Take a bow Mr Breslow

[Old Red]

9 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Hate to say it but if the Sox miss the playoffs Craig is going to take a ton of heat for not doing more for the offense after trading Devers.  We ended up in a position of counting on Anthony a bit too much and then we got a bad break.

 

That usual 3rd option in the fork in the road at the trade deadline again that leads to nowhere .For a team that always needs starting pitching, and has for years trading away Priester has been a big miss too. The bad injury juju that hovers over Fenway has reared its ugly head once again.

[Bellhorn04]

22 minutes ago, Old Red said:

That usual 3rd option in the fork in the road at the trade deadline again that leads to nowhere .For a team that always needs starting pitching, and has for years trading away Priester has been a big miss too. The bad injury juju that hovers over Fenway has reared its ugly head once again.

Yeah, note to Craig: don't ever f'ing trade away a starting pitcher again, it's not your strong point!

[mvp 78]

19 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Yeah, note to Craig: don't ever f'ing trade away a starting pitcher again, it's not your strong point!

His moves during the offseason were pretty good. Once the season started, most everything he touched was pretty bad. 

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Hate to say it but if the Sox miss the playoffs Craig is going to take a ton of heat for not doing more for the offense after trading Devers.  We ended up in a position of counting on Anthony a bit too much and then we got a bad break.

 

Most of us were more upset he did not get a much better SP'er at the deadline.

I do think we should have done more than rely on Anthony, Mayer and late Lowe to help make up for handing Devers away. That is on Brez.

I know many everyday players had question marks going into 2025, including Bregman, who had his OPS+ go from 142 ('16-'20) to 126 ('21-'22) to 119 ('23-'24,) but these were probably our best ranked offensive players going into 2025:

1. Devers- traded in early June

2. Bregman- despite the down trend (missed significant time w injury)

3. Duran- coming off a career year and good '23 season

4. Casas- had an OPS over .820 from '23-'24 (missed 5 months)

5. Abreu-Ref platoon (missed key time, recently)

6. Anthony- promoted too late, then injured.

7. Campbell- demoted & Mayer -injured

8. Story- stayed healthy

After Devers, 4 of the next 5 guys missed significant time due to injuries. It's hard to plan for that, and one could argue our depth is what kept us in the race this long.

[mvp 78]

8 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Most of us were more upset he did not get a much better SP'er at the deadline.

There were a few of us who didn't see a TOTR starter as reasonable, but thought the right side of the IF needed addressing. Also, his actual deadline acquisition at SP was awful. Just get a guy that has a history of staying healthy at least! 

[moonslav59]

12 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

There were a few of us who didn't see a TOTR starter as reasonable, but thought the right side of the IF needed addressing. Also, his actual deadline acquisition at SP was awful. Just get a guy that has a history of staying healthy at least! 

Agreed. How many said we need a beast of a bat?

[Bellhorn04]

49 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Agreed. How many said we need a beast of a bat?

A lot of people wanted a first base bat to replace Toro for quite a while.

The fact is they lost a huge bat in Devers and did next to nothing about it.

[moonslav59]

51 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

A lot of people wanted a first base bat to replace Toro for quite a while.

The fact is they lost a huge bat in Devers and did next to nothing about it.

Yes, many wanted an upgrade over Toro, including me. Names were naylor, Hearns, Hoskins... not beast bats.

[Kimmi]

On 9/19/2025 at 8:57 AM, Bellhorn04 said:

Hate to say it but if the Sox miss the playoffs Craig is going to take a ton of heat for not doing more for the offense after trading Devers.  We ended up in a position of counting on Anthony a bit too much and then we got a bad break.

 

If the Sox miss the playoffs, Breslow will surely receive a lot of criticism, though IMO, it would be unwarranted.  I'm not sure what else he might have done to bolster the offense besides maybe adding some depth pieces.  We lost 3 lefty bats in Mayer, Abreu, and Anthony.  That would be difficult for any team to overcome.

[Kimmi]

On 9/19/2025 at 9:37 AM, Bellhorn04 said:

Yeah, note to Craig: don't ever f'ing trade away a starting pitcher again, it's not your strong point!

I'm almost never a fan of trading away starting pitching for a position player.

[moonslav59]

35 minutes ago, Kimmi said:

If the Sox miss the playoffs, Breslow will surely receive a lot of criticism, though IMO, it would be unwarranted.  I'm not sure what else he might have done to bolster the offense besides maybe adding some depth pieces.  We lost 3 lefty bats in Mayer, Abreu, and Anthony.  That would be difficult for any team to overcome.

Agreed, and the depth and bottom of the order did pretty well for us. Remember, Anthony, Romy, Toro, Eaton and then Lowe were depth pieces.

Our rotation was filled by depth pieces, all year, except for Crochet and Bello/Gio.

[Kimmi]

1 minute ago, moonslav59 said:

Agreed, and the depth and bottom of the order did pretty well for us. Remember, Anthony, Romy, Toro, Eaton and then Lowe were depth pieces.

Our rotation was filled by depth pieces, all year, except for Crochet and Bello/Gio.

I was more concerned about adding pitching at the deadline.  We got May, which didn't pan out.  I think the other pieces were just too expensive.  

There's always seemingly more that a GM could have done, but the cost is often prohibitive.  I don't think it's from lack of trying.

[moonslav59]

4 minutes ago, Kimmi said:

I was more concerned about adding pitching at the deadline.  We got May, which didn't pan out.  I think the other pieces were just too expensive.  

There's always seemingly more that a GM could have done, but the cost is often prohibitive.  I don't think it's from lack of trying.

Matz has been okay, but yes. I agree.

I think we had about 12 capable to decent SP'ers after the Crochet deal. We traded Priester and added Harrison, but just now gave him a look-see. I can't see blaming a GM for not going 13-14 deep with SP'ers. The 40 man roster can only hold so many.

I think they idea was to use some in the pen, but when 6-8 are one the 60 Day at any given time, that idea fell through as well.

To me, our issue was not depth, it was lack of starpower. We traded Devers. We lost our 2024 ace (Houck) and IP leader (Crawford,) plus an .820 career OPS 1B man for just about the whole season.

[Bellhorn04]

1 hour ago, Kimmi said:

If the Sox miss the playoffs, Breslow will surely receive a lot of criticism, though IMO, it would be unwarranted.  I'm not sure what else he might have done to bolster the offense besides maybe adding some depth pieces.  We lost 3 lefty bats in Mayer, Abreu, and Anthony.  That would be difficult for any team to overcome.

Not sure about counting Mayer, he's still an unknown quantity.  The loss of the other two at the same time is huge.  I think if there's a criticism it's that he subtracted a big bat and didn't do anything to replace that bat.  

[Duran Is The Man]

2 hours ago, Kimmi said:

I'm almost never a fan of trading away starting pitching for a position player.

especially for somebody in Low A. just an insanely stupid trade.

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Not sure about counting Mayer, he's still an unknown quantity.  The loss of the other two at the same time is huge.  I think if there's a criticism it's that he subtracted a big bat and didn't do anything to replace that bat.  

I realize Anthony was called up before we traded Devers, but I think Brez viewed him as part of a group effort to replace losing our best bat.

Had Anthony stayed healthy, perhaps we wouldn't be kicking this offense around the block, right now.

As for Brez not doing anything to support the offense at the deadline, I also wish he had. I wish he'd have added a better SP'er than May, as well, but at what expense? It's just hard for me to roast Brez for not predicting we'd lose yet another key player.

Part II: What if we did give up the world for....

Joe Ryan: 5.24 ERA since trade deadline.

E Suarez: .698 OPS since trade. (Okay Naylor is at .811, but Lowe is at .775.)

Correa .766 since trade.

[moonslav59]

43 minutes ago, Duran Is The Man said:

especially for somebody in Low A. just an insanely stupid trade.

Not many people were all upset, when the trade happened, although the risk of trading a pitcher is always a concern.

BTW, we did get two pretty good pitchers back (Holobetz & Phillips), and at the time of the trade, none of these pitchers were proven ML starters. We might even get some value from YRod.

[Duran Is The Man]

6 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

Not many people were all upset, when the trade happened, although the risk of trading a pitcher is always a concern.

BTW, we did get two pretty good pitchers back (Holobetz & Phillips), and at the time of the trade, none of these pitchers were proven ML starters. We might even get some value from YRod.

i was upset about it. to me, starting pitchers are far more valuable than some Low A "suspects".

[Hitch]

13 hours ago, Duran Is The Man said:

especially for somebody in Low A. just an insanely stupid trade.

The trade was more for the competitive balance pick and the extra money that comes with it. As with all trades it is a long way away from being judged properly, even if it is annoying we haven't got Priester to count on right now. 

[mvp 78]

25 minutes ago, Hitch said:

The trade was more for the competitive balance pick and the extra money that comes with it. As with all trades it is a long way away from being judged properly, even if it is annoying we haven't got Priester to count on right now. 

It was the overall value of the package per the Sox's model, which included the pick that was ultimately Marcus Phillips. We'll have to see what Phillips ends up being. 

Also, the Sox weren't able to get this outcome out of Priester. There's no reason to assume he'd be this good if he was still here. The Sox could have just as well kept pushing velo and had him get TJS like a lot of others. 

[Bellhorn04]

26 minutes ago, Hitch said:

The trade was more for the competitive balance pick and the extra money that comes with it. As with all trades it is a long way away from being judged properly, even if it is annoying we haven't got Priester to count on right now. 

If the Sox miss the playoffs again Breslow may not be around to see any benefits of the trade.  It was a very risky thing for him to do IMHO.

[Bellhorn04]

2 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

It was the overall value of the package per the Sox's model, which included the pick that was ultimately Marcus Phillips. We'll have to see what Phillips ends up being. 

Also, the Sox weren't able to get this outcome out of Priester. There's no reason to assume he'd be this good if he was still here. The Sox could have just as well kept pushing velo and had him get TJS like a lot of others. 

Major ouch on that last paragraph.

[Hitch]

5 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

It was the overall value of the package per the Sox's model, which included the pick that was ultimately Marcus Phillips. We'll have to see what Phillips ends up being. 

Also, the Sox weren't able to get this outcome out of Priester. There's no reason to assume he'd be this good if he was still here. The Sox could have just as well kept pushing velo and had him get TJS like a lot of others. 

Agreed. I have little issue with the trade. 

[Hitch]

3 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

If the Sox miss the playoffs again Breslow may not be around to see any benefits of the trade.  It was a very risky thing for him to do IMHO.

I think the chance of Breslow not being here next season, even if we miss the play offs is very small. Rightly so. 

[mvp 78]

17 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Major ouch on that last paragraph.

Disagree? 

[mvp 78]

15 minutes ago, Hitch said:

I think the chance of Breslow not being here next season, even if we miss the play offs is very small. Rightly so. 

He has two more years no matter what. If they fire Breslow too soon, nobody will apply next time. 

[Bellhorn04]

1 minute ago, mvp 78 said:

Disagree? 

No, more like I'm afraid you may be right.

[Bellhorn04]

17 minutes ago, Hitch said:

I think the chance of Breslow not being here next season, even if we miss the play offs is very small. Rightly so. 

Agreed.  But man, Priester is 13-2 with a 3.25 ERA and will pitch about 160 innings.  This is not a feather in Brez's cap.  And Sox fans are getting tired of the Longview stuff.

[Hitch]

1 minute ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Agreed.  But man, Priester is 13-2 with a 3.25 ERA and will pitch about 160 innings.  This is not a feather in Brez's cap.  And Sox fans are getting tired of the Longview stuff.

Sure, but no GM gets every decision right, and he's got plenty enough right to carry on. The state of the organisation when he came in - I'd say we're about on track. Next year the time will have run out for any excuse to wash on us not going for the Division at the very least. 

[mvp 78]

8 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Agreed.  But man, Priester is 13-2 with a 3.25 ERA and will pitch about 160 innings.  This is not a feather in Brez's cap.  And Sox fans are getting tired of the Longview stuff.

To me, the Sox were trying to compete this year and Priester was supposedly 6th or 7th on the depth chart going into the year. Is that really a guy you want to trade if you are serious about contending? It was good value, but not really a complete slam dunk considering the other prospects included in the deal and how advanced of a prospect Priester was. In a vacuum, it's a good trade. In this season, maybe not.