Hugh2

Arias is not a consensus top 10 prospect in all of baseball Ranking anywhere from #1 to #7 He's not getting traded, and if he was he would be part of a package for a cost controlled MLB stud.

"What's full buy mode mean to you"? It means getting a significant piece that might actually help this team win games and compete in October and not another Dustin May "Do you think they are WS contenders?" I believe I already answered this question in the rest of my statement. At this current exact moment. NO they are not. They are not contending for the world series right now.

In any given window a team can play much better or worse than who they are. The Sox were obviously not as bad as they played earlier this year and were a horribly unlucky team. They're probably also not as good as the 14-2 team we've seen. You're adding a player to what you think they really are, perhaps something inbetwee. Because other teams are going to have hot stretches, and you might have more cold stretches too but we are within striking distance and in contention. So there is urgency, and practicality to adding pieces now.

I'm almost at full buy mode, not yet....but getting very close. Gun to my head today and I'm selling, but I would seriously consider flipping the switch with a series win vs. TB. What I DON'T want to see is another straddle. I think they need to definitively buy. None of this selling a piece here and trading for a mid game bullpen arm crap. If they buy, they need a premium player or two. and if they sell, then sell and get some real assets to work with this offseason.

And shouldn't the spanish speaking manager be having these conversations with the players whose primary language is spanish? leaves a lot less to be misinterpreted. It means something coming from the guy you see every single day rather than someone you seldom see or talk to. I'm a little perplexed this is even up for debate to be honest.

I don't believe this to be true at all. We all have our own experiences. How can amount insubordination up to just bad management like bad, lazy and selfish people do not exist? I've seen bad employees in my time. And when I worked for someone else when I was younger I saw s***** employees all the time. They were usually miserable people who had all kinds of excuses when they'd get let go and would be angry and confused when someone like me would get a promotion over them. I own a company now, I've employed over a 60 people over the last 15 years and for the most part every single one of them have been amazing good people. People come and go for various reasons but my some of my core people have been with me for the entire way. I've had to fire two people for insubordination....it happens. Have you seen Breslow scream about his title and rank?

Dude, I totally didn’t mean that to be condescending at all I was making analogy. love or hate Breslow, he’s Cora’s boss. That level of conflict would inevitably lead to someone being fired (Cora or Breslow in Boston) in any organization. agree with Breslow or not, I think any organization, in sports or any business wants their people on the same page. I mean, you absolutely want fresh ideals, constructive criticism but you can’t have subordinates defying your decisions. It creates a toxic workplace environment. people get fired for insubordination every day.

The McDonald’s manager is Cora in this analogy

King of Talksox, I agree with you here. Some stuff may come out some day but I think were never really going to know. Whatever.....it will give us something to talk about on slow days and offseasons of the future.

That's absolutely 100% part of the job. If a player is being moved in the lineup, moved to the bullpen, or switching positions that should be 100% on the manager. If your schedule at McDonalds changes, I expect the manager to come talk to you....not the CEO of McDonalds.

I also want to know, aside from who the "they" are besides Breslow why Breslow is having that convo? If your bosses boss is coming to talk to you about something your boss SHOULD be talking to you about then something is wrong. I'm sure there's other options but often that is because. The boss doesn't want to do it (which is another problem) Of the boss already asked you to do it and you refused, so the issue moves up the management ladder. Perhaps this is the "they" who talked to Devers..

So Old Red appears to be right, I shall refer to him as the king of Sox talk for a week. https://www.mlb.com/news/rafael-devers-unwilling-to-play-first-base-for-red-sox Still, something stinks about this whole thing. Here is what Raffy said "In Spring Training, they talked to me and basically told me to put away my glove and I wasn't going to play any other position but DH." - Raffy Cora is now on tape officially calling that "********" - Cora And Raffy also says "they" talked to me, he didn't say he "It was after the Casas [injury]. ... They came to me and talked to me about it," Devers said. - Raffy I still have questions, people lie or leave information out. Who is the "they" who talked to Raffy with Breslow? could it have been Breslow and Cora because Raffy said no to Cora? Was it Breslow and someone else because Cora wouldn't do it? Thats a whole cluster f*** of insubordination. Because there is no way Breslow should be doing Alex Coras job like that. I still don't buy....but a promise is a promise. So all hail Old Red King of Talksox.

Well documented? well then.........provide documentation.

It wasn't the plan for Cora to ask him to play 1B? or it wasn't the plan for the bench coach to ask him to play 1B? I mean we now for a fact, because the words literally came out of his mouth that Cora has said it was ******** that Devers was ever asked to put his glove away. We know it wasn't the plan for him to play 1B, that's obvious, no one has ever debated that. Plans change, OLD RED seems to think Alex Cora would never ask him to play 1B. I'm asking, if not the manager......then who?

If it was the teams plan to move Devers to 1B and Cora refused to have that conversation with him then he should of been fired MUCH longer ago. Your feelings and love for Cora doesn't make things reality. I mean......who the heck do you think asked him then? the bench coach?

He's literally the manager. If they were asking him to play first base he was the one who asked him. Thats like.....obvious. I'm not sure what your work experience is, maybe you're used to managers who cower in fear and don't have the conversations that upper management asked them to make but I don't think Cora is that guy, I don't think you think he's that guy either. Whether or not he agreed with it is something entirely different. It does appear there was a communications break down. But no one ever told Devers he was moving full time to DH, and those words came DIRECTLY out of Coras mouth. He recently gave an interview in spanish. Heres some of it: Alex Cora Breaks Silence on Rafael Devers Departure: ‘We Failed on Communication’ Former Red Sox manager Alex Cora addressed the departure of Rafael Devers, admitting the organization could have handled the situation much better. “It’s one of those situations where, as a group, we could’ve done a much better job communicating,” Cora said. “We should’ve sat him down and laid it out clearly: This is the situation, these are the directions we’re exploring. We don’t see you as our third baseman of the future. That’s it.” Cora emphasized that no one told Devers to throw his glove away, calling that part “********.” However, he acknowledged that everything changed after the team signed Alex Bregman and Triston Casas got hurt. “Looking back, I know we should’ve been upfront with him from the start of the offseason,” Cora continued. “We needed to have those real conversations. Those talks never happened.”

That's just the same argument over and over again. So the Sox should of just left him there because you don't do that to a guy midseason....unless you get traded and the new team asks. Imagine dating a girl who says she won't go to 2nd base with you then she starts dating your friend and they go 2nd base on the first date. you're going to be like....wtf? SF didn't need him taking reps at 1B in spring training and he moved over....and he didn't complain about it then.

Excellent Bowler, I heard he can bowl a 300 easy.

But that's the whole point. Casas went down. Are they supposed to ask every player if they'd be willing to play every position incase every play on any team gets hurt? That's my whole point. It was logical to ask the big bat who everyone thought would end up at 1B one day to go over to 1B when your firstbaseman went down. It's one thing for him to say no but to act like they comitted some crime against humanity by just asking him was absurd.

Lets start talking about Mookie Betts

I could see that. I'm sure there's plenty of blame pie to go around but there was certainly permutations of the future (or past now I suppose) where Devers didn't get traded because he didn't act like a complete jackyll because of the whole thing. sometimes when we get into these arguments we find ourselves slowly painting ourselves into a corner making a point we weren't originally over concerned with. I never really cared too too much that Raffy didn't want to play 1st; I thought it was the opposite of selfless and he kind of handle childlike but it didn't bother me so much. What got me going, was when s*** hit the fan people seemed overaly critical of the Sox even asking him to play 1B.....Like why wouldn't they ask him to? so dumb.

Oh have we now? So Raffy can't play 1B in Boston because Abraham Toro is an option and somehow Raffy at 1B bad bad bad....but then he goes to SF and somehow magically (and conveniently for your point) the calculus changes? I don't buy it. Raffy was stubborn and didn't want to do what was best for the team. Pretty clear cut and dry if you ask me.

So.....why is Devers playing 1B in San Francisco???

Casas certainly has every right to play his ass off and come back strong. But I don't think anyone on earth is counting on him anymore. If he ever does it will be a nice story, but he's fallen out of the planning discussion.

My point is plans change and you adjust on the fly. When injuries rack up, you can't go with your plan A. I don't blame Devers for not wanting to play 1B but I look at it like this. If I do job xyz at work, and the guy who does abc gets injured and they ask me to do his job for a few weeks I don't get as insulted as I would have if they asked me for zero reason. I would make the move under those circumstances, because I'm a team player. They didn't ask Devers to move to 1B to just f*** with him, they had a plethora of injuries last year and they were trying to optimize the lineup because the point of baseball is to win games. Rafael showed us he is not a team player last year. When you're the highest paid guy on a team....thats' a very bad look. It's also easy to say Cora implented his own plan when he didn't have Devers on the roster. Anyone would have a plan that didn't involve Devers at 1B if he's not on the roster.