cp176

he approached the game in a way that any decent athlete should. he played with confidence, passion and determination. We were very fortunate to have someone like him play for our side.

If Houck has a good solid spring, it would make no sense at all to keep him at the AAA level regardless of what it might mean contractually down the road. Doing business this way isn't good for either side.

Maybe Bloom's moves don't appear flashy enough to some but personally I like them all to date. I don't think that he is apt to make a knee jerk move based on what we have seen so far and I don't think that he is going to get outsmarted.

Nasty ******** alert as always

I actually am looking forward to the spring and I am hoping that what we saw from some of our young pitchers to close out the season was the real deal. I think that it is possible that management has solid expectations for them. if they perform well right out of the gate, signing the types of players that we are looking at right now won't look bad at all.

Excellent points.

To date wouldn't you kind of say that Bloom is anti any of the previous GMs that we have had this century when it comes to significant make a difference now kind of signings?

I still actually see Benintendi as somewhat of a prospect. If he is physically fit, I think that his potential is much greater than we have seen thus far. If he is traded for prospects that we hope might be good eventually, I would see that as a big loss for us. Seen too many "prospects" never develop. If good return cannot be acquired in a trade for him, then yup it will look to me as though someone has given up on him and simply wants him gone.

There looks to be more people looking forward to a trade of Benintendi for who knows what than there were when the Sox traded the other two for Chris Sale. It is just interesting. For the record, i was opposed to seeing Moncada moved. If I had had to choose it would have been Benintendi. When i saw him play in Portland, i just didn't see someone big enough to be very successful long term. He was just an absolutely pure hitter though at every level that he had played at. He got bigger and subsequently slower and here we are today. i'm not sure that it is a good idea to trade him but I think that it goes without saying that Bloom knows things that we don't to go along with the fact that he knows what he is doing.

I'm thinking that a physically fit Benintendi is likely to still able to be one of the better all round hitters in baseball. he gained unneeded weight. he lost foot speed. Kind of makes sense. Maybe he is stupid and doesn't understand what could be for him but I don't think that trading him for relief pitching of any sort would make much sense. i still think that he has great potential.

twice in one day we agree. we have to stop meeting this way. lol

i agree

Gray, New Gloucester, and Limington puts you in places that I can identify with. i'm from western Maine. The foothills, smaller mountains, lakes and ponds are what I consider the best places to be in our state. For the last few years we have wintered in Florida. I have to have things to do daily that I enjoy and as the years have gone by my outside activities seem to be limited to a great deal of walking and golfing. No more skiing, snowmobiling, snow shoeing, teaching or coaching = too much time on my hands. We'll head back up the highway in late April. if it wasn't for the golf course outside my door, i would be crazier than i normally am.

i have friends down here in Florida who think that Maine is actually part of Canada - lol. I really miss my Canadian friends who winter here. Some of them are recent home owners waiting - just waiting.

i'm glad that things have worked out so well for you! Being respected and wanted has always been the ticket I guess for me. Obviously it is nice to be able to be paid accordingly but sometimes there are other benefits to consider. Outside of my 4 years in college, my life has been spent in the same small town in Maine. I wouldn't have done it any other way. it probably shapes how I feel about professional athletes chasing the big money. To each his own for sure but there are many other things to consider as well. Merry Christmas - Have a great day.

Life is so very interesting. My career in education was spent in the same district that I grew up in. I had opportunities to move basically across the street for more money but for what ever reason just decided to stay put. I would do it all over again in the very same way. When these highly paid athletes choose to move simply to be more highly paid, I continue to have a hard time of it. To each his own. I think that loyalty often times gets rewarded in ways other than monetary.

I agree with you all the way.

I enjoy the same - the success stories never grow old. On occasion some of those players who the analysists have already pigeon holed as being mediocre surprise us all. Like so much in life, I think that it takes a blend of a variety of philosophies to be successful. Signing too many supposed superstars can obviously limit a franchises future but not taking a shot now and then on a proven player can hurt a team ultimately in many ways as well. Obviously, I am speaking entirely for myself but there are many more reasons than winning for which i follow this team. But oh well, I loved them just as much when Malzone was at third, Bressued at short, Mantilla at second, and good old Dick Stuart was at first.

I think that that pizzazz thing is very important to a vast majority of fans. Winning of course will help to bring in the old faithful but if John Henry ever wants to fill those seats again, he better hope that some of these guys in addition to Chris Sale who is legit right now do become stars. I don't think that winning is enough to fill that ballpark. My guess is that the average fan and family goes to the game to see those stars play just as much as anything else. the gm, the advanced metrics, etc. probably matter very little to most people. those things likely rank right up there beside the costs of hotdogs, peanuts, ice cream, beer, and on and on .

it really has nothing to do with who the GM is for me. It is all about the assembled team. i'll admit it - If a collection of no names can pull it off, I will be very happy for all here on talksox, but I'm not sure that a group like this would intrigue me enough to care. Does that make me old school? Not sure about that but I do know that it makes me someone who won't be going to Fenway any time soon pandemic or not.

I guess that the primary point for me here is that I have read numerous posts from a collection of a few posters making it sound as though the fact that some of these great baseball teams that we had with their collection of superstars somehow failed because they just came close to winning a title. I think that is total ********. I was as delighted as anyone else that the proverbial curse was broken but I don't buy that fact that because we lost in 67,75, 78 (sort of), and 86 that those teams weren't as good as any that we have had. Not to mention the fact that they were a great deal of fun to watch. The argument that I have read somehow tries to justify that fact that because these teams lost proves that a boatload of superstars isn't impressive. Kind of like an "I told you so". I enjoyed those seasons every bit as much as I did those in which we won titles.

It is very tough for me. Winning obviously is what we all want to see but a baseball season encompasses a great deal of life. It moves with the seasons. In the games that I worked in, if you had the best player normally you had a chance to win. In '67, we had an extremely young team but we had Yaz. I need my baseball fix. I need to be tweaked emotionally. Personally it is a very important part of my life and has been since the late 50's. I could make a very long list of athletic greats who have played for boston teams. Some of them never won titles but i'm ok with that. I'm glad that we had Ted Williams and Carl yastrzemski . Winning might not be the absolutely most important thing for me I guess after all. I will add though that if the greatest of our greats were playing in a playoff format like we have today (almost everybody makes the honor roll), I have to think that they would have gotten their titles. The argument that we had HOf players and still did not win the big one just does not work for me and in my opinion is disrespectful to everything that some of these guys meant to us and brought to the game. This post Moon is not really meant for you. You and I share many of the same opinions and feelings about the game. It is just the rant of someone who refuses to let the old man in. And also someone who has a grandson who is going to be one helluva ballplayer. lol I want him to enjoy the game as I did.

I am just so excited by what we have done to date. Freaking awesome deals! hmmm

Who? I'm just kidding Moon but I am need of superstars. I'm not sure that for me winning with a whole bunch of good players is enough. I am a spoiled follower of my New England teams and I need to have players whose names I am familiar with, players who I think can be compared to the best in the league so to speak. The excitement and the anticipation of spring training with this current group i don't think is going to get me going. Maybe I am just not a "hardcore" follower of the game but I don't think that I will be traveling down the highway to watch this current group whether they are winning or not. I will be quite interested to see what the attendance levels look like once we are able to get through the pandemic.

In Maine this past summer, you could not find a golf course that you could easily get on. Tee times required on some that were always easy walk ons. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues. I do not think that the pandemic has hurt the game of golf at all.