drewski6

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

Joe, I have never heard the term gay-baiting until I herd it from you. And Im not exactly sheltered. Im a man about town and if you come to Providence, you'll find me (no, that is not an invitation). Ive got stakes in bars, season tickets to the friars, trivia champ of providence, plenty of friends from all walks of life. Im pretty confident that these weird terms are used by a certain population a lot of whom live in parents basements (maybe not you though) and post on dark corners of the internet (certainly you). Normal people dont stew in their resentment that somebody who is bi or on the queer spectrum may be dressing/behaving in a way that shows off a little queerness. Oh, the horror. I say, do you girl! Get that money! Ive got plenty of acquaintances in my life who would agree with you on a lot of things because 2026 social dynamics are weird - but even they (while just as bigoted as you are) dont talk like this. I dont mind people being gay just dont flaunt it! Homophobia has kind of evolved. But like you're trapped in like this late 80s weird version of homophobia. And I can tell because you resent when queer people act queer (your words) ,you think somebody cant be on a spectrum and date a man, you do your own researach on peoples sexuality vs just take her word for it, you bring up her sexuality to discredit her. Did you know that bigotry against ones gender expression is bigotry and homophobia. Did you not have to take these courses, I have to take this like yearly training at work and it talks about how you shouldnt attack how someone expresses their sexuality which is exactly what you are doing here. In corporate America, even what you have written here is no-doubter bigotry and HR would like a word.

Right, but Ive already been working for a while here at 9 am. I usually dont start this early. The reason that Im working this morning is because a) my heat is out downstairs (plummer on his way) so I cant do my normal game of MLB the show before work and b) I have a lot of work In the Red Sox, I know the two reasons I provided are not the same thing and maybe neither reason would be enough on its own for me to be okay with Mayer in AAA (low likelihood anyways). But I like to get philosophical on occasion, and one of my sayings is: People like to say that everything happens for a reason, but we live in a universe of infinite variables and nothing has ever happened for a reason. Everything that has ever happened ever has happened because of a slew of a reasons coming together. If Mayer had proven he can hit in MLB he would be a must have on MLB roster. IF we had a lot of depth at middle infield, the lack thereof, is contributing too. Because you go with DHAM, Mayer, and Story when Mayer hasnt finished the last 3 seasons healthy and Story hasnt finished 3 of the last 4 - it sounds like a plot to a movie Ive seen before and the movie is Yoshida/Sogard/Eaton/DHam playing every day roles in the playoffs and just knowing your team has an absolute max of 2 runs scored. Its unlikely and IM not even sure I would even prefer it but at least the next man up wouldnt be Sogard.

Im only disputing the notion that the Red Sox intentionally refused to match the cubs offer because I think thats different from incorrectly not believing the cubs had made an offer There was never a time when Breslow like declined to match the cubs offer because he never gave himself the opportunity. He was screaming that the cubs offer was a fake offer right up until Breg signed with the cubs and prob still after. Which I agree with Moon, is funny. Its incompetent but those 2 things arent mutually exclusive. In any case, if Breslow was telling the owners "hey its fine, got him right where we want him. Dont worry about the cubs offer, its fake" and then um, 24 hrs later Bregman is a cub and is pointing out how Breslow was being dense Well, then certainly, Breslow burned up a lot of his leash and security. ANd now I do expect him gonezo if we step back this year which I think is quite likely cuz we cant hit. I just hope it doesnt cost us Cora Clown around and find out In any case, Alt Facts Joe Bradys version of events that like Beslow drew a hard line in the sand and intentionally knew the cubs offer was real but declined to meet it because hes genius at pegging value and knew that the contract would wind up underwater had he matched - well thats just an alt facts version of events and simply believing what you want to believe , which is kind of alt facts joes M.O. In either case , have to run to trivia with a group of friends because people actually like me and we'll prob win third week in a row. Have fun with Alt Facts Joe and his admittedly ugly wife. Ill catch you tomorrow. Great job policing the nonsense last night and though, Old Red. Mean that sincerely.

Established fact: we didnt believe the Cubs offer existed. We were screaming bluff as Bregman was laughing to himself walking out to the car. What you are saying, we dont know if true. Had we believed the cubs offer existed (it did) we dont know if they would have matched it. THey thought there were no better offers on teh table and didnt want to bid against themselves. Whatever spin and alt facts you wanna attach.....Thats egg meet face. I love how you obfuscate established facts, but then insert your own implications and beliefs as established fact (see OBP > HR or this here) How you dont feel like a complete clown is beyond me. Im not surprised though, mr insulted billie eilish becasue shes gay and then tripled down that she isnt gay. Shes still gay btw.

We have two full pitching staffs, and can survive an injury to any of em except Crochet rather easily On the position player side, we have like 4 bats I trust and we lose any of em and we're in trouble.

I would go as far as to change your and to an or , especially in crochets case

Why dont you let Kimmi answer the question, because I think she (like me) preferred Schwarber and would have signed Schwarber for what he got (but Im sure she would have preferred at least one less year). I also remember her saying that didnt love the alonso contract and isnt going to cry that hes not here, but she also wouldnt have hated that. Also, while I agree that large and long deals backfire quite a bit, I cant remember a world series team that didnt have a large and long contract to an older player or a contract that would eventually become large and long to an aging player (like Seager in Tx).

Well certainly dont tell him that! Did you see what happened to a different Raffy just last year when we told him he would be the DH and then tried to change it. Rafaela is unlikely to be the FT 2b for all of 2026. What is more likely is that he might get some reps at 2b when the season starts, and then like as soon as there is an injury to an outfielder (and there will be) you move him back. You take advantage of his versatility by moving him to where hes needed. Rafaela starts every game in CF against a lefty (25% of the time). When there is a righty on the mound, (75%) Rafaela plays 2b some of those times (25% total) and cf some of those times (25% of total) and comes off bench sometimes (25% total). When hes in CF vs a lefty, likely one of Abeu/Duran will sit. When hes in CF vs a righty, likely Duran DHs and Yoshida sits. So hes getting some run at 2b but not like hes a FT 2b. And all this planning becomes worthless 3 weeks into the season where there is an injury and suddenly the problem works itself out. The beauty of having Cedanne play some 2b is that if there is one injury to an outfielder, you still have 3 good outfielders. And similarly, the beauty of having both Gray and Ranger is that if one gets hurt, you still have a very good arm behind Crochet. The beauty of having Tolle and Early is that if one gets hurt (or needs more development) you still have a young rookie phenom pitcher.

I dont trust Batys bat

Well maybe if you wouldnt have been fine with the contracts for Bregman, Alonso, Schwarber that you need to update your perceived market values. Or maybe you would have been fine with Alonso (the contract he got) or Schwarber (the contract he got) in which case you would have rather been aggressive there rather than hold the powder for Breggy.

Yup. I agree. If I bought the Red Sox tomorrow, I would pull Cora into a room and ask him if he trusts Breslow. And if he said yes, I would keep Breslow and if he said no I would can him. A lot of bad communicators lose staff, and I think Cora would be a huge loss and it would negatively impact the next 10 years.

HOW DARE YOU!!!! NOT OUR LOVE!!!! Im a nerdy Jew and nerdy Jew Breslow lost even me. Not sure what he has on some of these folks but hes an established clown 6x over. Not sure Id move on because he gets a leash from nailing the Crochet acquisition. And I think he is very good at knowing baseball. Hes very good in some ways as a GM and very flawed in others. Homerism is blinding I s'ppose. Im not sure if we should fire him right now, but I do see why he was GM choice #72 and I also see why the first 71 werent interested in the job.

I agree. Its 100% comical. Like I said Breslow still doesnt believe that Bregman has an offer from the Cubs and he still doesnt believe that he should have traded for Josh Naylor last year and he still doesnt believe that Alonso is an Oriole. He still believes that he doesnt have to eat his vegetables. He just sits there defiantly with his arm folded across his chest in pure bratty man-child body language and you are right it is kind of funny. But it will stop being funny when it costs us Cora.

Breslow made a joke of an offer to Alonso Breslow made a bad offer for Bregman. Breslow wouldnt listen or read the room or know market value (see Alonso). That was not a more than fair offer to Bregman , Im sorry. So we had to trade our prospects to get Contreras cuz we cant sign a FA bat. Thats not particularly sustainable. And now we have 40 yr old contreras for 2 years. Better than nothing, though. ANd to cover up for this clown-boy behavior, he went out and signed a pitcher we didnt need. Someone who is good but we didnt need. Kutter Crawford will start game 2 of the playoffs because hes awesome.

It fits a pattern of Breslow being a bad communicator.

Breslow did not refuse to match the cubs offer, he told him that he didnt believe it existed and bregman was bluffing. At which point Bregman walked out with Breslow screaming "youre bluffing" Then breslow turned to the guy next to him and said "hes bluffing , right? right?"

Yup.

Maybe not but Chaka Khan is every women. so I hear

1. Crochet 2. Kutter Crawford 3. Payton Tolle 4.Sonny Gray 5. Ranger Suarez 6. Oviedo 7. Bello 8. Early 9. Harrison Just my ranking

I see both sides on what to do with the overflow and downstream decisisons. 1. Injuries will work it out VS 2. Trade the overflow for prospects, who will likely how their value better than say an established MLB player with x amount of control that is only going to go down over time. Personally, I lean towards 1 and I may be in the minority here and thats okay, but even like Yoshida. People are like we dont need his .775 OPS because we have it from this other guy. But Yoshida wasnt exactly in the plans last year and found himself batting cleanup in the playoffs and really one of our better bats in the playoffs last year. I think that considering that injuries are at an all time high, you hoard dudes when you can. So Im okay with Yoshida taking up a bench spot and even getting in games here and there to keep him sharp while we wait for an injury. And I agree with your first post that the positional versatility can help here. You can play Cedanne at 2b sparingly, give duran a day off sparingly, give abreu a day off sparingly, it helps you use your roster and keep everyone contributing while you have too many players. And I really think that we wont have too many players for long because of injuries. "We dont have a spot for Yoshida, so we should move him" - maybe but I wouldnt be in a rush just for the sake of making everything "clean". Because thats how you wind up being 2 injuries away from having Adam Eaton batting cleanup in the playoffs. People say well you need to have 9 good starting pitchers. I say I agree and for the same reason you need to have 15 capable hitters

Agreed, its time to kick the tires, not necessarily give a blank check. While free agent options are dwindling so are available teams.

Beautifully written and thought out