Fire Bloom .

[Bellhorn04]

I get it, but are you saying there is zero chance the team takes the $24M/2 or $55M/4 options?

 

For 2023 Wacha gets a $3.5 signing bonus and $4 million salary.

 

The team option is for 2 years at $16 million.

 

So if they do pick up the options their total cost will be $39.5 million for 3 years.

 

The 4th year is only part of the player option.

[Dipre]

What you all say is true and nice but......Wacha f***ing sucks.

[mvp 78]

For 2023 Wacha gets a $3.5 signing bonus and $4 million salary.

 

The team option is for 2 years at $16 million.

 

So if they do pick up the options their total cost will be $39.5 million for 3 years.

 

The 4th year is only part of the player option.

 

They have to pick up 24 and 25?

[mvp 78]

What you all say is true and nice but......Wacha f***ing sucks.

 

Michael Wacha's career mirrors the 2022 Red Sox. High expectations at the onset. Some bad stretches. Some good stretches. Overall they ended up slightly below average, but some people will go to the grave telling you that they sucked.

[Dipre]

Michael Wacha's career mirrors the 2022 Red Sox. High expectations at the onset. Some bad stretches. Some good stretches. Overall they ended up slightly below average, but some people will go to the grave telling you that they sucked.

 

That's a hill I'm willing to die on.

[Bellhorn04]

They have to pick up 24 and 25?

 

If they exercise the option, they have to pick up both years.

[mvp 78]

That's a hill I'm willing to die on.

 

My original beef with Wacha goes back to the 2013 WS when Buck/McCarver were just fluffing the guy every chance they could get. Thankfully, he took it on the chin in Game 6. https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS201310300.shtml

[Bellhorn04]

What you all say is true and nice but......Wacha f***ing sucks.

 

Just imagine how all the hitters who have averaged 211/272/353 against him this year must feel!

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

Just imagine how all the hitters who have averaged 211/272/353 against him this year must feel!

 

Wacha has really sucked at sucking the past two years.

[Dipre]

Wacha has really sucked at sucking the past two years.

 

He can't even do that well.

[Bobe2]

That is a separate issue and worthy of a separate debate.

 

The other issue was clearly related to your issue in 2020 and to a lesser extent before 2021, and IMO all the way to March 2022, when Bloom signed Story.

 

I can't really say Bloom botched the spending prior to Story. He was given a negative budget in 2020, and didn't come close to replacing the salaries of Betts, Half-Price and Porcello by 2021, and also had to deal with no Sale and his contract plus no ERod in 2020. To me, the judgment begins with Story and runs to now, but I'll start with the winter before 2022 until now, and here it is:

 

The only Big Contracts (3):

$314M/10 Devers: begins in 2024 and is hard to judge, right now.

$140M/6 Story: looks like a total failure but made some sense, at the time, but could be TBD.

$90M/5 Yoshida: looks good, so far, but it is very early.

 

The Moderate deals (4):

$32M/2 Jansen: looks good, to me.

$24M/3 Kike (I added 2 deals): looks bad, now, despite a solid second half to '21 and an awesome post season.

$21.7/2 Turner (assuming he takes the option): looks good, to me.

$17.5M/2 Martin: looks good, to me.

($18.8M/2 Barnes extension sucked)

(JBJ trade that added significant money to the budget sucked)

 

Shorterm $7-10M/1 or $14-20M/2 Deals

$10M/1 Richards: YUCK!

$10M Kluber: YUCK!

$7M Duval: TBD

$7M Wacha: looked good, to me

$10M/2 Paxton: TBD

 

$2.5-$5M/1 or $5-$14M/2 Deals

$5M/1 Hill: Looked good, to me

$8M/2 Diekman: Bad, but getting McGuire and shedding $5.5M helped.

$3M/1 Strahm: very good

 

I gave my comments, but I'm not trying to make excuses or apologies, here. I ask you to think about what expectations should be on the money spent on mostly moderate to low budget deals, and then opine on just how bad, okay or good Bloom did, in retrospect or maybe how these deals looked at the time of their signings.

 

Personally, I don't think he has been as horrible as many make him out to be, and feel our poor records have been related to other issues more than how many mistakes he's made on stab-in-the dark signings (not counting the Story deal, which was a major choice made.)

 

Looking at the list above, what is your grade?

 

Looking at that grade, how does those signings compare to the issue of Sale & his contract giving us next to nothing plus almost every big-named vet from 2018-2019 giving far less production from 2020-2023 or not even playing for much of that time?

 

How much does the farm giving us only Houck from mid 2017 to mid 2022 compare in effect on the team record and our budget?

 

Of the top of my head, I might say ...

 

40% lower production and injuries to our carry over stars

40% virtually no farm input for 5 years (3.5 in Bloom's era)

20% Blooms signings

 

(I did not mention Bloom's additions of Wink, Schreiber, Refsnyder and others at less than $3M/yr and his farm building or his budget improvements.)

 

This is his record just as much as the losing W-L record since 2021.

You know I’m not crazy about long drawn out stats, the only indicator for me is a last place finish last year and being last in the division so far this year, buy the way did you catch the story interview where he admitted that the Redsox planned for him to be the shortstop this year at the time he was signed

[Bobe2]

That true but they are still spending over $200 million, it just seems that money should get you more than last place

[OH FOY]

Good to see some of the old timers here.

I'm going to say one thing.

Brian Sabean is available, the Sox got to get him.

Now!

[notin]

Michael Wacha's career mirrors the 2022 Red Sox. High expectations at the onset. Some bad stretches. Some good stretches. Overall they ended up slightly below average, but some people will go to the grave telling you that they sucked.

 

I wouldn’t say here sucks; he’s a decent pitcher whose attendance is unreliable…

[moonslav59]

You know I’m not crazy about long drawn out stats, the only indicator for me is a last place finish last year and being last in the division so far this year, buy the way did you catch the story interview where he admitted that the Redsox planned for him to be the shortstop this year at the time he was signed

 

No, but I felt that way, all along.

 

I've always felt they were never going to pay what Bogey wanted at any point along the timeline.

 

To me, blaming losing on just the GM's moves misses the context and may not even be accurate to say the totality of his moves sucked.

 

To each his own. I certainly understand how and why the GM is blamed for the team being inlast place after 3.5 years. I feel he shares in the blame, but my expectations for years 1-3 were much lower than most, here..

[moonslav59]

I wouldn’t say here sucks; he’s a decent pitcher whose attendance is unreliable…

 

Yes, you have to go to 200 IP to get him included on the list if top pitchers from 2022-2023, however only 64 pitchers make that 200 IP cut off. That's about 2 per team on average.

 

Some interesting notes that highlights how fangraphs really screws low K/higher weak contact pitchers:

 

bWAR: 4.8 (I'm not sure where than places him in the rankings)

fWAR: 3.5 (This is 40th out of 64 who qualified and nearly bottom third tier.)

 

BTW, Kluber is 54 at +2.4 and Pivetta is 6th at +1.4.

 

It's pretty telling to see that you have to go down to 100 IP from 2022 and 2023 combined to reach 150 qualifying SP'ers! WOW! Here are some notably ranked SP'ers:

 

13. Luis Castillo (traded last deadline and extended)

30. Pablo Lopez (traded last winter)

33. Jordan Montgomery (traded at the last deadline)

41. Jose Quintana

46. Eovaldi

47. Jesus Luazrdo (maybe a trade target?)

50. Michael Wacha- now this sample size places him in the top 3rd tier of 50 each.

 

2nd tier (middle 50)

58. T Walker

59 C Bassitt

60. K Gibson

63. R Stripling

67. Z Eflin

73. Kluber

74. Taillon

76. R Hill

78. T Mahle

81. J Cueto

83. Syndergaard

84. M Gore

86. F Montas

92. B Bello (just 104 IP)

101. C Irvin

 

Bottom 3rd

110. Pivetta (only Marco Gonzalez and Josiah Gray have more IP and a lower fWAR.)

113. Heaney

 

 

 

[moonslav59]

Bloomspeak...

 

Boston GM Chaim Bloom reflects on state of Red Sox

WWW.MLB.COM

---

This story was excerpted from Ian Browne’s Red Sox Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

[Dipre]

I wouldn’t say here sucks; he’s a decent pitcher whose attendance is unreliable…

 

But I like being a contrarian.

[Bellhorn04]

Bloomspeak...

 

Boston GM Chaim Bloom reflects on state of Red Sox

WWW.MLB.COM

---

This story was excerpted from Ian Browne’s Red Sox Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

 

And here's the headline of a piece by Gasper in yesterday's Globe that sums up the feelings of a large contingent of Sox fans:

 

Time is quickly running out for Chaim Bloom and his vision of sustainability

[mvp 78]

And here's the headline of a piece by Gasper in yesterday's Globe that sums up the feelings of a large contingent of Sox fans:

 

Time is quickly running out for Chaim Bloom and his vision of sustainability

 

He was drinking too much Whistle Pig when he was designing this club. Shame!

[Dipre]

This early in the season, a five-gam stretch in which he murdered the Yankees and Rockies, can positively skew the numbers. Over his mini-slump, he was striking out more, walking less, and barreling less balls. That stretch really helped his up-to-date numbers in both traditional stats and Statcast.

 

To add to this point:

 

Devers is getting less fastballs, more breaking balls and more offspeed pitches (percentage wise) in 2023 than at any other point in his career.

 

[Old Red]

And here's the headline of a piece by Gasper in yesterday's Globe that sums up the feelings of a large contingent of Sox fans:

 

Time is quickly running out for Chaim Bloom and his vision of sustainability

 

And things being AWESOME.

[dannycater]

Terms that I'm sick of--"sustainability"...Waiting for Guffman-Sale-Story-Duvall (back but the effects of the hitting tear he had is not or should be expected)...Holding on to Kluber...Announcing signings of journeymen utility guys...Sick of losing attitude--Fire Bloom, Fire Cora, Fire half the roster. It's the most unlikeable team I think in terms of how it is run. The players, I don't hold anything against them. They are just collectively a .500 team at best. That's on the Director of Baseball Opps. Edited June 16, 2023 by dannycater

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

To add to this point:

 

Devers is getting less fastballs, more breaking balls and more offspeed pitches (percentage wise) in 2023 than at any other point in his career.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1215[/ATTACH]

 

Even when he had more protection in the line-up, I always wondered why anyone would ever throw him a fastball for a strike.

 

My best guess: egos -- all big leaguers were the best at one level or another in their journey to the top, and they still have the confidence to challenge their peers.

[Randy Red Sox]

were you thinking that pitchers would simply keep pumping only fastballs at him?

To add to this point:

 

Devers is getting less fastballs, more breaking balls and more offspeed pitches (percentage wise) in 2023 than at any other point in his career.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1215[/ATTACH]

[Dipre]

were you thinking that pitchers would simply keep pumping only fastballs at him?

 

Did you see the context of the argument? Because what you're saying is the complete opposite of the point that I've been trying to make, which is that he needs to stop expanding the strike zone, or they will keep feeding him breaking and offspeed for balls. Please check the context of the posts first.

[Randy Red Sox]

Bloomspeak...

 

Boston GM Chaim Bloom reflects on state of Red Sox

WWW.MLB.COM

---

This story was excerpted from Ian Browne’s Red Sox Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Nice read -thanks for posting it. I wonder how he would answer MY question--"Chaim how do you feel your PLAN is progressing and when do you think the Red Sox will have a TRULY COMPETITIVE team again-not this .500 stuff??

[mvp 78]

Did you see the context of the argument? Because what you're saying is the complete opposite of the point that I've been trying to make, which is that he needs to stop expanding the strike zone, or they will keep feeding him breaking and offspeed for balls. Please check the context of the posts first.

 

It's almost like people need to look at more than one number to get the whole picture. What a concept!

[mvp 78]

Nice read -thanks for posting it. I wonder how he would answer MY question--"Chaim how do you feel your PLAN is progressing and when do you think the Red Sox will have a TRULY COMPETITIVE team again-not this .500 stuff??

 

And you know it’s not always linear. It’s not always easy. We’ve taken a couple haymakers. You know what? We’re probably going to take a couple more. This is baseball. It’s not supposed to be easy. But I want to be clear: We’re going to do this. It’s going to be awesome. And we are going to get there and just want to thank all you for your support and hope it’s a little clearer today.

[moonslav59]

To add to this point:

 

Devers is getting less fastballs, more breaking balls and more offspeed pitches (percentage wise) in 2023 than at any other point in his career.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1215[/ATTACH]

 

Good point, and this shows why some of the stats I used that show he is swinging at out of zone pitches less than his norm may not carry much weight.

 

Thanks for the deeper dive.