drewski6

I dont think its that hard....Ian Kinsler Falafel

running for post of the year. The pettiness is real and Im (obviously) not above it myself. When Moon starts liking my enemy's posts, I cozy right up to Ole Red myself. BATTLE LINES HAVE BEEN DRAWN LOLOLOL 🙈

no mokey with the hands over his eyes emoji?

classic

well I have high high hopes for a living

"throw teammates under the bus" expression usually is an explicit blaming of teammates, but I dont want to pile on I dont need to involve myself here. My feelings on Devers are different in the fact that my burning question isnt "whose fault" was it, my burning concern was "could the relationship have been salvaged" Very often things get testy/uncomfortable then get resolved, especially in sports. I blame Devers some, I blame Breslow some for the breakdown, but more than anything I wonder if the trade needed to happen. When we traded Devers he was hitting and we were winning. Its not like we had lost 9 of the last 10 and needed to fix the locker room ASAP. Time is the best healer and I wonder if we just gave it a month, it would have all been "water under the bridge"

But I didnt hear anything from Devers disparaging towards his former teammates, even after I heard his former teammates say things like "at least now, we have 26 guys pulling in the same direction" My only point is that I dont think I heard any fire towards his teammates after he was moved, not to imply that civility and professionalism cant be a front.

Im not trying to get an average hitter who can play an elite 2b, Im trying to get an elite hitter, and I do not feel like I have the luxury of caring about where they play.

Isnt "100" league average?

I think the only second baseman who could come close to fixing the offense is marte. Paredes helps, but he doesnt instantly alleviate my worries about the offense. Hoerner is a glove first player and people like Baty and Vientos because they think theyd be easy to acquire and cheap. Not to imply Im dead set against any of these acquisitions. The names that I would prefer to go after are like Rooker, Seager, Jose Ramirez, Juner Caminero, James Wood, Alvarez, Devers (lol) I just looked at a fantasy baseball average draft place (and I know fantasy isnt a great reflection, but I think this is telling): Anthony - seventh round (assuming 10 team league) Duran - ninth round Story - twelfth round Cedanne - thirteenth round Contreras - 19th round Abreu - 23rd round Our highest ranked bat is Anthony in the 60s.

I like Crochet, Gray, Suarez, Bello, Tolle, Early, Crawford, Oviedo....Not as much Sandoval or Harrison but it doesnt mean I dont think they cant be #5 starters. If you can keep this intact and fix the offense great , but 1. I dont think Paredes alone is enough, certainly not if its one of our best 4 bats going the other way 2. Im expecting injuries and even fully healthy our offense looks shaky 3. Im not sure Breslow can jsut go get paredes for prospects at any given time. The astros have to say yes, and I dont think they are willing to give you paredes for prospects

Im not sure it makes the pitching much better. I think we went from A+ rotation to A+ rotation. I have more faith in both Tolle and Early than I do in Mayer. Cuz Mayer hasnt put the work in at the gym and its been a problem. He says hes open to it this year, but for everyone that goes to the gym in January (all the new years resolution people), by March only a fraction of them are still going.

Cant say Tolle 4 cleanup hasnt crossed my mind.

I would use the word capable over willing, but yeah.

Im sure this is just in my head, but boy does it sometimes feel like when we are trying to trade for a pitcher the team selling the pitcher is in the drivers seat (for example, deadline last year - Joe Ryan) but it feels like when we are trying to trade a pitcher for a position player, suddenly it feels like the inverse (for example, trying to line up a trade for Marte or Paredes using primarily young pitching). Im sure its just in my head kind of like a "you always find [whatever] when you arent looking for it" type thing.

Good post. I use to be a fan of developing pitching/signing hitters for a few reasons - some of which have changed (e.g. pitching going higher in draft these days) and Im more flexible about it these days whether the bats come from development or free agency. Generally I dont like counting on internal free agent bats until they prove that you can (that doesnt mean I dont work them in, it just means that I dont count on them for big offense until they prove it). Roman has, so Im obviously fine with him hitting top 3, Mayer has not, so Im hesitant to be like "offense will come from mayer", not ruling it out, but Im uncomfortable how much we need Mayers bat to step forward.

Its also because teams that have bad offenses struggle to come back when they fall behind.

No, but Im also not a fan of blowing the budget, using a lot of prospect capital and coming away with what did you say the 13th-16th best offense after 7 years of rebuilding. Hicks + Sandlin for IKF , Im fine with in a vacuum. And its not even a fair comparison because we saved 6mx2 for dealing Hicks and IKF is only 6mx1 and we got a prospect back. Im not seeing this signing as a big win, Im seeing it as more "who needs to hit?" Im not sure who that next bat is going to be or if that bat will come without having to send a bat back the other way. At this point Im half expecting that if we even get a starting caliber infielder, it will be Duran/Abreu going the other way...So I dont think even if we make that swap we get materially better on offense.

Sure. This feels realistic and unbiased assessment. The question is : is this acceptable? Because we have won, what one playoff series, in the last 7 years? We have more playoff misses than playoff makes ( I believe), we've been patient. This isnt yr 2 of a rebuild. To finally show a pulse and a semblance of a team and to step back from barely acceptable to unacceptable at the plate....Am I being unfair to be unsatisfied with this step back. I know the pitching and defense got better, but personally, for me, it doesnt justify this what I perceive to be a cartoonish level de-prioritization of the offense. Its almost silly at this point. There goes another bat!

I like Ranger Suarez but I dont think he was needed becasue I really like Kutter Crawford (a guy Ive rooted for for years) and Tolle has an amazing arm and extension, and I dont think its going to take him long to learn how to throw secondaries. I can get you the video of Gausman teaching how to throw a splitter and him laughing about how its so easy and the grip does all the work. Meanwhile the splitter was yamamoto, gausman, ohtanis and skenes best pitch last year, and its very easy to learn, you just need to have a live arm which tolle has. I like Ranger Suarez, but I dont think he was needed especially after getting Gray and Oviedo. Weve spent a lot of money at this point, so the expectations should be high. Its one thing to go .500 and step back after slicing payroll or if your first year as GM. But after all this spending Breslow did, going into year 3, he cant afford a step back here. And I dont think as is, we have enough offense to take a step forward. We may not step back due to a very weak AL behind Seattle, NYY, Toronto

IKF would be fine even as a regular if we had Manny and Ortiz, and this is why I think a lot of people here underestimate the value of a good DH. When you have very good hitters, you have the luxury of prioritizing defense at key positions. We dont have that luxury, and I think thats the biggest bummer in all of this. Theres still a gaping hole in the middle of the order. I do agree that IKF makes sense for some reasons, he can slide over and cover SS better than DHAM, and Story has not finished like 4 of the last 5 seasons (and Marcelo has not finished 3 out of the last 3). So of course, backps are needed. It looks like IKF became situational/non-every day upon his arrival in Toronto, so that makes me optimistic this is a bench get (and it would be a good one). Its still money spent on non hitting, but I mean, theres no bats left in FA and its just time to make peace with this team is going to try to win 1-0 or 2-1. Problem is, that Fred will be right a lot of times when he declares the game over in the second when the opponent hits a sac fly to go up 1-0. We'll see, but this does appear to cover for a likely Story injury. Problem is should that injury occur , sure you have defensive coverage, but IKF doesnt replace Storys averag-to-slightly above average bat. At this point its whatever, we'll either win a ton of low scoring games OR Breslow will feel the heat to bring in bats mid season and will OR Breslow will feel the heat to bring in bats mid season and wont/cant. I do think if its the third/last option, he gets canned after this year.

You may be, you may not be. They've been trying to line something up for a better every day player and have struggled. Im sure they will keep trying, they may pause from trying, but Im sure they'll try again once the season begins.

Well, we had to use a prospect (Sandlin) to make the swap - so add that to the cost. Not sure how much that weighs down the exchange.

Folks, heare me out, this team is ALMOST complete, the only move left is to obviously trade Duran for a lefty relief pitcher. #championship I cant wait until we average 2 runs / game week Im not even sure this team is watchable.

I would like to remind everyone how this happened: 1. Breslow revolved his entire offseason around Bregman 2. Bregman approached Breslow with an offer he had from the Cubs, Bregman was willing to take less money to stay here, but there were some issues he had with the Red Sox offer (notably the refusal to include a NTC) 3. Instead of listening to Bregman, Breslow told him that Breslow believed that this Cubs offer was a bluff, and he dared Bregman to take it if it was real, because he was that confident the offer from the Cubs was not real (the offer was real) Egg meet face. Breslow has been spiraling and panicking ever since. The panic signing of Ranger Suarez (we spent our budget and hes our #5 pitcher - it goes Crochet, Crawford, Tolle, Gray, Suarez...... Now we have no money to even sign a good bat next year, because Breslow decided that he wanted to model a team after Captain Crunch Berries, "Oops all Berries" but instead went "Oops all pitchers" And Im laughing. 4th place. Hey hey , ho ho, Craig Breslow has got to go. Its time to make Cora, GM/CBO/President/Dictator/Manger/King of any and all things Red Sox. Another words, just make Cora the Belichick of the Red Sox. Do this, and we'll beat the Dodgers in the 2028 World Series. Of this, I am sure.