drewski6

What Im saying is that I think its dumb to ask someone to leave money on the table while also refusing to give a NTC. It makes no sense. Nobody is going to take less money so you have a more tradeable contract.

We blew our own chance at signing Bregman with unfair expectations, undershotting his market, while we insulted him and dared him to take other offers and accused him of bluffing. While we also revolved our offseason around him. Strong work, Bres That Crochet acquisition got you a lot of leash but boy are you chewing through it. Step back and hes out.

Bregman: I have 175m from the cubs with some deferrals AND a NTC RS: C'mon sign with us. Hometown discount. We love you. 165m and more heavily deferred than cubs offer so you are actually leaving more than 10m on the table, but please do this for us. Please Bregman: no trade clause? That would mean a lot to me RS: Cant do it Bregman: Begrudgingly I accept. I really like you guys and I really like it here (3 months later) Red Sox trade Bregman to the cubs

You can never ever ever ever ask someone to leave money on the table if you wont include a NTC. Nobody is going to take less money to give you a more tradeable contract. If you are refusing a NTC, you have to make sure you are offering the most money, or your ask is unfair Its unreasonable, illogical, and reeks of more Breslow incompetence.

If its a setting for a popular novel (especially a newish one) or even merely referenced in such popular novel, then I could see it as a trivia question one day and the champ of providence needs to keep himself sharp so i thank you for this nugget of information sincerely. Cloud Cuckoo Land (typing it helps me commit to memory)

So you would like it or hate it? Are you driving Breslow to the airport to kick him out of town or to get him to wherever he needs to get to finalize the trade??

Thats a place?

Yeah, I agree. Like I said , Im at 8.1% likely that we'll get Geno AND a second starting caliber infielder, and I estimated you to be around 1.8% and if I undershot that , then we're probably at the same likelihood. Longshot.

But at least we can agree > 90% chance not happening

I think when he said that, he had clarified that it was more of a daydream than it was realistic. We are better team with Geno Suarez at DH AND Batty or Paredes in the infield. It would move Cedanne to 2b and Mayer to AAA. I dont think its going to happen either, but not with the same degree of confidence as you. You make it sound like its 1.8% likely, Id prob put it at more like 8.1% likely.

Thats more of a palm ball right? I think its a completely different pitch.

I dont think budgets and payrolls are this rigid. I think that every free agent decision is case by case and there really arent hard amoutns that JH demands we stay under. I think that the red sox could have a 100m payroll and still say no to guys and I think they could have a 270m payroll and still say yes to guys. I dont think its like a "need our payroll to stay between x and y" type thing. I think its more flexible than that. But obvs if you are breslow and you spend 310m and have a terrible team, that looks worse , so of course there is risk in every contract you sign (I know you know this , sorry if that comes across condescending)

I dont think so, I think that if they added the NTC and made the deferment schedule closer to the timeline of the offer made by the cubs, i think he would have left some money on the table. I dont think they would have had to go up to 175 like the cubs offer, and even at 165 I even think they still coulda inked him deferring more than the cubs (assuming NTC inclusion) - but I think they also needed to change the deferral schedule. Said another way: Cubs offer: 175m, some deferred, NTC Sox offer: 165m, heavy heavy deferred, refusal to include NTC So your offer got beat thrice. To get Bregman to a point where he would have said yes, I think, 1. CERTAINLY include NTC, but also 2. change the deferment schedule so its at lest close to cubs offer. I think if they got here, they would have gotten a yes: Cubs offer: 175m, some deferred, NTC Sox offer: 165m, still more deferred than cubs but closeish, NTC ANd yes, I believe that they should have went there and I believe that it will ultimately cost Breslow his job.

Does he throw a splitter?

I just want a pitching coach who use to throw a splitter haha

And if its a we'll only take Devers if you take HIcks and we say okay, Hicks doesnt even really need to regain the value of his entire contract. My thoughts on the devers trade aside, generally speaking, if a team is like ill only do this if you take back this "bad contract" and you think well - he makes 12m but we think we can get 8m in value out of him, you may view the contract as underwater but close enough to par that youre willing to make the swap Unfortunately I think that Hicks is going to have to provie 200m in value to make the trade worth it and thats um, not gonna happen. Unless he learns to hit.

Im sooooo over Bailey. How many pitchers have worked / developed a splitter under him? Maybe teach Hicks a splitter. All you need is a live arm and a grip, and I literally posted a Kevin Gausman video of him teaching you his grip, which is kind of dumb on his part if Im being honest. I respect it but, hey world - heres what makes me awesome The splitter is a cheat code. Ban it or teach it to every pitcher you have.

Id be dyin to get the heck outta there myself, but still, not a great look I wouldnt like eat 10m just to dump him to save 2m Hicks. But Im offering him to the dodgers for Teoscar Hernandez yesterday

I see both sides. I think the whole we cant get the bats we want so lets build an elite staff can be perceived as a pivot, but I agree with you that the player swap doesnt feel like a pivot. I feel like its a macro-pivot but not a micro-pivot. Its a strategic pivot, but not a tactical pivot. I like Ranger Suarez the pitcher, but I also prefer bat-first teams.

This is reasonable and my only disagreement would be when you say that he chose not to bid against himself. The offer from the cubs existed, so it would have been impossible for him to bid against himself. I do believe the sources that have said that they were confident in their offer, so maybe something like: They decided against upping the offer because they took a calculated risk that their standing offer on the table was already enough to land Bregman My market values tend to be a little higher than many people's here. And Im thinking that real market value lies somewhere in the middle, so Im open to the possibility that Im a little off here (I thought Alonso would get more), but if day 1 you asked me if 165, heavy deferred, while declining a no-trade.....If you asked me if that would be enough I honestly woulda said "highly highly doubt it" I honestly dont think Breslow should have believed that offer was enough.....I didnt think it was enough. And I think he would have went higher. Maybe it was a "thats as high as we are willing to go because any higher we'd rather pivot to Geno Suarez or trade" and we'll see if that happens. That would have been more understandable but thats different than "got em where we want em". And indications are that they really thought their offer was best on the table. I honestly believe another example of Breslow doesnt know market values (for batters) and Ill also submit getting smoked by the Orioles in the offer to Alonso and a third piece of evidence is that they havent signed a free agent batter this year, and really bregman last year, came together at the very end of free agency and was always designed to be a hold-over with a lets regroup next year vs an agreement on a multi year contract. I think playoffs or hes canned. But I want Cora in the role anyways.

okay, alannis morisette :) sorry had to

sandoval between early and harrison , knew i was forgetting somebody

I really dont get how everybody is not learning a splitter right now when its so dominant and the grip does most of the work

I love this post. IVe already said my piece on Schwarber but I also would like to address Gausman's inclusion. Can we reopen our debate on splitter vs every other pitch? Exhibit A that the splitter is the hardest pitch to hit in baseball and is currently king (so hot right now) Gausman splitter

I wonder if maybe my desire for Schwarber this offseason was at least in part due to unhealed trauma of letting him walk in 2022. A lot of very good posters who I respect (you, Notin, Hitch come to mind immediately - apologies if I missed anybody) told me that hes a hard roster fit, and I do still think it could have been made to work - but that doesnt mean that the presented "cons" against signing Schwarber werent valid. And I may have glossed right over them due to a subconscious bias of wanting to right an old wrong. Its possible that not resigning Schwarber was one of Blooms biggest mistakes , maybe even his biggest if you believe that JH forced the betts trade