sk7326

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.

Dombrowski started with a better hand.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Bogaerts has been a 5-6 win player each of the last 3 seasons. The thing with Bogaerts is that he has been a really good player - just in a totally different way than scouts expected!

A good piece by Kiley McDaniel at ESPN on the firing

There is a lot silly here - Bloom deserves to be held accountable. That said, ownership has been weird and shifty with its priorities.

I'd also think - with his kids grown up, and the team moving pretty soon that you might as well shoot your shot with Billy Beane again.

Olney speculates moving Cora upstairs might make sense also - he has a very broad range of experience clearly.

Duquette landed one of the greatest players in Sox history. The team was legitimately competitive - he went crazy in 2001 like everyone else apparently.

One of Bloom's important roles was as a spokesperson for the organization - for better or worse - and he was fairly poor there. His firing was not some wild miscarriage of justice - but it definitely had a lot of PR impetus behind it. Since Epstein left, ownership has lurched between extreme visions of the big league club which included creating a juggernaut built to win now vs a near Dalai Lama-like eschewing of top of the market players. They have not had that sort of near/far term view together since Epstein (and to a certain degree) Cherington were there. Bloom was hired to bring Tampa North I suppose - but "Tampa with money" is what the Dodgers do - and the Red Sox seem allergic to large aspects of that. Bloom did a nice job restocking the farm with position players - and honestly some of them might need to move to boost pitching. The cupboard is not bare for the next guy - but Henry has to trust him and not spend so much time focused on what talk radio says. Obviously former South Shore League All-Star Mike Hazen would be the top choice (I am dismissing Epstein wanting to run a team again). But Sawadye or McLeod from Arizona would be good fits also. Getting Chernoff from Cleveland is intriguing - they clearly are the role model for developing pitching industrywide.

The Dodgers are Tampa North!

The points are valid but if a guy can be a 70/80 center fielder, the threshhold for offense is not high at all. Really where the team is in so many positions, the floor doesn't concern me all that much.

Rafaela could be a more sustainable version of what Kike brought to the table at minimum. But he has the chance to be one of the best CFs in the entire league.

They will need an extra outfielder - whomever it is. Rafaela is unproven - but I think it's clear at this point that the team should just put him in CF and let it ride. Yoshida can play LF at Fenway, but nowhere else. They really should just trade Verdugo.

I think this gets the causation backwards. I mean, Bloom spent a LOT of money on a closer last year - which seems very out of character for a Tampa guy. Ownership has clearly felt burned by the Price and Sale contracts - but never going to the well ever again ever is not answer either. The lack of organizational attention to pitching and defense has been wild - that was the entire Tampa Bay oeuvre!

Ramirez was already purchased when Henry took over, and David Ortiz was the greatest "non-tender" scrapheap pickup in baseball history.

I disagree slightly. Bloom and the front office should have made a decision - either sell (like you said) or go hard after Verlander/Scherzer/(insert reliable starter here). The choice of "let's see if this team that has not put together a real surge all season will put together a surge when Story and Sale return" was the worst of all worlds.

The Rangers didn't fix anything ... Eovaldi in 2021 was one of the best pitchers in the American League. When Eovaldi's arm has remained attached to his body, he has been one of the best starting pitchers in the league. The problem has been how infrequent that has happened.

If you get into the tournament, you can win it. That is why baseball is awesome. The team in 2021 was terrific, but also had a number of right-tailed outcomes ... Kike in particular, as well as a healthy Eovaldi season. But if you went into 2021 with the ex ante feeling that Dodgers fans have felt every day for the last 6 years or so, you are much more of a Nostradamus than I.

I'd go before - the attitude heading into 2019. The team was one of the greatest teams in baseball history - full stop. But the moves and instincts were - at least from my keyboard - of the ilk of "we need to squeeze every drop out of this superstar core for as long as it is possible". There was not that instinct like the 2005 Red Sox who (granted, the move did not work) took that team and still decided to try to fix its weakest positions with an All-Star. And of course, if they were going to make the moves they have made/not made in the interim, they should have traded Mookie at the deadline.

Lucchino took (and invited) a lot of flack ... but the team could use that combination of baseball and baseball business acumen.