moonslav59

Was the 2020 mandate to just "get under?" Was Bloom just showing off by going way under?

Pretty small list, isn't it?

It was a time-delayed detonation.

Every posts he makes includes a tired and repeated jab at Bloom, we've heard hundreds of times. Over his head... Gloom Bloom... Cora the right hand man who has JH's ear... Like I said before...

(Note: there was never a Bloom Brigade, unless you count one guy, Max, as a brigade.

It's never the players: blame the manager and GM!!!!

I always do. It was worth every penny and sacrifice.

Maybe, mostly, but if we praise DD for the results, he deserves to be discussed on the aftermath.

2019 to 202 was not "massive?" No Betts, half Price, Porcello and others. Then, the trickle of funds slowly increased.

We are talking about Click maybe being Bloom 2.0. Why continually repeat the Cora thing over and over like facts, and what does it have to do with Click?

You are probably right, but something about that 2011 team screamed to blown up. Maybe the media hype brought on the feeling in me and others.

The one thing that made life easier for Theo was that comp pick rule. The rule was intended to help poor teams get compensation for losing players to free agency, but Theo mastered the rule to his advantage. So much of our talent and depth came from comp picks, and we simply replaced our lost FAs with new ones- mostly ones that did not require the loss of a draft pick. Some of us mentioned this as a reason we saw trouble coming down the road, since rebuilding the farm became much more difficult for winning and high spending teams after those rules were changed. The Sox were often winning and spending, and our ability to just overpay draft picks with our lower picks hurt, badly. Signing bonus limits and the penalty for cheating all added to tougher times for the post Theo GMs.

It does look that way, and I don't disagree. It could certainly be more about changing philosophies due to indecision, knee-jerk reactions to certain trends and or near total dysfunction, despite some brilliant people in the organization bringing about scattered success. At times, I feel like JH prefers a steady balanced approach like we saw for most of Theo's time, here. Keep the farm strong, spend where and when needed and never let the budget get unmanageable. Under Ben, we saw a slide towards hoarding prospects, perhaps to try and balance what happened in Theo's last years, but he still was allowed to spend. The 3 last place finishes in 4 years seemed to make JH & Co. give up on "the balanced approach" and go all in. The no signing pitchers over 30 moratorium ended with the biggest Sox FA signing in history- David Price. Prospects were traded like candy. To me, that period was a bigger outlier than than the Bloom era of a near compete reversal of philosophy. I wanted to believe it was a move towards a more balanced approach, and I felt with Ben, but the big trades never happened. It's been 7 years since the Sale trade and over 5 years since the Nate deal. The Story and Yoshida signings are pretty significant, but counting inflation, they don't combine to equal the cost of Price- nor did Pablo & HRam combined. The Devers extension might be the best sign the switch is being flipped, but I am not getting my hopes up on that front, anymore.

Hitting in 2023 was a little too late to save Bloom's ass. I know I sound like a broken record, and Bloom did blunder enough to deserve to be fired, but massive budget cuts and only Houck from the farm the 5 years that started 2 years before Bloom's arrival has to be part of the DD conversation. Again, I have no issues with what DD did. 2016 to 2018 would have been worth it all, even if he had traded Houck, Casas and Bello on top of the ones he did trade.

No doubt.

What a way and time to all heat up, at once!

...and the same guy who had a big hand in establishing a system that produced 4 rings in 2 decades. This is not the first time JH has pulled in the purse strings while seemingly dictating a couple GMs to hoard prospects and trade stars away. It's been sort of cyclical. I have no idea if the past history of cycling back up to spending large and allowing some top prospects to be traded away will happen anytime soon, or even ever happen again. I won't be surprised if the switch is flicked this winter or next, but who knows? We do know this has been one long down cycle, despite 2021. Once could argue there was a pretty long one a decade ago, despite the 2013 season.

Let's see, if we can get some straight forward answers.

You could trade them for a pitcher with 4-5 years of team control, already.

DD did have a hand in a couple of things that adversely affected the teams from 2019 to today, but the amount of good he did, some still having lasting effects (like keeping Devers, Bello, Casas, Houck, Crawford, Rafaela and others) far outweigh those two things: 1. Tough budget for the next GM to deal with. 2. Virtually no significant farm help from Devers i '17 to Casas/Bello '23, unless you count Houck. To me, it was worth it all, and if we were to start spending again, I'd welcome DD back with open arms. (I'm not so sure I would, if the current philosophy continues.)

That was a sad choice made. He traded so few young players and prospects, but that one hurt.

Would Bloom bashers be okay with Bloom 2.0?

Getting Click would be very interesting. He does have some experience winning, so...

That was horrific on so many fronts. The kicker was Sale and ERod both missing the full 60 game season, JD hitting .680 and Devers hitting .7932. But hey, nobody likes whiners and cryers, so we should all rejoice in the mud- not wallow in it.

When people say, player A K's too much, and I say, "I don't care of the guy K's 350 times, if he has an OPS of .800+," I'm thinking of Kyle Schwarber. Man-O-Man this guy can really crush it!