drewski6

Im not sure Bello makes the rotation.

I love Kutter Crawfish.

Plenty of action under Breslow.

Until injuries and slumps get in the way.

The Red Sox are a hybrid between a business and a passion project. Some think that running the team as a money making vehicle is justified, while others think owners should see themselves more as custodian of beloved entity.....Of course, if someone sees the RS as a business that would guide their objectives, and profit would be higher up on the list of enterprise goals vs someone who saw the Red sox as something more than just a pure for-profit business. People have discussed this here and discussed it well, and I have nothing to add. What I do want to speak to, because it is bothering me, is this notion that Ive seen quite a bit here - that for-profit businesses exist solely for profit. As if nobody ever opened a restaurant because they love feeding people. Or nobody ever chose to pay an employee more than the minimum amount to keep them. Or nobody ever bought a baseball team because they love baseball brings smiles to faces. Ive built departments, promoted, hired, Ive had people quit on me (of course). The people telling you that you get to the top of a company with ruthlessness are not people who get to the top. Organizations differ, but mostly these types have a middle management mentality, have grown bitter with frustration, and have adopted a "company over everyone" cynical worldview to cope with their own shortcomings. These stooges hope to get noticed and finally get out of the hell of middle management. Well, it took me 1.5 yrs to get out of middle management. And I did it with honesty, integrity, and morality (and no , civility is not morality) and doing the opposite of what old men told me to do. Ive never been in a position where Ive had to worry about an employee/contractor bluffing (like Breslow) or whether or not to believe them like Breslow had to do with Bregman. Ive never been in a situation where Im like "you lying?" conversations are not "poker games". I cultivate trust, build relationships, and try to promote and pay generously. Being honest cultivates an honest culture. Being kind cultivates a kind culture. Being deceptive cultivates a deceptive culture. People project, people who are very concerned about Bregman being less than honest about his other offers, are probably people who have used deception themselves. IVe also never tried to max my departments profits, and Ive always seen the people on my team (and my clients) as humans. It is simply not true that every business in existence is trying to max money and thats a pretty cynical world view. If that were true, why am I successful doing the exact opposite of trying to max profits. I keep my eye on it, of course, and its a balance - but most successful people want to give back. Sure there are exceptions, who will propagandize you into thinking that everyone who is generous has an ulterior agenda - but thats only because those types need to convince themselves that everyone is as ruthless as they are, and they arent "especially broken". I understand how in this climate, it does appear that empathy and seeing others as humans is a little harder to spot then it use to be, and thats a shame, but I wont stop looking for it. I will not accept that there is no empathy. I will also not accept that the Red Sox exist to make max money or even thats the norm for a business. I will not accept that business owners look to take-take-take and not give-back, or that its justified to use deception to pay people as little as you can get away with....I will not accept that these things are necessary or even helpful to an organization (baseball or others). And I wont stop saying that. Youll have to kill me or ban me. When I started in the working world at 22 yrs old fresh out of bentley, a lot of people told me that Ill always be just a number or a worker and only by accepting that will I climb. That in corporate America there is no place for fair or generosity or honesty and I had to be ruthless and just accept that this is work. These were the easiest people for me to shoot right by. The best leaders have leadership skills. And when you start talking about how business exists to make money and we have to just accept that, well I have 2 things: 1. Its not my experience, even though Ive heard that quite a bit from mediocre minds stuck in dead-end roles 2. Accepting anything that you feel should be improved is for followers. Be a leader. When I started, a lot of people 10-20 years older were telling me "listen up kid, its a ruthless world and even more so in the business world" and I was gonna get chewed up and spit out. Now those people work for me. I didnt accept that people would be treated like workers to make the company money (and not humans who are giving the company their lives). And so I changed it. At every one of my career stops. And I did it all without really ever having to work past 5pm. Honesty and fair- generous treatment of humans are what I expect from the Red Sox. The Red Sox exist to bring happiness and joy to people. And you should consider them successful if they are making people smile and changing lives for the better. Not by the amount of wins they have and CERTAINLY not by how profitable they are. Thank you for reading.

You could argue the "just save face" goes back even further with the smear campaigns on guys out the door. Even Francona.

Understood, Geno isnt elite. I wasnt meaning specifically him. But more generally. Ortiz didnt sit when we were vs NL in world series. And if he could only play 1b, and we had a 1b we couldnt bench (Youk) we slid youk over to 3b a positoin he headnt played much recently. And if we had a 3b there who could mash, we'd move him to LF Yordan Alvarez wouldnt get benched if they made the WS with not DH (granted thats an in the past thing now with an NL DH) But you do not sacrifice hitting for defense. Obviously if someone is a 10% worse hitter but 2x the fielder thats different. I dont stress positional fit as much as some. Granted you cant play Duran at 2b or something crazy, but Im very much okay with not having set players asigned to positions. Football and basketball made these changes long ago. You use to have right defensive ends, and left defensive ends, and right outside linebackers, and middle linebackers, and blah blah blah. Now you have front 7 players who you would prefer to play MLB but they move around. In baseball, guys will play multiple positions. Even if its not plan A there will be injuries. This team needs hitting and will find a way to work it in. And whomever is playing wherever right now, its all going to change as the season unfolds. Injuries/slumps. Its not going to stay super tidy like this is our second baseman, and this is our third baseman, and this is our DH.

I dont think they regret the dollars because its just one year and like you say, Bres loves his pitchers. Way I see it: Crochet gets hurt = season over cant hedge against that. But now if one of Gray/Suarez gets hurt- youll still have another great option behind crochet, then I assume one of Early/Tolle will take a major step forward, so thats at least 3 there. So I think Gray kind of becomes insurnce, but hes worth it as that. And of course, there is a possibility that all 3 pitchers will be healthy for playoffs. I do think by then Tolle will be knocking the door down, but if so, theyll find a way to have him help.

Also, Duran has become a leader in the clubhouse - maybe THE LEADER now that Bregman is a Cub.

Yeah, feels like chasing Bregman puts other moves into light as well (e.g. going with the less costly Contreras at 1b instead of Alonso). They went hard after Bregman and that fell through, and so they repuropsed the bulk of the money they had considered spent- and now they have to make some balancing moves.

Suarez would be a DH.

Bo is a long shot, but Id celebrate if we got him. A real long shot, sure.

I agree, but there are reasons to want Bo. Im not a realistic candidate to land a job as a wwe announcer, but there are reasons why i want it.

Bloom was also more professional and polished

Oh, well, then thats something we should prob consider.

This is a good team, to make it great, we need one very good hitter. ANd I really dont care what position he plays. Defenses work themselves out. Everybody moves around these days. Im not saying dont have a good defense, im saying dont have a rigid defense where everyone is earmarked into one position. A rigid defense is like having a plan before mike tyson pops you in the mouth. There will be injuries/slumps/twists-turns Guys will move around as the season progresses, I guarantee it. People want to talk about how we had 9 starting sp last year (OMG). How many different defensive alignments did we have? 100?

How much of Sandovals salary could we realistically clear. What a crap move that was.

You make room for an elite thumper when you have 0. Defenses arent rigid in 2026. The amount of "slashes" (as in multiple position players) is at an all-time high and increasing.

I think we are a playoff team as is, but I think we need more thump to go further in the playoffs We are a solid/good team, but not a great team.

Or because he almost single handedly won the world series with a bum leg and nobody could get him out last year. If he goes back to Toronto, you are losing every game against Toronto. Becuase hes gonna drive in runs and we are not. As is , we'll clean up against teams like KC, Cle, Twins, Angels because we'll win a lot of 2-1 and 1-0 games. But against teams like Tor, NYY, Phi, LAD, SEa - we're going to get got more than we get with a team built around pitching and defense. Cuz guys like Vlad and Judge will eat, and your pitching depth wont stop it. Neither will a 3b who gives you 5 extra outs above replacement. ALso - who wants to watch a team of noodlebats

No bad defenders in the field, plural (note the s), we can have one. Like when the stonecutters became the no homers club but they let in one homer but couldnt let in Homer Jay Simpson because they were at quota at one.

Yeah, I dont hate it. I might be crazy and still get Geno.

One thing that MVP said to me once that stuck with me is that it kind of takes effort to separate Bloom and Breslow. Because a large amount of fans see JH as the bad guy, and a swap of BLoom for Breslow isnt particularly consequential - just swapping of "yes man" And that view, which is shared by a lot, doesnt really bother me, and there may be some elements of truth to both CBOs/GMs having similar restrictions - but it just seems like theres more moves under Breslow and I applaud that. Breslow is winning me over with the activity. And I do think there are moves (likely multiple) to follow and im not talking about RP depth. Im talking impact. Breslow is impactful.

Some wisdom here.

So go gangbusters fixing the pitching, make sure you are rock solid defensively, and just let the hitting work itself out But its pitchers who come out of nowhere (see Early). Every year the top 30 pitchers varies much more widely than hitters. And with all the punch outs in the game today, focusing on defense is not the way. It gets really hard to watch a team that cant score. The hitting didnt work itself out last year, we were noodlebat city upon reaching the playoffs. The hitting may work itself out, but if you added another very good hitter like we should have done, imagine having that in addition to any breakouts.