sk7326
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Everything posted by sk7326
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The team is still 9th in the majors in OBP. But yeah, it has been all borne on batting average. The guys Bloom has brought in have largely not walked all that much. Of course, that role might not be a market inefficiency anymore.
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Certainly there would be cranky fans - but you can't let them dictate your moves. The opt out for a goliath like Boston should have been a nothingburger.
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When you look at what Rodriguez signed for, and the underlying numbers before he left - it was pretty clearly a mistake to not sign him. Letting Eovaldi go was a pretty obvious mistake too - if you're going to sign an injury risk - sign one who actually can pitch here. It is particularly notable with Bloom's near total negligence of pitching - both in free agency and in the amateur acqusition fronts.
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For someone like JH that should have been a both/and not an either/or.
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1. When you have a future Hall of Famer entering his prime, to not keep him is cheap 2. Bogaerts is a little different and the decision to let him go is less terrible than the plan to replace him. 3. The Red Sox should never be having the 12th highest payroll in the league - not with their revenue, not with what they ask out of their fans $$-wise. 4. The team extended a couple of guys after 2018. Great. What they did not do was push to optimize this core - not the way the Dodgers (another Tampa Bay inspired front office) do. 5. Now, when Bloom took over, the minor league system was not at the position the Dodgers is - where there are constant supplies of Verdugo-level players that have value in trades for premium players so they CAN be in on almost any player they want. But in terms of assets, nothing is stopping the Red Sox from being that sort of behemoth. 6. The Red Sox are one of the big kids on the block - and they need to act like that.
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There is not a ton of evidence that management was willing to do what it took - and that's not a DD problem.
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Or just more pitchers, period - which is usually how the teams at the top remain consistent there.
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Bloom put together a high variance rotation - both performance and medical-wise. The variance with the 2019 team was more unforeseen - particularly Sale and Porcello. Bullpen variance just comes with the gig.
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The 2019 team scored more runs than the 2018. Basically the entire starting rotation collapsed - mostly health, but some performance. The 2023 team is going to only have 1 pitcher go over 150 innings pitched. Combine that with the wretched defensive personnel - there is just not much you can do with that.
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you can probably argue that Bloom was dealt the worst hand an incoming GM has had since Dick O'Connell.
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Law on the firing https://theathletic.com/4864258/2023/09/15/boston-red-sox-front-office-future/
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Of course. And no regrets there. You have a title to win - this is what you do. Ultimately - as a fan, I wanted the Sox to take that core from the 2018 team and try to maximize it ... and ownership instead quit on it after a fairly predictable dropoff. It's not as crass as the Marlins sell off in 1997 of course - but it's some of the same vibes.
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He did a prety good job managing the pitching staff all things considered. And he wasn't the one who decided to field a roster of players who couldn't field. Again, you look at 2021 - he got every drop out of that team.
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He was fired for doing exactly what ownership asked him to do. That was even more true in Detroit. I mean, Detroit has struggled when they got old - but they made the World Series, an ALCS and were relevant and competitive to some degree or another. The big crime Dombrowski made (in retrospect) was not adding players in 2018/19 offseason - but clearly ownership did not have an appetite for that. The big drivers of the dropoff in 2019 were dropoffs by Sale and Porcello - and the fickle realities of middle relief pitching on Earth.
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There is no way you watch the 2021 Red Sox and think that Cora left meat on the bone. Now remember, Bloom came from the outside and ALSO looked at managers and came back to Cora. That might not happen again - but multiple baseball heads think very highly of him. You can always nitpick - but Cora did a pretty good job managing the pitching staff ... the injuries and personnel just created a low floor.
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I think there is a lot to this. If I were Dombrowski and my team came off of a historically great season - with a strong young positional core - I'd be trying to figure out how to win 2 or 3 more banners. But nothing they did in the 2018/19 offseason fit that mentality. Contrast it to even something like 2005. Edgar Renteria was a disaster of a result, but an excellent IDEA. Let's take a weak position on our 2004 team and add an All-Star to it. Indeed, there has not even been many instances of Boston pushing their financial muscle around to make lower hanging moves.
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They absolutely would have. But the team was caught in a position of not being quite bad enough. It would have been bold to just make the deal - at least as bold as say, trading Nomar out of the blue. Now I wouldn't have done it - but I also think big money, lucrative baseball teams should not be in the business of alienating/giving away/whatever superstars entering their prime. So I am clearly a bit of a weirdo.
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Some veteran loyalty - and really, what was the other obvious option. The thing with Kike of course was - if he had hit, they probably would have kept him there.
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I think it's believable - but I also don't think the characterization of the talks make a ton of sense. Would it make sense for - let's use the Dodgers or Cardinals just for fun - to look at Sale and see a buy low opportunity? Yes. Would such a team trade a highly rated prospect for the privelege? No. Would it make sense for Bloom to prefer to fix a distressed asset? Yes. I mean the reporting makes it seem scandalous - but you never know how serious the discussions ever got.
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Dombrowski started with a better hand.
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100%. I'd go further than that ... there is no way that ANY move - such as dealing Betts or extending Sale - gets done without ownership approval. (this applies to all franchises) If this is like any normal business - I'd assume the GM had more or less total autonomy for lower $$ moves, and higher $$ moves ownership is briefed or whatever.
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You are probably right. It is a weird thing. Like, I think it makes sense for them to hire somebody who has experience here ... but if ownership is going to use the dude as a human shield for any sort of downturn, word probably gets around. Bloom was probably the most justified of the sackings - though he was also dealt the worst hand by far.
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Betts wanted to get into the open market - and the Sox were not interested in that. It's their prerogative - but the bottom line was a deep pocketed franchise made a panic trade of the sort of player a big pocketed franchise flat doesn't lose.
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It is not the most obviously good choice out there - doesn't mean that it's wrong. What I'd say is that Cora is clearly a bright guy who has a lot of experience in baseball, and his media savviness would be a help. The other thing is that ownership trusts him - and given how flightly Henry has been, that counts for a lot.
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He has a better chance at patience from ownership - simply because the press is writing more about the Red Sox' impatience. One thing we do know is that ownership sees the ticket receipts and negative press - often too much so.