moonslav59

Thanks.

To fans of the underdog teams, they love crapshootery. At least we've proven once and for all, more days off hurt a team. (Are you listening, Cora?)

If we lose, some will certainly blame Cora, but the GM will bear the brunt, again and again. We are seeing more talk about JH, Kennedy & Co, but the players the next GM brings in will be why we win or lose. No, if the budget is slashed, then it might be different, although it wasn't for Bloom. Maybe it will be different, next time.

I have never disagreed with this. He deserved to be fired. He bumbled his biggest deals, too many times and failed to find the "gems in the rough" like the Rays seem to do. He was the fall guy for many reasons, including his own wrong-doings. He did not slash then set the budget. I do not think it was his choice to not trade any top prospects, when it might have saved his job had he cleaned the farm of them,

I get that, but to say the GM is never the fall guy because he's not fully in charge is just wrong. You look up "Fall guy professions" in the dictionary, and it lists GMs first. There are various degrees of "being in charge," too. I think Theo was way more in charge, after the gorilla suit event than anyone afterwards. I think DD was given more control until about after the 2018 deadline. IMO, since JH bought the team, no GM had... 1. Such restricted winter spending budget, especially before 2020, but before 2021 and 2022 were pretty restrictive, too. (The pre-2023 budget was large, but there was a lot of good players and big contracts needing to be replaced in kind- at inflationary prices.) Look at the biggest FA and extension Sox contracts over the last 20 years, adjust for inflation and see where the Story and Yoshida signings fit in. Bloom never got to see a day of the Devers contract. Ben was about the same with Pablo and HRam. Apples to oranges. 2. Some GM did seem to have restrictions on trading top prospects for part of their tenure. Ben seemed to have that for mush of his tenure. Bloom had it for his whole term as GM. I know some think that was Ben's and Bloom's choices, but I think it was an organizational decision. The sheer number of decently ranked prospects DD traded was more than Bloom + Ben + the last few years of the Theo regime. It is nothing short of apples to oranges, when comparing the parameters placed on certain Sox GMs over the last 20 years. 3. The "don't sign a pitcher over 30 to a long term deal" was not something every GM was allowed to do. Only 1. 4. Huge multi top prospect deals for a stud or two only happened under two GMs, and they happened more than once. Zero for Ben and Bloom. Apples to oranges. Call me a whiner. Call me an apologist, if you must, but the circumstances our 4 GMs were handed and demanded were light years apart- as were the results, granted, yet not unexpected by some.

Did you see how OJ was found not guilty?

Yes. That's not proof he did nothing wrong.

No. Bloom is obviously the fall guy, and he wasn't fully in charge.

It's always going to be a blame game. The GM is always the fall guy, so this actually gives him one out.

What capable GM would want to fire Cora? If they wanted to, who wants them? It's that simple.

BINGO! True dat!

Lot's of hot air coming from the Yankee and Sox talking heads.

I drew my conclusion. The Astros are kings and cheaters. The rest of the AL West has sucked or been meh. The AL East has had just about every team be very good to great, at various moments in the past 14, 17 or 20+ years.

How will anyone ever know, for sure, if the allegations were wrong or not, partially wrong or not, or total BS?

I guess I just see it like JH decided to cut spending. I doubt he'd have decided to spend more, because DD was begging him for more money. I'm also not sure DD would want to be part of a situation where he had to beg, but who knows. They might have lied to him, too. They might have said, hang in there: we will spend way more, soon. Then, not done it. I have no idea what GM woulda/coulda done better or worse than Bloom did, under the exact same circumstances. Adding a variable about possible different budgets and mandates makes it too complex for me to ponder, and besides, what would be the point. It would be apples to oranges. Maybe DD would have built better 26 man rosters, but the farm and foundation would be worse off. Maybe, he'd have spent the same AAV, but we'd have more longer term deals (good or bad.) Who knows? I know Bloom blew his chance. He botched the big moves and the non moves were even worse. IMO, he did a good job on building up the farm and the 40 man roster depth. I think after the rule 5 players are added, this fall, the 40 man will be as strong as it has been since 2019 or before. I think that was the major task given to him. That grade is still pending, and it is total speculation on what the results will be, but I'm not sure other GMs woulda/coulda done much better, on that front. (For what it's worth.)

WRONG! One out of 5 teams does not make a division superior.

If true, one could posit Bloom would do better spending more, too.

Further proof of the inferiority of the AL West.

When you factor just the US inflation rate into our yearly player salary budgets, it's obvious we have not come very close to the 2018-2019 levels of spending. Many teams have passed us in the rankings. According to cots, the CB Tax budget has been: $239 in 2018 (1st) $244 in 2019 (1) $185 in 2020 (8) $208 in 2021 (6) $236 in 2022 (5) $222 in 2023 (12)

How would DD have handled the Betts trade mandate, which he apparently came close to doing during 2019 AND also a massive cut to the budget for 2020 with small incremental upticks in winter spending for the following 2-3 winters? I think he saw the writing on the wall, and that's why the friction happened. The part about no trading top prospects for 5+ years might have been the final straw. There is a good chance DD or any other GM might have done better than Bloom- both with farm and 40 man roster building and MLB team success from 2021-2023, but it's hard to know. Here are the top ranked prospects (soxprospects.com's ranking when traded): 16. Jay Groome summer '22 (Rosier) 9. Aldo Ramirez summer '22 (Schwarber) Unranked T Lakins Jan 2020 (J Springs) 9. CJ Chatham fall 2019 (PTBNL) 6. Beeks summer '18 (Nate) 19. Ty Buttrey summer '18 (Kinsler) Unranked S Espinal summer '18 (Pearce) 16. S Anderson + GSantos summer '17 (Nunez) Only Beeks was top 8 going back along time. You have to go back to the winter of 2016-2017 to find a top 5 prospect traded by the Sox: 1. Moncada, 5. Kopech + 7. Basabe (Sale) 10. Dubon (Thornburg) July 2016: #3 Espinoza (Pomeranz) Nov 2015: 4. Margot, 6. JGuerra, 13. L Allen (Kimbrel)

You wanna bench our best hitter vs LHPs just to change the managers motto?

He had a .428 OBP vs LHPs in 2023. (.371 BAbip v L and .224 v R) Sox OPS Leaders vs LHPs in 2023: .900 Turner (.317 BAbip) .828 Refsnyder (.371) .824 Devers (.302) .817 Casas (.296) .772 Reyes (.347) .756 Duvall (.353)- the guy many of us want back due to our weak area v L .746 Yoshida (.311) .609 Dugo (.263 and 3rd most PAs v L) 501 Wong (.263) 108 PAs was 6th most on the team He still has value, but only when batting vs LHPs. 2022-2023 OPS of Sox Players vs LHPs and under team control for 2024: 50+ PAs .889 Refsnyder .784 Devers .783 Story .777 Casas .772 Reyes .772 Dalbec .746 Yoshida .652 Dugo .611 Duran .477 Wong (.934 McGuire in 44 PAs- reverse split)

I disagree, fully. You got guys on the bench- use them. Keep them fresh. Minimize weak spots in players you have. Yes, in theory, just put 9 guys in the line-up with no weaknesses on D or on splits. BTW, the 100 win Dodgers started Jason heywood in 98 games vs RHPs and 0 vs LHPs. Looks like a solid platoon, to me. Are they "small market?"

Baseball America had him #10 in 2005: https://www.thebaseballcube.com/content/prospects_mlb/2005~BA/

But, when you say "They did not interview anyone else," you are the one making it sound like he was the one "sought after." You should add the part about "nobody else wanted to interview" for your point to mean what it seems you want it to mean.