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

[Old Red]

4 minutes ago, notin said:

See?  That’s exactly what I said people eould do when(not if) Dombrowski outbid Breslow for Schwarber.

Thanks for proving my point…

All DD had to do was offer Flintstone $1, and that would have outbid the Red SOX. Your so-called point is pointless.

[notin]

3 minutes ago, Old Red said:

All DD had to do was offer Flintstone $1, and that would have outbid the Red SOX. Your so-called point is pointless.

Your split personality is showing ;)

[Old Red]

5 minutes ago, notin said:

Your split personality is showing ;)

Your NNN is showing. By the way my mother had me tested. B A Z I N G A.

[notin]

2 minutes ago, Old Red said:

Your NNN is showing. By the way my mother had me tested. B A Z I N G A.

But did she test both of you? 

[moonslav59]

21 minutes ago, notin said:

See?  That’s exactly what I said people eould do when(not if) Dombrowski outbid Breslow for Schwarber.

Thanks for proving my point…

It's comical, and the funniest part if the obliviousness.

Time to cue up "You are over analyzing what I said."

[notin]

The thing is - we know why Schwarber and Alonso weren’t signed and it wasn’t just a matter of filling out a couple forms.

But if you want to pursue that angle, the real question is - why wasn’t a lesser hitter brought in?  Someone like Ryan O’Hearn would have been an improvement and, let’s face it, fits any budget despite quietly becoming a pretty good hitter over the past 3 or 4 seasons.  

[moonslav59]

4 minutes ago, notin said:

But if you want to pursue that angle, the real question is - why wasn’t a lesser hitter brought in?  Someone like Ryan O’Hearn would have been an improvement and, let’s face it, fits any budget despite quietly becoming a pretty good hitter over the past 3 or 4 seasons.  

That's been one of my main points, and while we can play the hindsight game all day and cry about not adding Murakami (who nobody here wanted) Okamoto (who a few suggested) BLowe or Donovan (LHB not many advocated for) or O'Hearn/Arraez/ ______, the fact that we didn't even try and miss, which is Fred's good point, is a stain on Brez & Co's winter report card.

A big fat coffee stain that hides the A's he got for Suarez, Gray and Contreras, or at least 1 of them.

[notin]

1 minute ago, moonslav59 said:

That's been one of my main points, and while we can play the hindsight game all day and cry about not adding Murakami (who nobody here wanted) Okamoto (who a few suggested) BLowe or Donovan (LHB not many advocated for) or O'Hearn/Arraez/ ______, the fact that we didn't even try and miss, which is Fred's good point, is a stain on Brez & Co's winter report card.

A big fat coffee stain that hides the A's he got for Suarez, Gray and Contreras, or at least 1 of them.

I think we didn’t go for a second tier type because Breslow felt his offense - largely the same - could repeat.  He basically swapped out Bregman and Lowe for Contreras and Durbin on the 7th best offense in MLB.  He addressed the “#2 starter” need that left Boston starting a struggling Bello in a clinch game.  And hoped the lineup could repeat…

[Old Red]

49 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

It's comical, and the funniest part if the obliviousness.

Time to cue up "You are over analyzing what I said."

What’s comical is I don’t have to Que up the you are over analyzing, because it’s quite obvious when someone is questioning question marks, but thanks for bringing it up it’s much appreciated.👍

[moonslav59]

56 minutes ago, notin said:

I think we didn’t go for a second tier type because Breslow felt his offense - largely the same - could repeat.  He basically swapped out Bregman and Lowe for Contreras and Durbin on the 7th best offense in MLB.  He addressed the “#2 starter” need that left Boston starting a struggling Bello in a clinch game.  And hoped the lineup could repeat…

That is what he did, but the Breggie to Suarez pivot indicated he was planning on an upgrade on offense, and pivoted to more pitching.

I actually liked our depth, but not much was offensively focused, except for the Duran/Anthony/Yoshida/Romy DH mix and OF/1B/2B back-ups.

There was no offensive back-up at SS/3B/ C, and we knew Romy was out and Ref was gone, so there was a gap that even Brez must have seen. I think his calculation was more about thinking the improved pitching and defense could outweigh a known loss (even if thought to be minor) on offense.

On paper, a healthy and productive Anthony and upticks from our vast young player depth looked good, but you know injuries occur, unexpected down ticks occur, and adding Durbin and IKF over offense was a choice he made. That was D over O, when he had already unbalanced the team by adding way more pitching than offense.

While true, most of us did not foresee this bad of an offense, we did see it as one of our weakest areas (along with pen depth beyond our top 2-3 RP'ers.) O'Hearn was not costly. BLowe or Donovan might have been a bit costly, but not trading for Oviedo might have allowed us to put a package together to land one of them. Paredes is the big what if to me, and he'd have helped the line-up and given is this infield on day one:

1B Contreras (Paredes/Romy)

2B Durbin/Mayer (Romy to come)

3B Paredes/Mayer

SS Story/Mayer

The improvement to the offense, even if he hit just .750 would have been very significant.