drewski6

Agree. But Mayer should have a clear path back, even in 2027. Durbin may have to get lucky with like an injury in front of him or something. Or get like really really really hot in AAA. I still view Mayer as an important part of our future. Maybe downgrade him to " a potentially important part of our future". Durbin is behind Sogard and IKF on the depth chart to me.

I understand wanting to shift playing time / at-bats towards younger players as we start a soft wind-down of competitiveness this year. Not saying we wont hit a winning streak and ramp back up, but I understand thinking "we arent throwing in the towel, but at the same time we're gonna start thinking about what it would look like to start prioritizing future over present" But one thing I always fall back to is that development isnt linear with playing time. In fact, I would argue that the correlation is overrated. Theres more to this than just promoting a bunch of 21 yr olds and thinking "if I just stick with them, by age 25 these guys will be great! I just gotta take the growing pains along the way and not stray" But the truth is that it doesnt work that way. I see this level of thinking in NFL. Sometimes, if a rookie or sophmore QB starts and then there is talk of moving on after, a lot of fans get uncomfortable on the wasted resources and time. Its depressing to accept that youve spent what 3 yrs getting this QB (first year tank for a pick, draft him high have him ride the bench and learn for a year, start year 2 and flop)....And that leads to a lot of homerish overrating of ones own youngsters. In this particular case, though, if we are talking about Mayer and Anthony. My gut right now is on the side of keepers (both). Mayer is 6'3 and fluid and I think that Anthony will become at least a very good hitter. But I also think that the benefits of playing time are overrated and Mayer specifically can still grow if he starts hitting lower in the order or getting benched for IKF/Sogard or even sent down. I do acknowledge that from what weve seen with like KC, Grissom....Its hard to come back from that. But I dont think that moving Mayer to bench or AAA is going to like ruin him.

when "we are so bad its depressing" turns into "we are so bad , its funny." . ...... thats ... well, I honestly dont know what it is.... But it is why I want Sogard, Gasper and IKF to be our 2,3,4 hitters. Trade Duran for pitching!!

Well, sometimes, its time to root for the most humorous outcome.

You havent gotten any whiffs of this?... Our record is not Breslows fault but a series of unforeseeable declines and Breslow actually did a good job this offseason. The real problem here is an impatient and spoiled fan base! And Im going to love the tears of RS fans when they get more disappointment!! Players shouldnt get to question Breslow over the axing of their leader. Shut up and do your jobs or you will be replaced!! We would be much worse off had we signed Bregman over Suarez and for that reason its unfair to ask why/how Bregman negotiations broke down! I refuse to even admit that the conversations and communications broke down and instead (due to wanting to believing it to be true) frame that as some kind of shrewd value move. Boy am I glad to have such a shrewd GM. Going into this offseason this was the second best team in baseball right now and we are set up better for the future than any team in history! And then on top of that , we had close to one of the best offseasons in history! ITS STILL EARLY!!! You dont need slug, just OBP and the offense is not poorly constructed. Oh you made the debatable statement that toxic bosses are bad news - well let me provide anecdotal evidence to counter. I hope corporate office takes away our weekends and slashes our pay!

so you're saying theres a chance!

Or are we back up?

Agree Breslows intentions do not matter from a wins/loss perspective, but Im interested in the behind the scenes. You dont need to see the making of the movie to know if the movie is good or bad, but if its bad, examining the "how" and "why" via reflection can be helpful. Specifically, it may help determine if we still trust Breslow or if we should lame duck him, and wait for the next captain to steer the ship. Last year, when I expressed concerns about Breslows inability to get out of his own way, many pointed to our record / how we were on track to be a playoff team. And I understood the narrowed focus on wins/losses, but even last year, I was seeing underlying issues. Ultimately, I was grateful for playoff baseball, even if I didnt love the team featuring Masa, Eaton, Lowe, Sogard, ice cold Narvaez..... But roll forward and the "dont worry about Breslow, look at our record" seems to have become "well dont look at our record because guys Breslow actually brought in within this last offseason are at least better than some of the potential names we could have acquired" And I guess it comes down to are we making excuses or providing context? Are we here because of bad luck or any other variable outside Breslows control or are we moving goalposts and making excuses to avoid having to come to terms that Breslow is yet another dysfunctional person in our organization.

well hes been hitting more recently and it wasnt my idea. But if he finds his way back to 80 OPS+ , I wont cry if hes deadline flipped

My point is that when you are this far away, fit becomes less important.

but if we're blaming breslow i dont want to get too greedy

See, I still dont think this was the team that Breslow intended to build. I still think its a team full of fall backs from failed moves. I think he intended to fix the OF logjam, keep Bregman and not sign 57 starting pitchers. But he cant execute. Had the heat in his hand but he couldnt shoot.

We cant take Juan Soto, even if we can get the mets to trade him for IKF and eat 50% his contract because we already have Masa!

We still play half the games on the road and unless we get the 1 seed are going to need to win some road playoff games at some point. I can give you having a team built bad for Fenway as A problem but I cant give you THE problem

😨

But I do appreciate how you didnt go harder against what this was responding to.

Elly De La Cruz, Oneill Cruz....A few other Cruz's that dont play the positions you list. Jordan Walker was almost a 3b. Would you trade IKF for JDub right now if you could only play Jdub at 3b? Chasing ideal defensive alignment is how you wing up needing a big bat but only being able to choose between Paredes and Durbin.

Good question, usually when I get called out for not listening , Ive stopped within the last 3 minutes, but what I dont get credit for is the 20 minutes of solid listening I was doing before that and the effort that took. It comes down to a negotiation over when I stopped listening. ANd how much time I owe her back.

My only concern with roster makeover is that Breslow should go first. And I understand a "but maybe the next guy will be worse" ....But Im pretty sure the next guy will be fully capable of matching Breslows last place results

One less noodle bat lying around.

I agree and also crying about Grissom is more of this "we have to be so efficient and suck every WAR out of every $$ to compete" philosophy. Its all built on faulty assumptions. Like okay, great, you have a very efficient roster and have plenty of payroll space.....Hooray Soto is a FA, do you really think that his options are going to be limited to the most efficiently built rosters? No, somebody who wants to win more than you is going to outbid you and just not care. There isnt an overflowing supply of great players that are gettable for market value rates. What we need to do is get away from the max efficiency models and the everything has to fit around what we already have fallacy. Start over. Get great players.

Its hard for me to blame fan expectations when its been objectively 'rough'

Just ditch Breslow before you "blow it up" otherwise we will be moving Yoshida/Story/Duran for pitchers and signing 3 more this offseason

The RS offer was $100/yr or thereabouts or are we drifting from conversing in good faith?

Ask for a top MLB prospect for Chapman. If we dont get it fine, still plenty of time. But maybe you get a fish.