moonslav59

Astros making push for Hader. (I was wondering when they'd add someone.)

FAs Still Unsigned (Ranked by MLBTR) 2. Bellinger OF 4. Snell SP 6. Monty SP 7. M Chapman 3B 8. Josh Hader Closer (5 of top 8 still on the market) 16. Soler DH/LF 20. JD Martinez DH 26. Hoskins 1B 27. Stephenson RP 30. Clevinger SP (10 of top 30 still unsigned) 33. A Chapman RP 34. Lorenzen SP 38. Ursula UT 39. A Rosario SS/2B 40. Merrifield 2B 41 J Turner DH/1B/3B (16 out of 41.) 45. B Belt 1B 47. Jumis SP 49. Hendricks RP 50. T Anderson SS/2B Others: Duvall RF, Paxton SP (maybe 22 out of top 52?)

It makes me think 2025 is not in the plans, either.

Signing Clevinger or Paxton doesn't hurt the future.

I do think the Sox have a "window" in mind, and it does not include 2024. Even trading for a top pitcher with 4-5 years of control, essentially "wastes" a year of that control. While I think it would be nice to get a boost for 2024, even if they know a ring is highly improbable, I can at least understand that plan. It sure sucks, for now. I'm also thinking, they probably don't think Anthony, mayer and Teel will all be "in stride" by 2025, so they may be planning on 2026, for all we know. They sure know how to extend a 5 year rebuild plan. That's something they are good at.

We'd have to give up a non 40 man player, like maybe DHam or Lugo. I'm not sure what it would take. I'm thinking Mata will not impress, so he could be an easy DFA or trade choice. If he sucks in ST'ing, he might pass through waivers. You want to keep as many options open, as possible, especially for young pitchers with some sort of promise.

They might both make it, but neither can be sent to AAA.

Yes, I meant to make the last line RP7/AAA.

I listed some longshots and possible role players and depth. There is a chance some of the players you did not list improve and make an impact. It might be a long shot. Add the chances of Mata, Fitts and Guerrero, and I'd say there is a significant chance something good could happen in '24 or '25. (Maybe not over 50%, but maybe 33% to 50.

Let's assume minimal additions like Paxton & Duvall. This could be the opening day roster for 2024: 1. L Duran CF/ R Grisson 2B 2. L Devers 3B 3. R O'Neill LF 4. L Casas 1B 5. R Duvall RF 6. L Yoshida DH 7. R Story SS 8. R Grissom 2B/ L Duran CF 9. LR Wong C/ L McGuire C Bench: Reyes, Refsnyder, Wong/McGuire, Abreu/Rafaela, EValdez/Dalbec SP1 Bello SP2 Giolito SP3 Paxton SP4 Pivetta SP5 Crawford SP6 Houck (RP) RP1 Jansen RP2 Martin RP3 Winckowski RP4 Schreiber RP5 Whitlock RP6 Slaten or Mata AAA Bernardino, Campbell, Criswell, Weissert, Kelly, Murphy, Walter, Castillo, Fitts, Gambrell, Guerrero

He was a major part of the cheating upgraded system. I did not mean to imply otherwise. When you look at punishment handed out for other infractions, a one year suspension was "major." Maybe you don't think it was enough, but it was one of the largest penalties handed out in MLB history. No, others doing it is not an excuse, but others going without any punishment, and some higher ups caught lying and not getting any further punishment does add context to what Cora got. The release of further evidence, after the MLB ruling exposes a much wider group of people, some who denied knowing anything, but clearly did. Other teams were caught using technology to steal signs, including the Sox and got less punishment. There is a thing called precedent when determining how harsh a penalty should be. In many ways, Cora's higher ups stabbed him in the back.

Trying to point out a major factor in our lack of success was often viewed as apologies for the CBO. No doubt, Bloom made some major mistakes, and not just with over half of his largest FA signings, but also trades like the JBJ one and all the inaction and "near misses." Bloom deserved to be fired, but that still does not mean he was the major issue for our lack of success. It seems obvious, now, to most, but this is just more of the same, but on hyper drive. Once we did not replace Kimbrell and Kelly, the ball was set in motion. Although the Sale, Bogey and nate extensions and re-signings masked much of the non spending, by keeping our team payroll budget pretty high, the 2020 season should have been a clear sign to all, the ownership financial commitment was no longer there. The amount of new winter spending fell way short of salaries lost before 2020, and despite seeing the payroll rise in 2021 and again in 2022, it still did not come close to the 2019 budget that was already trimmed of 2 solid RP'er salaries. Then, to see a $10M drop, last winter should have been the final eye-opener on where the fault should have been mostly placed. Again, I'm not making excuses for Bloom. He botched most of his largest signings, was paralyzed with inaction, at key moments, and made some bad trades, He did make several good low-level signings and additions, and seemed to do a very good job building the farm back up- both in quality and quantity, but ultimately, it was not enough. His choice to draft mostly HS picks delayed the impact from the farm. He won't get to see the results of that.

I know much of the Sox prospect talk has focused on the lack of clear good pitchers, but it's hard not to be optimistic about the future projected farm infusion. Of course, some will not pan out as hoped, and some might become just role players or barely above replacement level back-ups, but I have to say, I'm impressed by the quality and quantity of prospects that have a decent chance at making a contribution. We just graduated: 2023: Casas, EValdez, Murphy, Bernardino & kelly 2022: Bello, Crawford, Duran & Wink 2021" Whitlock & Houck Estimated graduation years: 2024: Rafaela, Abreu, Slaten, Mata, Yorke, Fitts, Guerrero (Walter, DHam, Rosier, Sogard, Lugo, Liu) 2025: Anthony, Mayer, Teel, Perales, Wikelman, Meidroth, Monegro, Hickey (Jordan, Dobbins, E R-C, Bastardo, Hoppe, Troye, Gambrell, I Coffey, S Scott, Hagenman) 2026: Bleis, Castro, Song (Paulino, Romero, Brannon, C Coffey, Penrod, Ravelo, K Campbell, Benitez, Olivares, Soto, Early, Mullins) 2027: Cespedes, Zanetello, Jo Garcia, A Anderson (Alcantara, Arias, Yuten, Sena, Reimer, Paez, Cepeda, Judice, Encarnacion)

It wasn't just the owner, but other high-ups were caught lying and covering up. No doubt, Cora played a significant role in the implementation of the cheating scheme. It doesn't lessen his culpability to find out it was going on before he became part of it, or that upper management knew of it and allowed it to continue. He did a very dishonest thing, and was punished harshly for it. He was punished more than many others, including the players. He served his sentence.

Agreed. I think it was more than 50% on ownership starting in 2019, but it seems others thought Bloom was the major blame target.

Yes, "small" when compared to many of today's contracts, but you'd think he'd be do better than 0-4 on SP'ers paid $10M or more: Perez Richards Paxton Kluber (I forgot JT on the list, which was a good signing, so maybe 3-4 out of 11 were good or still pending.) Had he gone 2-4, and I'm not talking greatness- just a decent 4.25 ERA with 25 GS and 160+ IP, we'd have been closer to not finishing last so often. The Barnes and Kike signings were $17M or more: both were not good. His two largest signings, which were not small, have started out looking bad- Yoshi & Story. Surely, this is part of the reason he was let go. These signings were a pretty significant reason we have not done well in 2 of the last 3 seasons. His biggest and good impact signings were: Turner- 12 Kike- year 1 only at 7 Wacha 7 Duval -7 R Hill -5 Strahm- 3 Renfroe -3 He did better in the $3-9M range. Bad ones: Diekman -8, Marwin 3.

Could be more than one reason. I'd put messing up 6-7 of your biggest 10 signings high on the list with inaction.

I'm getting a real good vibe on Cespedes. (Maybe we should trade him. LOL)

Encouraging. Wow, 2 pitchers on the extended list!

Inaction plus over half his biggest "actions" were failure or are looking like failures, so far. 300+ Devers- TBD 140 Story- off to a not so good start 100+ Yoshida- off to a not so good start 34- Kike- one good year/ 2 bad FA + extension) 32 Jansen- Good, so far 19- Barnes- bad (extension) 18- Martin- Great, so far 11- Perez- not so good 10- Richards- Bad 10- Kluber- Bad Had he just gone 50-50 on his big spendings, he might still be here. (Just Eflin & Nate instead of Kluber & Yoshida?)

I say that every year, with hitters lost, too, but someone always takes their place.

He's right: "it's embarrassing." "They could trade for an ace and sign Monty or Snell, and be right there!" "These guys are not the Orioles! They have $60M to spend." "Bello is the number 1, Giolito, Pivetta, Houck and Crawford...Nope! This is worse than last year, and they were bottom 10, then." "Trade Jansen for a SP'er prospect near ML ready.. a flyer." (Landon Sims?) They suggest Clevinger or maybe even Paxton. "Slaten is going to be great for them."

Hopefully, Perales gets promoted to AA, in 2024. (Maybe by the time he is, Wikelman will be in AAA.)

You refuse to see the facts. Last winter, you defended Rodon.

The 217 million dollar question. Backlash over Lester fiasco? Realization that winning without an ace was highly improbable? Think Price was the guy most likely worth breaking the over 30 guideline?