

8 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Don't be surprised if we run back the 1B situation, again in 2026.

Lowe, Campbell and Jh Garcia are added to the mix, but likely nobody else will be added to the roster.

Would Arreaz be a possible signing, since he can play 1B and maybe still some 2B?

Why would you say that?  How about replace Devers with Alonso.

[drewski6]

I traded for Brent Rooker in my video game.  Could the real red sox not do this? Hes prob fine enough 1b defensively.

[Maxbialystock]

2 hours ago, drewski6 said:

i mean fred has some good points, he muddies them up , but if you ignore the refusal to see that everyone else stinks too - hes making good points on us.  Our asks arent absurd.  We want more churn. More turnover.  More decisiveness.  I dont even need them to spend 300m.  Just freaking dont look at half-complete roster and say "good enough"

I agree he makes good points and have told him so repeatedly.

That does not mean I have to agree with everything he says, especially when he goes over the top.

For that matter I disagree with what you have just written.  First and foremost, you have ignored that Breslow, as smart as he no doubt is, lacks experience.  Thus letting Sale go (which many on Sox agreed with at the time) and picking up Giolito.  This year Buehler sure hasn't earned his salary.  

One the other hand, when was the last time a Sox GM/CBO brought in four stalwarts as good as Bregman, Crochet, Chapman, and Narvaez in a single offseason?  Answer:  you don't know.

Plus I like this current team even though I get really po'd as I was last night. 

It is beyond question better than last year's team.   ERA is significantly lower and the runs scored are higher (even though that number is bloated by games when the Sox scored over 10 runs).  The Sox defense is solid with Bregman at 3b, Story at SS, and some version of Anthony, Abreu, Rafaela, and Abreu in the outfield, plus Narvaez/Wong catching.  Granted,  not so good at 2b, but the Sox expected Campbell to excel there and he's now back in Worcester.  First base was supposed to be Casas, he of the .800 lifetime OPS and so-so fielding.  

About now you should be firing back with how abysmal Breslow was on or before July 31. 

Well, guess what?  He brought in May who in 3 starts has 2 quality starts and an ERA of 2.87.  If you negativists weren't so insistent that the sky is falling, you would recognize that May--at least after 3 games--is a freaking brilliant acquisition.  

He bombed on a new first baseman, but now we have Lowe. 

He dumped Devers to the Giants, and the Sox got better.  I think he did that because he had no choice, but it sure hasn't hurt.  

 

[drewski6]

4 minutes ago, Maxbialystock said:

I agree he makes good points and have told him so repeatedly.

That does not mean I have to agree with everything he says, especially when he goes over the top.

For that matter I disagree with what you have just written.  First and foremost, you have ignored that Breslow, as smart as he no doubt is, lacks experience.  Thus letting Sale go (which many on Sox agreed with at the time) and picking up Giolito.  This year Buehler sure hasn't earned his salary.  

One the other hand, when was the last time a Sox GM/CBO brought in four stalwarts as good as Bregman, Crochet, Chapman, and Narvaez in a single offseason?  Answer:  you don't know.

Plus I like this current team even though I get really po'd as I was last night. 

It is beyond question better than last year's team.   ERA is significantly lower and the runs scored are higher (even though that number is bloated by games when the Sox scored over 10 runs).  The Sox defense is solid with Bregman at 3b, Story at SS, and some version of Anthony, Abreu, Rafaela, and Abreu in the outfield, plus Narvaez/Wong catching.  Granted,  not so good at 2b, but the Sox expected Campbell to excel there and he's now back in Worcester.  First base was supposed to be Casas, he of the .800 lifetime OPS and so-so fielding.  

About now you should be firing back with how abysmal Breslow was on or before July 31. 

Well, guess what?  He brought in May who in 3 starts has 2 quality starts and an ERA of 2.87.  If you negativists weren't so insistent that the sky is falling, you would recognize that May--at least after 3 games--is a freaking brilliant acquisition.  

He bombed on a new first baseman, but now we have Lowe. 

He dumped Devers to the Giants, and the Sox got better.  I think he did that because he had no choice, but it sure hasn't hurt.  

 

I am not a negativist in the slightest.  I think we were looking like a world series favorite at hte deadline. I was arguing with Fred then when he was saying we were so bad that we should punt on the next 3 years. I think this was the year. I fully expect the dodgers, phillies and nyy to add 6 all-stars each this offseason.  The juggernauts were looking beatable at the deadline.  We went into the deadline needing so much more than we got.  We have three holes in our lineup.  We dont have a ton of bullpen depth. I wanted a #2 pitcher like Ryan

I honestly think you make a couple key trades at the deadline and we could have been champs.  But i think we blew it and i think its only going to get harder from here.  Im willing to be patient, but as we're being patient other teams are getting stronger too. ANd i hate wasting the year that crochet is giving us by not trying harder at the deadline.  

They really couldnt pick up a slightly overpaid DH at the deadline who would give you a more potent bat than masa or toro?  I was saying even before his injury that mayer was NOT going to be on our playoff roster. Cuz hes not there yet , even if healthy.

You trade for an average 2b and a slightly overpaid bat who cant field and I think we win THE WORLD SERIES

But Breslow, the stiff, botched it.  Cuz hes gun-shy and too rigid.  And do you even listen to the guy? Hes just lying to you. "Nobody wanted our players" thats literally what he said.

I think every GM in baseball is BAD. I think the sport is full of dinosaurs waiting for a meteor.  Like GS in basketball.  Everyone was trapped in dated thinking and then some fresh outside the box thinking and boom dynasty.

[FredLynn]

2 hours ago, drewski6 said:

i mean fred has some good points, he muddies them up , but if you ignore the refusal to see that everyone else stinks too - hes making good points on us.  Our asks arent absurd.  We want more churn. More turnover.  More decisiveness.  I dont even need them to spend 300m.  Just freaking dont look at half-complete roster and say "good enough"

Thanks. But the truth is that I don’t really care about the holes in the rosters of the other teams. I am focused on being BETTER THAN THEY ARE no matter if they win 90 games or 100. To do that we have to grow a pair and loosen Henry’s wallet a bit. And assess talent better and not let our stars walk (except Devers-he wasn’t a team player). 

[drewski6]

The people talking about how much they love the future are more negative than i am. I think we let a championship slip through our fingers.

[drewski6]

and i think we still may win it all this year.  doesnt change, however, that breslow botched the deadline hard.

Toro at 1b and masa at dh and who is even at 2b? Thats a third of your lineup and Nav is a catcher , so thats pushing 50%. We have half a lineup and still primed to potentially win.  But the odds would have been greater had we added just a decent 2b and a DH.

[drewski6]

2 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

Thanks. But the truth is that I don’t really care about the holes in the rosters of the other teams. I am focused on being BETTER THAN THEY ARE no matter if they win 90 games or 100. To do that we have to grow a pair and loosen Henry’s wallet a bit. And assess talent better and not let our stars walk (except Devers-he wasn’t a team player). 

i agree.  I dont think we should compare ourselves to the other poorly run teams that arent trying either.  the business side of baseball has grown and the competitive side has watered down. Thats why all my friends think the dodgers are big evil when really , um, blame all the other GMs who arent trying.  BUt when you say that we are definitely finished this year, you are wrong because the other teams are just as incompetent whether you care or not.

Win the world series or dont.  We botched the deadline.  But we still could limp into the playoffs and ride crochet to a championship.  It wouldnt be deserved but it could happen.

[drewski6]

point is this: right now baseball is a bad product full of bad owners and bad GMs who care too much about the business side. Im no purist myself, but teams are too content to sell tickets right now. Very few teams are actually trying. 

So we could win.  But the only team that deserves to win is the dodgers.  They dont care who they have if they can get someone better.  

[FredLynn]

24 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

i agree.  I dont think we should compare ourselves to the other poorly run teams that arent trying either.  the business side of baseball has grown and the competitive side has watered down. Thats why all my friends think the dodgers are big evil when really , um, blame all the other GMs who arent trying.  BUt when you say that we are definitely finished this year, you are wrong because the other teams are just as incompetent whether you care or not.

Win the world series or dont.  We botched the deadline.  But we still could limp into the playoffs and ride crochet to a championship.  It wouldnt be deserved but it could happen.

Talk to me on Monday morning. Then we can discuss whether or not we are finished.

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, drewski6 said:

Why would you say that?  

Because Brez & Co seem to think Casas will stay healthy for a full year. Bloom & Co. believed the same about Sale, until they didn't.

They also have Lowe for one more arb, and he's better than Toro.

Then, they have Campbell, who can work at 1B all winter long and Jh Garcia, who just played 1B, last night with Woo. Add Romy to the mix, shake well, and presto: no change will be made.

[Maxbialystock]

48 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

I am not a negativist in the slightest.  I think we were looking like a world series favorite at hte deadline. I was arguing with Fred then when he was saying we were so bad that we should punt on the next 3 years. I think this was the year. I fully expect the dodgers, phillies and nyy to add 6 all-stars each this offseason.  The juggernauts were looking beatable at the deadline.  We went into the deadline needing so much more than we got.  We have three holes in our lineup.  We dont have a ton of bullpen depth. I wanted a #2 pitcher like Ryan

I honestly think you make a couple key trades at the deadline and we could have been champs.  But i think we blew it and i think its only going to get harder from here.  Im willing to be patient, but as we're being patient other teams are getting stronger too. ANd i hate wasting the year that crochet is giving us by not trying harder at the deadline.  

They really couldnt pick up a slightly overpaid DH at the deadline who would give you a more potent bat than masa or toro?  I was saying even before his injury that mayer was NOT going to be on our playoff roster. Cuz hes not there yet , even if healthy.

You trade for an average 2b and a slightly overpaid bat who cant field and I think we win THE WORLD SERIES

But Breslow, the stiff, botched it.  Cuz hes gun-shy and too rigid.  And do you even listen to the guy? Hes just lying to you. "Nobody wanted our players" thats literally what he said.

I think every GM in baseball is BAD. I think the sport is full of dinosaurs waiting for a meteor.  Like GS in basketball.  Everyone was trapped in dated thinking and then some fresh outside the box thinking and boom dynasty.

Well written.  If you are serious about the team's potential going into the July 31 trade deadline, why can't you give Breslow credit for building that team?

Also, I don't care what Breslow says--he's lousy at it but his  actions are way more important than his words. 

As for a DH, Devers would have been perfect, but he had to go to the Giants.  Going into the trade deadline I thought Ref/Yoshida would be a good fix for DH.  No one else was saying we needed a DH, but I agree right now it's not a strength.  If Abreu weren't also out, I would DH with one of the four outfielders and keep Gonzalez at 2b.  

[moonslav59]

50 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

point is this: right now baseball is a bad product full of bad owners and bad GMs who care too much about the business side. Im no purist myself, but teams are too content to sell tickets right now. Very few teams are actually trying. 

So we could win.  But the only team that deserves to win is the dodgers.  They dont care who they have if they can get someone better.  

They care about making money, too. They just have a TV contract that blows other teams away, plus other higher revenue sources, but yes, they spend and spend.

[Maxbialystock]

2 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Because Brez & Co seem to think Casas will stay healthy for a full year. Bloom & Co. believed the same about Sale, until they didn't.

They also have Lowe for one more arb, and he's better than Toro.

Then, they have Campbell, who can work at 1B all winter long and Jh Garcia, who just played 1B, last night with Woo. Add Romy to the mix, shake well, and presto: no change will be made.

If you're saying don't hunt for still another 1b, I agree.  I also agree Casas is now a long shot.  He's two serious injuries--1 from swinging a bat and the other from running to 1b,  So the messages seem to be:  don't swing hard and run a lot slower.  

[Maxbialystock]

34 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

Talk to me on Monday morning. Then we can discuss whether or not we are finished.

 

[drewski6]

11 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Because Brez & Co seem to think Casas will stay healthy for a full year. Bloom & Co. believed the same about Sale, until they didn't.

They also have Lowe for one more arb, and he's better than Toro.

Then, they have Campbell, who can work at 1B all winter long and Jh Garcia, who just played 1B, last night with Woo. Add Romy to the mix, shake well, and presto: no change will be made.

Okay but just because you can justify inaction, and use a lot of "if"/"then"s to say that we have some options there....We could really use a homerun hitter and we should not let rookies and retreads stop us from bettering the team.

We dont have a masher.  There are some mashers out there.

Granted I realize I am arguing with Bres through you as a conduit, not you.

[drewski6]

12 minutes ago, Maxbialystock said:

Well written.  If you are serious about the team's potential going into the July 31 trade deadline, why can't you give Breslow credit for building that team?

Also, I don't care what Breslow says--he's lousy at it but his  actions are way more important than his words. 

As for a DH, Devers would have been perfect, but he had to go to the Giants.  Going into the trade deadline I thought Ref/Yoshida would be a good fix for DH.  No one else was saying we needed a DH, but I agree right now it's not a strength.  If Abreu weren't also out, I would DH with one of the four outfielders and keep Gonzalez at 2b.  

Bresbot lies to me like Im dumb and fired the dude who called him a stiff when he is so obviously a stiff. 

That being said, a lot of people were saying we needed a bat.  I dont look at position players through the lens of their position.  I say position shmosition.  We need a bat means get a bat and work out the position.  Im not like well we are fine at 1b because of this dude, and this guy could be a decent DH....When you need a bat, you find a way.

And Im not alone in that, these days , the new school line of thinking is find a way to get your best nine hitters on the field.  Defense is important so dont completely disregard it, but optimal defensive alignments are just so far from everyones radar.  You want your good defensive players to be versatile so you can move them around and play some all bat, no gloves at easier positions.  I think good defensive players can play anywhere and bad ones cant play anywhere.  I dont think mid season adjustments are hard for dudes who just "have it"

So I dont think we needed a DH, or a 2b or a 1b but I think we needed 1-2 bats and I would have found a way to fit them. I would have sent Mayer down before his injury and moved Breg to 2b if I had to.  I would have played Duran at 1b if I had to.  

I do like team but I dont like Breslow. I want AC to run him over.

[drewski6]

I say its time to promote Cora.  Hes what we lack. A human. A person.  Not an algorithm.

[drewski6]

If we want to make Cora president and he chooses to keep bresbot, ill give bresbot a fresh start.

[drewski6]

im a math nerd and bresbot is too much of a math nerd.

[moonslav59]

37 minutes ago, Maxbialystock said:

If you're saying don't hunt for still another 1b, I agree.  I also agree Casas is now a long shot.  He's two serious injuries--1 from swinging a bat and the other from running to 1b,  So the messages seem to be:  don't swing hard and run a lot slower.  

I'm saying I think this is what we WILL do, not what I would do.

I'd sign Alonso, but it's not my money, and if there is only so much to spend, I might rather spend it on pitching.

Maybe we sign Arreaz, who can help at 1B and 2B.

[FredLynn]

44 minutes ago, Maxbialystock said:

If you're saying don't hunt for still another 1b, I agree.  I also agree Casas is now a long shot.  He's two serious injuries--1 from swinging a bat and the other from running to 1b,  So the messages seem to be:  don't swing hard and run a lot slower.  

I have not given up on Casas like others here. His career OPS is .800 and his OPS+ is 118. He certainly got off to a bad start but he has proven that he can hit. If he can manage to keep healthy he would almost certainly be a big asset.

[Tedballgame]

Cora's explanation as to why they didn't send Eaton last night is so weak. To say that they prepared before the game and they weren't going to run on Cowser under any circumstances is so stupid. The situation called for them to go for it and for him to have to make a perfect throw.

[Tedballgame]

53 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

I say its time to promote Cora.  Hes what we lack. A human. A person.  Not an algorithm.

After seeing some of the decisions Cora has made recently, I wouldn't say that promoting him to President of Baseball Operations is a good thing. He is no genius.

[drewski6]

24 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

I have not given up on Casas like others here. His career OPS is .800 and his OPS+ is 118. He certainly got off to a bad start but he has proven that he can hit. If he can manage to keep healthy he would almost certainly be a big asset.

My rule is that if I am more athletic than you, you shouldnt be a professional athlete.  Casas is a waddler, he cant even pump his legs.  Donezo.  Id make an exception if he could ding 40, but I dont see that either.

I care not that he draws walks and then clogs the bases.

[drewski6]

Just now, Tedballgame said:

After seeing some of the decisions Cora has made recently, I wouldn't say that promoting him to President of Baseball Operations is a good thing. He is no genius.

Yeah, that would be a double benefit.  Like how when they promoted Brad Stevens , a nice perk was that he was no longer coaching.

AC isnt a great manager. BUt I think hed make a great GM.

[drewski6]

3 minutes ago, Tedballgame said:

Cora's explanation as to why they didn't send Eaton last night is so weak. To say that they prepared before the game and they weren't going to run on Cowser under any circumstances is so stupid. The situation called for them to go for it and for him to have to make a perfect throw.

I know, man. Terrible.  Whatever happened to take the fight TO THEM. Make them make the play.  At the poker table, you want to keep your opponent uncomforatble.  IN hockey you wanna force the goalie to make the save.  Make the dude make the throw with the game on the line.  Put him in an uncomfortable decision.

That wasnt ACs call I bet, but if so, then maybe Im too quick to promote him.  Whatever happened to the human element? Wheres the competitiveness? WHeres the fight?

Im 41 and have a desk job and even Im down to fight.

[drewski6]

Half these games Im yelling "SWING ON HIM"

We need like Joe Kelly to be our manager or something

[FredLynn]

5 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

My rule is that if I am more athletic than you, you shouldnt be a professional athlete.  Casas is a waddler, he cant even pump his legs.  Donezo.  Id make an exception if he could ding 40, but I dont see that either.

I care not that he draws walks and then clogs the bases.

Baseball players aren’t always known for their athleticism. There are many overweight out of shape players in the league. If the guy can play well he can be on my team.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

9 minutes ago, Tedballgame said:

Cora's explanation as to why they didn't send Eaton last night is so weak. To say that they prepared before the game and they weren't going to run on Cowser under any circumstances is so stupid. The situation called for them to go for it and for him to have to make a perfect throw.

It's best if you consider Cora's strengths. He may not always be a great in-game manager, but he always has the backs of everyone in uniform. Have you ever heard him call out a coach or a player in a postgame press conference?

Cora may not be shy about indirect criticisms of the CBO after trade deadlines -- "the roster is the roster" -- but he always covers for his guys.

We all see how aggressive AC wants to be sending runners on steals, so does it make any sense he wouldn't want his fastest player trying to score on a fly ball, after intentionally bunting him over to 3rd? Eaton or Hudson or both blew it, but Cora immediately blamed it on series planning -- which is either his own fault, or  an opportunity to take a shot at 17 of the 87 Assistant VPs in the Analytics Department.