DHL Dan CCCII - Rooting For A Shitcanning

In this week's Picked Up Pieces column, Shank wonders about the employment status of Craing Breslow:

Maybe the Red Sox should replace Craig Breslow, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while debating whether to watch Haiti-Scotland World Cup or Knicks-Spurs Game 5 Saturday night . . .

⋅ Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver rarely held “team meetings” when the Orioles were struggling.

“Why would I have a meeting if we’re going bad?” Weaver reasoned. “Suppose we have a big meeting then go out and lose the next game. What do I do then?”

This is where the Red Sox find themselves as they lurch into the middle third of their sorry season. Fenway Sports Group and Craig Breslow nuked face-of-the-franchise manager Alex Cora and six of his coaches after merely 27 games of the 2026 season. Now that the Red Sox look even worse, it’s bad optics to fire chief baseball officer Breslow, even though it’s fairly obvious he’s a huge part of the problem.

Asked Thursday about the possibility of replacing Breslow, Red Sox president and CEO Sam Kennedy told WEEI, “It’s not even on the table.” Swell. But it should be on the table.

If part of your earlier response was to fire Alex Cora and most of his staff, then maybe you should consider Breslow as well. That would depend on what direction ownership truly wants - to win or to maximize profits.

Talk Talk

Shank has an interesting take on new Red Sox general manager Craig Breslow's opening press conference:

New Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow sure can talk a good game

“It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”

— Winston Churchill describing Russia

Craig Breslow, the Red Sox’ new chief baseball officer, is in Arizona this week at the General Managers Meetings. This will be his first chance for face-to-face meetings with his counterparts from other big league teams. Hope the Sox don’t need to provide an interpreter (they have one for Masataka Yoshida, why not Breslow?). Breslow’s language can be a little … lofty.

Perhaps you were busy working or having an early lunch when the Sox introduced Breslow at Fenway Park last week.

His kickoff press conference was a doozy. The guy is … wicked smaaaart. Good Will Hunting Smart. Oppenheimer Smart. He had me scratching my head and reaching for a thesaurus. There were moments that reminded me of when the Scarecrow gets his diploma in “The Wizard of Oz,” and instantly says, “The sum of the square roots of any two sides of an isosceles triangle is equal to the square root of the remaining side.”

When Breslow was asked about maybe hiring a general manager/lieutenant, he answered, “I think over time, the right profile, the right thought partner will avail itself.”

Wow. Thought partner? Sounds like Gwyneth Paltrow talking about her marital breakup as “conscious uncoupling” instead of plain old “divorced.”

Breslow’s cerebral speaking style had me longing for olden days of straight-talking sports — back when an assistant GM was a back-slappin’ drinking buddy rather than a “thought partner.”

I hear shit like that and think 'That's nice- you graduated from Buzzword College!' Color me skeptical.