A Realistic View of 2023: Part II

[Hugh2]

I have gotten testy, many times. I have said some things I should not have said, and try to apologize when I go too far.

 

I'm not perfect. I know this and try to improve myself.

 

Admitting mistakes is something few do or even try to do. I think they feel it is a sign of weakness.

 

People do view admitting mistakes as a sign of weakness, which is a huge problem with our society. Certainly don't want to steer the conversation toward politics but I've never heard ONE politician ever admit they made a mistake which is beyond frustrating.

 

Admitting you made a mistake, means you know you made a mistake, knowing you made a mistake means you can LEARN FROM IT!!!!

 

Imagine if baseball players played like that.

 

Pitcher throws 20 curveballs in a row and just gave up back to back to back to back home runs so he thinks to himself "hmmmmmm, I should really try to throw this curveball even better this time!!!!!" it's such a stupid frame of mind to have but it's ingrained everywhere.

[Larry Cook]

An outfield of Rafeala in center, abreau in left and verdugo or Duvall in right should be used for the rest of 2023. Rafeala and abreau need the at bats more than the others

[notin]

An outfield of Rafeala in center, abreau in left and verdugo or Duvall in right should be used for the rest of 2023. Rafeala and abreau need the at bats more than the others

 

I’m ok with that…

[Hugh2]

I wouldn’t hate a Ref/Abreu platoon if Dugo is traded, but I wouldn’t be trading outfielders right now.

[moonslav59]

I wouldn’t hate a Ref/Abreu platoon if Dugo is traded, but I wouldn’t be trading outfielders right now.

 

I could see us resigning Duvall, then trading Dugo or Duran.

[Hugh2]

I could see us resigning Duvall, then trading Dugo or Duran.

 

If you believe Duval can give you a healthy year and at least 2 WAR that’s not the worse plan, but I still don’t feel east trading away OF depth at all right now. Not on this team.

[moonslav59]

If you believe Duval can give you a healthy year and at least 2 WAR that’s not the worse plan, but I still don’t feel east trading away OF depth at all right now. Not on this team.

 

Ideally, we could just buy all our needs:

 

3 SP'ers

1 big RH'd bat that can play RF

1 solid LH'd RP

minor league depth that is ML ready in April (middle IF, OF, 1B, Pitching)

 

I've all but given up on this dream. I think trades may be the way we fill 1-2 of these slots, and we have to give to get.

[Old Red]

The 2023 season was doomed before it even got started. To into the season with a starting rotation of a frail James Paxton, as it turned out again a fragile Garrett Whitlock, and the fragility of the king of frail himself Frail Sale. Throw in old man Kluber, and this group was supposed to get you through the season? Should have been not only no, but hell no, but not for Chaim Bloom. The when Story went down before the season even started, or spring training for that matter instead of going out, and getting a regular SS the Red Sox went with the $10M man, and that was a total disaster, which lasted for a very long time. Lost 3 of the starters, and for weeks the Red Sox went with openers, and BP games. Forget about the trade deadline, which Bloom did pick up a 2B, but the pitching staff was in shambles by that point, and because the Red Sox had 3 injured pitchers coming back who all were on pitch counts Bloom did nothing. I don’t know who sold Henry on the bill of goods of hiring Bloom, but he should be fired too. If JH thought Bloom was going to come in, and build up the farm, cut the payroll, and most importantly keep on winning he was surely fooled. Boston is not Tampa. Tampa has kept on winning without Bloom, and Boston kept on losing with Bloom. Must of picked the wrong nerd in the Tampa nerd room. I said from day 1 Bloom was a BAD signing, and it was.

[Hugh2]

Blooms record while here.

 

Two last-place finishes.

an ALCS Birth that almost led to a WS.

A stronger farm.

Lost franchise cornerstone players.

Overall winning record:

 

268-262

 

That probably surprises people. But more is expected in Boston, and that is fair.

[Bellhorn04]

Blooms record while here.

 

Two last-place finishes.

an ALCS Birth that almost led to a WS.

A stronger farm.

Lost franchise cornerstone players.

Overall winning record:

 

268-262

 

That probably surprises people. But more is expected in Boston, and that is fair.

 

We're not far from making it 3 last-place finishes. Bloom is still the "CBO of record" for this season.

[moonslav59]

15 games to go, and we are tied with the Yanks and just one game away from .500.

 

It wasn't really injuries that caused all this. We had about the amount one should have expected, and several were known going into the season.

 

We saw some major help from the farm, but even that was not enough. The recent play from Rafaela & Abreu is encouraging, but the sample size is way too small to count on either to be solid FT contributors, next year.

 

We had some exciting moments during the season, and a couple times it seemed enough to tease some of us into thinking, "Could this be real?" When you think about all that went right this year, it only helps magnify the shortcomings.

 

Bello & Casas were more than anyone could realistically hope for, so early in their careers.

Wong & McGuire came pretty damn close to what Vaz and Plawecki had been giving us- again, sooner in Wong's career than I expected.

Our OF went from one of the worst to one of the best, overnight.

JT replaced JD seamlessly.

Crawford & Wink were both very pleasant surprises. Bernardino, too, after he was added to the 26.

Jansen and Martin fixed a major issue from 2022, but those two were not enough to carry the pen through what it was asked to do, way too often, namely to go 5+ innings a game.

Reyes brought some needed stability to the MI, but it was way too little and way too late.

 

The Mehs:

At the start of the year, I thought we'd be lucky to get 32-33 starts out of Paxton + Sale combined. They are at 36, but the combined 4.60 some odd ERA was not very helpful.

Devers did not give what I expected, but he came close. His defense did not improve and hurt us often.

Pivetta got himself demoted, then just about redeemed himself.

Duvall did pretty good, when healthy.

Dugo was about what he has been for years.

Refsnyder struggles as the season went on, but he still did okay vs LHPs.

Yoshida could be placed in the ugly category, so I put him right before it.

 

The Ugly

The Middle Infield killed us about as much as the rotation. Kike was a complete disaster and Yang just fixed the D for a short while, but his O was god-awful.

The rotation was a lop-sided merry-go-round. Kluber sucked.

Houck and Whitlock were hurt, jerked around and ineffective when they did pitch. A Major disappointment.

 

I know I am in a tiny minority, but for the most part, I enjoyed watching this team. (More so than 2022, anyway.)

I expected better results, and watching losses is not fun for any of us, but we were in most of those losses to the end, and the games were interesting, to say the least. Being a big fan of defense made it very difficult to enjoy far too many times. Watching us leave the bases loaded multiple times in some of those 1 or 2 run losses, hurt like hell, but the games had suspense and excitement, for the most part

 

This end to the season hurts. I wanted to believe the team that was doing well or very well, at various points in the season was who this team really was, but it looks like that was all a big tease.

 

I still like the foundation we have, going forward. I'm hopeful our farm can and will continue to add players, each year. Guys like Teel, Anthony, Mayer and Wikelman maybe be less than a year or year and a half away. Bello, Casas, Wong, Rafaela, Abreu and others could continue to grow. I don't see why they shouldn't.

 

I'm hopeful the next GM makes better choices and places the focus on pitching and quality over quantity, but that has to come from the top for it to work with any GM, IMO. I wish the season was ending on a better note, but it is what it is.

 

Beating out the Yankees in the standings does give us something to cheer for, but it is hard for anyone to be optimistic about that, right now.

[moonslav59]

Blooms record while here.

 

Two last-place finishes.

an ALCS Birth that almost led to a WS.

A stronger farm.

Lost franchise cornerstone players.

Overall winning record:

 

268-262

 

That probably surprises people. But more is expected in Boston, and that is fair.

 

All true.

 

The new regime (or interim one) is 1-1 or .500.

[Hugh2]

We're not far from making it 3 last-place finishes. Bloom is still the "CBO of record" for this season.

 

They're certainly doing their best.

 

Their best effort to finish last.

[Hugh2]

All true.

 

The new regime (or interim one) is 1-1 or .500.

 

There's no new regime. Same team, same front office. With or without Bloom.

 

All the people around Bloom are still there, all the people he answered too and who answered to him are still there.

[Bellhorn04]

They're certainly doing their best.

 

Their best effort to finish last.

 

And personally, I'm not faulting Cora or the team for their effort. I think they've been doing their best. The woefully thin starting rotation has just been impossible to overcome.

[moonslav59]

There's no new regime. Same team, same front office. With or without Bloom.

 

All the people around Bloom are still there, all the people he answered too and who answered to him are still there.

 

Nope. According to this site. The GM makes all the calls and is 100% responsible for the .500 record.

 

(LOL)

[mvp 78]

Nope. According to this site. The GM makes all the calls and is 100% responsible for the .500 record.

 

(LOL)

 

The CBO should have the authority to change all those faces if he wants. If he doesn't like the Eddie Romeros of the world, he needs to be able to find someone new. I'm not sure how it works in other orgs, but the Sox seem to have a lot of long term employees that have stuck around for decades. Is that a Henry edict? If they are the right people, fine. But if they are the right people, then they might not have to necessarily go outside the org to replace Bloom.

[Hugh2]

The CBO should have the authority to change all those faces if he wants. If he doesn't like the Eddie Romeros of the world, he needs to be able to find someone new. I'm not sure how it works in other orgs, but the Sox seem to have a lot of long term employees that have stuck around for decades. Is that a Henry edict? If they are the right people, fine. But if they are the right people, then they might not have to necessarily go outside the org to replace Bloom.

 

I'm not sure who all the good ones and bad ones are. But I'm fairly certain Eddie Romero is a guy who should stick around. He's had his hands involved in pretty much every IFA superstar that has made his way to Boston in the past couple decades.

[mvp 78]

I'm not sure who all the good ones and bad ones are. But I'm fairly certain Eddie Romero is a guy who should stick around. He's had his hands involved in pretty much every IFA superstar that has made his way to Boston in the past couple decades.

 

He seems to be a good one. He's well spoken. Probably seems like a guy in line for a promotion to me...

[Old Red]

And personally, I'm not faulting Cora or the team for their effort. I think they've been doing their best. The woefully thin starting rotation has just been impossible to overcome.

 

Bad starting pitching was hard to overcome, but all the errors, and base running blunders had not nothing to do with the starting pitching.

[Bellhorn04]

He seems to be a good one. He's well spoken. Probably seems like a guy in line for a promotion to me...

 

I'm not sure Sox CBO is anyone's dream job right now. A nice 5 year contract, sure, but the rest isn't so pleasant.

[Bellhorn04]

Bad starting pitching was hard to overcome, but all the errors, and base running blunders had not nothing to do with the starting pitching.

 

So who was making the errors and blunders - guys who just aren't good fielders, inexperienced guys? I think you have to go through that too.

[Old Red]

So who was making the errors and blunders - guys who just aren't good fielders, inexperienced guys? I think you have to go through that too.

 

Yea Kike was left at SS way too long to get experience.

[Hugh2]

He seems to be a good one. He's well spoken. Probably seems like a guy in line for a promotion to me...

 

Agreed, I think he's a good one too. Wish we could clone 10 more of him.

[mvp 78]

I'm not sure Sox CBO is anyone's dream job right now. A nice 5 year contract, sure, but the rest isn't so pleasant.

 

No, this is a ******** narrative being pushed right now. 4 years is still a long time. Ben and Chaim both failed epically for 6 years. DD did an amazing job, but ran out the string. He had no more tools in his belt once the farm and money ran dry. Sox need someone in between Chaim and DD. It's still a marquee job.

[moonslav59]

The CBO should have the authority to change all those faces if he wants. If he doesn't like the Eddie Romeros of the world, he needs to be able to find someone new. I'm not sure how it works in other orgs, but the Sox seem to have a lot of long term employees that have stuck around for decades. Is that a Henry edict? If they are the right people, fine. But if they are the right people, then they might not have to necessarily go outside the org to replace Bloom.

 

I did think it was strange that Bloom did not appear to bring many of the guys from the Rays organization, especially the farm-related people.

 

I do think our farm has improved, but did it do so with pretty much the same guys that were here under DD?

[moonslav59]

Bad starting pitching was hard to overcome, but all the errors, and baserunning blunders had nothing to do with the starting pitching.

 

Yes, IMO, the amount of games lost by our defense and baserunning was a lot more than some think it was.

 

I'm not sure that should be "on Cora." These guys are grown men who have been taught the fundamentals, for years. If they haven't learned them, by now, I'm not sure what ML manager knows the secret to teaching them and getting instant results in one season.

 

It's not like Cora had 4 years to work with most of our major blunderers.

[Bellhorn04]

Yea Kike was left at SS way too long to get experience.

 

The funny thing is that when Kike left, people started to realize the rest of the defense wasn't very good either.

[notin]

The funny thing is that when Kike left, people started to realize the rest of the defense wasn't very good either.

 

That shows how bad Kike was.

[moonslav59]

No, this is a ******** narrative being pushed right now. 4 years is still a long time. Ben and Chaim both failed epically for 6 years. DD did an amazing job, but ran out the string. He had no more tools in his belt once the farm and money ran dry. Sox need someone in between Chaim and DD. It's still a marquee job.

 

Why is it so hard to just have and keep a balanced approach, all along?

 

The pendulum swinging makes everyone's job more difficult.

 

It's all been reactionary and not proactionary.