A Realistic View of 2024: Part II

[notin]

Agree, but that’s more than Bloom did at 1B until he was pretty much given Hosmer.

 

Well, who was DFAd in April, 2022 that Bloom should have grabbed? The only 1B I can think of in that timeframe who was DFAd was Travis Shaw, and he was let go by Bloom (which in itself might have been a questionable move despite Shaw's slow start)...

[Old Red]

I'll bite. Dombrowski is an experienced executive and a proven winner. It's not fair to compare a guy just starting out with that. Breslow deserves some time to grow into the job. He certainly seems to know the pitching part of the game. As for Bloom, he simply was not ready for prime time and was an unforced error by Henry.

 

All I know is the Red Sox had four winning seasons, and a WS title when he was here. I’m sure Dombrowski was making decisions like he was still going to be in Boston for awhile, and then he wasn’t. I wonder what decisions Dombrowski would have made the last four years, and what the team would have looked like if he stayed. We know what decisions Bloom made, and was in way over his head, which i predicted the second I heard he was hired.

[notin]

Yeah, he only acquired DFA guys. It's not like he went out and did a legit trade.

 

So who would the 1B be if the Cubs never DFAd Cooper and Smith did not opt out? Dalbec and his .377 OPS? Yippy!

[Dipre]

All I know is the Red Sox had four winning seasons, and a WS title when he was here. I’m sure Dombrowski was making decisions like he was still going to be in Boston for awhile, and then he wasn’t. I wonder what decisions Dombrowski would have made the last four years, and what the team would have looked like if he stayed. We know what decisions Bloom made, and was in way over his head, which i predicted the second I heard he was hired.

 

You also predicted the pandemic, and both current wars years in advance.

[Old Red]

Well, who was DFAd in April, 2022 that Bloom should have grabbed? The only 1B I can think of in that timeframe who was DFAd was Travis Shaw, and he was let go by Bloom (which in itself might have been a questionable move despite Shaw's slow start)...

 

Well like I said stay focused on DFA guys, which some on here having been complaining about, and most likely the fumble, bumbling, stumbling at 1B will continue.

[notin]

All I know is the Red Sox had four winning seasons, and a WS title when he was here. I’m sure Dombrowski was making decisions like he was still going to be in Boston for awhile, and then he wasn’t. I wonder what decisions Dombrowski would have made the last four years, and what the team would have looked like if he stayed. We know what decisions Bloom made, and was in way over his head, which i predicted the second I heard he was hired.

 

 

You keep patting yourself on the back for predicting that, but he did last as long as Dombrowski did.

[notin]

You also predicted the pandemic, and both current wars years in advance.

 

And he is awesome at predicting yesterday's lottery numbers. He can nail them like 75% of the time!

[Old Red]

So who would the 1B be if the Cubs never DFAd Cooper and Smith did not opt out? Dalbec and his .377 OPS? Yippy!

 

You’re asking me when you should be asking Brez. That’s his job.

[notin]

You’re asking me when you should be asking Brez. That’s his job.

 

As much as I like the idea of grabbing them both, there is absolutely no denying they did fall into his lap. It's not often you lose a player for the bulk if not the entire year, and then someone DFAs a player at that same position who was an All Star two years ago and is on a very cheap contract.

 

I still think Cooper can take over that position, as he at least has a better track record of success against MLB pitching, but he is not going to make anyone decide Casas is expendable...

[Old Red]

You keep patting yourself on the back for predicting that, but he did last as long as Dombrowski did.

 

Yes it was a prediction, and not a suggestion, and an easy one to make at that. Maybe it took that long for JH to figure out he messed up, and got rid of DD, and hired Gloom &Doom.

[notin]

Yes it was a prediction, and not a suggestion, and an easy one to make at that. Maybe it took that long for JH to figure out he messed up, and got rid of DD, and hired Gloom &Doom.

 

I think he gave Bloom the far more difficult task of winning while cutting the budget, so the rope was longer. Dombrowski was given the relatively simpler task of winning with an open checkbook. And his rope ended when he spent too much and missed the post-season anyway...

[Old Red]

As much as I like the idea of grabbing them both, there is absolutely no denying they did fall into his lap. It's not often you lose a player for the bulk if not the entire year, and then someone DFAs a player at that same position who was an All Star two years ago and is on a very cheap contract.

 

I still think Cooper can take over that position, as he at least has a better track record of success against MLB pitching, but he is not going to make anyone decide Casas is expendable...

You keep throwing out the AS thing like he was some kind of star. He was a fill in, and didn’t have very good stats at that, and that was also two years ago, which a lot has happened since then. Just like you touted Duvall winning a gold glove two years before they got him.

[Old Red]

I think he gave Bloom the far more difficult task of winning while cutting the budget, so the rope was longer. Dombrowski was given the relatively simpler task of winning with an open checkbook. And his rope ended when he spent too much and missed the post-season anyway...

 

Aw the old company line you, and Moon throw out there, on the bad working conditions, and obstacles that Bloom faced. Boo hoo.

[notin]

Aw the old company line you, and Moon throw out there, on the bad working conditions, and obstacles that Bloom faced. Boo hoo.

 

Right. So money isn't important. Yet folks still keep demanding Henry sell the team to another owner who wants to spend more. You need to remind them spending doesn't matter...

[moonslav59]

Like Giolito?

 

I did not like the Gio signing, but in terms of durability, yes. He seemed like as durable as you can get.

[Old Red]

Right. So money isn't important. Yet folks still keep demanding Henry sell the team to another owner who wants to spend more. You need to remind them spending doesn't matter...

 

What matters is how you spend it. Sale, Story, NOshida, and even wasting $10M on resigning Kike was not good signings.

[moonslav59]

Right. So money isn't important. Yet folks still keep demanding Henry sell the team to another owner who wants to spend more. You need to remind them spending doesn't matter...

 

Don't forget the same person who complain when strength of schedule is mentioned, then poo-poo our record due to playing an easy schedule to start the season.

 

[mvp 78]

Oh no! Moon will tell you be careful what you wish for.

 

Middleton and his wife, Leigh, share philanthropic involvement in several organizations,[18] including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Penn Medicine,[19] the Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church,[20] the Academy of Natural Sciences, and Project HOME.[21]

 

In 2012, the Middletons announced a gift of more than $16.2 million to the Philadelphia School District, Philadelphia Youth Network, Philadelphia Academies and Drexel University for career and technical education.[22]

 

In 2013, the Middletons pledged $30 million to Project HOME[19] in an effort to end chronic homelessness by doubling the number of its apartments for homeless people, opening a new medical center and leveraging additional public and private funds.[23]

 

The Middletons received the 2013 Philadelphia Award, in 2014, for their philanthropic works in the Philadelphia area, directed towards education, homelessness, and workforce development projects

 

On the Free Agency offseason with Bryce Harper:

 

"We're going into this expecting to spend money," Middleton told USA Today Sports this week. "and maybe even be a little bit stupid about it."

 

We may have to sweeten the pot and send them Mayer and Teel along with Henry!

[notin]

You keep throwing out the AS thing like he was some kind of star. He was a fill in, and didn’t have very good stats at that, and that was also two years ago, which a lot has happened since then. Just like you touted Duvall winning a gold glove two years before they got him.

 

He was an All Star. You do realize even the bench players on the All Star team are called All Stars, right? In fact, those are the players chosen to go based on performance and not popularity.

 

So now a line of .278/.353/.441 is considered "not very good"?

 

And it might not be in your best interest to bring up the Duvall Gold Glove thingy, which not an argument in which your displayed much beyond Olympic-caliber stubborness. You know, when you tried to argue Duvall was a former Gold Glove winner from two distant years previous, so therefore he was not a good defensive outfielder. Brief time passage aside, apparently you think the Gold Glove itself is the minimum bar for acceptable defense, as opposed to just admitting you were wrong. ..

[mvp 78]

So who would the 1B be if the Cubs never DFAd Cooper and Smith did not opt out? Dalbec and his .377 OPS? Yippy!

 

He would have had to make a real trade IMO. I'm just saying that people need to adjust their expectations for DFA candidate starting 1b's.

[mvp 78]

You keep patting yourself on the back for predicting that, but he did last as long as Dombrowski did.

 

And yet he made no predictions about Breslow when he was hired. Interesting...

[dgalehouse]

I can't kill Breslow for the Cooper and Smith acquisitions. They were reasonable stopgap signings. They are nothing special, but better hitters than they have shown so far.

[notin]

He would have had to make a real trade IMO. I'm just saying that people need to adjust their expectations for DFA candidate starting 1b's.

 

Hard to make real trades in April/early May. A lot of teams have just not gone into Sell Mode yet. The A's started out about as hapless as any team and even they have shown that you just can't give up too early. They're still not likely to make the post-season, but they're probably doing a bit better at the gate at 18-19 in their last 37 games than we all thought they would do after that 1-7 start...

[notin]

I can't kill Breslow for the Cooper and Smith acquisitions. They were reasonable stopgap signings. They are nothing special, but better hitters than they have shown so far.

 

I can agree with that. Admittedly, I have more faith in Cooper than I do in Smith, but even Smith is better than this...

[notin]

What matters is how you spend it. Sale, Story, NOshida, and even wasting $10M on resigning Kike was not good signings.

 

Kike looks like a much better signing if they leave him in CF, where he can make a positive difference in a game even without hitting...

[Old Red]

Kike looks like a much better signing if they leave him in CF, where he can make a positive difference in a game even without hitting...

 

WTF? He didn’t hit his last two years in Boston, and the Red Sox could have done better with the $10M even though I was told by more than 1 poster on here they couldn’t. He was overrated just, because of a hot streak he had in the postseason of 2021.

[Maxbialystock]

All I know is the Red Sox had four winning seasons, and a WS title when he was here. I’m sure Dombrowski was making decisions like he was still going to be in Boston for awhile, and then he wasn’t. I wonder what decisions Dombrowski would have made the last four years, and what the team would have looked like if he stayed. We know what decisions Bloom made, and was in way over his head, which i predicted the second I heard he was hired.

 

You are so far off base, you should be called/thrown out. DD was good, I agree, but absolutely, positively, no better than the GM/CBO's before him in the John Henry era. Those guys won WS in 2004 (to end the 86 year drought), 2007, and 2013. And all of them, pretty much like DD, were given a pretty good budget/payroll to work with.

 

But something happened in 2019 when the Sox had the highest payroll in MLB, had just had their best season ever, and couldn't even make the postseason. Mookie wanted and deserved a huge contract, which the Dodgers were more than willing to pay. Price stunk, so did Sale, and the Sox owed both of them jillions of salary.

 

So John Henry hired Chaim Bloom the same way he almost hired Billy Beane way back in 2002. He wanted someone who had a system for developing good players at low cost--or one who could do that while still spending some money, but who didn't need the highest payroll in MLB as DD had with the Sox. And it didn't work.

 

But right now we still don't know what John Henry intends.

 

We do know that the current rotation of six starters--Bello, Pivetta, Crawford, Whitlock, Houck, and lately Criswell--are being a total of $15M, $1M less than closer Jansen.

 

We also know that the Sox are paying Sale $17M to pitch for Atlanta, Turner $7M to play elsewhere, Story $22M to be on the IL until next year, Yoshida $19M to do the same but maybe return in June or July, and Giolito $18M to miss this entire season.

[Old Red]

And yet he made no predictions about Breslow when he was hired. Interesting...

 

No really interesting at all. Where was Brez on the wishlist before the 10+ candidates turned down to Red Sox for an interview even after Sam said Boston was the place where anyone would want to be. Bloom was replacing a proven winner where Brez was replacing a Loser. Big Big difference, and it was like the Red Sox a long list of proven candidates to pick from, because of what I mentioned earlier. The Red Sox used to be a ist class organization, and now I don’t know if they are even a second class.

[Old Red]

You are so far off base, you should be called/thrown out. DD was good, I agree, but absolutely, positively, no better than the GM/CBO's before him in the John Henry era. Those guys won WS in 2004 (to end the 86 year drought), 2007, and 2013. And all of them, pretty much like DD, were given a pretty good budget/payroll to work with.

 

But something happened in 2019 when the Sox had the highest payroll in MLB, had just had their best season ever, and couldn't even make the postseason. Mookie wanted and deserved a huge contract, which the Dodgers were more than willing to pay. Price stunk, so did Sale, and the Sox owed both of them jillions of salary.

 

So John Henry hired Chaim Bloom the same way he almost hired Billy Beane way back in 2002. He wanted someone who had a system for developing good players at low cost--or one who could do that while still spending some money, but who didn't need the highest payroll in MLB as DD had with the Sox. And it didn't work.

 

But right now we still don't know what John Henry intends.

 

We do know that the current rotation of six starters--Bello, Pivetta, Crawford, Whitlock, Houck, and lately Criswell--are being a total of $15M, $1M less than closer Jansen.

 

We also know that the Sox are paying Sale $17M to pitch for Atlanta, Turner $7M to play elsewhere, Story $22M to be on the IL until next year, Yoshida $19M to do the same but maybe return in June or July, and Giolito $18M to miss this entire season.

Who said anything about the GM/CBO before DD. All I said is DD was a proven winner, and won a WS in his 4 years in Boston, which is a fact. Bloom was a loser, and in way over his head. Some fact, and some an opinion.

[Old Red]

Don't forget the same person who complain when strength of schedule is mentioned, then poo-poo our record due to playing an easy schedule to start the season.

 

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.