Red Sox's Craig Breslow Era Is Set to End With A Whimper

[moonslav59]

Just now, Alex Mayes said:

You're right, no one was certain it would begin in year two but Breslow put a roster together with him as the main offensive weapon heading into his year two season.

I'm a huge Anthony fan and expect him to be a star so I think that we're on the same page, but he had a lot of pressure put on him when Breslow failed to acquire another bat to pair with him and Contreras.

What made Anthony look like he was the "backbone" was more about the lack of additions to the line-up than what was needed. Had we signed Bregman not Suarez, as I think was the main plan, we'd have not viewed Anthony as the number one hopeful bat.

I also think many underestimated the offense Contreras could bring. We rightfully did not view Durbin as a big add to the offense.

Many here hated the idea of trading Duran, because he was such an offensive weapon with his bat and legs.

Many felt Abreu reaching peak prime might have a big year.

Story's 2025 season gave us some hope he could hit .750 with 22 HRs.

Yoshida was not written off by everybody and .750 from him was not an outlandish ask.

Hardly any of these came true, and yet Anthony is the focus of the finger-pointing.

BTW, the two guys taking Anthony's place (Duran & Yoshida) are vets that should both be about 100 points higher than they are. If they were, the loss of Anthony would not have been as noticable. Because they have sucked, the loos looks huge, now.

[notin]

30 minutes ago, Alex Mayes said:

You're right, no one was certain it would begin in year two but Breslow put a roster together with him as the main offensive weapon heading into his year two season.

I'm a huge Anthony fan and expect him to be a star so I think that we're on the same page, but he had a lot of pressure put on him when Breslow failed to acquire another bat to pair with him and Contreras.

Did he?

There was much more talk about Abreu as the potential breakout star.  If anything, Anthony was miscast as a leadoff hitter solely because of his ability to draw walks.

While I think the Sox need a leadoff hitter, did anyone anywhere so much as imply Anthony would carry the team from that role?

[moonslav59]

Back to the original question: no Sox GM goes out with a whimper. Maybe Bloom was the closest to a whimper.

[notin]

4 hours ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

Breslow literally said he needed to add more bats last winter, which he failed to do.

Many of us posted all offseason our concerns with the batting order, especially after the one that faced the Yankees in the playoffs.

And then the season began and continues with the worst offensive team any living Red Sox fans can ever remember seeing. 

(Yet, there were a few who bought into the Brez blab that Boston could win with pitching and D... and more than a few who predicted 90-plus Ws).

Overall, the rotation has been good, but we all know the club probably won't even finish .500 unless they add some legitimate big league lumber. The question remains: is it even worth the cost at this point? It's July.

The lineup that faced the Yankees featured too much Romy, Eaton, Refsnyder, etc.  and little to no Anthony and Abreu.  Was that lineup a bigger concern than using a struggling Bello to start game two after Quinn Priester was needlessly traded?  And then followed with Connelly Early (with all of 14 career IP) starting game 3?  
 

The Sox lineup last year lost Bregman and Lowe/Toro and replaced them with Contreras and Durbin.  Upgrade, downgrade or status quo?  Bear in mind that the lineup post Devers scored 4.84 RPG, down from 4.86 RPG with Devers. Some (too many?) sophomore slumps coupled with an absolutely horrific season from Duran and Story trying to play injured are bigger culprits here.   
 

And who was the new big bat going to replace? Duran or Anthony?  And I am fairly certain in February no one knew of Anthony’s injury and Duran’s struggles…

[drewski6]

1 hour ago, Alex Mayes said:

I agree with you 100%. I said when they inked Cora to the extension that they purpose of that was to get his timeline to match up with Breslow's so when they moved on from Bres at the end of his contract, Cora could slide into that position. if they knew Cora would accept the position today, I think Breslow would be gone already.

I think it's telling Cora is still interacting with Sox things on social media and has been seen out with members of FSG since his firing. He still owns his house in Boston as well. Anecdotal, but something to pay attention to.

They fire Breslow, hire Cora as CBO, and have Cora tell Breslow.

Breslow: What are you doing in my office?
Cora: What are you doing in MY office?

Thats my dream

[JoeBrady]

2 hours ago, Old Red said:

The one where they didn’t land a BIG bat. A BIG bat would have helped the team more than Ranger has.

1-So you agreed with all his moves.

2-By 'big bat', do mean Bregman's 7 HRs instead of Durbin's 7 HRs?  Or more like Bichette's .678 OPS?

[Old Red]

16 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

1-So you agreed with all his moves.

2-By 'big bat', do mean Bregman's 7 HRs instead of Durbin's 7 HRs?  Or more like Bichette's .678 OPS?

Bregman was plan A, but I said before FA started to sign Schwaber, and Alonso.

[jad]

2 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

What made Anthony look like he was the "backbone" was more about the lack of additions to the line-up than what was needed. Had we signed Bregman not Suarez, as I think was the main plan, we'd have not viewed Anthony as the number one hopeful bat.

I also think many underestimated the offense Contreras could bring. We rightfully did not view Durbin as a big add to the offense.

Many here hated the idea of trading Duran, because he was such an offensive weapon with his bat and legs.

Many felt Abreu reaching peak prime might have a big year.

Story's 2025 season gave us some hope he could hit .750 with 22 HRs.

Yoshida was not written off by everybody and .750 from him was not an outlandish ask.

Hardly any of these came true, and yet Anthony is the focus of the finger-pointing.

BTW, the two guys taking Anthony's place (Duran & Yoshida) are vets that should both be about 100 points higher than they are. If they were, the loss of Anthony would not have been as noticable. Because they have sucked, the loos looks huge, now.

So Yoshida should be hitting around .350?

 

[Alex Mayes]

57 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

They fire Breslow, hire Cora as CBO, and have Cora tell Breslow.

Breslow: What are you doing in my office?
Cora: What are you doing in MY office?

Thats my dream

I want a press conference where Henry and Cora are sitting on stage smoke cigars together. 

[Alex Mayes]

1 hour ago, notin said:

Did he?

There was much more talk about Abreu as the potential breakout star.  If anything, Anthony was miscast as a leadoff hitter solely because of his ability to draw walks.

While I think the Sox need a leadoff hitter, did anyone anywhere so much as imply Anthony would carry the team from that role?

The consensus around Abreu at the end of last year was that he had to hit left handed pitching to take the next step. As maybe the biggest Abreu fan on this website, no one expected him to be a bigger star than Anthony. He had/still has the potential to be a star in his own right but he never carried the expectations Anthony has carried. You had national publications predicting a top three MVP finish for Anthony this year. 
 

I agree Antony was miscast as a leadoff hitter. 

[Hitch]

5 hours ago, Old Red said:

You can make all the excuses you want for little Anthony, it doesn’t matter if he’s 22, 32, or 42. It doesn’t matter if he has 433 AB, 1433 AB, or 5000 AB. He’s getting judged on what he’s doing now, or before he hurt his pinky doing that pinky swear with Mayer. What he did last year doesn’t matter. What he did in the WBC doesn’t matter. It’s what he did before he got hurt THIS Year in the games that was counting. You just can’t comprehend that. Just because other people don’t agree with you you call them idiots, and like I’ve been telling you there are many,  many out there. No one is saying little Anthony won’t be a good ball player, but at the moment, this year so far he’s been a major disappointment, and a flop. It’s everywhere. It’s everywhere.🤫

The problem with that logic is, if you're not willing to allow any context into your thinking, you have to accept off the past month that Durbin is one of the best players in the league.

I don't understand why people look for absolutes all the time, in a game this random.

[JoeBrady]

2 hours ago, Old Red said:

Bregman was plan A, but I said before FA started to sign Schwaber, and Alonso.

So the big bats were Bregman's 7 HRs instead of Durbin's 7 HRs, Bichette's .678 OPS, and Alonso's 1.9 bWAR instead of Contreras' 3.2 bWAR?

[Old Red]

Just now, JoeBrady said:

So the big bats were Bregman's 7 HRs instead of Durbin's 7 HRs, Bichette's .678 OPS, and Alonso's 1.9 bWAR instead of Contreras' 3.2 bWAR?

As I said before the season started, and a few times since that Alonso will have more HR, and RBI than the Con Man, and that’s not downing the Con Man, As things have turned out so far it seems the only other big bat to have made a difference was Flintstone Schwaber.

[Old Red]

43 minutes ago, Hitch said:

The problem with that logic is, if you're not willing to allow any context into your thinking, you have to accept off the past month that Durbin is one of the best players in the league.

I don't understand why people look for absolutes all the time, in a game this random.

The context is the here, and now, and has been all along. Games started counting in March, and lots of players had a hand due to their lack of production in the Red Sox slow start, and the record they have today. I’ve already said that Durbin has been a completely different hitter, but it was DUBin who got off to the horrendous start that contributed to that record, and a lot of damage was done, because of it. little Anthony is a completely different story altogether with his pinky swear injury.

[moonslav59]

3 hours ago, jad said:

So Yoshida should be hitting around .350?

 

Not at all. I think .725 to .775 OPS was close.

He's not the reason we are losing, but he was decent depth, along with Duran for Anthony.

Most felt we kept too many OF'ers and should have added a better offensive infielder. Instead, we kept depth for Anthony (and Rafaela/Abreu.) That's not evidence that we bet the whole house on Roman.

[Yaz Fan Since 67]

7 hours ago, JoeBrady said:

What moves did you disagree with?

The ones that lead to 37-48 and last place, again.  I kind of need you to defend your "impeccable" comment regarding Breslow's offseason.  

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, Yaz Fan Since 67 said:

The ones that lead to 37-48 and last place, again.  I kind of need you to defend your "impeccable" comment regarding Breslow's offseason.  

Major moves: Suarez, Contreras & Gray

Moderate moves: Durbin w infield depth, Oviedo & IDK

Minor moves: Coulombe, Watson, Kahnle, Gasper and others

Moves not made: No second big bat and no Duran trade.

[Bellhorn04]

20 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

Back to the original question: no Sox GM goes out with a whimper. Maybe Bloom was the closest to a whimper.

Which ones went out with a bang?

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

38 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Which ones went out with a bang?

Lou Gorman, but the bangs missed when the rising sun blinded the aim of the hit men hired to take him out for trading Bagwell.

Then he had lunch.

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Which ones went out with a bang?

Theo & DD.

Ben & Bloom were kinda meh. I guess you could call 'em whimpers.

[notin]

3 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Theo & DD.

Ben & Bloom were kinda meh. I guess you could call 'em whimpers.

Ben was the only one that quit on his own…

[moonslav59]

6 minutes ago, notin said:

Ben was the only one that quit on his own…

After they hired DD to "oversee" him.

Ben's departure was meh, in part because Lucchino had just left and DD was hired to a different position, although it was clear he would be pulling the strings.

[notin]

1 minute ago, moonslav59 said:

After they hired DD to "oversee" him.

Ben's departure was meh, in part because Lucchino had just left and DD was hired to a different position, although it was clear he would be pulling the strings.

But as unpopular as Ben was, Dombrowski wanted to keep him and was apparently shocked Ben quit.  And he did fill the role after Ben left...

[moonslav59]

Just now, notin said:

But as unpopular as Ben was, Dombrowski wanted to keep him and was apparently shocked Ben quit.  And he did fill the role after Ben left...

Yes.

People called Ben Lucchino's errand/coffee boy, and I guess he didn't want to continue being that under DD.

He ended up getting a position with more control.

I get criticized for all my hypothetical questions, but I do wonder if DD would have quit had he been handed the budgets Bloom got.

[Bellhorn04]

21 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Theo & DD.

Ben & Bloom were kinda meh. I guess you could call 'em whimpers.

Not sure how we're defining going out with a bang, but DD got fired for reasons never explained to him.  He didn't say much about it but he did say Henry never get in touch with him about it at all and that was the one thing that bothered him.

[mvp 78]

21 hours ago, drewski6 said:

They fire Breslow, hire Cora as CBO, and have Cora tell Breslow.

Breslow: What are you doing in my office?
Cora: What are you doing in MY office?

Thats my dream

So you want a guy with NO FO experience running the team?

Big yikes.

[Alex Mayes]

44 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

So you want a guy with NO FO experience running the team?

Big yikes.

It's more so that I believe Cora has the characteristics that are found in GMs who put together a winning team. I think Breslow's biggest fault is he believes he's the smartest man in the room and doesn't listen to other people because he thinks he knows better than they do. With Cora, I think he understands the human element of baseball and would surround himself with assistant GMs who support the team vision. 

That being said, there's a list of possible replacement candidates I'd like. Cora just happens to be on there.

[Duran Is The Man]

3 minutes ago, Alex Mayes said:

It's more so that I believe Cora has the characteristics that are found in GMs who put together a winning team. I think Breslow's biggest fault is he believes he's the smartest man in the room and doesn't listen to other people because he thinks he knows better than they do. With Cora, I think he understands the human element of baseball and would surround himself with assistant GMs who support the team vision. 

That being said, there's a list of possible replacement candidates I'd like. Cora just happens to be on there.

sounds like JH. 

[Alex Mayes]

21 minutes ago, Duran Is The Man said:

sounds like JH. 

I think Henry is a pretty prideful guy but I don't think he believes he's the smartest person in the room, at least not any more. 

[drewski6]

32 minutes ago, Alex Mayes said:

It's more so that I believe Cora has the characteristics that are found in GMs who put together a winning team. I think Breslow's biggest fault is he believes he's the smartest man in the room and doesn't listen to other people because he thinks he knows better than they do. With Cora, I think he understands the human element of baseball and would surround himself with assistant GMs who support the team vision. 

That being said, there's a list of possible replacement candidates I'd like. Cora just happens to be on there.

Agree 10,000%

Plus, I believe Cora is a better leader.