drewski6

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

Dont forget the context. Hes been talking about how OBP matters way more than power and slg is way overblown is OBP is king by a lot. No "I think", no "in my opinion" presenting it all as established fact. ANd this painfully simple "analysis" (5 yr old stuff) is him showing his work. Wild

I dont hate this take. Maybe it wasnt a botch. But there was some clownishness along the way.

Ill believe AJP, Alex Speier, Buster Olney, Tyler Milliken and Jarred Carrabis putting their name and reputation on the line that Breslow was getting increasingly defiant and accusing Bregman of bluffing when Bregman told them they had a better offer and it got to the point where Bregman and Boras never went back to Breslow because he was just dense and couldnt be communicated with I trust all of them over your gut. No offense, but I think its much much much more likely that they are right especially when it fits a pattern from breslow that ive seen before. He knows baseball. He did a great job getting Crochet. But hes kind of a jerk and a bad communicator.

they thought they had the highest offer on the table, they were wrong. By a lot

Alt facts Joe has been talking complete nonsense disputing verified information, moving goalposts , taking his beliefs and casting them as fact and making a darn clown of himself. ANd Im not reading your mind or trying to but when you said "yeah this likely very well happened" to me , I was relieved.

This is fair, but I would add 4. They thought they could defer the money and still get him (I do believe the reporting that the red sox incorrectly thought that their offer was best on table) This is my opinion and yours appears to be that you dont think they really wanted him at that price point for that length anyways and almost kind of sabotaged their own offer, and so Im okay if you dont believe my #4 and want to stick to your 3 reasons. But for me its also that they thought they had the best offer on the table

Good for you coming around. Really, the only thing youve done wrong in this entire discussion is not fact check "alt facts Joe". Learn the lesson there. It was always right there for you on google. Its well established that there was a communication breakdown, that the red sox deferred a lot more than the cubs offer, that the red sox wouldnt include the ntc, that the negotiations got testy, that breslow accused bregman of bluffing when breslow was dead wrong, that bregman was in disbelief at how dense breslow was being. That the sox incorrectly thought they had Bregman in the bag. All of that happened and its been confirmed 5x and it took you a little while to get here. Because Joe didnt want to believe it and he was using tactics like "but were you there" (I dont need to be when 5 trustworthy sources are saying it). Haitians are not eating your cats, Alex Pretti didnt draw his gun, and yes Breslow can be and was being dense. To deny it or cast doubt is unreasonable. Just like MVP said its the only account we have (other than Joe just making stuff up cuz that what he does) and its been corroborated 5x. Joe Brady is a full blown lying Elon Musk worshipping clownboy. Now moving on to you, nothing else youve said is unreasonable (other than temp believing Joes version of events). Its possible that even had Breslow been a good communicator the sox would have still not provided the NTC and that would have always been a deal breaker. Not unreasonable. Despite how it broke down, Im glad we didnt overpay for Bregman and I think we would have had to overpay. Not unreasonable. And I especially liked your comment that if all of this is true (it is) it doesnt bother me on Bregman but Im worried about future negotiations. Thats more than reasonable, its wise and insightful. You are a good poster and you have good takes. Joe is a cancer though