moonslav59

I am 100% sure about this: if baseless attacks were never made against Bloom, you'd think I did not like him. My defenses were mostly responses to people who were over reaching to find things wrong with him. Robertson was a return for Kike. Weiss was a waiver guy.

I guess you know my thoughts better than I do. I like a lot of what Bloom has done to prepare the team for the future. He failed to get results along the way, except for the brief 2021 run. Last winter, was his make of break "legacy" moment, and he failed. I ended up defending him way too often, but not out of love or admiration for the guy, but because you and others made baseless attacks on him over things that were out of his control or mostly out of his control. You assume those defenses meant I was a Bloom lover, and you assumed wrongly. For someone who goes bat crazy over false assumptions, like me saying you hate Cora, I find in hypocritical of you to make so man false assumptions over my positions and beliefs. Yes, I did think Bloom was the type of GM we needed to rebuild the farm and foundation, but I hardly knew anything about him for me to be "my guy" on day 1 or 365 or 730. He was handed an extremely difficult task, which you choose to deny or ignore. He failed in the area that matters most to you, but still matters to me, too- winning at the ML level. I cut him more slack than you and others, due to that context and for that he was "my guy?" Your logic is twisted. You will believe what you want, but defending someone against false attacks does not make anyone a Bloom guy. Adding context and facts is not an act of love. It's an act of truth.

Again, why does this bother you? It's fully understandable to stop posting them, when it doesn't matter. It's not being a flip-flop or anything. I've asked you this several times. You refuse to answer. What the beef? I stop when my optimism wains. Shoot me!

If the rumor was true about the team taking Sale's full contract, we could have signed Kluber and a $25M pitcher, last winter or 2 at $18M each.

I'd add "sign or trade for..."

I fully agree with all of this, but if you were forced to place 1% of the blame on just one GM, would it be DD or Bloom? Note: for all we know, maybe DD begged JH to pay Betts over Sale, Bogey or Nate, but JH said NO, so in that case, DD should get 0% of the blame.

I'd say being a catcher usually takes longer than most positions. They won't call him up to DH, although he might hit .800.

He might make double the option. The Sox might get him back at $10M for 2024 and an $8M team option for '25 win a $2M buy out- essentially $12M/1 or $18M/2. He'd get more than that elsewhere. He's still a decent defender at 1B, and his ability to back up 3B makes him valuable to many teams. I hope you are right, though. At that money, YES! (Imagine him taking the option and we trade him! Yikes!)

Not to start the season, IMO. I'm thinking September, at the earlies.

Scary D. I'd keep Duran in LF. I'd keep Rafaela in CF. I'm not sold on Abreu's D, so replacing Dugo with Wilyer in RF may bite us in the ass. I'd send Casas to 1B defense school over the winter. As much as I love Turner, Yoshida looks like a FT DH. His D sucks. He seems to have run out of steam, so being a FT DH might solve that, if it is indeed an issue. A healthy Story, alone, will greatly improve the D. I like Reyes and Urias at 2B and would use Rafaela there, only if the both flop or get hurt, of the OF'ers all do so well, we have to find room for them all.

It's year one. He wasn't horrible. His D was as advertised. His O has been up and down, and this last "down" has brought his season totals to a point where nobody can say he earned his paycheck, but because it's just year one- in a new league and culture, despite his age, I'm not sure expecting greatness or even goodness in his first year was "fully justified." I'm certainly not as optimistic as I was back in March or mid May or mid July. Hell, I think the guy was still over .850 in early August, so I'm still holding out some hope he can keep up .850 over a full season, and with Cora as the manager, a "full season" might only 135-140 games, when 100% healthy.

The mantra, at the time, was make the SP'er throw a lot of pitches, get them yanked earlier and earlier, then feast on marginal pen guys. Now, the pens are deeper and better, but isn't walking still a good thing? Lord knows, we've seen our opps score the winning run due to a walk or HBP way too many times. We need to get back to valuing OBP and defense, but without some SP'ers added, we might was well go for the #1 pick in 2025.

It's not the team tanking: it was the one kid that is trying to make the 2024 MLB roster who tanked. lmao

Romero's stock is so low, now it would make no sense trading him, even as part of a package. Cespedes may end up the best SS in our current system, but teams no longer pay high for far away gems. Zanetello- the same. (He is likely not going to be a SS in MLB.) Yes, Mayer is the only one that would bring back top pitcher, and even then, we'd likely have to add some other good prospects, too, or someone like Duran or Rafaela. It seems this highly flawed team we follow is loaded with untouchables, to some. I'll say it again: you have to give to get. Nobody wants 6 mid ranged prospects for a potential ace.

Lackey also brought us something, in trade, and wasn't a dump like the Price part of the Betts trade. He also wasn't all that bad year one and was having a good season when we traded him. 1.5 good 1 okay 1 really bad 1 missed by injury

He's not "my guy" and never has been. I had hopes the guy could build us into a consistent winner and point out some of the things he did well or seems to have done well, along with being critical and highly critical, where I felt it was needed and justified. Because some of those places you felt it was justified, for that I am labeled. I didn't bash him enough for you, and Red and others, so he's "My guy," I'm a "Bloom lover," I'm an "apologist." I can live in the black and white world you guys seem to gravitate towards, but you guys seem hell bent on bringing me there or tearing me down for trying to see some bright spots in all this mess. Have at it. It seems to bring you pleasure.

So, trying to see the full picture, as hardly anything is all black and white, is a fault? It's being wishy-washy? It's being a flip-flop? It's being a man with no convictions?

I'm thinking Bloom did not set the budget, so the "acting like a small market team" was likely more on JH than anyone else. Our budget remained high for a few years, but the winter spending was mid market, until last winter. The Sale, Nate and Bogey extensions plus arb raises kept the budgets high without adding much new blood for almost 3 years (4 of you count 2019 under DD.)

For all the promises of finding "gems in the rough," it was a bit of a disappointment to see so many lumps of coal messing up our rough. Arroyo did okay for a while. Schreiber and Refsnyder have filled some roles, pretty well. Wong was perceived as a throw in. Pivetta is no stud, but he was a nice score for two fading RP'ers (Workman & Hembree.) Winckowski and maybe Gambrell might make the Beni trade look okay, but it's hard to put them in this category, when we gave up Beni to get them. McGuire for Diekman looks like a steal, but who knows what McGuire might do for us in the next 2 years. Reyes, Urias and Bernardino, this year. There are some others still kicking around the system: Abreu (looking great, so far) & EValdez, but can we call these two gems? (They cost us Vaz.) Rosier and Ferguson for Jay Groome DHam in the JBJ fiasco de la Rosa in the Beni return

He did get Abreu (and EValdez) for Vaz, last year, but I agree, trying to play it halfway or both ways accomplished nothing.

You forgot the great Urias & McGuire!

It was so minor, it is hardly worth mentioning. We gave up Jay Groome, who would not have been protected on rule 5, anyway. We also got back Corey Rosier, who looks better than Groome, plus Max Ferguson, a guy who stole about 80 bases, last year. Groome did not pitch 1 inning, this year.

Okay. It wasn't really a question you asked, and I'm not sure his comment was directed to your statement, but I think it was a fair response to you saying we have been spending on pitching. You said: And the Sox were passing Price until this year. In fact, the Sale/Price/Eovaldi combo was costing the Sox $58mill in AAV through the end of the 2022 season. And people say we didn’t spend on pitching… He said, later in the discussion, with other comments being made in between: It's not just about spending, but who you spend it on. Bloom spent on starting pitching. But he spent it on the wrong guys. I'm not getting why you are asking who "the right guy" is or was. He's not saying there was one or wasn't one. I think Nate was a pretty good extension, despite missing time and not being sharp all 4 years. To me, Nate and Porcello were good signings. Lackey worked okay. Shorter one? Wacha & Hill.

Some close losses, so it's not like they look to have totally given up. They seem to have forgotten how to take advantage of other team's gifts, get key hit, or lock down the opps, when we have a late lead.

Bloom kissed the next guy's ass is more like it.