Take a bow Mr Breslow

[mvp 78]

35 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

One is 6'7 and a brickhouse. 

He's 6'7 with very impressive sprint speed , built like an absolute brick house.

Not built like a brick house. Not even close. 

[notin]

22 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Just had to emphasize the obvious. Lowe could have gone to any team, but chose BOS because they were on a playoff track and had nobody for 1b. Not sure Brezzz needed a hard sell for the guy.

Just to emphasize the even more obvious - Breslow could have passed on Lowe and his negative WAR and .665 OPS that just got him released from one of the worst teams in the league.

Liwe might have chosen Boston.  But that doesn’t mean presence is completely separated from Breslow…

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

2 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

100%. 78 win teams that prob would have been 88 win teams and playoff makers if they were in the AL central to boot. 

Exactly -- Cleveland is 18-3 in the past 21, but who have they been beating up on? A: Central casting. And let's not forget who gave the Guards two Ls to start the month... 

Meanwhile, Detroit is 5-15 in September, after tangling with both New York teams, and two others with winning records this month, the Braves and Marlins.

Last year the Tigers made the playoffs with 86 wins, and were one of three Central teams in the postseason -- who coincidentally played in the same division as the losingest club in big league history.

[notin]

4 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Not built like a brick house. Not even close. 

A brick column?  
 

He’s built like a Jenga tower halfway through the game…

[mvp 78]

17 minutes ago, notin said:

It’s a little silly h that some folks like to emphasize all last place finishes are equal.

The Sox last 3 cellars (not counting 2020) were all with 78 win teams.  78 wins isnt really all that bad and certainly not close to 60 wins.  In fact, since MLB has gone to 3 divisions, only 4 teams have finished 5th in their division with as many as 78 wins, and the Sox have been 3 of them.

If a team finishes in 5th with 78 wins, it might say more about the division than it does about the team…

It was certainly a mediocre team. It was a boring team. We weren't forced to watch the 2020 Red Sox for full seasons in '22-24. The teams were still competitive near each deadline. You can't say that for a true last place team. 

[notin]

1 minute ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

Exactly -- Cleveland is 18-3 in the past 21, but who have they been beating up on? A: Central casting. And let's not forget who gave the Guards two Ls to start the month... 

Meanwhile, Detroit is 5-15 in September, after tangling with both New York teams, and two others with winning records this month, the Braves and Marlins.

Last year the Tigers made the playoffs with 86 wins, and were one of three Central teams in the postseason -- who coincidentally played in the same division as the losingest club in big league history.

Last year KC made the postseason despite being under .500 when not playing the White Sox…

[mvp 78]

1 minute ago, notin said:

A brick column?  
 

He’s built like a Jenga tower halfway through the game…

I'll take Roman.

[notin]

5 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

I'll take Roman.

I’d take Roman over Wood, but I’d take Wood over Campbell or Abreu…

[mvp 78]

2 minutes ago, notin said:

I’d take Roman over Wood, but I’d take Wood over Campbell or Abreu…

For sure. 

[moonslav59]

4 hours ago, notin said:

It’s a little silly h that some folks like to emphasize all last place finishes are equal.

The Sox last 3 cellars (not counting 2020) were all with 78 win teams.  78 wins isnt really all that bad and certainly not close to 60 wins.  In fact, since MLB has gone to 3 divisions, only 4 teams have finished 5th in their division with as many as 78 wins, and the Sox have been 3 of them.

If a team finishes in 5th with 78 wins, it might say more about the division than it does about the team…

Last year a 78 win team did great! Texas finished 3rd in their division!

In '23 Detroit finished 2nd with 78 wins and CLE was 3rd with 76. I guess the 61 win CWS team was better than those 78 win Sox teams, because they did NOT finish last.

In 2022, three teams finished 3rd with 74-78 wins. In 2021, two teams did it.

[harmony]

Roman Anthony has shown great promise en route to a likely productive MLB career.

But nothing is guaranteed.

Compare the stats line for Anthony's first 71 MLB games with that of the first 70 MLB games of a one-time No. 1 overall draft pick:

RA 71 G, 303 PA, .292/.396/.463/.859, OPS+ 140, 3.1 bWAR, 2.7 fWAR

RL 70 G, 280 PA, .307/.364/.549/.913, OPS+ 148, 2.7 bWAR, 2.8 fWAR

Since those first 70 games Minnesota infielder Royce Lewis has posted the following line over two seasons:

RL 184 G, 713 PA, .236/.290/.420/.710, OPS+ 95, 1.6 bWAR, 2.3 fWAR

Over the next two seasons Anthony should top Lewis' 2024-25 production ... but nothing is guaranteed.

[mvp 78]

9 minutes ago, harmony said:

Roman Anthony has shown great promise en route to a likely productive MLB career.

But nothing is guaranteed.

Compare the stats line for Anthony's first 71 MLB games with that of the first 70 MLB games of a one-time No. 1 overall draft pick:

RA 71 G, 303 PA, .292/.396/.463/.859, OPS+ 140, 3.1 bWAR, 2.7 fWAR

RL 70 G, 280 PA, .307/.364/.549/.913, OPS+ 148, 2.7 bWAR, 2.8 fWAR

Since those first 70 games Minnesota infielder Royce Lewis has posted the following line over two seasons:

RL 184 G, 713 PA, .236/.290/.420/.710, OPS+ 95, 1.6 bWAR, 2.3 fWAR

Over the next two seasons Anthony should top Lewis' 2024-25 production ... but nothing is guaranteed.

Was Lewis the top prospect in baseball when promoted to MLB at age 23? No.

Was he even in the top 20? No.

It's not the same thing. You're probably the first to compare the two. 

[Bellhorn04]

Craig had a pretty good year, but 2 rather egregious mistakes:

1) Thinking we had so much starting pitching depth that we could afford to trade Priester for prospects.

2) Thinking we had enough hitting after trading Devers. 

[Old Red]

4 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Craig had a pretty good year, but 2 rather egregious mistakes:

1) Thinking we had so much starting pitching depth that we could afford to trade Priester for prospects.

2) Thinking we had enough hitting after trading Devers. 

The trade deadline pickups just wasn’t quite good enough either.🙈

[mvp 78]

9 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Craig had a pretty good year, but 2 rather egregious mistakes:

1) Thinking we had so much starting pitching depth that we could afford to trade Priester for prospects.

2) Thinking we had enough hitting after trading Devers. 

1. The push for more and more velo leading to more and more injuries. Just something to watch out for IMO. 

2. Saying that they'd win more without Devers and that they'd be buyers. Why open your mouth? Just dumb.

[mvp 78]

3 minutes ago, Old Red said:

The trade deadline pickups just wasn’t quite good enough either.🙈

Matz was fine, but not enough. 

[mvp 78]

Like I said before, great offseason and extension work but bad during the season.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

2 hours ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Craig had a pretty good year, but 2 rather egregious mistakes:

1) Thinking we had so much starting pitching depth that we could afford to trade Priester for prospects.

2) Thinking we had enough hitting after trading Devers. 

re. 2 -- I'd edit the first verb to Hoping. A week before the trade, Anthony hit his 500-foot grand slam and was finally promoted. 

Post-script: Roman hit 8 homers for Boston, Raffy hit 20 HRs for San Fran.

Postseason: Red Sox scored 6 runs in 3 games, and had a total of 4 extra-base hits. Two were by Quadruple A players...

... the Sox may have faced the greatest pitcher in playoff history, but then again, maybe the '25 Sox were a risk to transform any October starter into Bob Gibson.

 

[Old Red]

2 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Like I said before, great offseason and extension work but bad during the season.

Agree. Crochet, and Bregman were good pickups even though Bregman was grossly overpaid. The Red Sox lucked out on Chapman having a career year for someone who wasn’t being counted on as the closer when signed.

[Old Red]

3 minutes ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

re. 2 -- I'd edit the first verb to Hoping. A week before the trade, Anthony hit his 500-foot grand slam and was finally promoted. 

Post-script: Roman hit 8 homers for Boston, Raffy hit 20 HRs for San Fran.

Postseason: Red Sox scored 6 runs in 3 games, and had a total of 4 extra-base hits. Two were by Quadruple A players...

... the Sox may have faced the greatest pitcher in playoff history, but then again, maybe the '25 Sox were a risk to transform any October starter into Bob Gibson.

 

Like I asked last night how did the Red Sox miss out on that Bob Gibson impersonator who pitched in college just around the corner from Fenway?

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

7 minutes ago, Old Red said:

Like I asked last night how did the Red Sox miss out on that Bob Gibson impersonator who pitched in college just around the corner from Fenway?

He actually started against Boston for Northeastern in Spring Training, 2020.

But that was the Bloom regime, and they were all too busy scouting and recruiting hundreds of shortstop prospects who could move anywhere on the diamond. 

[moonslav59]

3 hours ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Craig had a pretty good year, but 2 rather egregious mistakes:

1) Thinking we had so much starting pitching depth that we could afford to trade Priester for prospects.

2) Thinking we had enough hitting after trading Devers. 

Agreed.

Buehler is #3.

[mvp 78]

1 hour ago, Old Red said:

Like I asked last night how did the Red Sox miss out on that Bob Gibson impersonator who pitched in college just around the corner from Fenway?

 

[mvp 78]

35 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Agreed.

Buehler is #3.

There will always be bad signings. Can't worry about not every FA signing working out.

[Hugh2]

A good POBO/GM makes mistakes.  If you're not making mistakes, you're not making moves, and if you're not making moves you're not good at your job. 

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

There will always be bad signings. Can't worry about not every FA signing working out.

I fully understand that, but it was still a major mistake.

We've done a horrible job on signing FA pitchers since Nate, who I really view as an extension, so we could go back to Price..

Only guys like Wacha and maybe Hill and Perez came close to earning what we paid them. Even the ones who did okay ended up missing significant time.

Perez

Richards

Perez II

Kluber

Paxton

Wacha

Hill

Buehler

Yes, miss on a few, but geeesh!!!

[mvp 78]

2 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I fully understand that, but it was still a major mistake.

We've done a horrible job on signing FA pitchers since Nate, who I really view as an extension, so we could go back to Price..

Only guys like Wacha and maybe Hill and Perez came close to earning what we paid them. Even the ones who did okay ended up missing significant time.

Perez

Richards

Perez II

Kluber

Paxton

Wacha

Hill

Buehler

Yes, miss on a few, but geeesh!!!

Top 10 AAV SP contracts from last season:

Burnes 0.7 fWAR (11 starts)

Snell 1.9 fWAR (11 starts)

Fried 4.8 fWAR

Eovaldi 3.7 fWAR (22 starts)

Flaherty 2.5 fWAR

Severino 2.5 fWAR

Manaea 0.4 fWAR (12 starts)

Martinez 2.1 fWAR (24 starts)

Buehler -0.3 fWAR

Kikuchi 2.5 fWAR

One contract really worked out, a few were good to decent and 4 that leave something to be desired (though Snell is at least pitching in the postseason).

[moonslav59]

28 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Top 10 AAV SP contracts from last season:

Burnes 0.7 fWAR (11 starts)

Snell 1.9 fWAR (11 starts)

Fried 4.8 fWAR

Eovaldi 3.7 fWAR (22 starts)

Flaherty 2.5 fWAR

Severino 2.5 fWAR

Manaea 0.4 fWAR (12 starts)

Martinez 2.1 fWAR (24 starts)

Buehler -0.3 fWAR

Kikuchi 2.5 fWAR

One contract really worked out, a few were good to decent and 4 that leave something to be desired (though Snell is at least pitching in the postseason).

Yes, and this is one reason I'm not for signing a large and long FA deal with a pitcher this winter. May be sign M Kelly for 1-2 yrs.

Trade for pitching and sign bats.

[dgalehouse]

4 hours ago, Old Red said:

Like I asked last night how did the Red Sox miss out on that Bob Gibson impersonator who pitched in college just around the corner from Fenway?

At that time the Red Sox strategy was to focus on drafting the so called  " best player available " . Evidently, that pretty much disqualified pitchers from consideration.  I think they have changed that strategy in the past year or so. Unfortunately, too late for Schlittler.