Hitch

I love watching Mayer play. The game never looks too fast for him on either side of the ball. Got real high hopes for this kid.

My feeling is the Giants will be very happy with it for the next few years, after that, probably less so. Whether the Sox are happy with it long term (production wise) we'll have to wait a while.

Because even when we had Bregman in the line up and crushing it and Devers behind him we couldn't sustain winning baseball. We now have no Devers and Bregman is still out a couple of weeks. What shows you that we are likely to start winning at a percentage we've not sniffed in a couple of years? I do think if we sell off to an extent, it has to be with an eye to next year - get players in that help us next year. Which is easier said than done.

I was all for Alonso this past off season. I several times suggested getting him in and flipping Casas for pitching (without Yoshida attached) if possible. I think it's likely the Mets get to keep him now though.

Has to be a one or the other with those guys. Unless they're serious about winning any bidding war for Tucker.

There was zero need for leaks this time around - everyone did their talking in public, sometimes with glee and no small amount of malice.

Yeah, totally agree. Every year I think the same scenario - just trade him with a promise you'll match the offer they get up to a certain point in the post season and move forward together stronger. But as you say, these things have got very little chance of actually working when the rubber hits the road.

Agreed. Ideal world they trade him with a word in his year that if he opts out they'll give him X dollar amount and 5/6 years in the summer and we'll have the riches we get back in exchange to move forward with him on. But that is fantasy land and would be almost certain to fail. It makes most sense to extend him, but I don't rule out anything with this group.

Yeah, hard to argue with much of that. I think Bloom gets somewhat of a pass as it was clearly an instruction from above, but the return he got for that trade, he'll never escape. Pretty sad that both Mookie (and Devers if he gets there) will be taking the jerseys of the other teams to the HoF.

The biggest issue Breslow has with this trade deadline is that after the Devers trade he explicitly stated we were going to be buyers (and done nothing since), and then reiterated that again recently, and is now looking like he will have t o be a seller. which makes him look like an idiot twice over. And we've already seen - the guy has an ego/is thin skinned.

Devers said he would have played 1B when the time was right. The time was right when we lost our first baseman for the year. He refused. Interesting to see people like Carrabis (who had been on every show in existence for 24 hours after the trade raking the Sox management and venting like crazy) start to say stuff like - "the more Raffy talks, the more I understand why they traded him" after the Giants series. And none of that excuses Breslow's handling of the situation early doors. Because of both his and Devers' egos, Devers was done, and as a teammate - good riddance. But as a bat, it's killed our already slim chances this year, and if we don't find a way to make up for that, it will end Breslow's time here and sit around his neck throughout his career.

I'm assuming you meant Anthony in RF not Abreu. Either way, I don't think even 'unrealistic' covers this.

The organisations are very much separate. Football clubs in the UK and UEFA have stringent financial rules and an open books policy in which all spending has to be within the range of the clubs operating financials. The Premier League has an 85% of turnover rule and UEFA is moving to 70% of turnover, though they're trying to get more aligned. This means that it doesn't matter a jot how rich your owners are, you can't spend more than the club brings in from its own enterprises. There are loopholes which have started being closed, such as Chelsea inexplicable selling themselves their ladies team for several hundred million dollars, or spreading the cost of the transfer fee to buy a player over the length of a contract (average for new signings is around 4/5 years - Chelsea started buying players and putting them on 8 year contracts which just is not done in European - or world - football), and Manchester City are under investigation for 116 charges such as making up companies for their owners to funnel more money to them through sponsorship and could lead to them being stripped of titles, but in the main, it's a pretty tight ship. Teams routinely get point deductions and fines for not complying. So Henry could want to move all the money across he likes. It isn't happening. It's by far the most annoying idiocy I hear from fans. A 2 minute google will tell you all you need to know. But fans prefer to be emotional and irrational about all aspects of fanhood. Proud of it even (not aiming this at anyone in particular, just the standard level of fan engagement in learning about actual facts). They are separate entities and while Henry's time may well be divided (he's not involved day-to-day with Liverpool, or anywhere near it), his money and assets are not. As an aside, despite bringing a lot of success to Liverpool, there was (tailed off a bit now after another league title last season) a significant and vocal FSG OUT contingent of the fan group who (despite the above mentioned constraints) embarrassingly complained constantly that FSG didn't spend enough. They have been for the most part (there have been several huge errors) excellent owners for Liverpool. What they have in place at Liverpool that the Sox don't, is an absolute top notch management team. You will often hear 'best in class' said about Liverpool and how they do their business. They are run with ruthless efficiency and rarely take a wrong step in their transfer dealings. If the Sox had the same sort of brain power working at the top of their organisation, Henry's wet dream of having a finely tuned machine at half the price may be possible.

Often the way with an inexperienced team.

Also, I was listening to him on The Athletics' Starskville pod. They're in love with their pitching - he ain't giving any up, and he said they want a RH bat and pen help.

Luckily he's on a great contract so not all is lost. 🙄

Not sure about that. He's gone at the end of the year and he's such a sellable asset right now. Several contending teams would want him. They could move him and bring in a lesser closer, or just use Hicks/Houck. But even as a (somewhat) buyer, it's hard to turn down the packages we could be enticed by for him. Different if we were an all in buyer, joint top with the Yankees, but we'll be a hesitant buyer, if we are one at all.

Yeah I caught that. Difficult to understand what's happening there at the moment

Bres and Cora will be charged with destroying TWO franchises now.

Sweet Jesus! I did not realise it was that low!

I think we're actually in a 3rd spot - Trading to buy for next year. This year is done, they aren't good or consistent enough and we have some very interesting pieces for teams. Add to that, short of trading Duran AND Abreu and going out and signing Tucker, there's little on free agent market out there to help us next year. So hopefully, we have courage (because I think it will piss a lot of fans off) to sell our best pieces available for players that can help us next year. I don't mind getting older either because we could do with some veteran leadership to say the least. We've got the exciting youth, we need the pieces around them now.

Like all GM's there's risk. Breslow traded for Crochet, Narvaez and O'Neil. But he also traded for Grissom and Danny Jansen and the bullpen boys last year. There's always a risk.

My biggest concern with Campbell - even more so than his defence - his inability to pull the ball. He's pulling at half the rate of league average.

I go back and forth on the Duran thing all the time. I love the speed he brings and I do think he's a better hitter than we've seen this year. He was decent in CF, but he's poor in left, doesn't take good routes and I hold my breath every time anything is hit to him. I really like the kid and would love to see him lead off here and do the business, but I am starting to shift towards getting pitching for him and go with the other (younger) players we have here. We can't keep all our position players, and he is starting to be come the obvious trade piece.

We all know the injury history, but the only justifiable reason was the money? And yes, that's why I'm saying he went in the main. Because the guy with his back ground was earning $30m a year while we had other players earning far too much for what we are getting from them and Breslow was working to a strict budget. .