Bellhorn04

Amazingly enough, Shaugnessy seems to like this move. Perhaps the best news about Breslow is that Theo Epstein’s fingerprints are all over this important Red Sox hire. Theo is the one who first brought Breslow to the Red Sox in 2006. Breslow pitched in 88 games at Pawtucket over two seasons and got into 13 with the Sox before Epstein let him go on waivers during spring training 2008. Breslow returned in 2012 and was part of the 2013 World Series winners. While Breslow continued his 12-year big league career, Theo moved on to Chicago, enhancing his Hall of Fame résumé by winning another curse-busting World Series with the Cubs in 2016. All the while, Theo never forgot about his fellow Yale prodigy. After Breslow’s final season, a year in the minors in 2018, Epstein’s Cubs were among the many teams to pursue him for a front office position. The Cubs were having problems developing pitching. Impressed with Breslow’s brilliance, integrity, and relentlessness, Epstein identified him as a person who could fix things. Breslow was living in Newton, looking for a challenge in baseball, and had spoken with then-Sox baseball boss Dave Dombrowski. It turned out that Breslow wanted too much and was perhaps too analytical for the old-school Dombrowski, who won a World Series with the Sox in ‘18 but was fired by John Henry the following year. Epstein feared the Cubs were falling behind other organizations in the ever-evolving area of pitching development. Theo went after Breslow, but it was not an easy hire. Breslow had more questions for the Cubs than the Cubs had for him. They turned out to be a better fit than the Red Sox. Within a year, the Cubs turned over their entire minor league pitching operation to Breslow. When Epstein left the Cubs after the 2020 season, Jed Hoyer took over and made Breslow assistant general manager. Today Epstein is an MLB consultant, largely responsible for the pitch clock that rescued baseball in 2023, but he still has the ear of Red Sox CEO Sam Kennedy, who was in charge of the “robust search” for a new baseball boss. Epstein and Kennedy were baseball teammates at Brookline High School and started their front office careers together in the 1990s, working for Larry Lucchino’s San Diego Padres. When Lucchino came to Boston as part of Henry’s new ownership group in 2002, he negotiated with Padres owner John Moores to bring the duo to Boston. “Free the Brookline 2″ was a jovial chant around the Sox offices when Lucchino was attempting to liberate Epstein and Kennedy from San Diego. Fast-forward 21 years, and you can be darned sure Kennedy talked to Theo to get the thumbs-up on Breslow. With Breslow on board, Sox fans can expect a chief baseball officer who is curious, fearless, and wildly intellectual. A World Series champion, known to be a great teammate, Breslow will have the attention of the players, unlike most analytic gurus. He also will be an intellectual match for Henry, who loves numbers, problem solving, and late-night email exchanges. “He does relate well to players,” said one of Breslow’s advocates, a longtime MLB employee. “He’s a 5-10 Jewish kid who played 12 years in the big leagues because he knows how to get the best out of himself and rise to the occasion. He was a very well-liked teammate everywhere.” In a perfect world, Breslow would come to Boston under a veteran baseball boss. But this is not a perfect world. Breslow will have to learn on the job and hopefully will be empowered to spend some of Henry’s money. Epstein is careful not to insert himself into Sox business. His official, canned statement on Breslow: “Craig is one of the most impressive and impactful baseball people I’ve ever met. He combines a powerful intellect and deep pitching expertise with a real understanding of players and fearless approach to problem solving. With his mind, work ethic, and character, there is no limit to what he can accomplish in this game.” Swell. But it’s far more than that. Epstein, who won two World Series here, then another title with the Cubs, believes that the inexperienced Breslow is the solution for all that plagues the Red Sox in 2023. It’s not going to be easy, and it could blow up if ownership’s post-2018 model of making money while driving down payroll trumps all. But if the Sox allow Breslow to spend while he rebuilds, this could be Theo 2.0. And that would be a good thing for a franchise that has lost its way in recent seasons.

Like I say there's kind of a code about that. Everybody knows what the deal is. You have to balance looking after your own interests with respecting the other teams that are in playoff contention. Cora talked about it this year.

There's a sort of unwritten code about all that stuff. Cora talked about it a bit in September, trying to balance doing what's best for the team with what's best for the game.

No, I didn't say that at all. Show me where I did. It's absolutely incredible how garbled you get things. You really need to start reading posts more carefully. Including your own.

Why did the Black Sox take so much heat for throwing the World Series, BTW? All they had to do was explain that it was a "subset of losing"...

Yeah, you two make a cute little tag team.

OK, they're all subsets of sucking. I guess the next question is, so what? If you don't think intentionally losing is a big difference from unintentionally losing, so be it. I disagree, obviously.

But the Angels have just been making bad decisions for a number of years now. There are always going to be losers in this zero sum game. And the Red Sox have been in that class themselves far too much over the last dozen years...

The only season I can think of that the Red Sox have ever tanked was 2020. And it seemed like the perfect time to do it, with a 60-game season and Sale and E-Rod and Cora out and rest of the post-2019 shitstorm... But I'll always have kind of a queasy feeling about that season and getting Mayer with the #4 pick. We've had other losing seasons of late, but this was the only one that felt like they were fine about it.

It's not so much offensive as misleading. To me it seems like an attempt to gloss over the huge difference-maker known as "intent"...

I hate tanking, I'd rather have an expensive flop, and I think a lot of other fans feel the same way.

"This is just a subset of that" would be downright offensive in many instances. "Being tortured and murdered is just a subset of dying." "Terminal cancer is just a subset of being sick." Nobody says these things.

Well, for starters I don't think much of the list of reasons. You somehow left out boxers throwing fights because they're paid or otherwise coerced to do so. And how is being overmatched throwing a fight?

You really seem to hate the idea that there's a big difference between trying to compete but sucking, and trying to suck. Is throwing a fight in boxing different from trying to win but getting beat? Is throwing a fight a "subset of losing"?

The idea of that kind of tanking is that you do get better, ya know.

Because he's a slippery one. As are you, on this issue. Brothers in arms, huh?

No, it isn't exactly what you said. Your whole point seems to be there isn't much difference between trying and sucking, and tanking. You've even suggested fans don't care either way.

Thank you. It's not that complicated.

Yes, shockingly enough, I do think a lot of fans care whether their team is trying to compete or not.

Not saying always, of course. Saying it was for the Cubs and the Astros.

What does that even mean, subset of sucking? Tanking is deliberately sucking. It's massively different from trying and sucking.

They struck gold twice. No, that does not support your point.

Of course. It was a gradual process.

No, it isn't. Tanking is a deliberate strategy.

Agreed, those 2 are perfect examples. But mvp seems to be denying that the Astros tanked.