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

[mvp 78]

57 minutes ago, Old Red said:

Counting on Story to be healthy, and productive again, and also counting so much on little Anthony, and to some degree Mayer to be productive, and finally not being able to land a BIG bat for the middle of the order. No one saw a career year coming for the Con Man, which made that other BIG bat more needed.

The offseason needed to be Contreras AND another big bat. Move Masa/Duran and make room for Alonso at DH. 

They would have been better off doing that instead of signing Ranger IMO. (Yes, they should have done both, but we're talking about Henry here.)

[notin]

7 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

We are stuck with Henry and Henry is probably stuck with Breslow for the time being. He may have been better off sticking it out with Bloom when all is said and done. 

Bloom in July? Not his best month…

[Hugh2]

Maybe we can trade for Bloom and bring him back. 

[mvp 78]

2 minutes ago, notin said:

Bloom in July? Not his best month…

Craig in July? 

Bloom did get Abreu and Schwarber. I'm trying to remember a good Breslow deadline deal. 

[Old Red]

11 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

The offseason needed to be Contreras AND another big bat. Move Masa/Duran and make room for Alonso at DH. 

They would have been better off doing that instead of signing Ranger IMO. (Yes, they should have done both, but we're talking about Henry here.)

I agree, but Alonso was never going to happen, because Brez had the money slotted to Bregman. I don’t know what they could have done to have gotten a big bat after Brez botched the Bregman negotiations, but he switched to Ranger pretty quickly.

[mvp 78]

17 minutes ago, Old Red said:

I agree, but Alonso was never going to happen, because Brez had the money slotted to Bregman. I don’t know what they could have done to have gotten a big bat after Brez botched the Bregman negotiations, but he switched to Ranger pretty quickly.

If they really wanted Bregman, why wait until the last second to get that deal over the finish line? Just prioritize him and get it done early. If he's not on board, move on.

[Old Red]

13 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

If they really wanted Bregman, why wait until the last second to get that deal over the finish line? Just prioritize him and get it done early. If he's not on board, move on.

I believe that was just Brez being Brez from start to finish.

[JoeBrady]

3 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Monasterio -0.7 fWAR

Gasper -0.3 fWAR

All the negative fWAR pitchers are Breslow guys. 

Gasper is an injury replacement.  And every team has to have negative WAR guys.  There aren't enough positive WAR guys to cover every team.  And if you are going to use those two as negatives, as tiny as they are, then I'll back IKF, Seigler, and Moran.

[JoeBrady]

9 hours ago, Old Red said:

You would have Con Man+Alonso+DUBin.

No, you wouldn't.  If they signed Bregman to play 3rd, they would not have traded for Durbin.  If they signed Alonso to play 1st, they would not have traded for Contreras.

[mvp 78]

7 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

Gasper is an injury replacement.  And every team has to have negative WAR guys.  There aren't enough positive WAR guys to cover every team.  And if you are going to use those two as negatives, as tiny as they are, then I'll back IKF, Seigler, and Moran.

He wasn't an injury replacement, he was up here when Wong and Narvaez were healthy. He was taking their catcher reps. He wasn't just filling in at 2b. 

[mvp 78]

5 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

No, you wouldn't.  If they signed Bregman to play 3rd, they would not have traded for Durbin.  If they signed Alonso to play 1st, they would not have traded for Contreras.

Contreras 1b

Alonso DH

[JoeBrady]

1 hour ago, Hugh2 said:

Ok, but you're paying Story, and you're paying Yoshida, you're paynig these guys real money. 

They live in a fantasy world where we'd have acquired players to replace players that were automatically starting.

[JoeBrady]

6 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Contreras 1b

Alonso DH

Alonso + Yoshida + Duran

[notin]

37 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

If they really wanted Bregman, why wait until the last second to get that deal over the finish line? Just prioritize him and get it done early. If he's not on board, move on.

I think Bregman was not exactly in a rush.  He chose to walk away from $40mill for one more year, so he was probably making sure he didn’t leave anything on the table…

[notin]

13 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Contreras 1b

Alonso DH

Duran to the bench?  Looks good now, but very was looked at differently in March…

[notin]

1 hour ago, Old Red said:

I agree, but Alonso was never going to happen, because Brez had the money slotted to Bregman. I don’t know what they could have done to have gotten a big bat after Brez botched the Bregman negotiations, but he switched to Ranger pretty quickly.

Because Alonso signed a month earlier.  Bichette was the only big bat left on the board…

[mvp 78]

Just now, notin said:

Duran to the bench?  Looks good now, but very was looked at differently in March…

I wanted Duran traded for prospects. I would have DFA'd Masa myself. C'mon man. I've been talking about moving those two guys for forever. Not every post I make has to be 500 words long. 

[mvp 78]

10 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

Alonso + Yoshida + Duran

I already said the others would be moved if you read above. 👨‍🦯

[mvp 78]

4 minutes ago, notin said:

I think Bregman was not exactly in a rush.  He chose to walk away from $40mill for one more year, so he was probably making sure he didn’t leave anything on the table…

Then the Sox should have made alternate plans. I wasn't a huge Breggie guy to begin with. 

Alonso/Contreras isn't about what Breslow would have done, but about what they SHOULD HAVE DONE. 

[Old Red]

21 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

No, you wouldn't.  If they signed Bregman to play 3rd, they would not have traded for Durbin.  If they signed Alonso to play 1st, they would not have traded for Contreras.

In that scenario they wouldn’t have signed Bregman at all, and would have signed Alonso early on instead. They still could have gotten the Con Man, and then made the DUBin deal, and yes the Red Sox would have had to dealt off Duran.

[Old Red]

2 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Then the Sox should have made alternate plans. I wasn't a huge Breggie guy to begin with. 

Alonso/Contreras isn't about what Breslow would have done, but about what they SHOULD HAVE DONE. 

Exactly! Any two of Alonso/Con Man/Schwarber would have been a better combination. Not landing another hitter, and then pivoting to a pitcher was not a good backup plan to me.

[Old Red]

12 minutes ago, notin said:

Duran to the bench?  Looks good now, but very was looked at differently in March…

 

23 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

They live in a fantasy world where we'd have acquired players to replace players that were automatically starting.

Huh? It wouldn’t have been that complicated that you’re trying to make it out to be, nor should it be.

[mvp 78]

3 minutes ago, Old Red said:

Exactly! Any two of Alonso/Con Man/Schwarber would have been a better combination. Not landing another hitter, and then pivoting to a pitcher was not a good backup plan to me.

"We want two bats. One of them is going to be the guy that was already on the roster last season, who I didn't really want in the first place. Does that sound like a great plan to you media folks?" 

I think that's the direct quote from Breslow's presser. 

[mvp 78]

27 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

They live in a fantasy world where we'd have acquired players to replace players that were automatically starting.

It's no different than the fantasy worlds where the Sox acquire Zach Neto or even Bobby Witt for crying out loud. 

[Old Red]

27 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

"We want two bats. One of them is going to be the guy that was already on the roster last season, who I didn't really want in the first place. Does that sound like a great plan to you media folks?" 

I think that's the direct quote from Breslow's presser. 

I think Bregman was overrated by some, because of the hot start he got off to last year.

[notin]

39 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

"We want two bats. One of them is going to be the guy that was already on the roster last season, who I didn't really want in the first place. Does that sound like a great plan to you media folks?" 

I think that's the direct quote from Breslow's presser. 

Direct quote with no F bombs?

[drewski6]

1 hour ago, JoeBrady said:

They live in a fantasy world where we'd have acquired players to replace players that were automatically starting.

You can lose your job despite having a guaranteed salary.  Happens all the time.

[drewski6]

I think all this efficiency chasing is the problem.  Live with redundancy. Injuries will take care of it.  We had sooo many outfielders starting the year that Moon wanted to trade 2 of them for salary relief and a cusp 40 man roster reliever.  Then we didnt.

We count on injuries on the pitcher side and applaud Breslow when he goes 14 MLB starters deep.  But on the position player side its : we HAVE to have an every day spot for 9 players and 9 players only, anything else would be wasteful.

Breslow is awful.  His strategy of penny pinching and going max efficiency on bats is awful.  But yet, hes okay going 14 pitchers.  He really is capn crunch berries, oops all berries but hes oops all pitchers.  Except contreras.

[notin]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

I wanted Duran traded for prospects. I would have DFA'd Masa myself. C'mon man. I've been talking about moving those two guys for forever. Not every post I make has to be 500 words long. 

It never looked like Yoshida was expected to have a big role in this offense anyway.  DFA Yoshida and what? More Eaton? What exactly does that solve?

Trading Duran means another team has to agree to something.  Just offloading Duran - a big part of the 2025 offense - for the sake of getting rid of him to make room for Alonso could have easily backfired, largely because it was essentially stupid.  Improve the offense by replacing Duran’s Rbat+ of 127 with Alonso’s 140 and then not having Suarez seems like a plsn for a worse team unless Duran completely tanks…

[drewski6]

4 minutes ago, notin said:

It never looked like Yoshida was expected to have a big role in this offense anyway.  DFA Yoshida and what? More Eaton? What exactly does that solve?

 

well, if you play more eaton and you get ethan salads, then youll be eaton salads and that solves obesity.

so my answer is obesity.