Why sign Houck and Casas?

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, FredLynn said:

Not if he succeeds in getting the player signed. That hasn’t happened often enough.

I'm talking about what just about every GM says, when they do not sign someone they pursued.

I think the anger over no signings is spilling over into areas where maybe it doesn't matter much, to me.

[JoeBrady]

3 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Breslow isn't a great communicator. This has been known going back to the time of his hiring. 

Fortunately for me, I pay no attention.  In the off-season, you either do, or you no do.

[mvp 78]

7 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

Fortunately for me, I pay no attention.  In the off-season, you either do, or you no do.

Unfortunately, he does need to be able to communicate with other teams and internally. 

[Bellhorn04]

1 hour ago, moonslav59 said:

I'm talking about what just about every GM says, when they do not sign someone they pursued.

I think the anger over no signings is spilling over into areas where maybe it doesn't matter much, to me.

Seems to me they made a strong offer to Bregman.  Hopefully now they make a good pivot from it.  

[moonslav59]

Just now, Bellhorn04 said:

Seems to me they made a strong offer to Bregman.  Hopefully now they make a good pivot from it.  

I know people are bummed out. We lost on a FA once more, but that offer was very fair. 

It shows they will go 5 years for someone over 30. I'm sure some will think they never intended to win the bidding and this was all for show.

Still, if we never win a bidding war on a top quality player, it won't ever seem to matter.

We've also been wrong on some of our most recent larger signings, and that hasn't/doesn't help.

Had Buehler done great, maybe we wouldn't be so sour on shorter term deals. Had Bregman sucked and not opted out, we'd be bummed we signed him for 3 years.

[JoeBrady]

2 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Unfortunately, he does need to be able to communicate with other teams and internally. 

Since I have no idea how he communicates with other teams, I still don't care.  I assume most trades are made on the basis of value.

[drewski6]

1 hour ago, JoeBrady said:

Since I have no idea how he communicates with other teams, I still don't care.  I assume most trades are made on the basis of value.

Nobody cares if you care.

But its widely reported that Bregman and Breslow were talking past each other and now Bregman is a cub.  You may say that you applaud value blah, blah , blah , blah blah , i really dont care.

But Bregman/team said "I have a better offer from the cubs" and breslow didnt believe it, thats bad. Its so dysfunctional its almost funny, but its bad.

[drewski6]

There was a communication breakdown between us and Bregmans team, we thought we had the best offer outstanding when we didnt, and now Bregman is a cub.

 

[notin]

12 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

Nobody cares if you care.

But its widely reported that Bregman and Breslow were talking past each other and now Bregman is a cub.  You may say that you applaud value blah, blah , blah , blah blah , i really dont care.

But Bregman/team said "I have a better offer from the cubs" and breslow didnt believe it, thats bad. Its so dysfunctional its almost funny, but its bad.

It does make me wonder if it’s a common thing where players/agents report better offers than thy have to improve actual ones.  We all know Boras uses “mystery team” to up the bidding…

[drewski6]

30 minutes ago, notin said:

It does make me wonder if it’s a common thing where players/agents report better offers than thy have to improve actual ones.  We all know Boras uses “mystery team” to up the bidding…

Sure - agents lie, and so do teams. I understnad that theres reason not to believe everything you hear.

But asking questions to flush out the honesty/sincerety of competitive offers is a sign of a good communicator, and thats all what we're saying here....

That communication skills are important. Becuase they are. Always. For everybody.

[Hitch]

Always easier in hindsight. Just as it is to attack people for bidding against themselves. 

[JoeBrady]

1 hour ago, drewski6 said:

But Bregman/team said "I have a better offer from the cubs" and breslow didnt believe it, thats bad.

One of DD's best moves was on JD's signing, and JD's opt-out.  There was a story every week about the number of teams interested in JD.  DD never bit, never panicked, and stuck with his offer.  Many fans, including some in here, wanted DD to raise his offer to 'whatever it takes'.  I agreed with DD.  He ignored the stories, stuck with offer, and was proven right.

But even if JD did have a better offer, I still would've agreed with DD.  He made an educated decision based on the AL teams that needed a DH.  I wouldn't have said it was 'bad' if he been proven wrong.  No one gets all these things right.

[moonslav59]

8 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

One of DD's best moves was on JD's signing, and JD's opt-out.  There was a story every week about the number of teams interested in JD.  DD never bit, never panicked, and stuck with his offer.  Many fans, including some in here, wanted DD to raise his offer to 'whatever it takes'.  I agreed with DD.  He ignored the stories, stuck with offer, and was proven right.

But even if JD did have a better offer, I still would've agreed with DD.  He made an educated decision based on the AL teams that needed a DH.  I wouldn't have said it was 'bad' if he been proven wrong.  No one gets all these things right.

Well said. Now, "Opts out" are bad words.

[notin]

1 hour ago, drewski6 said:

Sure - agents lie, and so do teams. I understnad that theres reason not to believe everything you hear.

But asking questions to flush out the honesty/sincerety of competitive offers is a sign of a good communicator, and thats all what we're saying here....

That communication skills are important. Becuase they are. Always. For everybody.

So you think Breslow didn’t ask any questions? 

[Duran Is The Man]

37 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

One of DD's best moves was on JD's signing, and JD's opt-out.  There was a story every week about the number of teams interested in JD.  DD never bit, never panicked, and stuck with his offer.  Many fans, including some in here, wanted DD to raise his offer to 'whatever it takes'.  I agreed with DD.  He ignored the stories, stuck with offer, and was proven right.

But even if JD did have a better offer, I still would've agreed with DD.  He made an educated decision based on the AL teams that needed a DH.  I wouldn't have said it was 'bad' if he been proven wrong.  No one gets all these things right.

i miss Dave.

and winning titles.

[drewski6]

32 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

One of DD's best moves was on JD's signing, and JD's opt-out.  There was a story every week about the number of teams interested in JD.  DD never bit, never panicked, and stuck with his offer.  Many fans, including some in here, wanted DD to raise his offer to 'whatever it takes'.  I agreed with DD.  He ignored the stories, stuck with offer, and was proven right.

But even if JD did have a better offer, I still would've agreed with DD.  He made an educated decision based on the AL teams that needed a DH.  I wouldn't have said it was 'bad' if he been proven wrong.  No one gets all these things right.

Not relevant.  The current conversation that Im having is not about sticking with your assigned value vs panicking at rumors....its about Breslows inability to effectively conversate preventing him from deducing needed info (the competitiveness of his offer)

The offer was competitive and it was obviously designed to be. There was no sham, just a second place offer.  Would Breslow have added more money should he known his offer wasnt enough? Im not sure, but I think more likely than not. He just had no idea because listening (part of communicating) isnt his strong suit.

Dont get me wrong, I was just telling my buddy.  Hes smart and knows baseball but hes jsut a douche.  I think it got in his way here, and it isnt the first time. I like that Breslow is smart and aggressive.  There's def been more activity than there was in the Bloom years, which I liked the first year of, then it felt like jsut rolling the same mediocre roster over every year

 

[drewski6]

20 minutes ago, notin said:

So you think Breslow didn’t ask any questions? 

I dont think Breslow sleuth'd out the info he needed to sleuth out.

[JoeBrady]

41 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

...its about Breslows inability to effectively conversate preventing him from deducing needed info (the competitiveness of his offer)

I'm not sure how one does that.  It's like deciding whether not someone at the poker table is bluffing.  If Boras told Breslow the offer was $170M/5, how does Breslow know if that's correct?  Or how much is being deferred?  I doubt Boras has a tell.  My guess here is that Breslow put some percentages into the chances of Boras being truthful or lying, or exaggerating, compared that to whatever limits he had in mind, and made a call.

But no one here knows exactly what happened.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

1 hour ago, notin said:

So you think Breslow didn’t ask any questions? 

"How do we align our public comments to align with what our president spews a'lyin to the Nation about how we just missed alining our roster with another player who didn't align with our malign alignments?"

[moonslav59]

56 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

But no one here knows exactly what happened.

All we know for sure is that our offer wasn't good enough for some reason or reasons. It looks like it was less money, but still a big overpay. It looks like it was for the same amount of years- one to two too many. It's looks like it had more or longer deferred money, that may have been a factor. It looks like we would not include a no trade clause, which may have been a factor.

We made an offer, and I doubt any further discussion would  have caused Brez, JH & Co to give $10M more, or shorter or less deferred money or give in on the no trade clause. The history is we just don't ever come back with anything substantially more than the last or second to last offer given.

I thought $165M/5 was way more than fair, both in terms of money and years. That was already too much and too long, but had he said yes, I'd have been fine with it and accepted that you have to overpay to get what you need. That doesn't mean there is no stopping point, and since I feel $165M was already past the stopping point, I'm not pissed off he's a Cub, now.

That's not saying I feel the same about every FA negotiation we've had and will have. Of the one's I've seen signed so far, I think I'd have give slightly more for Alonso, but that was close to Breggie overpay limits, IMO. I'd have given more to Polanco, for sure, but with fingers and toes crossed and contorted. I'm not sure about $65M/4 for Okamoto, but if we end up with nothing, I'd look back and wonder more. I kinda liked the idea of Merrill Kelly on a 2 year deal, but I think he wanted back to AZ ($20M x 2.)

I see Suarez as an option- not Bichette.

I see trades as an option and really like Paredes. BTV says he's worth 12, but I think he's more like 30. They say Duran is worth 46, but I'm thinking maybe 40. I'd trade Duran (46) for Paredes (12) plus Brian King (7) but BTV rejects it. They called Duran for Paredes, King and Janek (9 a catcher prospect) a "major overpay" but accepted it.

[JoeBrady]

27 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I thought $165M/5 was way more than fair, both in terms of money and years. That was already too much and too long, but had he said yes, I'd have been fine with it

My thinking as well.  The 'fair' calculation I came up with was $125M/5 (3.5/3.0/2.5/2.0/1.5/1.0) * 9.5.  And I'd have added $10M for a 6th year for AAV purposes.  Like you said, if the RS wanted to add another $5M per, because he's a good player at a key position, it would've been an overpay (by my calcs), but I'd have been fine.

[moonslav59]

16 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

My thinking as well.  The 'fair' calculation I came up with was $125M/5 (3.5/3.0/2.5/2.0/1.5/1.0) * 9.5.  And I'd have added $10M for a 6th year for AAV purposes.  Like you said, if the RS wanted to add another $5M per, because he's a good player at a key position, it would've been an overpay (by my calcs), but I'd have been fine.

When we signed Price, I thought "DAMN! That's a huge overpay, but wow, we got one of the best pitchers in MLB. Okay with me."

A few years later we called him "half-Priced."

[JoeBrady]

10 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

When we signed Price, I thought "DAMN! That's a huge overpay, but wow, we got one of the best pitchers in MLB. Okay with me."

A few years later we called him "half-Priced."

It was like when we acquired Gonzo & CC almost simultaneously.  Neither were my favorite choices, but it's difficult to be sad when you acquire that much talent.

[moonslav59]

Just now, JoeBrady said:

It was like when we acquired Gonzo & CC almost simultaneously.  Neither were my favorite choices, but it's difficult to be sad when you acquire that much talent.

Indeed. It almost seemed unfair.

[moonslav59]

Now, the day we signed Pablito and HRam, that had a different feel, but I still had the thought that we spent a ton and got a couple nice bats.

[drewski6]

15 hours ago, JoeBrady said:

I'm not sure how one does that.  It's like deciding whether not someone at the poker table is bluffing.  If Boras told Breslow the offer was $170M/5, how does Breslow know if that's correct?  Or how much is being deferred?  I doubt Boras has a tell.  My guess here is that Breslow put some percentages into the chances of Boras being truthful or lying, or exaggerating, compared that to whatever limits he had in mind, and made a call.

But no one here knows exactly what happened.

One way to do it is to cultivate a culture of honesty and to build a relationship with Bregman over time that fosters trust.  Therefore, its not solely a game of deception or spy vs spy.

Works both ways though, if you want to get honesty and transparency , you have to give it.

[moonslav59]

21 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

One way to do it is to cultivate a culture of honesty and to build a relationship with Bregman over time that fosters trust.  Therefore, its not solely a game of deception or spy vs spy.

Works both ways though, if you want to get honesty and transparency , you have to give it.

Agreed, but I'm not sure we were dishonest or deceitful with Breggie. I think he loved it in BOS and probably wanted to return, maybe even at a little less money.

[FredLynn]

Well they signed Ranger Suarez. Good move. I think he could be considered a decent #2. Now they need Bichette.

[Hitch]

On 1/13/2026 at 10:23 PM, drewski6 said:

Dont get me wrong, I was just telling my buddy.  Hes smart and knows baseball but hes jsut a douche.  I think it got in his way here, and it isnt the first time. I like that Breslow is smart and aggressive.  There's def been more activity than there was in the Bloom years, which I liked the first year of, then it felt like jsut rolling the same mediocre roster over every year

 

What makes him a douche?

[Hitch]

9 hours ago, FredLynn said:

Well they signed Ranger Suarez. Good move. I think he could be considered a decent #2. Now they need Bichette.

Absolutely zero chance of that happening.